Skip to main content

star wars - Does the concept of the Abrahamic god exist in the galaxy far, far away?


As noted in this question, the concepts of heaven and hell appear to exist in the galaxy far, far away; Han even mentions the latter in The Empire Strikes Back:



RANDOM JERK REBEL GUY: Your Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker!


HAN SOLO: Then I'll see you in HELL!




The modern concepts of heaven and hell have their origins in the so-called Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.


Therefore, since the galaxy far, far away has heaven and hell, it is logical to ask if the galaxy far, far away has some concept of the Abrahamic god.


Adding fuel to the fire, DVK's answer here notes that Han's freighter contains a compartment he hasn't been able to open. The ID number on the compartment is identical to the ID number on the crate in which the Ark of the Covenant is stored in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Surely, if a holy relic associated with the Abrahamic god of Judaism is referenced (and perhaps located) in the galaxy far, far away, it is sensible to ask if that same god is known to some of the galaxy's inhabitants in some form or another.


enter image description here enter image description here


Does the concept of the Abrahamic god of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam exist (in any form, or to any degree) in the galaxy far, far away?


Note 1: I don't think this is addressed in the movies, and although I would prefer a canonical answer, Legends will do, if nothing else is available. However, the Star Wars Holiday Special is not an acceptable source.


Note 2: The substance of this question is fundamentally different from "Do Heaven and Hell exist in Star Wars", because that question and its answers don't address the Abrammic god in any way.



Answer






  • First, let's address the evidence presented in the form of Han using the word "HELL":




    1. First of all, Star Wars using a specific Earth word is not an indication that the thing it refers to has Earth origin. E.g. see "ducks".




    2. OP's out of universe statement that "HELL" is a "Abrahamic" thing is wrong on two levels. You managed to commit BOTH a Type 1 and Type 2 error.





      • Judaism, at least in its early form, had NO concept of Hell, at least in the form even remotely close to a Christian concept. This issue doesn't majorly impact the conclusion of the answer, but I feel is important to note as background.




      • Secondly, (and more important) Hell as a concept is in no way unique to Abrahamic religions - see Ancient Greek Tartarus (NOT Hades, but even Hades had special regions for punishment of the souls of deservingly bad people. For an uber-random example, recall Sisyphus and Tantalus).






    3. Moreover, we have "Seven Corellian Hells" mentioned in canon, which means Han was FAR more likely to refer to that than to a Christian "Hell". Occam's Razor demands it.







  • Canon analysis


    Outside of OP-excluded Christmas Special which had no "Christmas", or decidedly non-canon "Christmas in the Stars" :), I have never seen any canon (down to C-canon) mention of Earth Abrahamic faiths in TGFFA.


    This is confirmed by searching Wookiepedia for basic religious terms and finding nothing in-universe: Moses, Commandments, Torah, Judaism for Judaism. The closest you get is Aing-Tii monks' ship named "Sanhedrim", and they most assuredly were not theologically OR biologically Jewish.


    Similarly, Wookiepedia has no mention of "Jesus" or "Christian" or "Trinity" or "baptism" that's in-universe. Admittedly, I didn't check Islam, for lack of knowing which core terms to search for outside "Mohammed".




  • UPDATE: As per an Easter Egg, while Abrahamic faiths may not exist, their artifacts apparently might: Han Solo's freighter, Eravana, is strongly implied to carry The Ark of the Covenant that Indiana Jones was last seen storing in US Government warehouse.





    • While it's fair to ask if that implies that the belief in the contents of that religion also exists, the answer is "absolutely doesn't necessarily imply". If you recall Indiana Jones, the OTHER person who was interested in the Ark of the Covenant was none other than der Führer. Who most certainly can be assumed NOT to believe in the contents of Judaism - the religion which centers around the Covenant.




    • However, it does mean that possibly, some collector wanted the Ark as a powerful, or simply rare, artifact - which Han's freighter is choke full of, as per Visual Dictionary - which in turn means they MAY be familiar with the tenets of the religion involved, as that religion holds the explanation for why the artefact matters and has power. However, that isn't proven conclusively and remains a firm "maybe".







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more