The Bible in The Magician’s Nephew: As Long as a Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve Rule in Narnia
Welcome to the second installment of The Bible in The Magician’s Nephew, the first of may “chats” on God in the Narnian Chronicles. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. Enjoy!
““My children,” said Aslan, fixing his eyes on [Frank and Helen], “you are to be the first King and Queen of Narnia.”
The Cabby opened his mouth in astonishment, and his wife turned very red.
“You shall rule and name all these creatures, and do justice among them, and protect them from their enemies when enemies arise. And enemies will arise, for there is an evil Witch in this world.”
The Cabby swallowed hard two or three times and cleared his throat.
“Begging your pardon sir,” he said, “and thanking you very much I’m sure (which my Missus does the same) but I ain’t no sort of chap for a job like that. I never ‘ad much eddycation, you see.”
“Well,” said Aslan, “can you use a spade and a plough and raise food out of the earth?”
“Yes, sir, I could do a bit of that sort of work: being brought up to it, like.”
“Can you rule these creatures kindly and fairly, remembering that they are not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in, but Talking Beasts and free subjects?”
“I see that, sir,” replied that Cabby. “I’d try to do the square thing by them all.”
“And would you bring up your children and grandchildren to do the same?”
“It’d be up to me to try, sir. I’d do my best: wouldn’t we, Nellie?”
“And you wouldn’t have favourites either among your own children or among the other creatures, or let any hold another under or use it hardly?”
“I never could abide such goings on, sir, and that’s the truth. I’d give ‘em what for if I caight ‘em at it,” said the Cabby. (All through this conversation his voice was growing slower and richer. More like the country voice he must have had as a boy and less like the sharp, quick voice of a cockney.)
“And if enemies came against the land (for enemies will aries) and there was war, would you be the first in the charge and the last in the retreat?”
“Well, sir,” said the Cabby very slowly, “a chap don’t exactly know till he’s been tried. I dare say I might turn out ever such a soft ‘un. Never did no fighting except with my fists. I’d try — that is, I ‘ope I’d try — to do my bit.”
“Then,” said Aslan, “you will have done all that a King should do. Your coronation will be held presently. And you and your children and grandchildren will be blessed, and some will be Kings of Narnia, and others will be Kings of Archenland which lies yonder over the Southern Mountains.””
Frank and Helen, High King and High Queen of all Narnia, before and after
I touched on the topic of the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve ruling in Narnia briefly in the last post, but today, we’ll continue that discussion and then some. But let’s address the obvious first. Only humans can rule Narnia. Period.
This puts me in mind of one of the earliest Scriptures in the Bible.
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””
Aslan creating Narnia through song, like God creating the world through words
Like God, Aslan (the Christ-type of the Series) created the earth, its vegetation, and the animals to inhabit it. He did not create human beings (he simply allowed them to be imported, ready-made, from our world), yet the mandate he gave them was the same: to have dominion.
And not only did Aslan command them to have dominion, but to be responsible with that dominion, again, like human beings in our world were commanded to be. Be good stewards. Fight for right. Do what is right. Refrain from evil. But unfortunately, almost like our world, an evil crept into Narnia at its inception.
Jadis a.k.a. The White Witch is the type and shadow of Satan in The Magician's Nephew as well as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And like Satan, she craves power that is not legally her own. In our world, through sin, Satan became the custodian or “god of this world” by default. Now the Chronicles never actually tell us what happened to descendants of King Frank and Queen Helen. We see that Archenland is still ruled by their lineage and in good hands in The Horse and His Boy, but somewhere, somehow, the line was broken in Narnia, only to be remade when the Pevensie children stumbled in through the Wardrobe in “Spare Um.”
“When Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone
Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,
The evil time will be over and done.”
High King Peter, King Edmund, Queen Susan, and Queen Lucy at their coronation, at Cair Paravel in throne
So with this absence of Adamic authority, Jadis was able to creep into Narnia from out of the North and eventually, set herself up as the Queen of Narnia, pretender though she was. But we learn that her lineage in Charn, her former world, was not human, but “giantish.”
Polly and Digory meeting Jadis, the future White Witch, for the first time in the Ruins of Charn, her native world
““Hardly human,” was what Digory thought when he looked at her; and he may have been right, for some say there is giantish blood in the royal family of Charn.””
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe also adds this:
““Isn’t the Witch herself human?” [asked Peter.]
“She’d like us to believe it,” said Mr. Beaver, “and it’s on that that she bases her claim to be Queen. But she’s no Daughter of Eve. She comes of your father Adam’s” — here Mr. Beaver bowed — “your father Adam’s first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn. That’s what she comes from on one side. And on the other she comes from giants. No, no, there isn’t a drop of real human blood in the Witch.”
