Game of Thrones and the Bible
I stopped watching Game of Thrones from the first season when I saw Tyrion with naked women. Now I am drawn to Game of Thrones because of the character Daenarys Targaryen with the incredibly long list of names that seem to add to her legendary status. Each name she is given adds to the rich history of her life and the seemingly acts of the Lord of Light to bring her ever closer to her destiny of the Iron Throne.
I am a bible fanatic, and just as much as some people live and breathe GOT, I live and breathe my bible. That is why it is not surprising that when I see some similarities in the Bible’s story and GOT, I am moved to write this in the hopes that you might understand the things written in the bible more deeply through the parable and symbol of Daenarys Stormborn of the House of Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons.
STORMBORN
When Daenarys was born, a great storm rocked the castle. Since they believed that the spirit was in the winds, being born with a notable storm was a portend that this child, and possibly Viserys was a dragon. In the GOT universe, it was believed that Targaryens were born with dragon eggs, and that they had the blood of dragons in them. That is why they inbred.
In the Bible, Genesis 6:1 “When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My spirit will not contend with man forever for he is mortal. His days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
From this you know, that there are “Sons of God” who were on the earth, and perhaps, some remnant trace of them are on the Earth yet, the spirit of God within them dies after a hundred and twenty years. In the Bible, a human will contain the spirit of God, and this will be the spirit of Wisdom, or what they call the Holy Spirit. She is called Zion. However in GOT, they use a dragon to represent this power and bloodline. This is false and antithetical because the house of the serpent is different from the origin of Gods. In fact, they are the notoriously evil part.
This is the next bible phrase, (Genesis 6:4) “The Nephelim were on the Earth in those days- and also afterward- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of reknown.” Notice the separation between the sons of God, and the Nephelim. The Bible did not say: “ the sons of God went into the daughters of men and these were the nephelim:” NO. They separated the Nephelim as a race that comes before the sons of God and after as well.
The word Nephelim in hebrew is spelled only with consonants. It literally means to fall or lie, ergo the term the “fallen ones”. Consequently, it might be related to the Norse mythology Nifelheim, which is the first world of mists/ice where the “Gods” of norse myth like Odin was fathered and created. It might have been possible that the Bible was speaking of the Nephelheim as a different breed of non-humans that walked the Earth at the same time as the sons of God: these were the Norse “gods”.
Even Norse mythology points to the sons of God, who are from heaven, who may be compared to what they call the Jotnar. The Jotnar are created by the melding of Muspelheim, land of fire and Nifelheim, land of Ice. You might wonder why the series is entitled “Song of Fire and Ice” because the melding of these two lands created the Norse “gods”, the first of which was Ymir, a Jotan (singular of Jotnar), who is the progenitor of Odin.
However, there is an animosity between the sons of God and the Fallen Ones just as there is between the Jotnar and the Aesyrs. To explain further: the people are divided into Innangard or those “within the enclosure” and Utangard or those “beyond the enclosure” . In the Bible, Elohim created the world to be a dome, and the Earth is this enclosure. In Norse myth, Asgard is the heavenly realm within the enclosure, and Midgard is the realm of the humans within the enclosure. The sons of God would be the Jotan which are the Gods of “Utangard” or “beyond the enclosure”, which is described as chaotic, but, you have to understand who is writing it- an Aesir. The “gods” within the enclosure are called Aesir, Assynjur for plural form. Their goal is to keep the Jotan out, but they are fated to fail during Ragnarok. This fact is why I believe God of the Hebrews is the Jotan, because he announces things before it happens and no one can push back or prevent what He wills.
Many translate Jotun as “giants” and maybe used interchangeably with the term Titans in greek and roman mythology. However, it is not an issue of size. Although in the bible, the Nephelim were the sons of Anak, a tribe of giants. (Numbers 13:33) The giant size is just one characteristic of the Jotun and have been used as a general statement to include perhaps both sons of God and Nephelim.
If you follow Thor and the Marvel Universe, Odin is the father of Thor and Loki. In truth, Loki has different parents: a Jotun father and an unknown mother. The mother may be monstrous because Loki’s wife was a Jotun, Angrboda, yet his eldest son, Fenrir, was a monstrous wolf. (Starks are Wargs, and in the books, they actually turn into their wolf counterparts), and the second was Jormundgand or Jormungandr, the greatest of serpents. A flying serpent that breathes fire could also be represented by a dragon, such as those dragons in China and South America.
