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  • Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory
Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory

"What is the purpose of life?"
"To crush my enemies, and hear the lamentations of their women and children"

In terms of when the Religions showed up and also the way that the factions act within Halo... I always paralleled

God = Precursors
Jews; Jesus, Noah, etc. = Forerunners
Christians = The Covenant
Muslims = Humanity

The Covenant-Human war parallels the Crusades, with the Covenant (Christians) trying to re-take Forerunner relics from the humans.


Pretty interesting analogy, I've always paralleled the covenant as the radical religious islamist's trying to eradicate all infidels (humans) from existence, their footsteps are a desecration to the holy relics etc. I can admit a striking parallel to your crusade example. Good Post ^_^

  • 12.18.2010 9:42 AM PDT

I'm an atheist, i play Halo. I don't see Christian symbolism or any of that other voodoo. I see a good game. If under any circumstances christian symbols do apear in the game, its because the ideas of christianity are drilled into a large majority of the population of earth, so its only natural that afew would slip into the game.

Its like that absolutely aweful book "To Kill a Mockingbird", theres no real secret meaning hidden in the text (or in this case gameplay), if you see one its more than likely put there by your own mind. Bungie wanted to make a good science fiction game, they did, yay, no further debate needed.

  • 12.18.2010 7:08 PM PDT

If you're not dead, you're fine. It's when you're dying that you need to worry.

Here's a way to settle it. It's a game. It's meant to be enjoyed by players and not spark international and religious outrage. If it was based on real world events, then you can have an opinion. If not, just play it and enjoy.

[Edited on 12.20.2010 5:37 AM PST]

  • 12.20.2010 5:36 AM PDT

United States Military Academy Class of 2015


Posted by: MLG Cheehwawa
In terms of when the Religions showed up and also the way that the factions act within Halo... I always paralleled

God = Precursors
Jews; Jesus, Noah, etc. = Forerunners
Christians = The Covenant
Muslims = Humanity

The Covenant-Human war parallels the Crusades, with the Covenant (Christians) trying to re-take Forerunner relics from the humans.



Haha sorry to bring ACTUAL HISTORY into this discussion bit I am so surprised that nobody called you out on this. The Jews actual controlled what is now Israel back in the day, it was the romans who took them over. Then they were taken over by the Muslims. So ipso-facto the Muslims took what is rightfully the Jews homeland. At least the Jews allowed Christians to come to the Holy Land peacefully. For all of you that believe that catholics are terrible because of the crusades you really need to open up the history books. The first crusade undertaken by the Catholics was to reclaim the Holy land in the name of god from the invading Muslims who attacked, killed and did not allow other religious views in its borders.

So please Cheewawa before you try to slam Christians, learn some history :). Here is a dumbed down version of why the crusades happened so you can become intelligent. Good attempt to demonize christians though :)... <http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm>

[Edited on 12.23.2010 10:58 PM PST]

  • 12.23.2010 10:52 PM PDT

I usually portray the Covenant as just a very corrupt religious race. They literally forced other races into their religion.

An example of this was the Hunters. They faced annihilation by the Covenant just for living their lives, unless they joined the Covenant and their religion.

Same goes for the humans, their existence proved the Covenant religion to be wrong and so the Prophets decided to kill all of them. Just like some religions in the Middle ages when people questioned them or discovered things that could prove the religion wrong.

  • 12.24.2010 2:42 AM PDT

nice job op, long, but a great read.

  • 01.01.2011 7:24 AM PDT

The Halo story follows the three years of Christs ministry on Earth more than anything having to do with the Crusades. Let's try this assignment of characters:

Forerunners: The righteous figures of the Old Testament
Covenant: The many Sects of Jewish leaders at the time of Christ
Humanity: Christian disciples
Flood: Roman empire
Sentinels: Spirits, both good and evil

The Covenant (Jews) attempt to put down/kill Humanity (Christians). The Flood (Roman empire), corrupt both sides and mutate their bodies (souls).

The Arbiter (Saul of Tarsus), sent out to destroy the Heresy/Humanity (early Christian church), learns the truth and becomes an ally (St. Paul) of humanity.

Seven Halos = Seven Churches listed in the book of Revelations, one of which was destroyed literally by an earthquake.

The Holy Trinity could be Master Chief (Jesus), Cortana (Holy Spirit), and "Lord" Hood (God), along with Dr. Halsey (Mary).

The bok of Revelations was written by St. John the Divine. If you read Revelations 1:17 and 11:7, you find two parallels in the game (1:17 w/ the cutscene at the end of Level 1, Halo CE, and 11:7 at the end of Covenant, H3)

Another parallel: When the Covenant characters interact w/MC, they always call him "Demon". When Jesus said the Jews were slaves to their sins, they said that "He has a demon." (John 8:39-49).

