The Stone Roses' usage of The Bible and their interest in Gnosticism



 

Top row: 'Christ Blessing Little Children' (1839) by Charles Lock Eastlake (1793 - 1865). Fearful of being sued by the respective owners of the various images used on the Second Coming artwork, Squire made alterations to each of them, using a Photoshop facility in Manchester.
Second row: The 2009 John Squire artwork, 'Suspended By The Feet And Beaten With Hammers' (oil on canvas, 24" x 34") takes its name from an illustration of torture of the Christian martyrs.
Bottom row: A. Martyr suspended by the feet, and his head at the same time pounded with hammers. B. Martyr suspended by the hands, which are tied behind his back, heavy weights being fastened to his feet and round his neck. Source: Gallonio, the Rev. Father: 'Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs' (1903). A Christian martyr is one who is killed for following Christianity, through stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of torture and capital punishment. At first, the term applied to Apostles. Once Christians started to undergo persecution, the term came to be applied to those who suffered hardships for their faith. Finally, it was restricted to those who had been killed for their faith. The early Christian period before Constantine I was the 'classic' age of martyrdom. A martyr's death was considered a 'baptism in blood', cleansing one of sin as baptism in water did. Early Christians venerated martyrs as powerful intercessors, and their utterances were treasured as inspired specially by the Holy Spirit.

This essay provides an overview of The Stone Roses' usage of The Bible (and their discussion of religion in interviews), and also looks at the thread of Gnosticism running through their work.

Books of the Old Testament

Genesis

Straight To The Man contains a direct reference to 'Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed' (Genesis 19: 1 - 29)

Exodus

A Stone Roses b-side, Moses, is named after the central figure of Exodus. When asked by Ian Watson of Melody Maker in 1998 who he would cite as a hero, Ian Brown replied, "Moses. Follow the path of Moses and you won't go wrong. Don't follow Noel Coward."

The final verse of Free My Way contains the Ninth Commandment:

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

The Book of Joshua

The Book of Judges

The Book of Ruth

The First Book of Samuel

The Second Book of Samuel

The First Book of the Kings

The Second Book of the Kings

The First Book of the Chronicles

The Second Book of the Chronicles

Ezra

The Book of Nehemiah

The Book of Esther

The Book of Job

The Book of Psalms

The Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

The Song of Solomon

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

The Lamentations of Jeremiah

The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel

The Book of Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi


Books of the New Testament

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew

Track 6 of Ian Brown's 'The World Is Yours' album, is entitled The Feeding Of The 5000. An account of this miracle can be found in 'Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand', (Matthew 14: 13 - 21):

The Gospel According to Saint Mark

The Second Coming refers to the Christian and Islamic belief in the return of Jesus Christ, an event that will fulfil aspects of Messianic prophecy such as the resurrection of the dead, last judgment and full establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. The phrase ‘second coming’ is not used in the Bible, but comes from the life of Jesus of Nazareth as being His first coming to earth. The Gospels contain several predictions of Jesus regarding His Second Coming (the title of the Roses' second LP). These include the Olivet discourse (Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 21), 'The Sheep and the Goats' (Matthew 25:31 - 46), 'The Coming of the Kingdom of God' (Luke 17: 20 - 37), (Mark 8: 34 - 9: 1), (Matthew 16: 24 - 28), (Luke 9: 23 - 27), (Matthew 10: 17 - 42), (John 6: 39 - 54), (John 11: 24), (John 12: 48), (John 14: 3).

Jesus says that the "the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." (Matthew 16:27), and that this will occur in a sudden, non-localised fashion "like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other." (Luke 17: 24), and that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13: 32).

The Gospel According to Saint Luke

Ian Brown's Crowning Of The Poor is centred on Jesus's teaching in the Beatitudes (Luke 6: 17 - 26) that the poor shall be rewarded in Heaven.

In this Top Of The Pops interview from 2005, Ian comments upon the portrayal of Mary Magdalene:

 

 

Top left: Icon of St. Mary Magdalene holding a red Easter egg with the words 'Christ is Risen'.
Top right: Saint Mary Magdalene.
Middle left: 'The Penitent Magdalene' (1635) by Guido Reni (1575 - 1642). The image of the penitent Mary Magdalene enjoyed great popularity between the late sixteenth century and the early decades of the seventeenth century. This understanding of Mary Magdalene is that of a prostitute who repents of her past, and comes to accept the mortality of flesh and the immortality of the soul. The iconographic theme of the penitent Magdalen was a key element of Catholic devotion during the Counter Reformation period that commenced with the Council of Trent in 1563. Cardinal Baronius, in his hard-hitting polemics against Protestantism, employed the subject - along with that of the penitent St Peter - to emphasize the necessity and validity of penitence, a sacrament discarded by the reformers. The penitent Magdalene was something of a iconographic specialty for Reni, who created several versions of the subject.
Middle right: Mary Magdalene, in a dramatic 19th-century popular image of penitence painted by Ary Scheffer.
Bottom: 'The penitent Mary Magdalene' (1825) by Francesco Hayez (1791 – 1882).