More about the tribe of serpents and wolves and the houses of the GOT family: The families of the 12 Tribes of Israel represent the “houses” of God’s family, Israel. In Genesis 49, Jacob or Israel is the father to all of these. In other translations these houses are referred to as the Cherubim of Elohim or the representatives of the Gods. He speaks blessings but also says, “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in the end of days.” This was taken as an auger for the “Acharit Hayammim” when God returns to live with people. Just as in Ragnarok, the Jotun will return to claim Midgard. Let us focus however on GOT:
One of the houses is Benjamin, “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.” (Genesis 49:27) This would be the house of Stark. The House of Benjamin has a time to reign in the bible as in Psalm 68:27 “There is the little tribe of Benjamin leading them, there the great throng of Judah’s princes, and there the princes of Zebulun and Napthali.” (in this respect, the creators took out the houses of Judah, Zebulun and Napthali. You will see who the house of Judah is later.)
The snakes and dragons represent only one part of the origin of Gods. In fact in the Bible, it is Dan’s house: The serpent is the house of Dan, “Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a viper on the road, a horned snake in the path that bites the horse’s heels so its rider falls off backward.” (Genesis 49:16)
THE MOTHER OF DRAGONS
The Mother of Dragons however is where the Bible and the GOT series is not just from the house of Dan. Rather, the Dragon here symbolizes the entire Jotun, and the entire Elohim, because the arm of the Lord, who is Zion holds the spirit of Nefelheim. That is, the spirit of the Earth, the spirit of God, the spirit of Wisdom. That is why the storm came, to auger the great spirit that is to enter the GOT world: The Stormborn, Mother of Dragons.
The Nephelim clan are semi-spiritual beings that eat/devour spiritual energy. They came from the North, and they were a literally “Bloodthirsty” species. They enjoyed it when men killed each other, cut off others’ genitals, raped, pillaged, and made others suffer. Evil after all is the disregard for the goodness and sanctity of the Holy Spirit in another and it was this sort of barbaric evil that they wanted.
Just as the righteous Thor eventually fights the serpent, God will inevitably defeat evil. Many verses in the bible say that God hated the destruction and violence happening in the world. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I created from the face of the Earth.” (Genesis6:5)
In Isaiah, God’s chosen is the arm of the Lord, (Isaiah 51)”My arm will bring justice to the nations…Awake, Clothe yourself with strength, arm of the Lord, awake as in days gone by as in generations of old, was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces?” This is very telling. Rahab is a giant sea serpent.
Many of the lines for Israel pertains to Dany in the book of Isaiah, a prophet whose name means “God saves”. (Isaiah 49:1 onward) “Listen to me you islands, hear this, you distant nations. Before I was born the Lord called me. From my birth he has made mention of my name, He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me” You are my servant, Israel in whom I will display my splendor.”
Israel’s birth is premeditated by the Lord, and spoken about from before he/she came. There are no he/she in ancient Hebrew so the gender is undefined unless it is specific like “daughter” or “king”. Like GOT’s prophecy of “A ruler”, in Hebrew, a “prince” could be a “shield” and is gender neutral possibly referring to a male or a female. As a guide, you will notice Isaiah treats Jacob and Israel almost as two separate entities.
Isaiah shrouds in mystery his meaning by using names that depict meaning. Later, you will see how Babylon represents both a frame of mind that is described and not just a person. For now, we focus on Israel and how she is like Dany.
Israel says, “He who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel (the people) to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. He says, It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept, I will also make you a light for the gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the Earth.” The Gentiles here are the people seemingly rejected by God because they are not the chosen people, just as Dany is a light to the peoples in foreign lands.
The First Men would be the first people of God, Israel. Their queen was Daenarys. As she grows in power, people are drawn to her and she guides them. Isaiah continues, “Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy one of Israel, who has chosen you.” There are many scenes were people bend the knee to Dany.
God says to Israel, “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances. To say to the captives, “Come out!”, and to those in darkness, “Be free!”. This too is what Daenarys does as breaker of chains, she breaks the binds that have stifled the people for generations.
“I will turn my mountains into roads and my highways will be raised up, see they come from afar- from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Sinim” Just as Daenarys gathered her people all over the land, so does Israel.
Isaiah writes continuously in the voice of God speaking to his chosen. God also describes the hardships of Zion, which is also similar to the experiences of Daenarys Targaryen, (Isaiah 52.1) “O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor. O Jerusalem (Now Isaiah establishes that Jerusalem is the same as Zion), the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains of your neck, O captive Daughter Zion!” The writer interchanges the names but you can tell from the phrases how they are related to one another and that they are referring to one person. This person is Jerusalem, the City of Peace, Zion, also captive daughter Zion. This also means that God meant to convey Zion to be a daughter- most definitely female.
Like Dany, Zion was “defiled” by the uncircumcised, such as how the Dothraki heathens defiled her. Like Dany, Zion was also a slave who freed herself from slavery to ascend to splendor. Isaiah continues, “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” Dany was sold to the Dothraki as a bride and for nothing, she bought back her own freedom and ruled them through surviving the fire.