Other examples abound, especially on Halopedia, under "biblical references"



  • 01.01.2011 4:24 PM PDT

This is definitely one of, if not the, most interesting thread I have yet to find on these forums. I myself am Christian and find the tie-ins to be very clear, especially after your description. Although whether or not these references were intended will remain a mystery, I'm sure these ideas could be expanded upon.

  • 01.02.2011 7:23 PM PDT
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TL;DR

Not to be rude, but it is a bit much. I got to the John-117 explanation, and all I can say is WHY WHY WHY would you pervert the Halo story with religion?

I love the Halo story, but please don't ruin it with this religious rhetoric.

  • 01.02.2011 8:10 PM PDT

Posted by: cB4d93
Posted by: Silent Eli
you are a good translator
Idiot can be a hard language to learn, but once you get it down, everything becomes so clear! The whole world will make sense to you.

Posted by: Warriersolid47

Posted by: MLG Cheehwawa
In terms of when the Religions showed up and also the way that the factions act within Halo... I always paralleled

God = Precursors
Jews; Jesus, Noah, etc. = Forerunners
Christians = The Covenant
Muslims = Humanity

The Covenant-Human war parallels the Crusades, with the Covenant (Christians) trying to re-take Forerunner relics from the humans.



Haha sorry to bring ACTUAL HISTORY into this discussion bit I am so surprised that nobody called you out on this. The Jews actual controlled what is now Israel back in the day, it was the romans who took them over. Then they were taken over by the Muslims. So ipso-facto the Muslims took what is rightfully the Jews homeland. At least the Jews allowed Christians to come to the Holy Land peacefully. For all of you that believe that catholics are terrible because of the crusades you really need to open up the history books. The first crusade undertaken by the Catholics was to reclaim the Holy land in the name of god from the invading Muslims who attacked, killed and did not allow other religious views in its borders.

So please Cheewawa before you try to slam Christians, learn some history :). Here is a dumbed down version of why the crusades happened so you can become intelligent. Good attempt to demonize christians though :)... <http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm>

Take it easy. I don't see where he was demonizing Christians.

[Edited on 01.02.2011 10:53 PM PST]

  • 01.02.2011 10:52 PM PDT

I dont know exactly what to call it, but it has something to do with spaggetti, duct tape and razor blades...

-GamerTag- CopSuicide (used to be Weedpot420)

Everything is an allegory for something. I think people read too much into things sometimes.

But that was Jesus on my grilled cheese. No mistaking that one.

Also, isn't this thread against The Rules?

[Edited on 01.03.2011 12:58 AM PST]

  • 01.03.2011 12:55 AM PDT
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Posted by: humpsalot

Also, isn't this thread against The Rules?


Very much so.

"* No political or religious discussion of any kind will be tolerated on the forums. "

[Edited on 01.03.2011 4:15 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2011 4:13 PM PDT
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Sam (SIII-310 Beta Company) (SII-052)

I'll answer any questions you have, just message me. (Halo backstory, books, games, Bungie, etc.)

I'm a big fan of Halo and Bungie and plan on working for Bungie Studios as a Concept Artist eventually.

Bungie, though you'll continue on, Halo, in my opinion, will never be the same without some Bungie love included with it. See You Starside.

Wow... thats amazing! i agree completely! By the way, nice writing skills!

  • 01.03.2011 7:27 PM PDT

IZA JUGGERNAUT, you may find much of my full post to be ridiculous and over-analyzed, but it is impossible to ignore the fact that the words FLOOD, ARK, and COVENANT are all contained within the same plot line. To rob the Halo story of at least its BASIC religious allusions is to devalue the story as a whole. There is no way that Bungie coincidentally used these terms, even if the entire biblical allegory isn't there.

  • 01.05.2011 2:45 PM PDT

Nice work. I really wish we could hear what Bungie has to say.

  • 01.05.2011 9:09 PM PDT


Posted by: IZA JUGGERNAUT
TL;DR

Not to be rude, but it is a bit much. I got to the John-117 explanation, and all I can say is WHY WHY WHY would you pervert the Halo story with religion?

I love the Halo story, but please don't ruin it with this religious rhetoric.


These religious nuts will see God where ever they go... its unfortunate that something they're comfortable with as an adult has its roots in childhood indoctrination masquerading as family values.

  • 01.06.2011 9:53 AM PDT

I tell you, we're here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.


