In Chapter 8 of Paradise Lost, John Milton creates a scene between Adam and the angel Raphael. Rafael warns Adam of the danger of loving Eve for her beauty on the outside rather than loving her sprit and soul. Because of this interaction, the audience is able to conclude that Milton is referencing one of the main themes of the New Testament: to love one another.

First referenced in the New Testament, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment, which is to love one another, as he has loved them. This has also been referenced in the Johannine writings and the Pauline letters. The main point of this is to teach people that love is not based purely on sexual attraction, but on the connection of souls. The inclusion of “as I have loved you,” creates an intense bond between humans and God’s likeliness, which we are expected to embody in our daily lives. When Rafael references a love deeper than just shallow appearances, he foreshadows the teachings of Jesus, who God sends to redeem humans. The impact of this interaction goes deeper than just loving your spouse spiritually, but loving all people. With war and crime spread all throughout the world, the teachings of achieving world peace through kindness was essential to Jesus’ new message. Rafael states on page 182, line 589, “love refines the thoughts, the heart enlarges, hath his seat in reason, and is judicious, is the scale by which to Heav’nly love thou may’st ascend, not sunk in carnal pleasure, for which cause among the beasts no mate for thee was found.” This statement is the perfect summary of Rafael’s explanation of Jesus’ teachings of love. He describes how true love, not physical love, but spiritual, creates strong bonds between people and enhancing both the mind and soul. However, carnal pleasure reduces humans to wild animals and does not allow us to reach our fullest potential.

In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Eve represents what love only through attraction will do to humans. In Chapter 4, Eve describes her awakening in the shadows, and going to the water to see her reflection. Only when she hears God’s voice is she able to look away from her reflection, because she is fascinated by her beauty. On the other hand, in Chapter 8, Adam describes his awakening in the “Happy light,” or in the broad sunlight with God. Both of their awakenings symbolize their hierarchical standings in God’s eyes. God does not see Eve as less than Adam because she is a woman, but because she is less spiritually connected with God. We see this when Eve leaves the conversation between Rafael and Adam because she would rather hear it later from Adam, portraying her as submissive to Adam and unable to converse with angels. The only reason Eve is not as spiritually connected with God as Adam is because she loves her own superficial body to give spiritual love to others. This shows how if humans are unable to love others with their soul rather than body, they loosen their bond with God. If they are able to love with their soul, they become closer with God and are able to ascend to heaven more peacefully.

The central theme to Genesis is exactly what the word means: beginnings. This is important to keep this in mind when reading the story of Jacob and Laban. When Jacob arrives at Laban’s home, it symbolized his attempt to start a new life, with a wife and children. However, if we want to dive deeper into the story, the most important character represented in this text is Laban. Because of Laban’s intense need for control over his family, chapters 29-32 of Genesis accurately depicts the negative consequences of the inability to let go and accept change and new beginnings in life.

Father of both Leah (the eldest child) and Rachel (the youngest), Laban takes on the protector role in this story. When Laban breaks his promise with Jacob, he gives the excuse that it is against tradition to allow the youngest daughter to marry before the eldest. This could be depicted as pure trickery to get Jacob to work longer for him, but this is actually a symbol of Laban looking out for his eldest daughter. As a father, he must look out for the interests of both children, and in this scenario, both daughters would benefit. However, the use of deception shines a light on the wrongness of planning out every detail of life. I believe the phrase “let go and let God,” is very pertinent in this scenario because although it is difficult not being able to control what will happen in the near future, God always has a plan, which is why this story is very important in Genesis.

Later on in the story, after working for Laban for 20 years, God sent an angel to Jacob and stated, “Lift up now thine eyes…for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.” (Genesis 31:12). Jacob then put his wives and children onto camels and fled from Laban. God at this point in the story is finally putting an end to Laban’s tight grip on Jacob and his family. This is very important because the readers are shown that no matter how much effort can be put in in order to resist change, new beginnings are inevitable. When Laban follows them to Galeed, Jacob and him are able to come to make a covenant, and Laban leaves willing, allowing Jacob and his daughters to move on to the next chapters in their lives. Laban finally is able to let go, and the audience is shown how much happier he is when he allows change in his life.

Christianity, or the teachings of the Catholic Bible, have always had a strong impact on my life. I started going to CCD when I was very young, and went every Sunday to learn and read the bible. My family does not always go to church, but my mother always made sure we went to CCD. It wasn’t until highschool that I truly started to rely on my faith. I transferred to a private Catholic highschool my freshman year, where I was required to take theology every year. My school, Pope John XXIII highschool, held masses the first week of every month during school, which we would get half days for, and short masses every morning before school. Sometimes I think going to this school should have weakened my faith. If we were being disruptive in class and were given a detention, we had the option instead to go to a morning mass instead, or write a reflection on a bible passage. By making students go to mass or read the bible as a punishment should have surely disrupted our faith. However, everyone I talk to that went to my highschool almost always goes to church, and still reads the bible. We had clubs based solely on religion, where you could go on retreats to get “closer to God,”  and many people were willing apart of them. Every sporting team said a prayer together before their game, including our chess team. Our entire highschool was covered in religious quotes, our windows had pictures of religious events, and many of our teachers were priests. Christianity always surrounded me, which in turn increased my engagements with the bible. I’ve written many reflections on passages in the bible, I’ve written background stories on angels and religious figures, and I’ve even read the Bible outside of school. I chose to take this class in order to further my education in Christianity.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.