(no subject)

[taffimai]

Okay, I'm almost flattered here. Still trying to figure out how I scored high on violent, though ...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Comments

[cjmarlowe.livejournal.com]

I did too, man. Actually, I got an "extreme" on violent, which I haven't seen on anyone else's score anywhere, even though I said I wasn't interested in starting wars or killing my enemies in their sleep. Apparently I'm a ticking time bomb, man. =)

The "very high" in lust was a little more predictable. Must be the porn.

Re:

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, I'm glad it's not just me!!! I've decided that they miscategorized some of their lustfuls and/or heretics. That's my story, says the ticking time bomb.

The "very high" in lust was a little more predictable. Must be the porn.

Yeah, I think that was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

It's a peculiarity of medieval theology: Sodomy (non-reproductive sex of any kind) is described by Dante as violence against God, and usury (charging interest on loans, etc.) as violence against nature. Both, to the medievals, were wrong because they attempted to make fertile what was infertile. Since you're a girl who likes girls, you probably scored high in the sodomy category. *g*

Re:

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Ah! Okay, that makes sense, then. cjmarlowe, that probably explains your score as well.

Meanwhile, I found it interesting that I was taking the quiz and mentally categorizing the questions into "Ben Adam V'Haveyro" (between man and man) and "Ben Adam V'Makom" (between man and god). Guess I'm not as recovered from my high school education as I thought.

Re:

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

*ears perk up*

I thought the quiz-maker had a pretty good grasp of Dante's theology. Now your comment has me wondering what, if anything, Dante knew about Judaic theology of his day (prolly not much), or what comparisons could be made between the two.

"Ben adam" = "son of man", right?

Re:

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

"Ben adam" = "son of man", right?

Sometimes, but not in this context. "Ben" can also mean between. So, in this case, the translations are:

"Ben" = Between
"Adam" = Man
"V'" = and
"Haveyro" = his Friend
"Makom" = God (literally: "place")

more explanation to follow after Angel ...

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Okay, so this is way, way after Angel, but ...

Dante certainly made quite a study of theology, but even without a direct influence, the amount of cross-pollination between the two religions is huge.

The most obvious of these is the appropriation of the Torah to serve as Christianity's Old Testament, but even beyond that, there is the strong oral tradition that was associated with the Torah. Now, during the many Jewish exiles, it became clear to the leaders of the Jewish community that these oral traditions were in danger of being lost, and so they were recorded in the Mishnah and the Gemora (see this link for more information.)

Because the Mishnah and the Gemora were not written until after the Common Era, they do not exist in a written form in Christianity. However, as the early Christians were almost exclusively converted Jews, it is not surprising that much of the Jewish oral tradition would have been carried with them into the newly-forming Christian theology.

So, the idea that Jewish concepts and traditions are deeply embedded in Christian philosophy is fairly plausible, and certainly Dante could have picked up such concepts in his studies even without making a direct study of Judaism.

Amusingly, Jewish theology was not immune to outside influences either. The Ramban, one of the most widely-read and respected commentators on the Torah, presents an intricate commentary in Bereshis (Genesis) on the creation of the world. In this commentary, he explains creation in the context of an Aristotelian/Ptolemaic model of the universe, which had the heavens circling the earth on crystalline spheres.

Unfortunately, Orthodox Jews as a community are not disposed to discounting a commentary from the Ramban, even one so obviously based on archaic science. So to this day, Rebbes are earnestly teaching the theory of crystalline spheres to high school students in Jewish communities all over the world.

(And every once in a long while, they will have the misfortune to encounter a student like me, who will object strongly to the explanation of creation that had the sun orbiting the earth.)

Re:

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for getting back to this, Taff. It's always good to learn more, and I've always been interested in Judaism (although I tend to pronounce Hebrew in the Sephardic way and not the Ashkenazi way *g*).

Re:

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I probably should be more careful with that. Unfortunately, the Ashkenazi accent is hard to drop. Even when typing. ;)

[cjmarlowe.livejournal.com]

Ah! Okay, that makes sense, then. cjmarlowe, that probably explains your score as well.

Sodomite, woo!
I suspect it may also have something to do with the fact that I hate everyone, though...

Clearly it's been way, way too long since I read Dante, man.