Virgil and Dante are in the eighth circle of Hell called Malebolges (evil ditches) in which Fraud is punished. There are ten bolgias (pouches, ditches, ravines, moats) within this circle to punish different types of Fraud. They are at the 10 bolgia where Falsifiers are punished. There are four types of falsification: alchemy (forgers of things), impersonators (forgers of persons), counterfeiters (forgers of coins) and liars (forgers of words). Dante and Virgil talked to two shades who had been alchemists and now they are going to meet impersonators.
Once, in the time when Juno was furious
With the Theban blood because of Semele –
As more than once she showed them – Athamas
Grew so insane that, seeing his wife walk by
Carrying their children one on either hand,
He cried: “Come, let us spread the nets and try
To take the lioness and her cubs she spawned,
As they pass by!” And reaching out to strike
With pitiless claws, he took the one they named
Learchus, and whirled him, and dashed him on a rock;
She drowned herself and the other child she held.
And when Fortune brought down the Trojans, who took
Risks proudly once, all-daring – their kingdom quelled
And blotted out entirely with their king –
Hecuba, wretched, a captive, after they killed
Polyxena with her there witnessing,
Saw her Polydorus washed ashore: the weight
Of sorrow drove her mad, her soul so wrung
She began barking like a dog. And yet,
No fury of Thebes or Troy was ever seen
So cruel – not any rending of beasts, and not
Tearing of human limbs – as I saw shown
By two pale, naked shades who now ran up
Biting, the way a pig does loosed from the pen.
One charged Capocchio and bit his nape,
And sank his tuskes in deep, and dragged him along
On the hard bottom, letting his belly scrape.
The spirit from Arezzo, shivering
Where he was left, told me, “That monstrousness
Is Gianni Schicchi, he runs rabid
The others here, and graces them like this.”
“Oh,” I responded, “so may that other one
Not fix its teeth on you, disclose to us
What shade it is – before it bolts again.”
He answered, “That one is the ancient soul
Of Myrrha the infamous, whose love was drawn
Toward her father beyond what’s honorable.
She engaged in sin with him by falsifying
Herself as someone else; and Schicchi as well,
Who runs off yonder, counterfeited; when trying
To acquire the finest lady of the herd.
He pretended he was Buoso Donati dying
And willed himself a legacy, each word
In proper form.”
“The finest lady of the herd” was Buoso Donati’s prize mare.
Falsifiers include impersonators, counterfeiters, false witnesses. They commit fraud knowingly and with evil intent. Impersonation is a performance art and a form of identity theft. They become someone else in order to trick and defraud others. We have Myrrha who tricked her father by pretending to be someone else in order to sleep with him in incest. She was motivated by unnatural lust. Schicchi’s acting skills are motivated by greed rather than by lust. Simone Donati collaborated with Schicchi who disguised himself as Donati’s dying (and wealthy) uncle in order to make out a fake will in Donati’s favor with a cut going to Schicchi. He deceived the notary and witnesses necessary to legalize a new will.
Insanity – the mind anchors our identity despite our changing bodies or outward appearance. Insanity was the loss of identity. Let me give an example. Let’s say that you are John Doe but you impersonate and present yourself as John Smith. You may disguise yourself, change your speech, use a limp, etc. But inside, you know you are still John Doe. You still have your identity. But insanity here is the loss of identity. You no longer identify with yourself.
Dante gives two classical examples of insanity using a more high style but degenerates the style for contemporary examples. He often pairs classical examples with contemporary in his Comedie.
Juno, Roman goddess, was later identified with the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus in Greek mythology. With Jupiter and Minerva, she was part of the Capitoline triad of gods. She was called Juno Regina (“Queen”). She was the patron goddess of Rome and a protector of the state. Juno, in Roman mythology, is the wife of Jupiter and the queen of the gods. They had several children together, including Mars, god of war and patron of Roman arms and armies, Bellona, a goddess of war, and Vulcan, god of fire, metalworking, and the forge. Another of their children was Juventus, a goddess who shared Juno’s association with youth and rejuvenation and oversaw the transition from childhood to adulthood. Jupiter had many affairs. A jealous goddess, Juno was constantly trying to find and punish those with whom her husband had cheated.
