Biblical Allusion in Bob Dylan's Lyrics--Part II

With God on Our Side

• "In a many dark hour
  I've been thinking' about this
  That Jesus Christ
  Was betrayed by a kiss
  But I can't think for you
  You'll have to decide
  Whether Judas Iscariot
  Had God on his side."
  Judas revealed Christ's identity to his enemies with a kiss: "And while [Christ] yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.  But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest though the Son of man with a kiss?"  Though Dylan's question seems to be sarcastic (how can we say we have God on our side because we win wars anymore than Judas had God on his side?), some have actually thought that Judas did have God on his side.  Some have viewed Judas as having been given a task to betray Christ that God's plan might be fulfilled. Just as each disciple had a role to play (Peter would be the "rock") so Judas was given his own role.  He obeyed when Christ told him, "What thou doest, do quickly."  But eventually he hung himself in remorse because he had not wanted to play that part. This view has been presented in a rather interesting ballad poem. 

When the Ship Comes In

• It seems likely that this "Ship" is, like the "Slow Train" of a later Dylan song, symbolic of the second coming of Christ and of all that that entails.

• "Oh the seas will split
  And the ship will hit
  And the sand on the shoreline will be shaking
  Then the tide will sound
  And the wind will pound
  And the morning will be breaking."
       Luke 21:25-26: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken."

• "And the rocks on the sand
  Will proudly stand,
  The hour that the ship comes in."
       Revelation 6:15-16: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." But the rocks of Dylan's song do not fall to hide these men; instead they "proudly stand," for there is no hiding place from God.  This personification of rocks is not unheard of in the Bible.  When Christ's disciples say to him, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord," the Pharisees tell him to rebuke them. But Christ replies: "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40).

• "For the chains of the sea
  Will have busted in the night
  And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean."
       This may merely be a metaphorical way of saying that God's wrath is no longer restrained and He is now coming in full power, or it may be a reference to Revelation 20:1-3, in which Satan is said to be temporarily chained, until his chains are intentionally broken by God so that he may wreak punishing havoc on the world: "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years . . . till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
       A visitor to the website, Megan, suggests these lines are an allusion to the poetry of Dylan Thomas, who in "Fern Hill" writes, "Time held me green and dying/though I sang in my chains like the sea."  It is quite possible.  Dylan was no doubt familiar with Thomas's poetry.  After all, he probably took his last name from the poet, whatever he may claim to the contrary. (Dylan has said he borrowed the name from an Uncle.)

• "Oh the foes will rise
  With the sleep still in their eyes."
     This is an indication that the enemies of God will not have been waiting and watching for Him, but will have (metaphorically) fallen asleep, so that the "day of the Lord" comes upon them as "a thief in the night" (I Thessalonians 5:2).  "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober" (I Thessalonians 5:6).   Also, the dead are resurrected as well for the judgement, so death might also be "the sleep" to which Dylan refers.

• "Then they'll raise their hands,
  Sayin' we'll meet all your demands."
       Those who once refused to believe and watch will now recognize God's authority. "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." But it will be too late, for they will have to "give account of [themselves] to God," and they will not, because of their disbelief, have Christ to intercede for them (Romans 14:11-12). 

• Who are the "we" of the song who shout "your days are numbered?" Perhaps they are those who will reign with Christ:  "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years" (Revelations 20:6).   Presumably, those who have not received the mark of the beast, who were raised with "the first resurrection," will sit in judgement with Christ (Revelation 20:4-5).

• "And like Pharaoh's tribe,
  They'll be drowned in the tide."
       One of the many mentions of this event reads: "By faith [The Israelites] passed through the Red sea as on dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." (Hebrews 11:29). The foes of God will be destroyed when He comes again. Being overcome by the sea is a good metaphor to use here, because Revelation says, describing the destruction, that "as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea" (8:8).

• "And like Goliath, they'll be conquered."
       The story of David's Conquest of Goliath can be found in I Samuel 17. Goliath is conquered by faith more than skill, laid low by a representative of "the armies of the Lord."   

Gates of Eden

• Our fallen world (the false world outside of the Gates of Eden) is inhabited by the fallen Satan, who is the "cowboy angel" of the first stanza:
  "Upon four-legged forest clouds
  The cowboy angel rides
  With his candle lit into the sun
  Though its glow is waxed in black
  All except when 'neath the trees of Eden."