In Zechariah 2, an angel says. “Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it, and I myself will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, and I will be its glory within.” Just like how God protects Zion, fire is almost always symbolic for Dany’s protection and power. She herself is just a woman, yet it is her dragons and their fire that surrounds, and protects her.
Israel also has a unique purpose. (Isaiah 61) “to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.”
This is a lot to take in. Freedom of the captives is obviously Dany’s trademark as Breaker of Chains. She was a comforter for the people. She also would proclaim the vengeance of God, that is, like the great destruction of the people at the Red Keep. Ashes are seen as a symbol of mourning, and as she obtained the throne, it would have been a crown of beauty.
Daenarys is mourning both the loss of her child and husband in a single day, much like the loss of Babylon. God’s punishment on Babylon when she said, “I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.” Was “Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.” Remember the reason for Drogon and the baby’s death was because of a deceiving sorceress who poisoned him? It was also because of her reliance on these spells that her son died.
The bible continues “All the counsel you have received has only worn you out…. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.” True enough, all the magic just caused Khal Drogo’s death and her son’s. In the end, the sorceress was burnt in Drogo’s funeral pyre, while Dany comes out- the end of Babylon and the beginning of Zion. That is why it says that from Babylon shall come Zion. Babylon is the symbol for that stage in Zion’s life.
“Come Zion! Escape, you who live in daughter Babylon! For this is what the Lord Almighty says, “After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you- for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye- I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.” Just like that slave trader who called Dany a bad word and got beaten by his own slaves, the Lord helps Zion. In many instances, she subverts the status quo, from being insulted, to being victorious with her dragons.
Zion’s mission is to herald as a covenant and a sign of the coming of God. “Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion, for I am coming and I will live among you, declares the Lord. Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that YHWH of Hosts has sent me to you. YHWH shall possess Judah, His portion in the holy land, and He shall again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh before Yahweh, for He is raised up out of His holy habitation.” Zion here is a sign that one who has the spirit of God, namely Judah, shall live with her.
The rulership goes to Judah. Just as this verse says, in the blessings of Israel we discussed earlier, “8 Judah, may your brothers praise you, your hand be on the neck of your enemies. May the sons of your father bow themselves to you.3 (Zech 12:6) 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp. My son, you have risen up from the prey; he stoops, he crouches like a lion; and like a lioness, who can rouse him? (Rev 5:5) 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawmaker from between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs (Shiloh), and the obedience of the people to him.1 11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey ‘s colt to the choice vine, he washes his clothing in wine, and his covering in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes shall be dark from wine and his teeth white from milk.2” Judah in the Bible is the rightful ruler, and the obedience of the people are to him until the rightful ruler comes (Shiloh).
These houses are loosely resembling the houses of Israel and the question of the throne and whom it belongs to is answered also in the bible.
Judah is like Jon snow, because like the chosen one, Jon is pierced for the transgressions of others, and comes back to life. (Isaiah 53:5) “He was pieced for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” Just like Jon’s death, each one of them had gone astray and pierced or stabbed him. It was for them that he died. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away… He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied….Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors.” True enough, now he shares the portion with Dany, who is strong with her dragons.
Judah’s phrases are replete with symbolism, such as: his eyes were red with wine, his teeth white with milk. His clothes are washed in the blood of grapes. Now we look at Isaiah 63, “Who is this from Edom, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? It is I mighty to save.” This sort of is saying He/she is the Savior. “Why are you garments red like those of one treading the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, from the nations, no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath. Their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come.” So now we see that Judah, on the day of vengeance would be the one whose clothes are covered in red/crimson. In this same way, Jon was covered with the blood of Dany, and vengeance was his. This is sad, and nowhere in the Bible does it say that Zion be killed by Judah. This is where GOT separates from this analogy.
For Dany, she died. It is also said that Zion would die and God would save her once or thrice from death. This also is true as she was burned many times and survived. If the series continued, perhaps she would have survived to again mirror Zion’s fate:
For Zion God says, “Although you have been forsaken and hated, with no one traveling through, I will make you the everlasting pride and the joy of all generations. You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed by royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty Jacob. Instead of bronze, I will bring you gold and silver in place of iron. Instead of wood, Bronze and iron in place of stones. I will make peace your governor and righteousness your ruler.” Dany too was keeper of much gold, just as when she tried to buy the two brothers. We see that God is her redeemer, and He is also called the Mighty Jacob. We could say that Jacob is not a person but God, and might represent the power of the dragons, yet- it is a person because just as the one who brings comfort to Dany’s aching heart is Jon, the one who comforts Zion is Mighty Jacob. If GOT followed the Bible’s story, Zion becomes the bride of her Maker, the bride of her Redeemer, the bride of the Mighty one of Jacob. (Isaiah 62) “No longer will you be called deserted, or name your land lonely (desolate) but you will be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her) and your land Beulah (married) As a young man marries a maiden, so will your maker marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” And then again a promise to Zion, “The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: say to daughter Zion: See your Saviour comes! See his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City no longer deserted.” This is the happy ending that we want for Dany and Jon, the same happy ending that the old testament wrote for Jesus and His Bride, for the Lord God of Hosts and Zion, bearer of His Holy Spirit.
