Christian perspective on DD's death

[Tonks]

I have posted on this many times a couple of years ago on the main list.

I will be very brief here.

There is a Psalm (22) read at Good Friday. It goes like this:


7 All who see me mock me; 
  they hurl insults, shaking their heads: 

11 Do not be far from me, 
       for trouble is near 
       and there is no one to help. 

 12 Many bulls surround me; 
       strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 

 13 Roaring lions tearing their prey 
       open their mouths wide against me. 

 14 I am poured out like water, 
       and all my bones are out of joint. 
       My heart has turned to wax; 
       it has melted away within me. 

 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, 
       and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; 
       you lay me in the dust of death. 

 16 Dogs have surrounded me; 
       a band of evil men has encircled me, 

I can not hear that on Good Friday without thinking of both Jesus and DD. Perhaps this Psalm was in Rowlings mind when she wrote the events on the tower.

Also there is a theory among some theologians that Judas and Jesus may have had a "plan". This fits with what we see acted out in Snape and DD, where it seems that Snape betrayed DD when he was, in fact, doing what they had prearranged if it came to this moment. 

Also there is a moment when DD is suspended in mid-air. Rowling said "and he was suspended under the shinning skull". Jesus was killed at the "place of the skull".

The whole cave experience before the tower, conjures up many images from the bible and the fit with ideas of Jesus descending into Hell and taking on the sins of the world. In fact Granger covers this very point, which I thought about when reading it too. Granger went a bit farther and noticed that it was 12 cups of poison that DD drank. 12 is an important symbol. 12 tribes of Israel and the number of completeness. 

As to why DD, the man, would willing die. Same reason as Jesus. Love.