These lines begin to make more sense within the context of some verses from Ezekiel. In the first set of verses, the Lord speaks to "the king of Tyrus," who is often thought to represent Satan:

"Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering . . . Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee . . . thou hast sinned . . . therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.  Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground . . . " (28:11-17)

In the second set of verses, God speaks of the king of Egypt, though the theme of Satan's downfall seems to underlie His words. Indeed, Dylan's choice of the "tress of Eden" in the last line of this stanza may be meant to recall this very passage:

"I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height . . . I have driven him out for his wickedness . . . I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden . . . shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth" (31:9-16).

When "'neath the trees of Eden," Satan was full of beauty and "brightness," but now, cast down from heaven and outside the gates of Eden, the glow of Satan's candle is "waxed in black." It is this dark side of Satan which it is our legacy to know; we shall never know him as the cherub "[w]ith his candle lit into the sun."

• "Aladdin and his lamp
  Sits with Utopian hermit monks
  Side saddle on the Golden Calf
  And on their promises of paradise
  You will not hear a laugh
  All except inside the Gates of Eden."
  Outside of Eden, in this fallen world, all have succumbed to idolatry.  Both the pagans (represented by Aladdin) and the supposed Christians (represented by the monks) sit upon "the Golden Calf," the idolatrous object of Israelite worship in Exodus 32:4. The calf is also an object for worship in I Kings 12.  Jeroboam set up a golden calf in Dan and another in Bethel for the northern tribes to worship because they could not go to the temple in Jerusalem. Likewise, mankind today, having been cast out from Eden (the true center of worship) and the presence of God, has only managed to maintain a sort of diluted, bastardized form of worship. Even those who make "promises of paradise" in this world have little idea what true paradise--where God walked and talked directly with man--is like.  The breadth of this discrepancy between the actual and the ideal is known only inside the Gates of Eden, where the promises of these men are laughed at.

• The last stanza gives us a clue as to how we can approach this song. Overall, the song paints a contrast between the true world created by God (the Eden of Genesis) and the false, fallen world we have created for ourselves and now inhabit. But at specific times, the song seems senseless.  This may be intentional; the meaninglessness of the words reflects the meaninglessness of this fallen world, in which we can never fully grasp an understanding of the true world God initially created for us. The best we can do is to  feel the truth, receiving it as one might receive a sort of garbled vision, or, to quote the title of another Dylan song, "a series of dreams."  We should not try to decipher these dreams, but should experience them, making "no attempts to shovel the glimpse / Into the ditch of what each one means."  Sometimes, the truth is best comprehended through a sense, a feeling, rather than through thought, because our thinking is so fallen.  As God says,  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are . . . my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).  Dylan's song works on a similar level; it is perhaps better not to attempt to ascribe some meaning to each and every verse, but rather to simply experience the effect the words have upon us.  All these senseless words--these meaningless sounds and images--combine to make us  feel the true loss of Eden, a loss we can not understand on an intellectual level:
  "At times I think there are no words
  But these to tell what's true . . . "
  Yet even this feeling, though it is perhaps the closest we may come to comprehending the truth, is ultimately insufficient, because, as Dylan powerfully reminds us in the last verse of his song, "there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden."

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

• Okay, so this isn't exactly a biblical allusion, but here are some of my favorite Dylan lines:
  "Disillusioned words like bullets bark
  As human beings aim for their mark
  Made everything from toy guns that spark
  To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
  It's easy to see without looking too far
  That not much is
  Is really sacred."
  The verse reminds me of the present-day mass marketing of Christianity, as though Christ were a product to be sold, and of how far we seem to have moved from a sense of holiness, and how desperately we need to return.
• "For them that think death's honesty
  Won't fall upon them naturally
  Life sometimes
  Must get lonely."
  Probably not a biblical allusion, but these bible verses might give these lines some context for discussion:
  "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater . . . And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
  The rich man, who thinks "death's honesty / Won't fall upon [him] naturally" may think  he is "merry," but in reality, putting your heart into "treasure" when you are "not rich toward God" must inevitably lead to moments of loneliness, as cold treasure can not love.

More Songs

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