Semele in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of the Phoenician hero Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter. Semele was a priestess of Zeus, and on one occasion was observed by Zeus as she slaughtered a bull at his altar and afterwards swam in the river Asopus to cleanse herself of the blood. Flying over the scene in the guise of an eagle, Zeus fell in love with Semele and repeatedly visited her secretly. Zeus’ wife, Hera (Greek, Juno Roman), a goddess jealous of usurpers, discovered his affair with Semele when she later became pregnant. Appearing as an old crone, Hera/Juno befriended Semele, who confided in her that her lover was actually Zeus/Jupiter. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele’s mind. Curious, Semele asked Zeus to grant her wish. Zeus, promised on the River Styx to grant her anything she wanted. She demanded that Zeus reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his divinity. He was forced by his oath to comply. Mortals cannot look upon the gods without incinerating, and she perished, consumed in lightning-ignited flame.
The Aeneid focused on the trials of Aeneas, a hero who fought on the losing side during the Trojan War. As the city was being sacked by the Achaeans, Aeneas and his father escaped the city and set out on a journey that would take them across the Mediterranean and back again. According to the Roman poet Virgil, the author of The Aeneid, Juno played a role in the founding of Rome, or trying to keep it from being founded. Juno loved the city of Carthage. There was a prophecy that her beloved city would one day be destroyed by Rome, founded by Aeneas. Juno therefore wants to stop Aeneas and therefore stop the founding of Rome. By Juno’s design, Aeneas and his men landed at Carthage where the Queen Dido fell in love with Aeneas and begged him to remain. Aeneas was reminded of his destiny by the god Mercury. He left Carthage and sailed to the island of Sicily, leaving poor Dido in grief and eventually to commit suicide.
Ino was the sister of Semele. She raised her nephew, Dionysius. Athamas was a son of Aeolus and Enarete, and sired several children by his first wife, the goddess Nephele, and his other wives Ino and Themisto. Nephele first bore to him twins, a son Phrixus and a daughter Helle; and also a second son, Makistos. He subsequently married Ino, daughter of Cadmus, with whom he had two children: Learches and Melicertes. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of Phrixus and Helle, her stepchildren. Helle died but Phrixus survived. In vengeance due to Dionysius, Hera/Juno struck Athamas with insanity. Athamas went mad and slew one of his sons, Learchus; Ino, to escape the pursuit of her frenzied husband, threw herself into the sea with her son Melicertes. Athamas, with the guilt of his son’s murder upon him, was obliged to flee from Boeotia. He was ordered by the oracle to settle in a place where he should receive hospitality from wild beasts. This he found at Phthiotis in Thessaly, where he surprised some wolves eating sheep; on his approach they fled, leaving him the bones. Athamas, regarding this as the fulfilment of the oracle, settled there and married a third wife, Themisto (sons: Schoeneus, Leucon, Ptous and/or others). Athamas married Themisto as he believed his second wife, Ino, was dead, but Ino turned out to be alive and to have been on Mount Parnassus with the Maenads. The spot was afterwards called the Athamanian plain. Athamas had Ino brought home but kept her return a secret; Themisto did find out she was back, and resolved to kill Ino’s children as an act of revenge. However, she had never seen Ino in person and took her for a servant as they met, and ordered the “servant” to dress all her own children in white clothing, and Ino’s in black. Themisto then proceeded to kill all the black-clothed children. Themisto killed her own children by mistake. Upon discovering that, she killed herself. – Wikipedia
