The Lost Paradise
John Milton The
Lost Paradise
The poet reflects on the reason for the disobedience of the first four people who violated the only ban of the Creator of all things and were expelled from Eden. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the poet calls the cause of the fall of Adam and Eve: it is Satan who appeared to them in the guise of the Serpent.
Long before the creation of God by the earth and people, Satan, in his exorbitant pride, rebelled against the King of Kings, involved in the rebellion a part of the Angels, but was brought down with them from Heaven to Hell, into the region of pitch darkness and Chaos. Defeated, but immortal, Satan does not resign himself to defeat and does not repent. He prefers to be the ruler of Hell, and not the servant of Heaven. Calling Beelzebub, his closest companion, he persuades him to continue the struggle with the Eternal King and to create only Evil in spite of His sovereign will. Satan tells his henchmen that soon the Almighty will create
The opinions of the leaders are divided: some are for the war, others are against. Finally, they agree with Satan’s proposal to verify the truth of the ancient tradition, which refers to the creation of a new world by God and the creation of Man. According to the legend, the time of creation of this new world has already come. As soon as Satan and his angels are closed to Heaven, one should try to capture the newly created world, expel or entice its inhabitants and take revenge on the Creator. Satan goes on a risky journey. He overcomes the abyss between Hell and Heaven, and Chaos, her ancient lord, shows him the way to a new world.
God, seated on his highest throne, from where He sees the past, the present and the future, sees Satan, who flies to the new world. Turning to his Only Begotten Son, the Lord prejudices the fall of a Man endowed with free will and the right to
Meanwhile, Satan reaches the surface of the extreme sphere of the universe and wanders through the gloomy desert. He passes the Limb, the Heavenly Gate and descends to the Sun. Having assumed the appearance of the young Cherub, he finds out from the Ruler of the Sun, the Archangel Uriel, the location of the Man. Uriel points out to him one of the countless balls that move in their orbits, and Satan descends to Earth, to Mount Nyfat. Passing the paradise, Satan, in the guise of a sea crow, descends to the top of the Tree of Knowledge. He sees the first couple of people and reflects on how to destroy them. Overhearing the conversation between Adam and Eve, he learns that they are forbidden to eat from the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge under pain of death. Satan has a riddling plan: to kindle in people a thirst for knowledge that will force them to transgress the Creator’s prohibition.
Uriel, descending on the sunbeam to Gabriel guarding Paradise, warns him that at noon the evil Spirit from the Underworld was heading in the image of a good Angel to Paradise. Gabriel stands in the night watch around Paradise. In a booth, tired of the day’s work and the pure joys of sacred marriage love, Adam and Eve sleep. Angels Ituriel and Zephon, sent by Gabriel, reveal Satan, who, under the guise of a toad, hid over Eve’s ear in order to influence her imagination in a dream and to rancor her soul with unbridled passions, vague thoughts and pride. Angels lead Satan to Gabriel. The rebellious Spirit is ready to enter into battle with them, but the Lord shows Satan the heavenly sign, and he, seeing that his retreat is inevitable, leaves, but does not give up his intentions.
In the morning, Eve tells Adam his dream: someone like the celestials tempted her to taste the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and she ascended over the Earth and experienced incomparable bliss.
God sends to Adam the Archangel Raphael, so that he tells him about the free will of man, as well as the proximity of the evil Enemy and his insidious designs. Raphael tells Adam of the First Mutiny in Heaven: Satan, enraged for the fact that God the Father magnified the Son and called Him the anointed Messiah and King, carried the legions of Angels to the North and persuaded them to rebel against the Almighty. Only Seraphim Abdiel left the camp of the rebels.
Raphael continues his story.
God sent the Archangels Michael and Gabriel to speak out against Satan. Satan convened the Council and, together with his accomplices, devised devilish machines, by which he pushed aside the army of Angels devoted to God. Then the Almighty sent his Son, the Messiah, to the battlefield. The son drove the Enemy back to the fence of Heaven, and when their Crystal Wall opened, the rebels fell into the abyss prepared for them.
Adam asks Raphael to tell him about the creation of this world. The archangel tells Adam that God wanted to create a new world and beings for his settling after He cast Satan and his minions into Hell. The Almighty sent his Son, the All-Willing Word, accompanied by the Angels to complete the work of creation.
Answering Adam’s question about the motion of celestial bodies, Raphael cautiously advises him to deal only with such things as are available to human understanding. Adam tells Raphael about everything that he remembers from the moment of his creation. He confesses to the Archangel that Eve has an inexplicable power over him. Adam understands that, surpassing his external beauty, she is inferior to him in spiritual perfection, however, despite this, all of her words and deeds seem to him beautiful and the voice of reason is silent before her feminine charm. Archangel, without condemning the loving pleasures of the marriage couple, still warns Adam of blind passion and promises him the raptures of heavenly love, which is immeasurably higher than the earthly. But on the direct question of Adam – in what love is expressed by the heavenly Spirits, Raphael responds vaguely and again warns him against thinking about what “
Satan under the guise of fog again penetrates into Heaven and settles into the sleeping Serpent, the most cunning of all creatures. In the morning, the Serpent finds Eve and flatteringly inclines her to taste the fruits from the Tree of Knowledge. He convinces her that she will not die, and tells how, thanks to these fruits, he himself has found speech and understanding.
Eve gives in to the persuasion of the Enemy, partakes of the forbidden fruit and comes to Adam. The shocked spouse, out of love for Eve, decides to perish with her and also transgresses the prohibition of the Creator. Having tasted the fruits, the Ancestors feel intoxicated: the consciousness loses clarity, and in the soul an unrestrained voluptuousness, alien to nature, is replaced by disappointment and shame. Adam and Eve understand that the Serpent, who promised them an inescapable ecstasy and unearthly bliss, deceived them, and reproached each other.
God sends his Son to the earth to judge the disobedient. Sin and Death, formerly sitting at the Gate of Hell, abandon their refuge, seeking to penetrate the Earth. Walking in the footsteps of Satan, Sin and Death erect a bridge across Chaos between Hell and the newly created world.
Meanwhile, Satan in Pandemonium declares his victory over man. However, God the Father foretells that the Son will overcome Sin and Death and will revive His creation.
Eve, in desperation from the fact that the curse must fall on their offspring, invites Adam to immediately find Death and become its first and last victims. But Adam reminds his wife about the promise, according to which the Seed of Wife will erase the head of the Serpent. Adam hopes to propitiate God with prayers and repentance.
The Son of God, seeing the sincere repentance of the Ancestors, intercedes for them before the Father, hoping that the Almighty will soften his severe sentence. The Lord Almighty sends the Cherubim, led by the Archangel Michael, to drive Adam and Eve from Paradise. Before fulfilling the command of God the Father, the Archangel elevates Adam to a high mountain and shows him in a vision all that will happen on Earth before the flood.
Archangel Michael tells Adam about the future destinies of the human race and explains to the Ancestors the promise of the Seed of the Wife. He speaks of the incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of God and how the Church will live and fight until His Second Coming. Comforting Adam wakes Eve sleeping, and Archangel Michael deduces a couple from Paradise. From now on, the entrance to it will be guarded by the blazing and incessantly turning sword of the Lord. Led by the craft of the Creator, cherishing in the heart the hope of the coming deliverance of the human race, Adam and Eve leave Paradise.
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