Posted by: Warriersolid47

Posted by: MLG Cheehwawa
In terms of when the Religions showed up and also the way that the factions act within Halo... I always paralleled

God = Precursors
Jews; Jesus, Noah, etc. = Forerunners
Christians = The Covenant
Muslims = Humanity

The Covenant-Human war parallels the Crusades, with the Covenant (Christians) trying to re-take Forerunner relics from the humans.



Haha sorry to bring ACTUAL HISTORY into this discussion bit I am so surprised that nobody called you out on this. The Jews actual controlled what is now Israel back in the day, it was the romans who took them over. Then they were taken over by the Muslims. So ipso-facto the Muslims took what is rightfully the Jews homeland. At least the Jews allowed Christians to come to the Holy Land peacefully. For all of you that believe that catholics are terrible because of the crusades you really need to open up the history books. The first crusade undertaken by the Catholics was to reclaim the Holy land in the name of god from the invading Muslims who attacked, killed and did not allow other religious views in its borders.

So please Cheewawa before you try to slam Christians, learn some history :). Here is a dumbed down version of why the crusades happened so you can become intelligent. Good attempt to demonize christians though :)... <http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm>


Biased source is biased? its the website of the Methodist Church, for crying out loud. Maybe you hadn't noticed, but they're Christian.

And, I'd like to point out that when the Crusaders took Jerusalem during the First Crusade, they slaughtered almost everyone. This included men, women, and children, muslims, orthodox christians, and others, not because they were the Muslims they were fighting, but because they didnt believe in the Crusader's particular version of Christianity (Roman Catholic).

When the Muslim armies later conquered Jerusalem under Salah ad-Din (Saladin), he let anyone who wanted to leave the city leave peacefully, no matter the religion. Granted, this was due to a deal with the defending Crusaders involving killing their Muslim captives and destroying the Dome on the Rock, among other things. The Crusaders, as part of this deal, were supposed to pay a fee for each man, woman, and child who left the city, but Saladin let almost all go without their fee payed. Afterwards, he invited Jews to settle the city, and there was religious tolerance.

The Jews hadn't ruled the city of Jerusalem since before the founding of Christianity. If you actually read the Bible, you would know that Pilate and the government were Roman, which even by your account ruled after the Jews.

You, my good sir, are the one who needs to learn "ACTUAL HISTORY", rather than what some would classify as propaganda.

Good attempt to demonize muslims though :)...

just for the record, I am an atheist. I am because I have explored and learned about multiple different religions from multiple points of view, and find myself disagreeing with most, if not all, of what religion today stands for. So my opinion's about as "unbiased" as it can get religion-wise, seeing as I have learned and relearned about the Crusades in particular from the perspective of Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Jews, AND Muslims.

and this is why religious topics aren't allowed in the forums...

OT: For anyone who's read Cryptum, I'll try to avoid spoilers but the Forerunners believed in something called "the Mantle", which they observed and worshipped in a way similar to Christians. From the viewpoint of Halo backstory being real history, human religions were based off of the Forerunner's beliefs, combined with things that happened to the original "Humans", especially as far as the "Old Testimate", as Cheehwawa pointed out with things like the Ark, Halo's, Noah (the Librarian), a "Holy Land" for the "religious followers" after extreme suppression at the hand of their enemies (humanity and Erde-Tyrene). There are more, so the real question is: did bungie originally set out intending it to be a Christian allegory, or if they did all this intentionally to make their created universe that much more deep, immersive, and intriguing?

If the answer is the second, I, for one, would be extremely impressed, but this IS bungie we're talking about. :)

[Edited on 01.06.2011 4:32 PM PST]

  • 01.06.2011 4:28 PM PDT
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Posted by: IZA JUGGERNAUT
TL;DR

Not to be rude, but it is a bit much. I got to the John-117 explanation, and all I can say is WHY WHY WHY would you pervert the Halo story with religion?

I love the Halo story, but please don't ruin it with this religious rhetoric.


Are you kidding me? The whole covenant race is made of ignorant religious zealots...they're leaders are even called, Zealots.

Religion and spirituality(and there is a difference) is deeply ingrained in the Halo story. It's not necessarily a "Christian" story but it shows the dangers of blind religion vs true faith in that there is purpose to life and good will overcome evil.

I am not a religious person, but I am a person who has faith that there is more to this universe then what we can see or even fathom. I get nervous about putting names on my faith as that is how it becomes religion and religion is dangerous. The problem is when people decide to use peoples beliefs to control them(i.e. the covenant) for their own personal gain. Unfortunately it seems to be human nature that in order to feel secure in my beliefs others need to also believe it. Even Atheists do this as Atheism is still a belief system.

Religion is about being rigid and static in the way things are and that things are predetermined but life is about change, and adaptability and evolution.