Hecuba is a tragedy by Euripides written c. 424 BC. It takes place after the Trojan War, but before the Greeks have departed Troy. Hecuba was wife of King Priam, formerly Queen of the now-fallen city. She had 19 children, who included major characters of Homer’s Iliad such as the warriors Hector and Paris and the prophetess Cassandra, Polyxena, Troilus and Polydorus. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated if Polyxena’s brother, Prince Troilus, reached the age of twenty. During the Trojan War, Polyxena and Troilus were ambushed when they were attempting to fetch water from a fountain, and Troilus was killed by the Greek warrior Achilles, who soon became interested in the quiet Polyxena. Achilles seemed to trust Polyxena—he told her of his only vulnerability: his vulnerable heel. It was later in the temple of Apollo that Polyxena’s brothers, Paris and Deiphobus, ambushed Achilles and shot him in the heel with an arrow, supposedly guided by the hand of Apollo himself, steeped in poison. Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba, is sent to King Polymestor for safekeeping, but when Troy falls, Polymestor murders Polydorus. Hecuba learns of this, and when Polymestor comes to the fallen city, Hecuba, by trickery, tears his eyes out and kills his two sons. Polyxena committed suicide or was killed by Achilles’ ghost who demanded the human sacrifice of Polyxena so as to appease the wind needed to set sail back to Hellas. She was to be killed at the foot of Achilles’ grave. Hecuba went mad upon seeing the corpses of her children Polydorus and Polyxena, barking like a dog. – Wikipedia
Myrrha (aka Smyrna) Aphrodite cursed Myrrha to lust after her own father. The most familiar form of the myth was recounted in the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Myrrha was the daughter of King Cinyras and Queen Cenchreis of Cyprus. Ovid depicts the psychic struggle Myrrha faces between her sexual desire for her father and the social shame she would face for acting thereon. Sleepless, and losing all hope, she attempted suicide; but was discovered by her nurse, in whom she confided. The nurse tried to make Myrrha suppress the infatuation, but later agreed to help Myrrha into her father’s bed if she promised that she would not again try to kill herself. During the Ceres’ festival, the worshiping women (including Cenchreis, Myrrha’s mother) were not to be touched by men for nine nights; wherefore the nurse told Cinyras of a girl deeply in love with him, giving a false name. The affair lasted several nights in complete darkness to conceal Myrrha’s identity, until Cinyras wanted to know the identity of his paramour. Upon bringing in a lamp, and seeing his daughter, the king attempted to kill her on the spot, but Myrrha escaped. Thereafter Myrrha walked in exile for nine months, past the palms of Arabia and the fields of Panchaea, until she reached Sabaea. Afraid of death and tired of life, and pregnant as well, she begged the gods for a solution, and was transformed into the myrrh tree, with the sap thereof representing her tears. She gave birth to Adonis in tree form. Lucina freed the newborn Adonis from the tree. Lucina was a title or epithet given to the goddess Juno, and sometimes to Diana, in their roles as goddesses of childbirth who safeguarded the lives of women in labor. Aphrodite found the infant and gave him to be raised by Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. Adonis grew into an astonishingly handsome young man, causing Aphrodite and Persephone to feud over him, with Zeus eventually decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year in the Underworld with Persephone, one third of the year with Aphrodite, and the final third of the year with whomever he chose. Adonis chose to spend his final third of the year with Aphrodite. – Wikipedia
All this and, yet, they are less savage than the two insane shades who come bolting up to Capocchio!
“The final chasm of Circle VIII contains the Falsifiers, who are, as are the other sinners in other circles, suffering the pain of retribution. These sinners affected the senses of others, showing themselves or substances to be what they are not, thus they spend eternity in a corruption of the senses — filth, thirst, disease, stench, darkness, horrible shrieking, physical pain — these sinners are damned to an eternity of what they put others through in life… They are punished by the corrupt state of their minds and bodies. Their corrupt sense of values is symbolized by the corrupt state of their minds and bodies.” – CliffsNotes.com
“The tenth bolgia, devoted to four different types of falsifiers, continues. Inferno 30 begins with elaborate classically inspired similes that led the great philologist Gianfranco Contini to speculate that Dante wrote this passage with Ovid open on the desk in front of him. In Dante’s Poets I describe in detail the cascading effect of the first 27 verses of Inferno 30, which opens with a great mythological panorama. Here Dante moves from the ‘high’ Ovidian sonority of the tragic madness of Athamas and Hecuba to the ‘low’ simile that describes two souls running through Hell like pigs freed from a pigsty.
