Severian as Jonah

Lee Berman · 16 Apr 2012, 19:23 · from 2012-April.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:23:37 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian as Jonah
Message-ID: <SNT123-W64487C36952D74C4DD0740CF3E0 at phx.gbl>

I was watching a TV show on the "Secrets of Christianity" and there was
a segment on a sea voyage Jesus took. The interesting part (for this
list) was a mention that Jesus probably took this trip as a deliberate
attempt at recreating Jonah's voyage. There are a number of parallels to
be found between Jonah and Jesus (http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/The%20Typology%20of%20Jonah%20and%20Jesus.htm)

The part I found most pertinent to BotNS was the parallel of Jonah spending 
3 days in the belly of the great fish, then being expelled, parallelling
Jesus' 3 days in the cave then being resurrected.

Previously I had posted about a recurring theme regarding fish mouths and
caves that I saw in BotNS including the Jurupari reference, the Ouroboros 
story, Abaia and undines, the man-ape cave and the Fomalhaut reference. Though 
I saw this theme, I really didn't understand its significance. Perhaps now I do.

Not everyone agrees but I see Urth (and The Whorl) as a "gnostic" world which,
despite being more technologically advanced (and declined) than modern earth,
is spiritually retarded; i.e. they have not yet received Christ. If this is
the case then perhaps the fish mouth/cave theme is meant to invoke Severian as
a Jonah-like figure. A precursor who helps prepare the world for a future 
coming of Christ.

FWIW, various translations of the Jonah story list him as swallowed by a whale,
a great fish and even *a great beast*.

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