I've been considering the possiblity that Jacob and his enemy are angels. I must give due credit to Erika Olson for inspiring this theory (http://darkufo.blogspot.com/2009/05/initial-thoughts-on-incident-by-erika.html), even though she thinks that, while the writers intend the comparisons to be drawn, the two will never be explicitly revealed as such, and that we'll probably never know exactly who or what they are. This may very well be true, but I disagree with Erika's premise for saying so. She claims that the show will never be "in-your-face religious" because it would alienate a large portion of its audience. Not to split hairs over semantics, but I think that this all depends on what exactly is meant by "religious." In a certain sense, I'm not sure how much more religious it could get than the revelation in the S5 finale that two seemingly supernatural beings representing light and dark are battling ove! r the destinies of human beings. To be fair though, I suspect that what Erika means is that the show will never turn into something like The Chronicles of Narnia, in which a certain set of religious ideas (i.e., Christianity in Narnia) are explicitly promoted. In other words, even though Locke may end up being a "Christ figure," he won't literally BE Christ in the same sense that Aslan IS Christ in the Narnia books. And this much I agree with.
That being said, I still wouldn't count out Jacob and his enemy literally being revealed as angels. For one thing, angels are not exclusive to the Judeo-Christian worldview. Many faiths believe in the existence of angelic beings, and even people who aren't very religious at all often believe in them. At least in America they have certainly become part of the popular folk religion.
There is certainly plenty of evidence to point to these guys being angels. Some of the points to consider:
--Good angels and fallen angels are frequently associated with light and dark. In fact, angels are popularly depicted as being composed of pure light.
--For anyone familiar with the story of Jacob, it's hard to NOT associate him with angels. Two major plot points in the story of Jacob are his wrestling with an angel of God and his dream-vision in which he was shown angels ascending and descending on ladders from Heaven to Earth (this is the story from which the term "Jacob's ladder" comes from).
--Jacob's touch is obviously meant to be significant, and can readily be associated with the idea of being "touched by an angel."
--When the biblical Jacob is wrestling the angel of God, the angel touches Jacob's hip, which causes Jacob to have a permanent limp. This could relate (albeit in strange way) to Locke's being revived but also paralyzed after Jacob touches him.
--The MIB asking Jacob, "Do you know how badly I want to kill you?" is congruent with the idea that he could be the Angel of Death.
--The MIB's possible equivalence with Smokey would make even more sense if he were the Angel of Death. The S5 episode "Dead is Dead," in which Ben is judged by Smokey and it "passes over" him, just so happened to air on the first day of the 2009 Jewish Passover, which commemorates the occasion when God spared the Israelites as the Angel of Death slew the firstborn of all the Egyptians. (Which of course could also help explain all the references to Egypt and Tawaret and the fertility problems. What if, for some reason, the Egyptian curse of the Angel of Death is still present on the island? Perhaps the island natives, somehow descended from Egypt, erected the statue as a defense against the Angel of Death/MIB/Smokey)
Anywho, that's just some thoughts I was having. Anyone who wants to add to these points or point out holes is welcome. Thanks.
That being said, I still wouldn't count out Jacob and his enemy literally being revealed as angels. For one thing, angels are not exclusive to the Judeo-Christian worldview. Many faiths believe in the existence of angelic beings, and even people who aren't very religious at all often believe in them. At least in America they have certainly become part of the popular folk religion.
There is certainly plenty of evidence to point to these guys being angels. Some of the points to consider:
--Good angels and fallen angels are frequently associated with light and dark. In fact, angels are popularly depicted as being composed of pure light.
--For anyone familiar with the story of Jacob, it's hard to NOT associate him with angels. Two major plot points in the story of Jacob are his wrestling with an angel of God and his dream-vision in which he was shown angels ascending and descending on ladders from Heaven to Earth (this is the story from which the term "Jacob's ladder" comes from).
--Jacob's touch is obviously meant to be significant, and can readily be associated with the idea of being "touched by an angel."
--When the biblical Jacob is wrestling the angel of God, the angel touches Jacob's hip, which causes Jacob to have a permanent limp. This could relate (albeit in strange way) to Locke's being revived but also paralyzed after Jacob touches him.
--The MIB asking Jacob, "Do you know how badly I want to kill you?" is congruent with the idea that he could be the Angel of Death.
--The MIB's possible equivalence with Smokey would make even more sense if he were the Angel of Death. The S5 episode "Dead is Dead," in which Ben is judged by Smokey and it "passes over" him, just so happened to air on the first day of the 2009 Jewish Passover, which commemorates the occasion when God spared the Israelites as the Angel of Death slew the firstborn of all the Egyptians. (Which of course could also help explain all the references to Egypt and Tawaret and the fertility problems. What if, for some reason, the Egyptian curse of the Angel of Death is still present on the island? Perhaps the island natives, somehow descended from Egypt, erected the statue as a defense against the Angel of Death/MIB/Smokey)
Anywho, that's just some thoughts I was having. Anyone who wants to add to these points or point out holes is welcome. Thanks.