“As discussed in Dante’s Poets, the effect of the opening 27-verse cascade of Inferno 30 is to persuade the reader that, when we reach the description of the first two sinners of this canto – when we reach the pigs freed from the pigsty, when we reach Dante’s Hell – we have in effect reached ‘reality’:
“Dante devotes the first twenty-one lines of Canto XXX to two classical examples of madness, one Theban and the other Trojan. The first is Athamas who, driven insane by Juno as part of her revenge on Semele, is responsible for the deaths of his wife Ino, Semele’s sister, and their two sons (1-12); the second is Hecuba, reduced to barking like a dog by the loss of her home, husband, and children (13-21). These exempla are executed in a deliberately high style: in each case the protagonist, Athamas or Hecuba, is presented only in the fourth line of the exemplum, after an initial terzina of background material. Thus, the canto opens with a great mythological panorama, which sets the madness of Athamas within the ongoing narrative of Jove’s amours and Juno’s anger: ‘Nel tempo che Iunone era crucciata / per Semelè contra ‘langue Theebano‘ (In the time when Juno was irate because of Semele against the Theban blood [1-2]); and Hecuba is preceded by a sweeping evocation of the fall of Troy: ‘And when fortune turned low / the height of the Troian that dared all’ (And when Fortune brought low the pride of the Trojans that dared all [13- 14]).
“The canto thus moves progressively forward in time: from remote Thebes, to less distant Troy, and finally to the present, in which the pilgrim sees two ‘dull and naked shadows, / that biting they ran of that way / that the pig when of porcil si schiude‘ (two pale and naked shades, who were running and biting like the pig when it is let out of the pigsty [25-27]). Here Dante presents the bolgia’s first sinners in a terzina whose style is in intentional opposition to the canto’s extraordinarily literary exordium; the unmediated realism of the brief simile of the pig loosened from the pigsty contrasts sharply with the elaborate Ovidian exempla. We note, moreover, that the introduction of low language, such as porco and porcil, corresponds to the moment in which the canto reaches ‘reality’: ie the sinners, the events of this bolgia. (Dante’s Poets pp. 235-236) – DigitalDante.columbia.edu
Defrauding someone by impersonation and identity theft is NOT new. Satan disguised himself as a serpent in the Garden of Eden to defraud Adam and Eve of their identity in God. They sinned because he deceived them and brought doubts in their minds as to the goodness of God. Satan also attempted to deceive, tempt and defraud the Son of God, Jesus Christ, when Jesus was in the wilderness (Matthew 3). Jesus knew the truth and didn’t cave.
John 10:10 (Jesus speaking) “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).”
Exodus 20:15-16 (Ten Commandments) 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear FALSE witness against your neighbor.
Exodus 23:1, “You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness… You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.”
Leviticus 19:11-13;35-36 11 You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another.
12 You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
13 You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him…
35 You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume. 36 You shall maintain honest scales and weights
Luke 3:2-3;7-10;14 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins… 7 Then John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” 10 The crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”… 14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”
1 Thessalonians 4:6-7 6 and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
A case of identity theft by impersonation and fraud is the story of Jacob and Esau who were twins. Their mother favored Jacob and their father, Isaac, loved Esau more. Esau was born just minutes before Jacob and therefore was the firstborn and would receive the paternal blessings and inheritance. Esau was hairy and loved to hunt. One day he went hunting and their mother told Jacob to put on a goat’s skin (for the hairiness) and some of Esau’s clothes (for the smell) and go in and take food to his father.
Genesis Chapter 27:18-27 18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.
24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”
25 Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.”
27 So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him….
By the way, God took care of Jacob and Esau. If you read to the end of the story, you will see some changed men. But, at this point of their story, Jacob was a deceiver, an impersonator, and a fraudster. He defrauded his own family, deceiving his father and his brother with the help of his mother!
