The New Testament as Orphan Story: Part 1

While I was doing the initial analysis for what turned into my most recent book on the relationship between Nietzsche and Wagner, I had something of an epiphany about what might seem to be a completely unrelated subject. I realised that the New Testament is what I call an Orphan Story. Long-term readers might remember a series I did on the Orphan archetype a few years ago. At that time, I was concerned only with the fictional version of the story, but I’ve since come to realise that the Orphan Story, and stories more generally, are very much real.

Ironically, this was the understanding of most people for most of history. People took for granted that stories conveyed the truth about reality. It’s only in the last few hundred years that Western culture has decided that there is a sharp distinction between fact and fiction. As it happens, this distinction is intricately tied up with the study of the New Testament because the rise of modern historical scholarship, including advances in related fields such as archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology, allowed scholars to categorise the Bible into the parts which had factual corroborating evidence and those which did not. The latter category was seen as either fiction or theology, while the former was history. This demythologising process began with the Enlightenment and really kicked into gear in the 19th century.

We are this implicit divide between fact and fiction so much for granted that it’s hard for us to entertain the idea that there are sound philosophical reasons it is, at best, highly problematic. One of the ways to address the issue is to learn to see beyond simple cause-and-effect relationships and entertain the idea that the real world is just as much structured by larger patterns. This is exactly what the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell did in relation to stories in the 20th century since he discovered the pattern which lay beneath them, what he called the hero’s journey. It turns out that the hero’s journey is just as relevant to our understanding of history, and the New Testament provides a uniquely fitting object of study to prove that because we have a relatively detailed knowledge of the historical facts that surround the story.

What we’ll be doing in this series of posts is taking Campbell’s hero’s journey template and applying it to the New Testament. But we’ll be using a specific version which I stumbled upon when I started to see that the hero’s journey implies an archetypal hero and that we can investigate stories from this archetypal point of view. The specific archetype that is relevant in this case is the Orphan. We’ll call stories that feature Orphan heroes Orphan Stories. In this post, we’ll outline the structure and elements of the Orphan Story, and then we’ll see what it has to tell us about the New Testament next week.

The return phase is the incorporation of the lessons learned during initiation and the subsequent transcendence of the hero to a new life that is qualitatively different to the one that they started from.

When the hero of the story is an archetypal Orphan, the qualitative difference that comes at the end of the story is that the hero has become an adult. Thus, the primary elements of the Orphan Story relate to the process by which each of us leaves behind childhood and makes the difficult journey towards maturity. That is why the separation from the parents is a key feature of the Orphan Story. Similarly, becoming an adult implies taking up a role in the institutions of society, and this involves having mentors who can guide us. That is why the Elder archetype forms a core part of the story. In short, the Orphan Story is not merely a figment of imagination. Its primary elements are very much based in reality.

The character of the Elder in the Orphan Story is problematic for us in the West precisely because this role has all but disappeared from modern culture, even though it regularly shows up in the stories and films. The Elder is supposed to take over from the parents and guide the Orphan’s path towards adulthood. Modern terms such as ‘teacher’ or ‘mentor’ work tolerably well to capture the meaning of this role. However, the relationship between Orphan and Elder, in its most profound manifestation, goes beyond mere practicality and amounts to the transmission of the core metaphysical beliefs of a society.

Furthermore, the Elder is not just giving personalised instruction to the Orphan, but inducting them into an institution of society of which the Elder is the recognised leader. Once again, our modern bias leads us to believe that “institutions” must be formal organisations and that the relationship between Orphan and Elder is strictly regulated. In fact, the most intense forms of initiation do not, and probably can not, take place in an environment of excessive governance and rule following. Any true initiation can only take place outside of the rules of society because it is always a confrontation with the unknown. A story that doesn’t involve the hero breaking the bounds of the known world is guaranteed to be a very dull tale. That’s true of fiction. It’s also true of our own lives.

With these considerations in mind, let’s now list the basic elements of the Orphan Story in the order in which they normally appear, and then we’ll use the template to analyse some famous examples:-

1.     The hero is separated from his parents (becoming an archetypal Orphan)
2.     The hero hears news of the Elder or the institution to which the Elder is associated
3.     The hero meets the Elder, who offers them initiation
4.     Initiation commences, including induction into the institution led by the Elder
5.     A Shadow Elder tries to subvert the initiation
6.     There is a struggle between the hero, the Elder and the Shadow Elder
7.     The Elder dies or goes missing (usually sacrificing themselves for the hero)
8.     The hero faces the Shadow Elder alone

The most famous example of the Orphan Story template in modern times is certainly the Star Wars trilogy. What is particularly interesting about that is that the first movie in the series is an Orphan Story in itself, and then George Lucas turned it into the original trilogy, which also has the structure of an Orphan Story. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just use the first movie and show how it fits the template.