Anyways, I kind of wondered their...but I am pretty passionate about this topic.

  • 01.06.2011 7:03 PM PDT
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Never though about that pretty cool gotta look into it

  • 01.09.2011 6:40 AM PDT

Meh. Most allegorical meanings are put in stories by the audience, and not the author.

If there are Christian parallels, in the Haloverse, it's all your doing. The Covies are a radical religious group, that much is evident, but I see no connection between the Bible and the plot.

The ODST parallels with Dante's Inferno are much more solid.

  • 01.09.2011 9:09 AM PDT

It's not an 'allegory' for Christianity - it directly ties in with Christian mythology. What they did was invent a universe/story where evolution could be reconciled with the Bible.

Basically Librarian creates the Garden of Eden (she actually talks about her 'garden') and then after the flood are wiped out, Forerunners return to Earth to 're-seed' it with the humans they had indexed. Sort of like Adam and Eve. But this happened about 100 000 years ago, which is when modern humans are reckoned to have emerged. Forerunners probably interbred with the Earth humans too. And then what happened was Forerunner stories became human myths/religions.

Same thing also happened with the Covenant, although in that case it was Mendicant Bias manipulating them.

We should point out here that none of the myths in the Bible are unique: they are variations of the same stories/legends from countless religions/folklores.

Eve = Librarian (remember the Tree of Knowledge?)
Adam = Didact (because he was didactic about obeying God, unlike Eve)

So anyway once you know the full story, you realize it's basically taking Christian myths/motifs and saying they were actually based on reality, but that reality is still evolution, jsut on a galactic scale. This idea was ripped off by the movie 'Knowing' btw

Anyway anyone who doesn't believe this - i mean the game's called HALO for christ's sake, it's obvious intended

  • 01.10.2011 2:58 PM PDT

Guys, will you stop thumping your Bibles for just a moment to think about how far-fetched this is?

When the writing staff of Bungie sat down to put together the next games' campaigns, they didn't go into their meeting-room with their whiteboard, early scripts, and Bibles; they just tried their best to put together what seemed like a solid next-step, and implemented it.

Watch the making-off features that come with the limited-editions, read the novels, play the damn games and see for yourself. Halo does not keep in-step with Christianity, and there is no place for Bible-thumping within the fiction. The only religious element is the radical group of aliens known as the Covenant, which are, as we all know, the main antagonist.

Allegories are placed in stories by the reader, to draw from a story whatever they can. To impose Christianity upon Halo is just stupid. If you want to draw parallels for yourself, that's great. If you want to blatantly say "Halo is an intended Christian allegory, down to the last detail!", you're just not reasonable, and kind of blind.

[Edited on 01.10.2011 5:43 PM PST]

  • 01.10.2011 5:41 PM PDT

Posted by: Traxus 04
It's not an 'allegory' for Christianity - it directly ties in with Christian mythology. What they did was invent a universe/story where evolution could be reconciled with the Bible.

Basically Librarian creates the Garden of Eden (she actually talks about her 'garden') and then after the flood are wiped out, Forerunners return to Earth to 're-seed' it with the humans they had indexed. Sort of like Adam and Eve. But this happened about 100 000 years ago, which is when modern humans are reckoned to have emerged. Forerunners probably interbred with the Earth humans too. And then what happened was Forerunner stories became human myths/religions.

Same thing also happened with the Covenant, although in that case it was Mendicant Bias manipulating them.

We should point out here that none of the myths in the Bible are unique: they are variations of the same stories/legends from countless religions/folklores.

Eve = Librarian (remember the Tree of Knowledge?)
Adam = Didact (because he was didactic about obeying God, unlike Eve)

So anyway once you know the full story, you realize it's basically taking Christian myths/motifs and saying they were actually based on reality, but that reality is still evolution, jsut on a galactic scale. This idea was ripped off by the movie 'Knowing' btw

Anyway anyone who doesn't believe this - i mean the game's called HALO for christ's sake, it's obvious intended
Yeah, um... the movie "Knowing" came out in 2009. Halo has been around since 2001, and in concept form since the 90's.

Also, once again, all of this is extremely shakily linked.

  • 01.10.2011 5:46 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.

Wow. This is truly amazing. Whether intended or not I'm thrilled that Halo is connected to Christ and the bible. I'm a proud Catholic, so I'm pretty enthused by this. Thank you for taking the time to figure out and write all that.

Also, they say Narnia is also connected the bible and such. Aslon being Christ and rising after three days in the story after sacraficing himself.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Halo story. I've read almost all the books. So, thanks again.

  • 01.10.2011 6:03 PM PDT