When both the raging pair
On whom I kept my eyes had disappeared,
I turned to see the ill-born others there:
One would be shaped exactly like a lute
Had he been cut off at the groin, from where
A man is forked. The heavy dropsical state,
Which makes the body’s members so ill sorted
With undigested humors the face seems not
To answer to the swollen belly, had parted
His lips – the way the hectic being spurred
By thirst curls one lip up, the other distorted
Toward the chin. He said, “You who have fared
To this unhappy world, and yet arrive
Unpunished – I know not why – think, and regard
The misery of Master Adam. Alive,
I had in abundance all I wanted; now,
Alas! one drop of water is what I crave
The rivulets that down to the Arno flow
From the green hills of Casentino, and make
their channels cool and spongy as they go,
Are constantly before me – nor do they lack
Effect: their image parches me far worse
Than the face-wasting blight with which I’m sick.
The unbending Justice that wracks me thus makes use,
Fittingly, of the same place where I sinned,
To speed my sighs the quicker on their course:
There is Romena, where I falsely coined
The currency that bears the Baptist’s face,
For which, on earth, I left my body burned –
But if I could behold, here in this place,
The miserable soul of Guido, or that
Of Alessandro, or set my eyes on his
Who is their brother, I would not trade the sight
For Fonte Branda! One is already inside –
If the raging shades who course the circle about
Have spoken truly. But since my limbs are tied,
What use is that to me? Were I still light
Enough to move even one inch ahead
Every hundred years, I would have set out
Upon the road already, trying to find
Him in this mutilated people – despite
The circuit being eleven miles around
And at least half a mile across its track.
It’s because of them that I am in this kind
Of family; they persuaded me to make
Those florins that contained three carats of dross.”
Dropsy: An old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water. The person might have edema due to congestive heart failure and/or COPD. The counterfeiters make themselves look like they have more money than in reality. Master Adam would add a little worthless metal to the gold when he made gold Florin coins thus making the Italian gold Florin coin worth less than it looked like. Master Adamo did not use 24-carat gold in his coins; his coins had 21 carats. By counterfeiting coins on a large scale, he created a currency crisis in Northern Italy (John Ciardi, Divine Comedy, 238).
The Four Humours: A traditional theory of physiology in which the state of health–and by extension the state of mind, or character–depended upon a balance among the four elemental fluids: blood (air), yellow bile (fire), phlegm (water), and black bile (earth). The “humours” gave off vapors which ascended to the brain; an individual’s personal characteristics (physical, mental, moral) were explained by his or her “temperament,” or the state of the person’s “humours.” The perfect temperament resulted when no one of these humours dominated. The Hippocratic theory that the health of the human body revolved around the balance of the four humors is seen in this canto where Dante says, “The heavy dropsical state, which makes the body’s members so ill sorted with undigested humors the face seems not to answer to the swollen belly”. They thought an excess of black bile outpoured from the spleen would lead to melancholia or depression.
Master Adam was possibly an Englishman, who came to Bologna by way of Brescia. He was employed by the Guidi family, counts of Romena, to counterfeit the Florentine Florin. Instigated by Count Guido II of Romena, and his brothers Alessandro and Aginolfo, to counterfeit 24 kt gold Florin coins stamped with the image of John the Baptist. His coins contained only 21 kts which caused a coin crisis in northern Italy for which crime he was burned at the stake in 1281.
Master Adam sees in his mind a creek that he is unable to drink from. He twists and purses his lips as though a glass of that water is just in front of his eyes. The spring is in the mountainous Casentino district where tributaries come together to form the Arno River in the Casentino Valley. The Fonte Branda is a spring near the Castle Romena of a fountain of that name in Siena.
Stretching between Florence and Arezzo, this beautifully secluded, wide, oval-shaped valley is surrounded by gentle hills which gradually ascend to mountains, on one side climbing to reach the impressive Apennines and on the opposite side to the Pratomagno, whose ridge separates Casentino from the Chianti region on the other side.
