This one was fun...

1. At the outset of their quests, both Neo and Jesus are given a choice as to whether or not they will follow the true path, which will entail hardship. (Jesus chooses God's path over the Devil's promise of earthly kingdoms, which leads to His suffering/death which he later laments in the Garden of Gethsemene / Neo chooses the red pill over the bliss of ignorance, which leads him to the devastating/depressing truth of the nature of reality, even lamenting at one point that he didn't take the blue pill).

2. Both Neo and Jesus are identified as "the chosen one", the prophesied savior of the world, by the leader of a restoration group concerned mainly with the restoration of "Zion".

3. Both Neo and Jesus go through an initiation, and identify with that movement.

4. Both Neo and Jesus are born into a new mode/mission after this initiation in which they both come up out of water and have transformative/enlightening experiences.

5. The members of the restoration groups that Neo and Jesus are associated with, by virtue of Morpheus/John the Baptist, contain members that question Neo's/Jesus' status as the prophesied deliverer.

6. Both Neo and Jesus enact their means of restoration/reform, soon after baptism/rebirth, by battling/conquering oppressive evil powers that exist in a realm transcendent of every-day life - powers to which people are enslaved.

7. Both the Matrix and the world of the Gospels are worlds in which one's faith can actually affect objective reality in amazing/miraculous ways that seem to violate natural laws/regularities. And both Neo and Jesus perform miraculous/amazing/irregular feats in these worlds.

8. Morpheus/John the Baptist, leaders of the restoration groups in both stories, are captured by the corrupt rulers of the day who, at some point, attempt to take their lives.

9. Both Neo and Jesus are betrayed by friends within their inner circle.

10. Both Neo and Jesus die as a result of this betrayal.

11. Both Neo and Jesus are restored to life.

12. Both Neo and Jesus are then fully exalted/empowered/enthroned as savior of the world.

13. After their resurrections, both Neo and Jesus attain a new mode of existence and now possess super-transcendent powers not formerly realized - i.e. the ability to fly, enter into/dwell within others, etc.

14. The very last time the resurrected Neo and Jesus are seen in bodily form, they are both ascending into the sky.

15. Both Neo and Jesus are expected to return - Neo to the big screen in the sequel to Matrix and Jesus to Earth at the 2nd Coming.

Heeeeheeeeeeee!

SecWebLurker

[This message has been edited by SecWebLurker (edited June 08, 2001).]

Damn but you keep missing the big ones.....

Neo is mythical messiah type in the movies. Jesus was a mythical messiah type in the gospels.

Oh yeah, Keanu Reeves was the actual person under the movie myth. The actual person under the Jesus myth...hmm.

15. Both Neo and Jesus are expected to return - Neo to the big screen in the sequel to Matrix and Jesus to Earth at the 2nd Coming.

Most of the world's people do not expect Jesus to return.

Michael

madmax: Damn but you keep missing the big ones.....

Neo is mythical messiah type in the movies. Jesus was a mythical messiah type in the gospels.

Oh yeah, Keanu Reeves was the actual person under the movie myth. The actual person under the Jesus myth...hmm.

SWL: Hey max. How's it goin? I didn't include the unsubstantiated assertions of freethinkers in my list of parallels because I was mainly focusing on what the stories themselves say, not historical-critical or even faith-based views of them. But hey, you know that - and I understand that you need to use every opportunity you can get to say "Ah dunt beleeve in Jeezus!".

SecWebLurker

Michael wrote:

Most of the world's people do not expect Jesus to return.

SWL: Well, I didn't say most people expected Jesus to return, did I?

But to address your non-sequitur, I'm not sure that's the case either. I'd have to see stats on Muslims and Christians. Most Christians and most Muslims expect Jesus to return. Whether or not that makes for a majority of the world's population, I couldn't be certain.

SecWebLurker

You're right. I didn't know that Muslims expected Jesus to return. That would
comprise about half the people on earth.

Michael

What's sad is that I never saw the parrellels
until someone pointed it out to me. I just
kept saying "This is DesCartes-ism (sp?), cool sci fi!"

But - in the movie they say that there was
a prophet before who said he would return,
and Neo was supposed to be him. So I think
the parrellel is that Neo is the second
coming of Christ.

Amen brother

I hate to get technical here, but Morpheus didn't die. <sorry> Other than that it was really good!

damon ahey: I hate to get technical here, but Morpheus didn't die. <sorry> Other than that it was really good!

SWL: Darn! Are you sure? Its been a while since I've seen it...Its corrected...See above...

SecWebLurker