In the New Testament, Mary Magdalene was a woman from the town of Magdala, near Tiberias. She was there during Jesus' Crucifixion and comforted Him in his final moments. She also discovered the empty tomb and was a witness to His Resurrection. Furthermore, she was there at the beginning of the movement that would become Christianity. However, she has since been portrayed quite differently, namely as a prostitute, who had fallen and was then redeemed. She is mentioned in each of the four gospels, but not once does it mention that she was a prostitute or a sinner. She became confused with two other women from the Bible: Mary, the sister of Martha and the unnamed sinner from Luke's gospel (7: 36 - 50). In the sixth century, Pope Gregory declared that the three women were the same person:

Several theories surround what prompted Gregory to make this declaration: one theory suggests an attempt to reduce the number of Marys — there was a similar merging of characters named John. Another submits that the sinning woman was appended simply to provide missing backstory for a figure of obvious importance, while others attribute it to misogyny. It was not until 1969 that the Catholic Church declared that Mary Magdalene was not the penitent sinner. Her reputation, however, still lingers.

Gnosticism, I feel, is an overlooked aspect of The Stone Roses' work. It is difficult to define Gnosticism or form an objective view of this system of belief or its participants because there are very few exhibits of first hand copies of their writings. These writings were burned by the orthodox Christians from the first century onward due to Gnosticism being considered heretical. Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts in 1945 little was known of Gnosticism and the Gnostics except from the writings of their adversaries. The definition of Gnosticism to be found in Encyclopaedia Britannica Online is as follows:

Among the Gnostic Christians and many other "heretical" groups, the disciple to Jesus' right (below) was considered to be Mary Magdalene, the beloved disciple, not John (the Gospel of Mary is also called the Gospel of the Beloved Disciple). The Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 (also known as the Akhmim Codex), discovered in Cairo in 1896, contains portions of three Gnostic texts, now known as the Apocryphon of John, the Sophia of Jesus Christ, and the Gospel of Mary. The publication of these documents was delayed until 1955 due to misfortunes (including two world wars). By this time, the Nag Hammadi texts had also been recovered, and it was discovered that versions of two very important scriptures in Nag Hammadi library were also present in the Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 codex: the Apocryphon of John, and the Sophia of Jesus Christ. Versions of these texts in the codex were used to augment the translations of the Apocryphon of John and the Sophia of Jesus Christ which now appear in the Nag Hammadi collection.

They believed Leonardo formulated the shape of the letter 'M' by conjoining the figures of 'Mary' and Jesus; furthermore, it has been argued that in order to denote the opposite gender (in addition to the effeminate characteristics of John), 'Mary' is wearing the opposite of Christ - Christ wears a red tunic and blue robe, while 'Mary' wears a blue tunic and red robe (the traditional garment used in depictions of Mary, the mother of Jesus as well as Mary Magdalene).

Detail of 'The Last Supper'

Above we see an 'M' shape formed by conjoining of two bodies. In this painting, the twelve apostles accompanying Christ are divided into four groups of three (there are also three windows - the number three is often a reference to the Holy Trinity in Catholic art. In Part 5 of an 'Addicted To Noise' interview, Squire when asked if there was any significance in the '3' on the front cover of Second Coming, reveals that he does 'feel an affinity with the number'). The upwards pointing finger of Thomas in the same work is a feature of many of Leonardo's paintings. Thomas, looking toward Jesus, raises his forefinger in the air; this has been called the 'John Gesture'. This recurring gesture in Leonardo's work is associated with John the Baptist. Some hold the belief that Leonardo was a Johannite, a believer in the Great Heresy, that is, that Christ and / or his followers killed John and took over the church that he had created. The gesture of Thomas toward Jesus in the Last Supper is seen by some scholars as Leonardo encoding the message to 'remember John the Baptist' within his work. John may have been more than a harbinger to Jesus in the eyes of Leonardo, regarding him to be a greater figure than Jesus Himself. In 'Jack' magazine in 2002, John Squire stated that he felt a certain affinity with John the Baptist.