Master Adam’s one desire is to find those three that made him counterfeit. He says he has heard at least one of them is in this bolgia and if he could move even an inch in 100 years, he would try to reach him. He doesn’t say what he’d do to him but his hatred is obvious. Notice, once again, there is no repentance or remorse. He’s sorry he got caught and suffers the eternal punishment he endures but his hatred is still outward, blaming others. He can name his sin but that’s not the same as repentance.
Counterfeiting is something fabricated in imitation of something else, with a view to defraud by passing the false copy for genuine or original; as, counterfeit coin. “Counterfeit” occurs in the Bible as the translation of kibdelos, “mixed with dross,” “not genuine”, “spurious things”, “base metal”. Why is it wrong? Because it’s deceptive. Someone thinks someone, or something, is one thing when it’s not. It’s not genuine, authentic, approved.
Let’s look at a counterfeiter par excellence.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (NLT) 1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. 2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. 4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. 5 Don’t you remember that I told you about all this when I was with you? 6 And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. 7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. 8 Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming.
9 This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. 10 He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. 11 So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. 12 Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth.
Satan will attempt to deceive by sending the anti-Christ. He will claim to be the Savior of the world and people will believe him because of his counterfeit miracles and his persuasive and charismatic speeches. Citizens of the world will be rocked by end time “birth pangs” such as natural disasters, wars, etc. They will be desperate for someone to take over and bring security and prosperity once again. The year 2020 has been a disaster filled year with a pandemic, natural disasters, out of control fires, violence in the streets, etc. We laugh about it being so bad and we are ready for someone to take control and bring order, normalcy, routine, security and prosperity back. But we can’t imagine how bad it will be and how desperate people will be for a world leader in those times. And satan will take advantage of that and bring the anti-Christ onstage. People will believe in him. Everyone who is quizzical or questioning of his leadership will be considered obstructionists and it will come to the time when they will be put to death because they aren’t following the propaganda line. Then he will even sit on a throne in the new Temple in Jerusalem and claim to be God and demand worship. It will slowly dawn on the duped that they’ve been… well, duped! The anti-Christ is a counterfeit Savior. Who is He that is holding satan back right now? The Holy Spirit. Jesus ascended to the right hand of God and sent the Holy Spirit down to work. To the lost, He is ever trying to reach them with the gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ. To the saved, he indwells within them to help their new born again spirits to develop and mature. But there will come a time when Jesus will come back, without touching the earth, and He will call all those saved, the dead first and then those who are alive, to Him and we will withdraw with Him and the Holy Spirit to a place of safety while the Great Tribulation begins and is worked out. This is called the Rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 5:1-11 (NLT) 13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
5:1 Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you. 2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. 3 When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.
4 But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. 5 For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. 6 So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. 7 Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. 8 But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
9 For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. 10 Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. 11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.
I asked him, “Who are that pair of wretches who smoke
As wet hands do in winter, lying close
Next to your body on the right-hand side?”
“I found them here – they have not changed their place –
When I first fell like rain to this steep grade,
And I believe that neither will turn over
For all eternity. This false one made
Her accusation defaming Joseph; the other
Is the false Sinon, Trojan Greek,” he responded,
“They reek so badly because of raging fever.”
One of the pair – perhaps because offended
By such dark naming – made a fist and struck
Him on his rigid belly, which resounded
Just like a drum. And Master Adam paid back
That blow by striking his neighbor in the face
With an arm that was just as hard, and spoke:
“Though I am kept from moving by the mass
Of my too-heavy limbs, you can be sure
I have an arm kept free for such a case.”
The other answered, “When you went to the fire
Your arm was not so ready – though indeed
For counterfeiting, it was ready, and more.”
“Here you speak truth,” the dropsied one replied.
“However, at Troy, when truth was their demand,
Your witness was not so true.” “I falsified
In speech: you made the false coinage,” Sinon returned
“And I am in this place for a single sin –
And you, for more than any other fiend.”
