Classical & Biblical Quotations

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 172727

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Caius Marcius" <coriolan at ...>
wrote:
>
> 
> There are two Biblical quotes in chapter 16, the Godrics Hollow
> graveyard. The first Harry sees on the tomb of Dumbledore's mother 
> and sister:
> 
> "Harry stooped down and saw, upon the frozen, lichen-spotted granite,
> the words Kendra Dumbledore and, a short way down her dates of birth
> and death, and Her Daughter Ariana. There was also a quotation:
> 
> Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
> 
> 

..Hermione was looking at Harry, and he was glad that his face was
> hidden in shadow. He read the words on the tombstone again. Where
> your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He did not
> understand what these words meant. Surely Dumbledore had chosen
> them, as the eldest member of the family once his mother had died."
> 
> The quote in found in both Matthew and Luke
> 

Ken:

My first thought was that Harry must not have gotten any religious
instruction while he was at the Dursley's if he was unfamiliar with
those quotes and meanings. The first is quite famous, the second less
so but still one that you would have met if you spent much time in a
church or Sunday school.

I think the first quote, chosen by Dumbledore, says more about
Dumbledore than anyone else. Dumbledore briefly made the Hallows his
treasure and he paid a terrible price for that. Before that his own
fame and success were his treasures. The death of his sister made him
see where his heart had gone, in dying she called him back to where he
needed to be. The graves of his mother and sister were the birthplace
of the Dumbledore we knew. He put this quotation there to make sure he
never forgot. The quotation should have bolstered Harry's confidence
in the validity of his long held opinion of Dumbledore, if only he had
understood it.

> Caius Marcius:
> 
> The second is the inscription of the tomb of James and Lily Potter.
> 
> The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
> 
> Harry read the words slowly, as though he would have only one chance
> to take in their meaning, and he read the last of them aloud. "'The
> last enemy that shall be defeated is death' . . ." A horrible thought
> came to him, and with a kind of panic. "Isn't that a Death Eater
> idea? Why is that there?"
> 
> "It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it,
> Harry," said Hermione, her voice gentle. "It means . . . you
> know . . . living beyond death. Living after death."
> 

Ken:

I have a different take on this too. I think Hermione got it wrong,
maybe she hadn't been to Sunday school much either. I'm not sure what
the author meant although Hermione often speaks for her. 

The error is one that is critical to me as I try to explain to
conservative Christian friends why I don't think Harry Potter doesn't
violate the Biblical proscription against magic. Magic as used in the
Bible is always an attempt to thwart God's will and so it is rightly
condemned. Magic as portrayed in the Potterverse does not exist in the
real world. There is no theological objection to people in the
Potterverse employing the magical gifts they have been given in this
imaginary universe because God does not give gifts and then demand
that they not be used. There are Old Testament heroes that do much the
same sorts of things that Old Testament witches do but their deeds are
not called magic nor are they called witches. The only difference, and
it is the crucial one, is that the heroes are seeking to know God's
will, not seeking to thwart it.

The passage from Corinthians is talking about Christ's final victory
over evil and death. The key thing here is that death is the last
enemy to be destroyed, sure, but it is Christ and Christ alone to whom
that victory belongs. Seen in this light a horcrux is so completely
evil because it is an attempt to possess that which is Christ's:
victory over death. The quest for the Deathly Hallows represent the
same unholy desire. Both are the type of magic that is proscribed in
the Bible. Tom Riddle gave himself wholly over to this horrible sin,
Dumbledore flirted with it twice and tainted himself just enough so
that like Moses he was allowed to see but not enter the promised land
-- a final victory over Voldemort in this case. Harry gets to play his
Joshua, perhaps Neville is his Caleb.

Of the three, the resurrection stone is the most dangerous Hallow. It
is the only one that can hardly be used without showing disrespect to
God. Harry only uses it to steel himself to do what he was called to
do. Dumbledore's manner of conveying it to him helps to ensure that he
will not use it inappropriately. Harry shows more wisdom than perhaps
he realizes when at the end he decides to leave it lost in the forest.
The other two Hallows represent more ordinary means of "cheating
death". Arming yourself against your enemies and shielding yourself
from injury and disease as best you are able are not proscribed.
Bringing back the dead is.

We don't know who would have put that quotation from Corinthians on
the Potter's grave. Whoever did it made sure that they spoke as
powerfully against Voledmort's terrible sin from their graves as they
did during their lives.

Ken



in their death as in their lives the Potter's sent a powerful message
of condemnation to those who 

> The quote comes from Paul's First letter to the Corinthians, 15:26.
> In this passage, which climaxes in the famous line, "Death, where is
> thy sting?" Paul writes that in the resurrection of Christ is the
> promise that we will also have rebirth. This passage is 1 Corinthians 
> 15:20-26
> 
> "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of
> those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also
> came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in
> Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the
> first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, then
> comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father,
> when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He
> must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last
> enemy that will be abolished is death."
> 
> Harry's initial reaction to Hermione's exegesis is despair: "But they
> were not living, thought Harry. They were gone. The empty words could
> not disguise the fact that his parents' moldering remains lay beneath
> snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing
..He let [his tears] fall, his
> lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding
> from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones
> now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son
> stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their
> sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping
> under the snow with them."
> 
> A theme that is developed in DH is that the enemy Death can be
> destroyed when Death becomes a friend. This is the ending of the
> Tale of the Three Brothers, where the third brother with the
> Invisibility Cloak "greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him
> gladly, and as equals, they departed this life."
> 
> Harry later learns that, via the Resurrection Stone, he was not
> fetching the dead, "they were fetching him.". As Sirius tells
> him, "Dying? [Doesn't hurt] at all. Quicker and easier than falling
> asleep." Lupin's declaration that his son "will know why I died
I was
> trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life." The
> quartet with Harry are at peace with their death, knowing that they
> did not live their lives in vain, in contrast to Voldemort, who
> thinks nothing is worse than his own personal death, and is willingly
> to slaughter others to achieve that purpose.
> 
> Harry retains ownership of the Invisibility Cloak at the end of DH,
> suggesting, that when it is time, he too will greet Death like an old
> friend.
> 
>     - CMC
>