Satan (The Last Temptation of Christ)

Satan is the main antagonist in the 1955 Greek novel The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis and its 1988 American movie adaptation by Martin Scorsese. In the movie, Satan's angel girl form is portrayed by the British actress Juliette Caton, while his voice after revealing his true self is given by Leo Marks.

In the story, Satan pretends to be Jesus' guardian angel in an attempt to persuade him to give up his sacrifice for humanity and live the life of a normal man instead, marrying and having children.

Role
When Jesus is being crucified, he begs God for mercy. While almost losing his senses, he notices a girl among the watching crowd. That girl claims to be his guardian angel sent by God and states that his father is "the god of mercy, not punishment" and that in reality he is not the messiah and deserves to live a peaceful life. She removes him from the cross and takes him to a wedding ceremony, saying that he is going to marry Mary Magdalene. Mary then cleans the blood from Jesus' body and the two have sex while the angel sits happily in the room. Mary gets pregnant, but as the couple expects the child, she dies suddenly, leaving a mourning Jesus devastated. The angel comforts Jesus, saying that "a woman has many faces" and persuading him to go see the sisters of Lazarus. Jesus starts an idyllic life with many wives and children.

Years later, Jesus finds Paul the Apostle preaching about a Jesus that died, resurrected and ascended to heaven. Jesus decides to confront him (what the angel tries to prevent to no avail). He tells Paul that nothing of that happened to himself and salvation cannot be founded on lies. But Paul is resolute and believes that, even being untrue, he is saying what the world needs to hear.



Around 70 CE, Jerusalem is being attacked by the Romans and the second temple has been destroyed. An elderly and frail Jesus calls his apostles to his deathbed. Nathaniel and John come and are respectful towards him, but Judas, who comes last, is enraged that the disciples obeyed Jesus but Jesus himself didn't do what he was supposed to, calling him a traitor. Jesus protests, claiming that God sent a guardian angel to save him from the misery of crucifixion. Judas then says that the angel is in fact Satan. After finally being unveiled, an unseen Satan tells Jesus that he has prevented him from saving humanity. Remorseful, Jesus goes crawling through the burning city of Jerusalem to the place of his crucifixion, imploring that God give him a second chance, which he is granted.