Wednesday, July 9, 2008

"Thoughts On Eko's Book Of Laws"

The following ideas aren't exactly new, but I just felt like laying them out in writing. I know that there is a holy book in the Bahai faith called "The Book Of Laws" that could be the reference in "Cabin Fever", but it's difficult to ignore the story that Eko told John in the Swan station after they met, especially when Eko could have just said, "Hey, I found this Bible with a secret compartment in it, and some film!":

EKO: I have something I think you should see...Long before Christ the king of Judah was a man named Josiah. Josiah, since he was a good king, sent his secretary to the treasury and said: "We must rebuild the temple. Give all of the gold to the workers so that this will be done." But when the secretary returned, he had no gold. And when Josiah asked why this was the secretary replied, "We found a book."...What the secretary had found was an ancient book -- the Book of Law. You may know it as the Old Testament. And it was with that ancient book, not with the gold, that Josiah rebuilt the temple.

So the point of the story is that the Jewish people had strayed from the Holy Laws, and needed to return to their true faith. They realized that gold would not procure the changes necessary for spiritual revival, only a reformation of their worship and lives would truly rebuild the Temple physically after rebuilding it in their hearts first.

From the Jewish Encyclopedia: Josiah "undertook the repair of the Temple...During the progress of this work "the book of the law" was found in the house of the Lord...The king then set himself to the task of cleansing the land from idolatry...The evidence is very strong that "the book of the law" referred to was Deuteronomy."
From the Catholic Encyclopedia: Josiah "ascended the throne when he was only eight years of age. In the eighteenth year of his rule, the Jewish king undertook to repair the Temple with the help of the high-priest...they all united with Josiah in a solemn vow of obedience to its commands. This was followed by a drastic reformation of worship..."

We're led to think that Locke was originally meant to ascend the "throne" as a boy like Josiah, when Richard came along with his test. Now that the island is in desperate need of regrouping, it seems Locke is expected to return the island to it's original purpose and order, the way Josiah returned faith and order to his people (with Richard in the spot of the king's high-priest?). Except maybe it doesn't happen that way, because the "bad things" happen instead. But then perhaps the regrouped Oceanic-6 return to help make things right again on the island, by committing together to follow the old ways of the ancient island originals? To be continued next season...

4 comments:

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

Can't believe I'm the first to comment, everyone must be on summer break. I just rewatched THE 23RD PSALM last night, Capcom. I perked up hearing about The Temple and The Ruins. Did you ever notice Locke doing the crossword puzzle earlier? Who was Enkidu's friend? Gilgamesh. How would you fit those two into the scheme of things. Just out of curiosity, though I doubt it wouldn't be an Easter Egg, I'd like to know at what part of the Bible the square hole was started.

PS: You mentioned Fibonacci's Numbers awhile back. Did you know he based the sequence on...rabbits?

Capcom said...

Haha, now that I have caught up with your emails, I can reply here too. :-)

I agree, I would really like to know where the first page cut began in the Bible, and can't remember if anyone figured that out (or if it was told in a podcast) way back then.

Also curious as you say, is the crossword. That was poured over at great lengths after it appeared on the show, and added a lot to the intrigue of Locke and Eko at the time. I can't remember much detail from that either except that it actually didn't fit with the clues, but at least there is a section on it at Lostpedia!

http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Crossword_puzzle

No, I didn't know the the Fibonacci numbers were based on rabbits, so I just looked it up and see that now! I always thought (in my limited knowledge of it) that it was all about the rectangles.

I really like "The 23rd Psalm", that was a very good episode.

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

I didn't add it to the first comment because I thought I'd leave it for someone else, but my thoughts on the crossword puzzle making no sense is a good look at Locke. He will change things if it means something else will fit, or make sense. Kind of the "Don't tell me what I can't do! (or scratch out)" mantra. Hey, Bigmouth is replying on my blog, but only when I mention Abe Vigoda. Go figure. I wonder how LOST would be if it was M r. Fish instead of Mr. Eko. I think the episode in question would be "The 23rd Bowel Movement."

Capcom said...

LOL, you kill me! X-D

Hey, you may have something there about Locke and cheating on the puzzle! :-o