“That’s why she’s bad all though, Mr. Beaver,” said Mrs. Beaver.
“True enough, Mrs. Beaver,” replied he. “There may be two views about humans (meaning no offense to the present company), but there’s no two views about things that look like humans and aren’t.”
“I’ve known good Dwarfs,” said Mrs. Beaver.
“So’ve I, now you come to speak of it,” said her husband, “but precious few, and they were the ones least like men. But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet. And that’s why the Witch is always on the lookout for any humans in Narnia. She’s been watching for you this many a year, and if she knew there were four of you she’d be more dangerous still.” ”
Mr. & Mrs. Beaver
The Beavers explaining to the Pevensies about Aslan, the Witch, the prophecy, and what it all has to do with them
For more on Jadis, visit WikiNarnia!
Now cast this against a different passage in Genesis:
“Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
In short, Jadis, or those like Jadis, are represented in Genesis 6. Human-demon hybrids, masquerading about as true humans, but they are fallen and incapable of redemption. In Narnia, the Witch’s goal was to usurp authority through her deception.
Jadis, half-Jinn, half-giantish, a hybrid unfit for the throne of Narnia
In our world, the same deception sought to corrupt the bloodline of Adam and prevent the redemption of humanity. If Satan had succeeded with corrupting (almost) all human flesh (which he temporarily did), and had God not sent the flood to wipe out this corrupted flesh, Jesus never would have been able to come to the earth, born of a virgin because no human virgin, pure in the sight of God as Mary was, would have existed. Thankfully, God preserved a pure human line through Noah and his three sons, yet we see the influx of Giants again in Bashan and Jericho during Moses and Joshua’s time as well as amongst the Philistines during Saul and David’s time. And I’ve got a newsflash for you, the Bible says,
“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man… ”
The corruption of Noah’s day is here again. Two verses later it relates to the days of Lot. And what do we find, men going after strange flesh. Humans having (or desiring to have) sexual relations with fallen angels. Now fast forward to today.
Famous singer, Kesha, has admitted to having sexual experiences with [demons]. There are many others who have had willful or even forced relations with incubus (male-like) or succubus (female-like) spirits who attack human beings sexually. And now, you even have verified human beings, not seeking any attention, admitting to having sexual interactions with as well as being placed in scientific procedures regarding their reproductive organs with what they believe to be aliens.
NEWSFLASH: These are the days of Noah and these are the days of Lot! Humans having sexual contact with demons/fallen angels is becoming more and more frequent, it’s a sign of the end times! There are even those like L.A. Marzulli (whom I agree with!) who believe that what people perceive as UFOs and aliens are actually fallen angels and demons, modern-day Nephilim seeking new methods to old desires. The Vatican is even having talks about extending salvation to extraterrestrial beings and worse, discussing that they might be able to teach US something about salvation! But shockingly, that’s not all.
Scientists are conducting procedures to clone, as we well know. But what is not widely known is that these scientists are seeking to cross human DNA with animal, etc. DNA. Much of this is under the guise of military interests. I’m just throwing out some ideas, but what if our soldiers could grow back limbs like serpents after having them severed in battle? What if soldiers could be made to see in the dark as they see in the day like nocturnal animals? What if their skin was made resilient to withstand bullets. Tell me all teh godless markets of the world wouldn’t want that for their “boys” at war! But it goes further.
What if man wants to be a woman or vice versa. Sex changes are happening everyday now and they’ve even come up with a drug to be administered to children! What if a man wants to give birth to children? It happened in Germany in 2013! What if two men or two women want to have a child with only their gender’s DNA? They’re making plans for this as we speak! And what’s more, in America, there are even those so satisfied with this maniacal progress that they’re already putting their heads together to see how they can re-word the Constitution to include rights and protection for these human hybrids. It’s evolution that Darwin never even dreamed of! It sounds all very “X-Men,” but should the Lord tarry, this is what we’ll be getting. (Don’t believe me? Just Google some of this stuff and tell me what you find.)
Jadis a.k.a. the White Witch as scene in Prince Caspian according the movie, although not the actual story
So what happens when these hybrids start reproducing with humans? What happens when idiots start fighting for the “civil rights” of hybrids to marry humans? This is not so distant or unrealistic as one would like to think. The path is a destructive one which would, again, produce a corrupted line of hybrids incapable of receiving redemption. Fallen angels have no redemption, neither did or would their offspring. They are not made in the image of God, but counterfeits made in the image of Satan. This is their end:
“And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
I do not think C.S. Lewis foresaw any of the evils alive and well and brewing in our day, but he did know the Bible which is why so many deep and multi-layered biblical themes--whether he intended them or not--show up in his works. I know I started preaching and I didn’t mean to, lol, but I just love how the Word of God shines through these Narnian tales!
