I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF,
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE.
JUTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR;
DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME,
AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS WERE MADE,
AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY.
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER."
I find the anaphora of "I am the way" to be very interesting, as it reminds me of the Bible quote from John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." You can only enter Heaven through Jesus. You can only enter Hell through it's gates. I think it's cool that Dante uses "I Am The Way" to say basically the exact opposite of the Bible quote.
2 comments:
Good thinking, Isabel. I decided to look up other bible verses that have "I am" in them. Turns out, there are several that contain the same phrase in the Gospel of John:
"I am the Bread of Life" (John 6:35)
"I am the Light of the World" (John 8:12)
"I am the Door" (John 10:9)
"I am the Good Shepherd" (John 10:11,14)
"I am the Ressurection and the Life" (John 11:25)
"I am the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6) *Isabel's post*
"I am the Vine" (John 15:1,5)
I also think it's really interesting how the Devil uses the same phrases to describe "his world." As Isabel said, the way that Hell is described is the exact opposite of Paradise and of God's ways. I interpreted these phrases at the entrance of Hell as having a sort of a mocking tone. I feel that these phrases are a way of Satan mocking what God had to say, and by using the same phrases, in a way, Satan is putting himself at the same level as Jesus but just in a different and opposite world. Jesus says he is "the way" and Satan does just the same, but he is also "the way" but to a different realm.
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