I've recently treated myself by investing on a video game, "The Master Chief Collection" to be exact. Halo is a video game series set in the 26th century centered around the main protagonist Master Chief, also Known as John and Spartan 117. It's a series that I have been in engrossed with for a very long time. Halo:CE was one of the first video games I've played. "The Master Chief Collection" allowed me to play through all 4 titles that center around Master Chief in a chronological order. Now, the interesting part is, I've picked up on very intriguing details within the story. To show what I picked up on is the aim of this post.
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." - John 1:17
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| Master Chief with the AI Cortana |
The first thing I picked up on is this: John 117. Master Chief's first name is John and his Spartan code is 117. Now, the biblical verse may not look relevant. However, it seems to point at the relationship between Cortana and Master Chief. Cortana, an artificial intelligence, is in a sense literally a law - a set of codes. She (it?) always knows what to do and how to do them and Master Chief executes them flawlessly. Further, through this hint, Master Chief is placed on a position of a savior, possibly a god.
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| I am a monument to all your sins. |
The second thing I picked up on is this: the Flood. The Flood are parasitic race that consumes organic beings to multiply its numbers. Now here's the interesting part. The Gravemind, a sort of hive mind of all Flood, says to Master Chief: "I am a monument to all your sins". The Flood seems to point at the flood in the Old Testament.
The third thing I picked up on is this: the Covenant. The Covenant is an alliance of sentient aliens that worship an ancient race called Forerunners. The Covenant's political structure centers around the Prophets. The Prophets are political and also religious elites. They oversee the worship of Forerunners and the salvation of the members of the Covenant.
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| The Prophet of Truth (a false prophet) |
Now this salvation method offered to the Covenant by the Prophets is the activation of Halo rings. Halo rings are designed to wipe out all life forms in the galaxy to deprive the parasitic Flood of their food source. However, the Covenant Prophets misinterpret this purging process as a means to salvation. They call it the Great Journey. By providing a false means to salvation, it is adequate for them to be called False Prophets.
"And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who was in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur." - Revelation 19:20
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| The Didiact (the Antichrist) |
Which leads me to my fourth point. Master Chief, a good protagonist that he is, defeats the three main Prophets: Regret, Truth, and Mercy. As stated in the verse above, the downfall of false prophet is revealed. But what of the beast? The beast refers to the Antichrist. In Halo, the Antichrist is shown to be the Didact, a Forerunner villain who was imprisoned by its own race thousands of years ago. The Covenant, in the fourth installment, bows down before him and worships him. Of course, Master Chief, being a good protagonist once more, kills him. It should be noted that, Master Chief, with the aid of Cortana,
literally captures him, and then the Didact is
literally thrown alive into something that resembles a lake of fire.
The fifth and final thing I noticed is the Ark. The Ark is a kind of remote control that activates all seven Halo rings. There are two things to note here. The Ark (and Halos) is designed to be habitable. It was designed to begin seeding life forms to repopulate the galaxy after the purging of the Flood is over. Now, this is parallel to Noah's Ark. The other point is that it is parallel to the story of Jericho in the Old Testament. Jericho's walls fall down after the Israelite carry the Ark of the Covenant for seven days, once per day. Although the story of Jericho does not have anything to do with the main story, but it seems that the writers of Halo just went for seven Halo rings to represent how many times the Israelite went around the city.
It was very interesting to see how a video game incorporated so much of the bible in creating its unique world. I'm sure there are other points I've missed (there are points I have not mentioned), but it is clear that Master Chief is intended to play the role of Christ in this saga. The saga does not follow the bible to the letter, but there are many elements that cannot be neglected. In a culture riddled by anti-religious contexts, this was quite a surprise on my part.
