3 Cool Biblical Connections in The Chronicles of Narnia

There are a lot of ‘obvious’ Biblical parallels in Narnia, of course. But as well as the ‘big-picture’ things, there are particular Scripture passages which always remind me of a little detail or one specific passage in a Narnia book. (And since C.S. Lewis is a smart guy, I feel pretty certain that was deliberate on his part.) In this post I’ll be highlighting a few of those ‘little’ Biblical connections.

Connection #1: Psalm 85/Prince Caspian

This first one is the most tenuous one, but it always nevertheless feels like a connection to me. The Scriptural passage is from Psalm 85 (or 84, depending on the translation):

Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed.
Truth is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven.

And the bit from Prince Caspian is when Dr. Cornelius shows Caspian the conjunction of Tarva and Ambil.

There was no difficulty in picking out the two stars they had come to see. They hung rather low in the southern sky, almost as bright as two little moons and very close together.
“Are they going to have a collision?” he asked in an awestruck voice.
“Nay, dear Prince,” said the Doctor (and he too spoke in a whisper). “The great lords of the upper sky know the steps of their dance too well for that. Look well upon them. Their meeting is fortunate and means some great good for the sad realm of Narnia. Tarva, the Lord of Victory, salutes Alambil, the Lady of Peace. They are just coming to their nearest.

I think the illustration is part of why I connect these two – my mind conjures up this picture for that part of Psalm 85.

Connection #2: John 10:1-5/The Magician’s Nephew

This is the Scripture passage:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Whenever I hear this reading, I immediately think of the part in The Magician’s Nephew where Digory is entering the walled garden to pick the apple for Aslan.

You never saw a place which was so obviously private. You could see at a glance that it belonged to someone else. Only a fool would dream of going in unless he had been sent there on very special business. Digory himself understood at once that the others wouldn’t and couldn’t come in with him. He went forward to the gates alone.
When he had come close up to them he saw words written on the gold with silver letters; something like this:

Come in by the gold gates or not at all,
Take of my fruit for others or forbear,
For those who steal or those who climb my wall
Shall find their heart’s desire and find despair.

“Take of my fruit for others,” said Digory to himself. “Well, that’s what I’m going to do. It means I mustn’t eat any myself, I suppose. I don’t know what all that jaw in the last line is about. Come in by the gold gates. Well who’d want to climb a wall if he could get in by a gate! But how do the gates open?” He laid his hand on them and instantly they swung apart, opening inward, turning on their hinges without the least noise.

(I’ll skip now to where Jadis appears, though of course the whole scene is fantastic and very Biblically rich as well.)

There, only a few yards away from him, stood the Witch. She was just throwing away the core of an apple which she had eaten. The juice was darker than you would expect and had made a horrid stain round her mouth. Digory guessed at once that she must have climbed in over the wall. And he began to see that there might be some sense in that last line about getting your heart’s desire and getting despair along with it. For the Witch looked stronger and prouder than ever, and even, in a way, triumphant; but her face was deadly white, white as salt.

Man, I really need to re-read The Magician’s Nephew. I love how Lewis is able to include such deep insights and profound symbolisms while simulatenously keeping his writing so simple and easy to understand. HE’S SO GOOD.

Connection #3: John 21:4-14/The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

And I’ve saved my favorite for last. The Scriptural passage here is Jesus’ appearance after the Resurrection to Peter and some of the other Apostles as they were fishing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered Him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.

The part from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is from the very end, when Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace are at the End of the World and have just watched Reepicheep sail over the standing wave to Aslan’s Country beyond.

…as it always does in a perfectly flat place without trees, it looked as if the sky came down to meet the grass in front of them. But as they went on they got the strangest impression that here at last the sky did really come down and join the earth – a blue wall, very bright, but real and solid: more like glass than anything else. And soon they were quite sure of it. It was very near now.
But between them and the foot of the sky there was something so white on the green grass that even with their eagles’ eyes they could hardly look at it. They came on and saw that it was a Lamb.
“Come and have breakfast,” said the Lamb in its sweet milky voice.
Then they noticed for the first time that there was a fire lit on the grass and fish roasting on it. They sat down and ate the fish, hungry now for the first time in many days. And it was the most delicious food they had ever tasted.
“Please, Lamb,” said Lucy, “is this the way to Aslan’s country?”
“Not for you,” said the Lamb. “For you the door into Aslan’s country is from your own world.”
“What!” said Edmund. “Is there a way into Aslan’s country from our world too?”
“There is a way into my country from all the worlds,” said the Lamb; but as he spoke his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane.
“Oh, Aslan,” said Lucy. “Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?”
“I shall be telling you all the time,” said Aslan. “But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder.”

This gives me chills. I have no words.

I’m sure there are many more such moments that haven’t yet jumped out at me – I’m pretty certain, for instance, that you could draw a lot of connections between Ramandu’s island and some of the prophetical books (probably the Book of Revelation too). But another day for that post.

Which of these Biblical connections in The Chronicles of Narnia is your favorite? What ‘Biblical moments’ in Narnia have you noticed?