DAY OF VENGANCE
Before all the merrymaking however, Zion’s work is also to proclaim the vengeance of the Lord. Something about Zion is that the Lord is both the fire around her, and the glory within her. Therefore, you can say that the Lord’s spirit is in her (just as Yahweh of Hosts is in Jacob).
The day of vengeance happened in Season 8 episode 5, right before the very end. In the Bible it is described as a great destruction. (Zephaniah) “10 And it shall be in that day, declares YAHWEH, the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate, and a howling from the Second, and a great breaking from the hills. 11 Howl, those living in Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan have perished; all those carrying silver are cut off. 12 And it shall be in that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men being settled on their lees; who say in their heart, YAHWEH will not do good, nor will He do evil.”
A lot of the city folk were just doing their normal work, unaware of God until the destruction. I hope anyone reading this can take it upon them to live righteously and pray to God before that day comes in real life.
Zephaniah continues. “14 The Great Day of YAHWEH is near; It is near and rushing greatly, the sound of the day of YAHWEH. The mighty man shall cry out bitterly there. 15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness4 , 16 a day of the ram’s horn and alarm against the fortified cities, and against the high towers.” See how specific and accurate GOT is here, it was against the fortified towers of the Red Keep that darkness and gloom came.
“17 And I will bring distress to men, and they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against YAHWEH. And their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh like dung. 18 Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of YAHWEH. But all the earth shall be consumed by the fire of His jealousy. For He shall make a complete, yea, a speedy end of all those living in the earth.” (Eze 7:19, Jer 25:31)
Isaiah 66:15 also speaks of this destruction, ”See the Lord is coming with fire and his chariots are like a whirlwind; He will bring down his anger with fury; and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword, the Lord will execute judgment upon all men and many will be those slain by the Lord.”
Cersei, who was oppressive and unjust now sits in the ashes of her city. Cersei is the classic selfish person ruled by lust and her desires are her master. She can be compared to Babylon, Samaria, Oholibah and Oholah: never finding the difference between good and bad, which is the beginning of wisdom. That is why she suffers the loss of children. In her own words, she ****ed her brother because it felt good, killed because it felt good. She may be externally beautiful and charming but she is ruled by instinct with no consideration for others and principles of honor. She had both her brothers assassinated, did not keep her word and cared nothing for her own people. In Isaiah 47, Babylon’s destiny is that her nakedness would be exposed (which happened to Cersei), and her shame uncovered. She showed no mercy and said, “I will continue forever- the eternal queen” but God said, “Now, then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, “I am. There is no one besides me” …You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, “no one sees me”. Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, “I am. There is none besides me” Disaster will come upon you and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom: a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.” That is exactly what happened to Cersei, the wanton.
Malachi 4 also speaks of the fire, “Surely the day is coming: it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil-doer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty.” This is the last book of the “old” testament, yet technically, it hasn’t happened yet. Not to fear though, because God “will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me, says the Lord almighty.” (Malachi 2:5)
Why? Because, “ For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things, says the Lord Almighty.” The call now is to keep doing what is right, then you will be spared and have nothing to fear on that day. It was that period of time where the evil Cersei was ashes under Dany’s feet. God still comforts the righteous, because if you keep doing what is good and just, then you have nothing to fear.
For us, outside the GOT world, it is not too late. “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah (which means Yah is God) before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their sons and sons to their fathers lest I come to strike the Earth with utter destruction.”
Zion/ Dany will rule, but the rider of the white horse kills Dany to avenge. This could be Arya or Jon. Whoever rides the white horse is Judah, but remember, he only holds the scepter until the rightful ruler comes. The glory of Zion is described in the bible as this, “Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you (much like the Dragons rise behind Dany), See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Isaiah 60.1)
“Behold, I will create new heavens and new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who doesn’t live out his years…. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them…The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion (Judah) will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 65.17)
In the biblical ending, the princes of Judah will rule peacefully with the princes of Benjamin. Zion will be married to God, and no more babies will die, “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so will your name and descendants endure.” (Isaiah 65)
The GOT series might have ended with betrayal for Dany, but in the real world, Zion is made to usher the new world of peace with Yahweh of Hosts, and He shall dwell in the city, and be the sun for Zion for ever.
https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/loki/
GOD LOVE 