Deicide

 

For the American death metal band, see Deicide (band)

Deicide is the killing of a god or a divine being.

Etymology

The word derives from medieval Latin dei- ("god"), and -cida, from the verb caedere ("to cut down"). As with some other words that share the same suffix - suicide, homicide, patricide, etc. -the word can refer either to the act or to the person who commits the act.

Deicide and Responsibility for the death of Jesus Christ

The question of who is responsible for the execution of Jesus has both historical and theological components. The primary sources for both the historical and theological inquiries include the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to Jesus' death. The theological question is understood in light of other New Testament writings such as the Letters of Paul. The historical inquiry is aided by other sources from antiquity which explain the cultural and political environment in which Jesus lived.

Historical analyses of Jesus' death have generally assigned responsibility to either

1. The Roman government in Judea
2. the Jewish leadership in Judea at the time

There is no term meaning "deicide" used in the New Testament, either in the original Greek text, or in the later Latin Vulgate translation. Similarly, New Testament texts which refer to responsibility for Jesus' death do not take special note of Jesus' divine identity, although explicit mention that he is the Messiah sent by God is found (Acts 2:36). The New Testament nowhere blames Jews who lived outside Judea for Jesus' death, nor does it exonerate the Gentile rulers in Judea. Jesus' disciple Judas Iscariot is blamed for disclosing his location to the authorities.

Theological analyses of who is responsible for Jesus' death have included:

1. All humanity through their sinfulness,
2. Jews in particular through their manipulation of the Roman authorities
3. God, for the benefit of people in general,
4. God, for the benefit of the Elect in particular.

The Jewish authorities and Roman government

According to the New Testament accounts, the Jewish authorities in Judea charged Jesus with blasphemy and sought his execution, see Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus. However, the Jewish authorities lacked the authority to have Jesus put to death, according to John 18:31 yet Acts 6:12 records them ordering the stoning of Saint Stephen and also James the Just according to Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1. The Jesus Seminar's Scholars Version translation notes for John 18:31: "it's illegal for us: The accuracy of this claim is doubtful." They brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Iudaea Province, who "consented" to Jesus' execution.

Pilate is portrayed in the Gospel accounts as a reluctant accomplice to Jesus' death. Some modern scholars have questioned the historical accuracy of such a portrayal. These historians suggest that a Roman Governor such as Pilate would not have hesitated to execute any leader whose followers posed a potential threat to Roman rule. However, the Gospel accounts indicate that there could be hesitation on the part of both Jewish and Roman authorities to act immediately or needlessly in the face of potential popular opposition (Matt 26:4-5; Mk 15:12-15; Lk 22:1-2). These scholars also suggest that the Gospel accounts may have downplayed the role of the Romans in Jesus' death during a time when Christianity was struggling to gain acceptance in the Roman world. Yet the four Gospel accounts uniformly portray the Roman Governor Pilate as partly responsible for Jesus' execution, rather than exonerating him, and it is not clear that blaming Pilate completely, decades after his reign, would have diminished Christian acceptance.

Theological elements

Until the middle of the 20th century most Christian churches included references to deicide in their hymns and liturgy; some still do ^{[citation needed]}. The following, for example, is a verse from a hymn written in 1892 for use in the Church of England to call upon God to convert the Jews to Christianity:

“

Though the Blood betrayed and spilt, On the race entailed a doom, Let its virtue cleanse the guilt, Melt the hardness, chase the gloom; Lift the veil from off their heart, Make them Israelites indeed, Meet once more for lot and part With Thy household's genuine seed.[1]

”

Other theological explanations

Several theological explanations have been offered. These explanations are not all mutually exclusive:

Various Christian denominations have taught that God is ultimately responsible for the death of Jesus, as part of the divine plan of salvation (cf Acts 2:23).

The Catholic church and other protestants churches' dogma suggests that Jesus' death was necessary to take away the effects of sin, and in order for the process to work, the human has to accept it that he was forgiven, so Christians believe that all of humanity bears some responsibility for Jesus' death. Thus, the crucifixion is seen as an example of Jesus' eternal love for mankind and his divine ability to forgive.

Alternatively, the recently-discovered Gnostic "gospel of Judas" contends that Jesus commanded Judas to set in motion the chain of events that would lead to his death.

