HP and biblical parallels

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 46387

Uh. Revelations.

The seven years that Harry is at secondary school is almost 
certainly a coincidence, caused by the majority of British children 
starting secondary education at 11, and leaving 7 years later if 
they decide to take the full course. 

Hogwarts is obviously modelled on an 11 to 18 English/Welsh 
secondary model, with OWLS at 16 being equivalent to the General 
Certificate of Secondary Education tests that English and Welsh 
schoolchildren take at 15 or 16, and NEWTs being equivalent to the 
Advanced Level tests taken at 17 or 18. (Scottish and Northern Irish 
children have a slightly different set of tests).

JKR has said that anyone who knows Christian Theology knows what's 
going to happen to Harry. [My apologies – I keep getting NA screens 
for http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/index.htm
 so I can't find the interview reference – however 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/style/books/features/rowling1020.htm 
is a reference to the fact that she was attending Church of Scotland 
services while writing the books]

That doesn't mean she's intending Book 7 to be a `The Last Battle' 
[C.S. Lewis]. 

A christian [small c] fate for Harry could involve his dying and 
rising again, his plain old dying for the sake of saving others and 
*not* rising again (Lily and James's fate could be described in that 
way, as they both died in an effort to save someone else – James 
died trying to give Lily and Harry time to escape; Lily died 
deliberately standing in the way of Voldemort as he tried to kill 
Harry), or some other sacrifice in an effort to save his world. For 
example, since he and Voldemort are connected, Harry might realise 
that he must lose his magical powers in order to make Voldemort lose 
*his* magical powers.

Alternatively it could simply involve his realisation that he has to 
give up a life playing Quidditch for England in order to enter a 
monastery [grin].

Voldemort as Anti-Christ is also a bit unlikely. As Melody says, 
he's described as one of a long line of evil wizards, and most of 
the WW is frankly terrified of him rather than worshipful. 

There are undoubtedly references in HP to the British tradition 
that `witchcraft' equals worshipping the devil – I pointed out in an 
earlier post: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/40577
 that the Death Eaters correspond fairly closely to this view 
of `witchcraft' [whereas the view of `magic' in general in the HP 
universe is something quite different]. 

JKR is, IMO, trying to use these images (the names of the Malfoys – 
Lucius as an echo of `Lucifer', `Draco' as an echo of the snake who 
tempted Eve or possibly *even* the Dragon in the New Testament book 
of Revelations, the Dark Mark which used to be regarded as a sign of 
being sealed to the Devil) to convey that the DE's are evil, and 
worship evil. 

Personally I see Voldemort as someone who has deliberately chosen to 
become evil. His father may have rejected him, but he had the 
opportunity to become both great and good. He was Head Boy at 
Hogwarts, one of the best students they ever had, clever and 
handsome [CoS, UK paperback, Ch.18]. Had Voldemort chosen the path 
of good, someone with such talents could well have been Minister for 
Magic, or possibly Headmaster of Hogwarts. But his choices were all 
for evil. In that sense, only, he is symbolic of the Devil, who in 
my particular Christian tradition is also someone who chose evil 
over good.


There are a huge number of possible interpretations of the Bible, 
and to some extent all exegeses (interpretations) depend on the 
interpreter's religious traditions. Both Melody and Caius have 
pointed out that in their own denominations they are perfectly 
qualified to interpret. My own denomination doesn't emphasise 
Revelations very heavily, so I'm probably not qualified to go 
through it verse by verse.

However, since I've also done some biblical interpretation in 
relation to HP [grin], I feel I must point out that where adults are 
concerned, my own denomination has only licensed me to hit erring 
adult members of the congregation with a large, heavy staff (the 
emblem on top would leave people with some rather interesting cross 
shaped scars, btw) :-)  – not to teach/preach to them, which would 
require me to take an additional two year course of study.  

My own denomination would also lay heavy emphasis on respecting 
other people's religious traditions and trying to discover what we 
have in common rather than being insulting towards the differences. 
Describing the sincerely held beliefs of another as `nonsense' is 
plain rude.

And in the spirit of respecting other religious traditions,  one of  
posts discussing Dumbledore's enlightenment from a Buddhist point of 
view is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/26616
-I haven't been able to find the other, I'm afraid.

Pip!Squeak