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What Elaine Pagels does so well, in this book as in her previous, is to understand, explain, and evoke the context and writings of the period of formation of the Christian religion and the catholic church. In close and careful readings of the many conflicting texts available to present day scholars, she is able to untie the knots of ancient intrigue and conflict from the early days of Christianity. She traces the development of Christian writing through successive generations of apostles, prophets, and bishops to see how and why the core texts of the religion, specifically the Book of Revelation, were chosen to be included in the New Testament. Pagels shows how the cult of Jesus worship began as a revolutionary movement on the fringes of Roman society, appealing to the lower classes, and offering a vision of equality before God, if not in everyday life. She finds in the words of Tertullian an early formulation of the desire for freedom of religious practice, freedom from the requirements to worship Roman gods and emperors. With careful argument, Pagels shows how the "eternal enemy", identified as the Beast in Revelations, is transformed in meaning over time. Initially the number of the beast - "666" - is a code for the emperor Nero who ordered the persecution of early followers of Jesus. Over three centuries, for a variety of political purposes, Revelations is transmuted into a condemnation of Christian splinter groups called "heretic" because of their failure to obey nascent church authority Although Pagels does not delve deeply into the vision and drama of the text of Revelations, she is is able to convey how the apocalyptic imagery of the book served to inspire physical and mental resistance to Roman persecution. It is this inspiration which resulted in the book becoming a tool of the early church: Initially supporting resistance to Rome, subsequently in the recruitment of non-Jews to the cause, and ultimately for banning and suppression of other variations of Christian revelation. Early church leaders found the text to be "irrational and incomprehensible" but effective because it incorporates messages of spiritual elitism, great sacrifice, climactic and certain victory, and ultimately a promise of resurrection in the city of God. For many readers, the works of Elaine Pagels have become the main entry point into the early Christian texts discovered at Nag Hammadi and generally known at "the Gnostic Gospels." In the current work, Pagels continues to explore these texts, specifically works of revelation similar to the one currently known as "The Revelation of John." Several of these works are quoted and characterized. The strong emphasis on personal revelation, direct connection with Jesus, and the communitarian context of these early groups of followers of Jesus is contrasted with the military structure and material greed of the early Catholic church. It is a measure of Pagel's brilliance and sensitivity that she is able to explore and illuminate all of these issues in a slim volume of only 180 pages. The reader will enjoy the historical irony as one apocalyptic movement after another succeeds in overcoming persecution, only to become the perceived evil as it consolidates its power. This is a never-ending story on the highway of human history.