Why did we need a Good Friday anyway? For what reason did Jesus undergo all that we celebrate this (Easter) weekend? Scripture of course gives us all the facts, but John Milton’s Paradise Lost attempts to “fill in some of the blanks” and to expand our theological imagination in a glorious and entertaining way. Paradise Lost was dictated, for the most part, by the increasingly blind Milton near the end of the Puritan era (1667). As the title indicates, it seeks to relate, in poetic fashion, the temptation and fall of man in the Garden of Eden, although much time is also spent on speculation as to the background of that fall, beginning with the rebellion of Satan and his angels in heaven. Paradise Lost is an epic poem, with blank verse (it does not rhyme). It contains many allusions both to scripture and to classic literature, and applies itself to a wide range of topics as it tells its story.
OUR GLORIOUS GOD
The greatest value of the book may be the awe-inspiring way it portrays the Lord in His glory and power. Perhaps my very favorite segment is when God the Son single-handedly drives Satan and the demons out of heaven after their rebellion:
“The overthrown He raised, and as a herd
Of goats or timorous flock together thronged,
Droved them before Him thunderstruck, pursued
With terrors and furies to the bounds
And crystal wall of Heaven; which opening wide,
Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed
Into the wasteful Deep. The monstrous sight
Struck them with horror backward; but far worse
Urged them behind: headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of heaven: eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.”
When the demons saw hell before them, they recoiled back – but “far worse” was behind them; the incomparable power of Christ! Forthwith they threw themselves headlong into the abyss, rather than face Him! What a picture of the unparalleled magnificence and power of the Lord Jesus! (I had actually read this description some years ago, and that mental image never left me. Finding this passage was one of my primary motivations for reading Paradise Lost; it was worth the effort!)
When Satan stirs his rebellion in heaven, with a third of the heavenly host, and would take the throne of God, Milton describes God the Father thus: “And SMILING, to His only Son thus said …”. Then “the Son, to whom with CALM ASPECT …”. There was no panic in the Trinity; no concern. They smiled at the rebellion (Psalm 2), and responded with calm authority. You and I may panic when we have been caught unawares by difficulty; but there is no such attitude in heaven!
The glory of the love of Jesus for us, and His voluntary obedience to the Father is expressed when God the Father, having determined to redeem fallen mankind, asks who in heaven will volunteer to accomplish this redemption:
“Say, Heavenly Powers, where shall we find such love?
Which of ye will be mortal, to redeem
Man’s mortal crime, and just, th’ unjust to save?
Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear?
He asked, but all the Heavenly Quire stood mute,
And silence was in Heaven: on Man’s behalf
Patron or intercessor none appeared,
Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
And now without redemption all mankind
Must have been lost, adjudged to Death and Hell
By doom severe, had not the Son of God … thus renewed:
‘Father, Thy word is passed, man shall find grace …
Behold Me, then: me for him, life for life,
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Account Me Man: I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to Thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die”
This love and care of Jesus for His children likewise is expressed in Book X, when He judges Adam and Eve in the Garden for their rebellion, yet even in the midst of that judgment,
“Disdained not to begin
Thenceforth the form of servant to assume,
As when He washed His servants’ feet, so now
As father of His family, he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts.”
There, even in the midst of the painful casting out from the Garden, Jesus is portrayed as loving, ministering to the needs of His wayward children — surely a tender expression of the servant nature of our Lord.
MANIFOLD INSIGHTS
In addition to expanding our imagination of the glory and love of God, Paradise Lost contains insights all along the way, packed into a line or two of verse:
— As Eve prepares a table for a visiting angel: “Well may we afford our givers their own gifts.” That we might have the same attitude as we give back to God from His own hand!
— “Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled” (Abdiel the angel to Satan and the rebellious angels)
— “Whom to obey is happiness entire” (Jesus to God the Father)
— “knowledge is as food”
And plenteous others with “food for thought”!
PURITAN ROMANCE, MALE CHAUVINISM, OR BOTH?
One aspect of Paradise Lost I had not anticipated was Milton’s delightful and romantic portrayal of Adam & Eve in the Garden before the temptation and fall. His description of Eve, but even more, what he intimates about the relationship between Adam and Eve, is precious:
“She, as a veil down to the slender waist,
Her unadorned tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
Subjection, but required with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best received,
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.”
That closing line is so full of romantic insight; I just didn’t expect to find it in a Puritan-era epic!
At one point Milton describes Adam & Eve as “Imparadised in one another’s arms”. What a beautiful and creative word: ‘imparadised”! Surely the best of lovers today fancy themselves closest to Paradise when found thus!
This touching passage portrays Eve sharing of her love for Adam:
“But neither breath of morn when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower
Glist’ring with dew; nor fragrance after showers:
Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night,
With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon,
Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.”
Several of Milton’s passages portraying the relationship of Adam and Eve in the Garden may seem chauvinistic to some, but I felt like many of them were still very tender and endearing:
— one such is when the original pair were described as “He for God only, she for God in him”
— When the angel was relating to Adam of the creation and fall, Milton has Eve rise and leave, for:
“Her husband the relater she preferred
Before the Angel, of him to ask
Chose rather; he, she knew would intermix
Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses; from his lip
Not words alone pleased her. Oh when meet now
Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?”
