Author Topic: Biblical Allusions in No. 6  (Read 482 times)

AoYokai

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Biblical Allusions in No. 6
« on: February 21, 2015, 01:52:17 pm »
So, the idea of Eve and Shion's snake scar was referred too more than once, but I'd like to take it a little further. Since I'm not very religious and studied only the Hebrew Bible, and even that in a very secular way, excuse me if I make any statements that offend you or just seem to be different from your understanding of the Fall of Man or the Bible in general.

Shion, as an elite, is most certainly one of the most powerful people in No. 6, and yet, he feels unfulfilled, for reasons he can't quite understand himself. Same way Adam was sad in Paradise, although he was the most intelligent and powerful being there. Then, the storm/God brings them the beautiful Eve, that tempts them to eat the Fruit of Knowledge, and as a result, Shion/Adam was banished from No.6/Paradise, and was forced to live hard, painful life in the outside world along with Eve.

Another interesting point I would like to refer to is Lilith. In the original creation story, Adam and Lilith were both created from the earth, but when they, well, were about to have sex, Lilith refused to be underneath Adam, claiming that they were equal and that they should lie down on their side. God obviously took Adam's side, because men are obviously better than women, and Lilith was banished from Paradise, leading to the creation of Eve from a part of Adam, so that she'd know she's beneath him (ah, isn't the Bible beautiful? Sexism is great. Women should be turned into demons for fighting for their rights).

My point was that Shion is supposed to be Adam, and Nezumi is Eve, but in this case Shion is calling for equality between himself and Nezumi.

Next in AoYokai's I-grew-up-in-a-country-where-Bible-studies-are-mandatory-and-now-I-know-too-much: Babylon Treaty. This is totally something that is probably completely unrelated because i doubt Asano knew about what I'm going to say next- In Hebrew, Babylon (as in the Empire) and Babel (as in the tower) are the same word. That got me thinking about how Babylon Treaty was created to separate the cities in a peaceful manner, but then again, nobody that doesn't speak Hebrew/looked this up knows this, so I don't think Asano did that intentionally.

Something a little more interesting about Babel is that it is awfully similar to No. 6, only that in the end, when it fell, the people got together rather than got separated. And yet, both tell the story of people who tried to challenge the power of God (Elyurias in this case) and had their work destroyed as a result.

And that's all of today's I know way too much about the Hebrew Bible (and yet my parent and I watched a show that made fun of all kinds of parts in the Bible and I didn't understand a lot of things but my parents did so I guess that when they went to school Bible Studies were more important or something)

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listenforthelove

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Re: Biblical Allusions in No. 6
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2015, 02:07:42 pm »
Thanks for starting this topic, @AoYokai, that's super interesting!

I went back to a discussion I had with my friend, but it turns out it was much the same as what you said here re: Shion as Adam. Very interesting point raised with Lilith though. Shion calling for equality between him and Nezumi is very pronounced in the novels, but I never thought to apply the story of Lilith there.

And Babylon and Babel being the same word in Hebrew is very interesting too, I had no idea. I mean, they do sound similar (and I probably messed it up once or twice because of that), but I wasn't aware that it's more than just similar-sounding in Hebrew. (Of course, tons of stuff that get lost in translation or just mistranslated to begin with...) And hey, whether Asano knew it or not, that doesn't mean we can't speculate or draw parallels, does it?


I don't really have much to add aside from the apple - because I do think that's intentional at least, since apples show up quite a lot as food of choice in the West Block. The apple that stood out to me most is the one in the final volume, where Shion initially offers Nezumi one, but Nezumi hasn't recovered enough and Shion eats it himself instead - right after he's learnt about Nezumi's background and right as Nezumi starts to share his own story. So there's definitely a tie between apple and knowledge there. (Of course, whether it was an apple in the Paradise is disputed iirc, but apple is most certainly the one most associated with the Fall of Man.)


I'm gonna think about this some more, because I'm very uninformed about Biblical studies and I'm not sure about a lot of things I might take for granted because I absorbed them from media while they're actually entirely inaccurate.

Weisel

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Re: Biblical Allusions in No. 6
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2015, 02:22:57 pm »
I don't know **** about any of this, but... What if Nezumi is Eve and Shion is Lilith? No Adam at all?

AoYokai

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Re: Biblical Allusions in No. 6
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2015, 02:58:00 pm »
@listenforthelove once I wrote an essay about some art piece I saw that had an apple in it, and it was after I played like 3 weeks straight of Assassin's Creed, so I wrote about how the apple is the Fruit of Knowledge and I got points off because the type of the fruit was actually never mentioned in the Bible OTL But on that note, there are also oranges in No. 6, and in Hebrew oranges are sometimes referred too as golden apples :) Although, that would be modern Hebrew, not Biblical Hebrew.

@Weisel the problem with that is that Lilith didn't need anyone to show her the truth, she was curious and stubborn by nature, and that was why she was portrayed so badly: an independent woman was the worst type of woman back then. I'd say that Lilith is Safu, not necessarily because she didn't sleep with Adam/Shion, but more because she defied the authority of Adam and God although she knew the consequences.

I'm trying to think of a role for Inukashi, but I can't ^^ I could also think of another story that has some parallel lines, the story of David (Shion) and Samuel (Fennec) but it's kinda forced...