“You perjurer, remember the horse again,”
The one who had the swollen paunch came back,
“And may the fact torment you: your role is known
By the whole world.” “And torment,” answered the Greek,
“To you – from thirst’s tongue-cracking agonies,
And the foul waters that swell your belly to make
It rise up like a hedgerow blocking your eyes.”
And then the counterfeiter answered, “Thus
Disease, as usual, spreads your gaping jaws;
For if I suffer thirst or feel distress
Engorged with humors, you burn, your head aches hard –
And you would lick Narcissus’s looking glass
Without delaying for too many a word
Of invitation, if you only could.”
Sinon was a Greek who tricked the Trojans into welcoming the Trojan horse into their city telling them it was meant to protect the city, in lieu of the statue of Pallas, stolen by Diomed and Ulysses. He betrayed Troy because the Trojan horse was full of warriors waiting until it had been brought into the city and for night to fall. Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of trying to rape her. These are liars, false witnesses, perjurers. Their punishment is a burning fever. They steam with foul smelling smoke.
Genesis 39 (NLT) 1 When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
2 The LORD was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. 3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the LORD was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. 4 This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. 5 From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the LORD began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. 6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat!
Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, 7 and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded.
8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”
10 She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. 11 One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. 12 She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house.
13 When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, 14 she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.”
16 She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. 17 Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. 18 “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!”
19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the LORD made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. 22 Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. 23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The LORD was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.
Potiphar’s wife was the original desperate housewife. She was married to the chief of Pharaoh’s bodyguard, Potiphar. So he was in a very good position in his career and they were probably pretty wealthy as he had numerous servants. He purchased Joseph as a slave and Joseph did so well, that Potiphar trusted him and promoted him over the entire household and all that he owned. The Bible says that God blessed Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. So this woman was well married and well provided for but it wasn’t enough for her. Spoiled, she whiled away her time lusting for Joseph. “She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible.” She thought, since she was the mistress, that this young slave should do whatever she said. She obsessed on him. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She meant to have him or ruin him. She was the one enslaved, enslaved to her own lusts and pride. Her selfishness and pride would not accept his “no”. She would make him pay for refusing her.
More than likely, Potiphar knew his wife and knew she was lying. With his own pride at stake, he had to follow through and put Joseph in jail. He couldn’t let a slave go with that kind of accusation from his own wife. Sad, but he was just as prideful as she was. But you can’t live with someone as spoiled, selfish, demanding, spiteful, malicious, prideful and lustful as she was and not know it. It’s very possible that he was also avoiding his wife out of disgust. Who knows? Maybe that’s one reason she was desperate. We don’t know what was going on in their marriage or why they were married. But, let it be a lesson to young people… don’t marry someone who shows those kind of traits. Proud, vain, godless, promiscuous, malicious, spiteful, selfish, spoiled, a liar.. these are all big red flags “WARNING! WARNING!” You don’t want to marry someone like that because they can turn it on you and yours. It’s also a warning to young people not to BE like that yourselves. If you want healthy, loving relationships in your future, don’t be like Potiphar’s wife. We don’t know what happened to her or to Potiphar after Joseph’s story. But I can imagine it wasn’t pleasant. If God blessed their household just because Joseph was working there, then I imagine all hell broke loose after she accused Joseph of rape and Potiphar had him put in jail. And even if they kept their prosperous life, I’m sure their marriage and relationship suffered. He either knew the truth or she kept up the lie and, either way, would be a strain and unhealthy in a marriage relationship. They would have been living a hell on earth.
Joseph acted magnificently. He kept to his code of honor. He knew what was right and what was wrong. It wasn’t just the “Bro Code” either. Although he respected Potiphar, it wasn’t just this respect that stopped him from indulging in sex with his wife. “It would be a great sin against God.” He knew it would be a great wickedness and grievous sin in God’s eyes.