Perhaps the worst transgressor in this regard was a humorous passage, but one which might draw the ire of some female readers. It fancies how Eve may have peered into the water for the first time:
“As I bent down to look, just opposite
A shape within the wat’ry gleam appeared,
Bending to look on me. I started back,
It started back; but pleased I soon returned,
Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
Of sympathy and love. There I had fixed
Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire,
Had not a voice thus warned me: ‘What thou seest,
What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself”
Apparently Milton held that the vanity of women was not entirely a result of the Fall!
Despite passages of those sorts, the view of the ideal woman in Paradise Lost is high. Eve is described as:
–“So lovely fair that what seemed fair in all the world seemed now
Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained.”
–“Last and best of all God’s works”
–And as having “Grace that won who saw, to wish her stay”
Of the need of Adam for an Eve, there was no dispute. In another favorite soliloquy, Adam speaks of his desire for a partner suitable to him, which was not found in what had yet been created:
“Among unequals what society
Can sort, what harmony or true delight?
Which must be mutual, in proportion due
Given and received; but in disparity
The one intense, the other still remiss,
Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove
Tedious alike. Of fellowship I speak
Such as I seek, fit to participate
All rational delight”
I think the passage can be applied to the human being’s basic need of truly kindred fellowships of all sorts, in marriage and otherwise, and of the inadequacies found in those of anything less.
17th-CENTURY COSMOLOGY
Several passages were noteworthy for the cosmology they reflected. Milton lived in a time when scientific discovery was supplanting established views of the universe. Some of these new ideas are reflected in Paradise Lost.
“Heaven is as the book of God before thee set,
Wherein to read His wondrous works”
“and every star perhaps a world of destined habitation” – a very forward thinking view of things; not so “geo-centric” as many of his contemporaries would have been.
— in Book VIII, Milton writes of:
“Whether the Sun, predominant in heaven,
Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the Sun”
This segment reflects the clash of world views that was taking place in his day. On the lips of the angel, Milton espoused that which of these two was true was not our ultimate concern: “Wherever placed, let Him dispose; joy in what He gives you, this Paradise.” Wise words: all truth is from God, and points us ultimately to Him. Our responsibility is to rejoice in Him and in His good gifts regardless of which of our preconceived scientific truths may be supplanted.
TIMELESS INSIGHTS
Part of the reason we regard Paradise Lost as a classic is the enduring nature of many of its insights:
In rebellion in heaven, Satan disputes God’s creation of himself and the angels, and says: “We know no time when we were not as now; know none before us, self-begot, self-raised”. Is not this “self-begetting” at the heart of all sorts of godless philosophy to this day? The universe, atheistic scientists assert, is “self-existent”; there was no creator. And what we become in it, the godless say, we become on our own efforts, without God. It would seem that Satan’s ancient claim has merely been borrowed, and recast in modern form.
Another evidently timeless truth we find in Book X, “What if they son prove disobedient, and, reproved, retort, ‘Wherefore didst thou beget me? I sought it not!” Can you hear the contemporary juvenile’s, “I didn’t ask to be born” foreshadowed in Milton’s verse?
VOCABULARY TEST!
Despite its wondrous grandeur and insights, Paradise Lost definitely has its challenges, especially for one with a meager vocabulary. I won’t pretend I didn’t need to look up a few words! At one point, God the Father referred to the Son as His “vicegerent”. At first glance I thought was that it was “vice-regent” misspelled – had I found a typo?! But I looked it up, and sure enough, “vicegerent” is a word, meaning an administrative deputy of a king or other ruler.
Then there was the “amarantine” shade from which the angels were called to hear the Father’s proclamation: “amarantine” means eternal.
One of my favorite words in Paradise Lost was “Empyreal” – not, as I had assumed, an antiquated form of “imperial”, but literally “from the pyre” – as the ancients thought that the glories and creatures of heaven were literally fiery. The word came to be synonymous with heaven.
At one point, Adam & Eve had finished their “orisons” – their morning prayers!
And there was the “volant” touch (“light, agile, nimble”). And on and on. Paradise Lost definitely was not on the 6th grade reading level of the daily newspaper! And that is not to mention the plethora of allusions to ancient literature; allusions the full force of which we who are not steeped in classic literature will not appreciate.
“JUST READ IT”!
But Paradise Lost is worth the effort, whatever hurdles and obstacles are faced in the reading. One must beware the danger of accepting Milton’s brilliant fictional imagination as fact – which can happen to such creative works over time. Readers can become enthralled with the pictures the author suggests of certain realities, and as those ideas gain popularity, they can come to be regarded as “the way it really was” – when it wasn’t! It was merely one author’s vision of “how it might have been.” With that said, Milton did “fill in the blanks” of course, but where scripture speaks, he was faithful to God’s word, often basically quoting it as he told the story. And his creative suggestions were for the most part at least not contrary to the revealed truths of scripture. But if one rightly guards against a blank acceptance of the epic as literal truth, Paradise Lost can be a very valuable means of expanding one’s vision of the glories of God, the insidious nature of sin, and the rightful place of man in the order of things. I finished reading Paradise Lost on Good Friday, which was providential timing; it certainly puts one in mind of the necessity of a Good Friday – and of the hope that a Resurrection Sunday restores!
shawnethomas 