Jake Lane
Medieval Literature
Mrs. Crisler
March 17, 2014
Dante’s Inferno Compared to the Bible Dante describes Hell in a fictional way that does not completely go along with God’s word in the Bible. Both books suggest that every sin deserves a punishment equal to the sin. Dante’s Inferno clearly suggests that the followers of God that lived before the birth of Jesus were condemned to Hell and were going to be brought to heaven by Jesus at a later time. The Bible gives a subtle idea that patriarchs before Jesus went to places called Sheol and Hades after death, which are both equivalent to Hell. In Dante’s Inferno, Satan, or Lucifer, has three heads, representing his beauty, power and pride. Many people have compared this illustration to the holy trinity, with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity being the good and Lucifer’s three heads being evil. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante explains about how different sins have different punishments, meaning sins that hurt God most have the harshest punishments, and sins that hurt God the least have less harsh punishments. These quotes give an idea of how God treats us with punishment equal to the sin:
“Ah, God’s avenging justice! Who could heap up suffering and pain as strange as I saw here?” (Musa IV)
“Walking from his swoon, the pilgrim is led by Virgil to the First Circle of Hell, known as Limbo, where the sad shades of the virtuous non- Christians dwell. The souls here, including Virgil, suffer no physical torment, but they must live, in desire, without hope of seeing God” (Musa IV)
Those quotes demonstrate that the sins committed by people during life weren’t worth it and they really deserve what they can’t bear in hell. The Bible shows an example of sins being fitted with a punishment equal to the sin with these quotes:
“But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” (Exodus 21:23-25)
“You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the parents’ sins into the laps of their children after them.” (Jerimiah 32:18)
They really points out the relationship between Dante’s Inferno and the Bible and how both encourage equal punishment for the sin committed.
In Dante’s Inferno, there are several people from the Bible who were strong believers of God, but since Jesus was not yet born, they were sent to Hell. King David is a good example of this:
“. . . to think that souls as virtuous as these were suspended in that Limbo, and forever!” “. . . Abram, the Patriarch, and David the King . . .” (Musa IV) All of these particular people were to wait in Hell until Jesus came to bring them to Heaven. In the Bible there are subtle clues that the believers from the Bible that appear in Hell in Dante’s Inferno, may have gone to a similar place. They would have gone to either Sheol or Hades, if they did in fact go to a Hell- like place at all.