• Step 1 – The hero is separated from his parents: We can see that this is fulfilled right at the beginning of the movie because we meet Luke Skywalker, who is living on the planet Tatooine with his aunt and uncle, not with his parents, who are dead. It’s a very common theme in Orphan Stories for the hero to be a literal orphan.
• Step 2 – The hero hears news of the Elder: Luke’s uncle buys two droids, and Luke is given the job of cleaning them up instead of going off to have fun with his friends. That’s when he discovers the message from Princess Leia and realises that it’s intended for Obi-Wan.
• Step 3 – The hero meets the Elder, who offers initiation: Luke finds Obi-Wan and shows him the message. The offer of initiation here comes in a roundabout fashion because when Luke and Obi-Wan return to the farm, they find Luke’s aunt and uncle have been killed by stormtroopers. In terms of the hero’s journey template, this is the consummation of the departure phase of the story. Luke’s old life has been quite literally destroyed. Obi-Wan has brecome the Elder who will guide him towards his new life.
• Step 4 – Initiation commences: Luke will now been inducted into two new institutions of society. Firstly, he is on a pathway to become a Jedi Knight, and we see Obi-Wan give him his first lessons in how to use a lightsaber. Secondly, he has now joined the rebel cause in the fight against the empire. That also involves him making new friends in Hans Solo and Chewbacca.
• Step 5 – A Shadow Elder tries to subvert the initiation: Star Wars gives us one of the all-time great Shadow Elder characters in the person of Darth Vader. Since Vader is on the side of the empire, he is already an adversary to the rebels. But Vader is also an ex-Jedi who has gone bad. Therefore, he represents a dual Shadow Elder to both of Luke’s new identities as rebel fighter and Jedi Knight
• Step 6 – There is a struggle between the hero, the Elder and the Shadow Elder: Vader captures the Millennium Falcon and brings it aboard the Death Star. Luke and the others avoid detection and set about trying to save the princess.
• Step 7 – The Elder dies or goes missing (usually sacrificing themselves for the hero): Obi-Wan sacrifices himself fighting Vader, which allows the others to escape.
• Step 8 – The hero faces the Shadow Elder alone: the final showdown between Luke and Vader sees the Death Star destroyed.

Although Star Wars is nominally a science fiction story, it has direct parallels with what was, at the time, the most popular Orphan Story genre, namely, medieval knight tales. The quest to save a princess is at the heart of many of those stories, although the hero usually marries her at the end. It’s noteworthy that George Lucas flirted with the idea of having a romance between Luke and Leia before changing his mind and turning them into brother and sister. Thus, Luke is left without a bride at the end of the initial trilogy, making him more of a Warrior-Monk archetype.

We could run through numerous other examples of Orphan Stories which fit the template we have outlined, but this would take us too far off course. The interested reader is invited to apply the template to the following examples to prove that they are also Orphan Stories: Avatar, The Matrix, Harry Potter, Dune, A Wizard of Earthsea, Cinderella, Snow White, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet (sort of), Much Ado About Nothing (sort of).

There’s an entire book to be written exploring the symbolism of the Orphan Story (one day, I might write that book), but there are two primary meanings to point out for our purposes. Firstly, one of the things that the Orphan Story represents is the passing of the generations and, in particular, the way in which the older generation integrates the younger. The Orphan must be initiated into a culture. The completion of that initiation is when the individual is ready to take on adult responsibilities in the realms of the family, economy, politics, military, and religion. In the modern West, we have managed to make initiation about as boring as possible through the mass education system. Therefore, our initiation doesn’t feel like a hero’s journey. Nevertheless, our intuitive understanding of stories like Star Wars proves that we still grasp at some level what true initiation looks like.

In the characters of the Elder and the Shadow Elder, the Orphan Story shows us both the successful and unsuccessful ways for the older generation to induct the younger. In this respect, it is no coincidence that the Elder sacrifices themselves for the hero. The Elder steps aside and allows the Orphan to take their place. That is what must happen if the rising generation is to be incorporated into the culture. They must be given a real position of responsibility. The death of the Elder is symbolic of them allowing the Orphan to take that position.

But what happens when the older generation refuses to step aside and allow the younger one to take its rightful place? That is what the Shadow Elder represents. The Shadow Elder does not offer the Orphan a proper initiation that ends with full membership of the culture with the attendant responsibility that comes with that. What they demand instead is obedience and subordination.

The devouring mother archetype fulfils the same function and is often represented by a wicked stepmother who is common in fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White. Shakespeare’s Hamlet provides a similar theme, where Claudius usurps the throne by killing Hamlet’s father and marrying his mother, thereby preventing the prince from taking his rightful place as king. In all these cases, we have a Shadow Elder attempting to prevent the younger generation from taking power and thereby destroying the inter-generational transmission of the culture.

In this way, the Orphan Story is not just about the personal journey of the hero to adulthood but also has an intricate social and political dimension too. The difficulties explored by such stories and myths are very real. One of the eternal predicaments of human society is how to pass the baton to the next generation. The tyrannical Shadow Elder is one representation of how things can go wrong with that process, but history shows us other possibilities. For example, the supposedly wise and benevolent Marcus Aurelius organised for his psychopath son Commodus to take the purple. If ever there was a case for not allowing this particular representative of the coming generation to ascend to power, this was it. Yet, Aurelius went ahead with a move so bad that it brought to an end the golden age of the Roman imperium.

The relationship between the Elder and the Orphan in the Orphan Story shows us the positive transmission of a culture from one generation to the next. The wise Elder educates the Orphan and then steps aside when the time is right to allow the hero to take the reins. The Shadow Elder does not want to educate the Orphan because he knows that this will make the hero a challenge to his authority. This is not only a political problem; it stifles the entire culture by preventing the fresh perspective of the rising generation from reinvigorating the old forms. That is why the Shadow Elder must be defeated. Siegfried and St George must slay the dragon. Hamlet must kill Claudius. Luke Skywalker must defeat Vader. Neo must destroy Agent Smith. Harry Potter must overcome Voldemort.

It is this socio-political background to the Orphan Story that will be crucial to our understanding of the New Testament because history shows us that societies wax and wane in their ability to integrate the next generation into the culture. When that process begins to break down, we find that the Shadow Elder comes to dominate, and society moves away from the peaceful and fruitful transmission of the culture to the next generation and into a tyrannical phase where elites no longer rule by consent but by force. When that happens, the older generation becomes like Cronus, metaphorically eating its young. Once those conditions are established, the time is ripe for the Orphan hero to arrive on the scene and slay the dragon. As Jesus puts it:

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34