She was diabolical and cunning. Joseph was innocent and naive. It cost him some time in jail under a false accusation. But, in the end, God blessed him more than he ever dreamed, making him the #2 man in all of Egypt. Joseph didn’t have to stoop to her level to get ahead. All those who think “sleeping their way to the top” is the way to get ahead are dead wrong. You may get to the top but it won’t be a pleasant experience and you will have a lot on your conscience and feelings of disgust with yourself. And your rising star will only fall quickly. But if you stick to God’s Code of Honor and show integrity, honesty, dependability, hard work, you can leave your career in God’s Hands and know He will make sure you are right where you need to be for His blessings.
People accuse me of being naive at times. But God has taken care of me even when I was stupidly in the middle of a viper pit. I was totally unaware of the danger but that’s OK. God is not unaware and He knows how to direct my path, how to protect me and lead me right where I need to be. I am His Child. Just like Joseph, my end will be blessed because I don’t know evil and am not acquainted with wickedness. (Not that I don’t sin. Forgive me Lord, for I am a sinner but saved through Jesus Christ.) I don’t ignore the facts, but I just don’t live in a bubble of cesspool evil. I don’t look for evil. Commonsense and godly wisdom are good, but beyond that, I trust God to take care of me. I have to. I mean, is there really any way to protect myself against all the evil in this world? I could try and make backup plans after backup plans, plans A, B, C, D, etc, but there is no way I can take all into consideration. I may think I have it all covered and then a meteorite streaks threw the sky and hits my house, BLAM! So, it’s best to be smart but trust in God like Joseph did.
Joseph suffered an unjust punishment but with a clear conscience and he knew it was better to be in jail with a clear conscience than sneaking around Potiphar’s house with his wife in degradation and sin. Because God was for him and not against him.
Lying – to utter falsehood with an intention to deceive; to cause an incorrect impression; to present a misleading appearance.
You can lie without uttering a word. Because, with your body language and image, you can give a false impression. You can cause someone to believe something that is not true. Many “witnesses” are schooled by attorneys in order to create a false impression without actual perjury. They put a suit and tie on a man who never wears a suit and tie. They cover up the tattoos. They tell them not to emotionally react to this or that. They actually go through each scenario and question that may come up and tell the witness how to respond physically and verbally in order to create that false impression without actually perjuring themselves. These games have destroyed our justice system. Attorneys and their false witnesses, along with judges who let this happen, are deliberately and intentionally manipulating the system by lies and deceit.
It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). But satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Revelation 21:8 says, “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”.
John 14:6 (Jesus speaking) “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father, but by me”
Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; but they that deal truly are His delight.
In this tenth bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell, we’ve seen an almost comic horror and freak show. At the end of this canto we have Master Adam and Sinon Greek lying in Hell arguing about who sinned the most! The absurdity of this argument in the depths of Hell is almost comical. Meanwhile they are surrounded by those who are so sick with fever they lie around and smoke. Others scratching their skin off while they boast of their sins. And the insane impersonators running rabid as they attack the sick and feverish liars and falsifiers. The screams and lamentations so loud that Dante had to cover his ears. It is a scene of utter bestiality. These shades, or sinners, are animalistic. Dante, the poet, uses comparisons to animals such as “barking like a dog”; “the way a pig does loosed from a pen”; “sank his tusks in deep, and dragged him along”. These sinners have lost their humanity and become like animals. They gave themselves over to the worst of humanity and lived like animals. Now, they are going to live like animals for eternity. They were a disease upon society and now live eternally diseased in body and mind. People can become brutes, living in their own self-made squalor. They not only bring themselves down into the mud of sin but they love to drag others down with them. As humans, we have the God-given ability to think, reason and make choices. We don’t have to live like animals.
At the end of this canto, Virgil fusses at Dante for paying too much attention to the ridiculous argument going on between Master Adam and Sinon the Greek. It is unseemly and low to be so fascinated by such scum.
“I turned to him with such a feeling of shame that is still circles through my memory… I, unable to speak, was yearning to say something to excuse myself”.
His blush of shame reveals that he does have shame which Virgil recognizes and commends. If Dante had not felt ashamed of his fascination with evil, then he was no better than those being punished. Virgil tells Dante, “wanting to hear them is a low desire.”
Excerpts from Dante’s Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
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