The Gospel Considered As A Tolkien Novel

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

-- Malcolm X

Take the Gospel of Matthew and swap out all the players; Hobbits instead of Jews, Elves in place of Samaritans, Dwarves instead of Gentiles, Orcs replace Romans.

Come up with a new fantasy map.  Swap out names; Jesus becomes Gandalf, John the Baptist is now Tom Bombadil, the apostles become Sam, Merry, and Pippin (Judas becomes Gollum).

Use wizard instead of rabbi, grimoire instead of scroll, mead instead of wine.

Satan is now Sauron.

Keep the rest of the text the same.

Now hand it over to someone unfamiliar with Judeo-Christian theology.

What do they glean from this Tolkienized text?

Well, nothing factual, of course, all the details are made up.

But what about the truth? 

The actual teachings of Jesus remain intact, whether they come from him or the wholly fictional Gandalf.  The virtues and ideals expressed ae unchanged because they don’t require concrete pre-existing proof.

Putting your faith in Gandalf as a real person is futile, because he doesn’t really exist.

Putting your faith in his message isn’t because the message can be tested.

We can’t produce wonders and miracles, but we can live the way Gandalf espouses in our test example and see how it works.

If it does work,
then it’s true,
isn’t it?

When authoritarians thunder:  “The Bible says…” they clearly can’t prove the authority of the scriptures.

“It’s true because we say it’s true!” is what their message boils down to; there is no objective verification of any of the facts presented.

But the message remains intact.  It doesn’t matter if Jesus or Gandalf or Mickey Mouse tells us “Treat others the way you want to be treated” because the lesson works no matter who says it.

Real or not.

Don’t read this thinking I’m saying Jesus is a hoax; at the very least Occam’s razor argues the most likely source of the Gospel is they are the eccentric teachings of an iconoclastic first century rabbi.

Do they work or not?

If they do -- and by “work” I mean produce a better life not only for those who follow them but those around those followers -- then it’s a good thing.

If they don’t work, then their failure will be painfully obvious.

Who cares if it’s real as long as it’s true?

© Buzz Dixon