Other Christian theologians argue that God cannot be killed. Thus, it would be inappropriate to apply charges of deicide to anyone. The following is a verse from the New Testament () used in some Protestant churches to support this position:

"No man taketh it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (John 10:18) A lot of Christians believed that Jesus's death was basically not anyone's fault alone, but the fault of every human being. Because God had seen the future and the past that there is no human alive that is spotless, so therefore, God sent his only begotten son who is spotless, so whoever loves him and accept his death will not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Deicide in fiction

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• Deicide (and its theoretical impossibility with an immortal god) plays a very large role in the television series Stargate SG-1. In Stargate an alien race of parasites (the Goa'uld) control human beings both literally (by digging into their neck and completely controlling that person's actions) and through religion (by posing as a god). Because the Goa'uld are thought of as gods by the people they rule over, SG-1 repeatedly has trouble convincing those local populaces that the local Goa'uld is dead ("Gods cannot be killed" is an oft-repeated sentiment by various locals).
• In the movie Blade Runner, the android Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) kills its own creator Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), just after saying: "Nothing the God of bio-mechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for."
• In the Star Trek universe, the Klingon religion held that when the gods created Kortar, the first Klingon, he killed his gods and burned their paradise to ashes. (See Klingon religion for more details)
• In the RTS/RPG hybrid video game, Sacrifice you are forced to commit multiple acts of deicide against the many gods in the game.
• In the popular book series His Dark Materials, one of the main characters, Lord Asriel, attempts to destroy God to free mankind from his oppressive rule.
• The Hayao Miyazaki film Princess Mononoke contains two instances of deicide: Ashitaka kills a cursed boar-god to save his village and Lady Eboshi hunting down the Deer God of the forest, to which she brags to her men, "Now watch closely, everyone. I'm going to show you how to kill a god."
• In the video game Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the final boss battle is against "The Creator" of our universe (or at least the game's universe), Lucifer (Luther in the English-language version).
• In the popular comic series Preacher, the major plotline involved tracking God down and making him account for his actions. In the end God is killed by the Saint of Killers
• In the Japanese animation Saint Seiya, Athena's saints kills Hades and Apollo.
• In the MMORPG Everquest it is possible for players to form into large groups and defeat the Gods of their world Norrath, doing so resulted in the anger of the Gods and the shattering of the Moon of Luclin above Norrath, pertaining to the storyline of Everquest 2
• In the PS2 games God of War, and God of War 2, the games' protagonist, Kratos is on a quest to kill various Greek Gods.
• An MMORPG named Deicide-The War Against Evil, created by Korea is based upon the war against evil and prevention of the daily deicide of good.
• In Clive Barker's novel Imajica, the god Hapexamendios accidentally killed himself when the fireball he sent out to destroy his former human lover came back to him.
• In Russell T. Davies' 2003 television drama The Second Coming, God is willingly killed as part of the Third Testament.
• In the Dragonlance series, Raistlin attempts (and in one timeline succeeds) to become a god by killing Takhisis.
• Part of the plot of the Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral involves the protagonist "killing" God, either literally or metaphorically.
• In Seiken Densetsu 3, the game's end boss (which varies depending who you choose as your main character from the start of the game) will kill the Mana Goddess by chopping down the Mana Tree, in which the Mana Goddess resides in.
• In the 1982 film Tron, Kevin Flynn is transported by a megalomaniac artificial intelligence (the MCP) into the virtual universe of a computer system, inhabitated by programs, where programmers are, by most, regarded as God-like beings. The MCP instructs its subordiante, Sark to kill the newcomer, and even though Sark has long abandoned the idea of serving the Users, he is shocked by the notion of killing one.
• In many computer games you take on the role of a god to rise above other god(s) by destroying them through various means, for example Populous. See also God games.
• In the Forgotten Realms setting of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a period in history called "The Time of Troubles", during which the gods walked on Abeir-Toril as mortal avatars. A number of gods were in this way subject to deicide.
• In the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer the character Glorificus, a Goddess, was killed.
• In the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods, there is a war between the gods from many different backgrounds and the gods that the American people have created (i.e. television, credit cards, highways, the Internet). The war ends with casualties on both sides.

See also

• Supersessionism
• Good Friday Prayer
• Christian anti-Semitism
• God is dead

References

External links

• Jesus's death now debated by Jews

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