'The Last Supper' (1495 - 98) by Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

We can tell from the following comments by Ian in a Channel 4 interview that he believes the 'revelations' of Dan Brown's novel, 'The Da Vinci Code':

The Da Vinci Code claims that Mary Magdalene was wife of Jesus Christ and pregnant with his child at the time of his crucifixion. The Church, it claims, has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and the Jesus bloodline for 2000 years, principally because they fear the power of the sacred feminine. That she was a prostitute, the book claims, was slander invented by the Church to obscure their true relationship. In the Top Of The Pops interview above, Ian Brown demonstrates that he does not believe in the 'standard' bible ("It has been tampered with..."), instead having a preference for those books of questionable merit. On this page, he speaks about Mary Magdalene in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This fascination with Mary Magdalene is one shared by Gnostics. The so-called Gospel of Mary [Magdalene], which may date from as early as A.D. 125 (or about 40 years after John's Gospel), describes her as having received a private vision from Jesus, which she passes on to the male disciples. This role is a usurpation of the go-between status the standard Gospels normally accord to Peter, and Mary depicts him as being unhappy at this, asking, "Did [Jesus] really speak with a woman without our knowledge ?" The disciple Levi comes to her defense, saying, "Peter, you have always been hot-tempered ... If the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her ? Surely, the Savior loves her very well. That is why he loved her more than us." The combination of Catholic rethinking and Gnostic revelations have reanimated wilder Magdalene speculations, such as that of a Jesus-Magdalene marriage. In the Channel 4 interview quote above, Ian Brown is one such figure to subscribe to such speculations ("I'd say Mary. Not Jesus' mother but his girlfriend.", he replies when asked who he thought was the greatest woman who ever lived.) The Gnostic Gospel of Philip describes Magdalene as "the one who was called [Jesus'] companion," claiming that he "used to kiss her on her [mouth]." Most scholars discount a Jesus-Magdalene match because it finds little echo in the canonical Gospels once the false Magdalenes are removed.

A lyric in Fall refers to Jesus promising the thief on the cross that he would be with Him in Paradise. See 'The Crucifixion', (Luke 23: 26 - 43).

The Gospel According to Saint John

The lyric from Straight To The Man - "Who'll cast the first stone ?" - has origins in (John 8: 1 - 11). The lyric, "I know mine, mine know me", from Can't See Me, has origins in 'The Shepherd and His Flock' (John 10: 1 - 21). I Am The Resurrection takes from (John 11: 17 - 37), 'Jesus Comforts the Sisters'. Something's Burning takes directly from (John 11: 1 - 17), 'The Vine and the Branches'.

The Acts of the Apostles

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans

The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians

The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians

The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Titus

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Philemon

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews

The General Epistle of James

The First Epistle General of Peter

The Second General Epistle of Peter

The First Epistle General of John

The Second Epistle General of John

The Third Epistle General of John

The General Epistle of Jude

The Revelation of Saint John the Devine

The last book of the New Testament is frequently referred to as the Apocalypse of John, but in English Bibles it appears as the Revelation of St Johannes, or the Book of Revelation. The word apocalypse in Greek means "unveiling". In John's apocalypse, the book of Revelation, he refers to the "unveiling" or "revelation" of Jesus Christ as Messiah. This term has been downgraded in common usage to refer to the end of the world. But it is more accurate to interpret the term "end of the world", as we see in the King James Version of the Bible, as the "end of the age". The word translated as "world" is actually the Greek word "eon" or "age". The term was first used among Hellenistic Jews to refer to a number of writings, which depicted the future state of the world in a parabolic way (e.g. Apocalypse of Baruch). Apocalypse in the terminology of early Jewish and Christian literature is a revelation of hidden things given by God to a chosen prophet; the term is often used to describe the written account of such a revelation. Apocalyptic literature is of considerable importance in the history of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, because it makes specific reference to beliefs such as the resurrection of the dead, judgment day, eternal life and perdition.

Apocalyptic writing is characterised by dreams or visions, and the introduction of Angels as the bearers of the revelation is a standing feature. At least two angel-classes are mentioned in biblical scripture: the Cherubim and the seraphim. God may give instructions through the medium of these heavenly messengers, who act as the seer's guide. God may also personally give a revelation, as is shown in the Book of Revelation through the person of Jesus Christ. Fantastic imagery is used, of strange living creatures such as the ‘beast’ in which the properties of men, animals, birds, reptiles, or purely imaginary beings are combined in a way that is startling and often grotesque. Christianity had a Millennial expectation for glorification of the righteous from the time it emerged from Judaism and spread out into the world in the first century. During his imprisonment by the Romans on the Island of Patmos, John described the visions he experienced, writing the Book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 20 contains several references to a thousand year reign of Christ upon this earth. Modern Christian movements in the 18th and 19th centuries were characterized by a rise of Millennialism. Christian Apocalyptic eschatology was a continuation of the same two themes referred to throughout all of scripture as "this age" and "the age to come". Evangelicals have been in the forefront in rediscovering and popularising the biblical prophecy of a major confrontation between good and evil at the end of this age, a coming Millennium to follow, and a final confrontation whereby the wicked are judged, the righteous are rewarded and Eternity begins.

As stated on The Fisherman, the sum of all the numbers on the roulette wheel (from 0 to 36) is 666, which is the 'Number of the Beast.'


Bibliography:

http://www.britannica.com/

http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/g/gnosticism.html


Comments ? Thoughts ? Ideas ?

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Paul McAuley


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