Please warn me if I'm entering tempban territory here :)
Really. The Catholic/Anglican/Episcopalian tradition calls upon Michael
to guard the front, Gabriel to guard the right, Uriel to guard the left,
and Raphael to guard the rear in some of their blessings and prayers.
Now I'm no theologian. Heck, I do my duty every week with church (R.C.).
But from my readings (and I did manage to make it to levitucus before the
Bible won and put me to sleep with instructions on how to prepare a goat
for sacrifice) I've never encountered andthing mentioned beyond the 3-1
archangels; could you ref me to the proper chapters.
BTW: an earlier comment was made about an Islamic text contributing to the
description of Micheal. Um,... I'm not intending any disrespect here, but
is that a valid reference. What I mean is that from NGE we clearly see ref
to Judaic and Christian (I'm assuming R. Catholic) symbology. I'm not aware
of any reference to Islam in the series.
hey're the only ones mentioned in the bible; there are
many other religious texts such as the Gnostic texts, the
Book of Enoch, or the fifth Gospel according to James
(which the Catholic church excluded in a power struggle
between the followers of James and those who won and
converted the Roman emporer to Christianity). These
and other texts mention the names of the 24 angels.
Hrm,... certainly a point to think on. And, to add to your point, Lilith is
not really a Catholic endorsed legend, therefore lending to the idea that
we may have to delve into with Christian offshoots to find the full imagery
of the series.
As a side note to this, the "fallen angels" (like Salachiel, the angel of
the northern winds I believe) were taken into christianity from a specific
sub-sect of the Jewish faith (the exact name of which escapes me at the
moment). These were "cast down from heaven and given dominion" over certain
aspects of the earth.
-I've seen one site (I lost the URL in a hard drive crash)
-which had 10 different lists of the seven archangels'
-names, Michael and Gabriel being the only ones common to
-all of them. It all depends on the source you're dealing
-with. Remember, the King James Bible is the 17th century
-translation into English of a 4th century translation into
-Latin of a Greek transcription of the life of a man who
-spoke Aramaic 400 years earlier. Don't be surprised if
-things don't always fit.
I'm not surprised in the least :)
Interesting side thought: if all angels have AT fields, then
what are the four EVAs and three Reis?
Simple, mankind is the next stage of angel; born of Lillith. Ritsuko
commented that Angel DNA was 99%+ similar to human DNA.
-And humans have 98% similar DNA to monkeys. Charles Darwin,
-the second coming of Christ? ^_^
*snickers* har-har. But we can't be throwing Darwin into this; a series
clearly, or at least predominantly based in the mystic. Besides, who's to
say that in the NGE world, god didn't try to perfect his creations as time
past. Heck, maybe monkey was like Man v1.0?
-Another biblical legend says that humans and seraphim are
-capable of producing offspring, but are forbidden by God
-from doing so (they couldn't if they weren't made of a
-similar substance). The legend also says that angels are
-hermaphroditic. Now, I'm not about to start a "Shinji and
-Kaoru are gay lovers" argument, but there may be a basis
-for why they have an attraction.
or it could simply be that Kaoru was one of the few people to be nice to
Shinji in the first place; a brother, someone who granted him unconditional
love after all the shit he'd been put through. *shurgs*
Some have
postulated that the AT field is what man uses to keep himself alone (out of
the minds of others). The ultimate end of the human instrumentality project
was to have Shinji (or one of "the children") reunify mankind into a
collective entity of pure thought/spirit. Rei, the "dummy plug", was to act
as a vessel for humanity's souls
AS to the Eva's, they are simply soulless angel-human hybrids (note I say
soulless, not mindless). The pilots are the souls which are linked to the
eva's (which are in fact, clones of the pilot's mothers [except Rei]) which
were intended to guide the Eva's actions without awakening them. In fact,
that is why most evas have no internal power supply {ie. an S2 engine or
Angel's core}, that would lead to a full awakenning. Further, the armor
(as Rit mentioned again) acts to restrain the Eva, not necessarily protect
it.
-My point in saying that was to suggest that the seven archangels
-*are* surrounding God, if you assume that's what Gendo is, and
-that NERV HQ is heaven. The "attacks" of the angels become not
-of threats, but purification of the children's souls in purgatory
-before ascention into heaven. (ESPECIALLY so with Asuka!)
Interesting,.... but I would suggeest that that line of thought is tenuous
at best.
Gendo is at the very best an antihero. His flagrant use of people would
strike chords against your divinity theory
-But also recall the episode where Ritsuko kills (?) the Reis
-in the vat, she says (in the English dub, anyway), "The Room of
-Gelf is empty." The Room of Gelf is where God is said to take
-souls from to put into human bodies when they are born; if the
Yup. I remember that.
-room is empty, then anything newly born (Reis, EVAs) will not
-have a soul. The prophecy is that the world will end when the
-room is empty.
Yes. that's right. I loved that Imagery myself :)
-Bunny trail: in the show, half the Earth's population dies in
-the second impact. That means 3 of the current 6 billion will
-die. Currently, 110 million new babies are born annually, so
-cut that to 55 million after 2im. With 365 days in a year,
-that means about 150,000 are born daily. Is it possible that
-144,000 children conceived on the date of the second impact,
-like Shinji, are God's chosen people he'll take up to heaven?
-(This isn't part of the series, just a crazy idea of mine.)
Hrm,.... certainly an idea with merit. But that passage of revelations
speaks beyond the 144,000 (the chosen of the 12 tribes) speaking of other
countless multitudes behind them that were destined for heaven.
Especially when the
colours of Shinji's EVA match those of Michael, the greatest
of the archangels, as do the other EVAs.
Um,.... When was Micheal depicted as green and purple?!
Purple and white, not green.
Nnooooooooooooo..... Eva 01 is Purple and green (with black)
-Gabriel, who will sound the horn at the time of the
-apocalypse, is often depicted in red:
Ok,... I'll buy that.
-Do I sense a twinge of sarcasm? O_o I'm only trying to start
-debates with this, not arguments. There's nothing like a
-healthy discussion of ideas.
I agree. Sorry if I sounded sarcastic. No malicious intent here. I'm
honestly interested i this discussion!
-Another bunny trail to think about...Gendo's name prior
-to marriage was Rokubungi. I've been searching my Japanese
Funny to that he Took his WIFE's name after marriage; highly unusual in
Japanese or western circles
-texts for a proper translation of the rest of his name, but
-"roku" means "six" in Japanese, the number of a man, as
-some Christians who use numerology claim. What if Rokubungi
-works out as "666". Are you familiar with John Milton's
-Paradise Lost? In it Adam and Satan are often viewed in
-parallel, seen as much the same, suffering the same trials,
-triumphs and tribulations; could it be possible Hideaki
-Anno intended to portray Gendo as both God and Satan?
Sadly no. My education is lacking in the classic. I actually own a copy of
Milton's work,... unfortunately it levd up to it's namesake and I can't
find the dam thing :)