Importance of Audience (was Re: Dumbledore or Snape)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 141466


> Geoff:
> The difference here being that Abraham was showing great faith in God 
> because he had been promised that he would be the father of a great 
> nation. 
> 
> However, he was prepared to go to the wire to obey God and show that he 
> had faith in him. But he was never called to go the last step of 
> sacrificing Isaac so a comparable situation to that of Snape and 
> Dumbledore didn't actually come into play.
> 
> This incident is not just in the Abrahamic religions; the parts played 
> by Moses, Abraham and Elijah were an important part of Jesus' teachings 
> about faith in the New Testament.
>

Pippin:

I meant 'Abrahamic' to include Christianity. I'm sorry if that was unclear or
incorrect in any way. Since I don't think Snape did kill Dumbledore, the
comparison works for me. I think Snape felt that following Dumbledore's
orders to watch over and protect Draco was going to put him in a position 
where he might have to sacrifice Dumbledore to save Draco, never mind himself,
and that's what the fight in the forest was about, with Dumbledore insisting
that such a sacrifice would not be called for, and Snape saying that DD
took too much for granted.

There used to be a concern, though I haven't heard much about it lately,
about whether Snape, with his hooked nose, his insistence on the letter
of the law, and his stiff-necked attitude wasn't some kind of Jewish
allegorical reference. If so, that he should be *falsely* supposed to have 
killed Dumbledore has more resonance for me, as a Jew, than if it turns 
out that he did kill him but might be forgiven. But that's just me.

Pippin