So it's the first Sunday in Lent and at this point I probably just need to accept that we're having a very weird Bible study...
But first, here's a quote from an interview with Tamsyn Muir:
I think it’s right to call Harrow more of a deconstruction, because all the ends Harrow is inevitably making her way towards and all the lessons she is being gently taught actually end in her still saying No. Harrow’s being tempted – first by her upbringing, second by her psychopomps and guides. What will be the third temptation? (Imagine me winking as hard as anyone has ever winked.) (You actually won’t know until Alecto, really.) (x)
And here's the gospel reading for today, Matthew 4:1-11:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
So per Tamsyn Muir, Harrow is going to be tempted three times, like Jesus.
In the Bible, Jesus' first temptation is to turn stones into bread. Which has two significances. The first is the idea of prioritising the immediate and the material over the bigger picture. The second is the fact that he is being asked to do it to prove that he is the son of God, even though back in Matthew 3 (last week's gospel reading), God's voice literally came booming out of the clouds to say that Jesus was his son - the temptation is to prove it in his own power.
You can see how this might parallel some of Harrow's struggles in GTN: her very conception was something of a stones to bread prioritisation which, despite decrying as an abomination and a war crime, she says "I'd do it again, if I had to." Harrow's temptation is to prove she is worth the cost of her conception, to evidence beyond a doubt that she is the greatest necromancer of her generation. To view Gideon as the asset and resource the Ninth has always considered her. As fodder for her advancement and nothing more. And ultimately, Harrow is instead willing to die, if only Gideon can live.
The second temptation in the Bible is for Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple into the waiting arms of the angels to prove that he can come to no harm. A highly public demonstration of exactly who he is, and again, a test of whether he is the very thing that just a chapter earlier he was shown to be.
Harrow's temptation at the hands of her psychopomps and guides is rather the reverse, as she wants to throw herself into the River for the slim chance of saving Gideon, while the Fifth try to convince her to return to her body at the possible cost of Gideon's soul.
We don't yet know what Harrow's third temptation will be. (@thanergetic-hyperlinks has a good and rather chilling post suggesting this might be the temptation to replicate her parents' handiwork to bring Gideon back to life.)
Jesus' third temptation is to worship the devil in exchange for total and immediate power. (Something which, in Christian theology, he already has, but has made a temporary and deliberate choice not to exercise).
So what would the temptation to worship the devil look like for Harrow? Certainly, if you were to ask Silas Octakiseron, he would say she was already doing so. Teacher even calls Alecto "the devil" (HTN ch 35). But when Harrow has said she is looking for some aspect of God and doesn't know if she will find it in John or in the Tomb, quite how might that might fall in relation to that third temptation? And if so, just who is God and who is the devil in this version? After all, the previous temptations haven't always followed the logic of their biblical counterparts...
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