GinoMan2440

There's obviously two different worldviews presented here... the one who says "flatland is all we have" and the other that says "there's more".... Religion sucks... agreed... but that doesn't mean there isn't more... that doesn't mean that God isn't a reality, and not just "a" reality, but the ultimate reality. Just because you can support the view that "flatland" is all we have with logic and "science" it doesn't make it the right opinion. Your interpretation bears out this fact. I must say that it seems quite shallow... if you did ascribe to some sort of religion then this song is a gold mine of exegesis but instead you delude that depth of meaning and richness of reality to the song with your bias and godless non-reasoning. For this... you are in error. you cannot merely disregard spirituality as "deluded". You are a human being, a fusion between both a spiritual and a physical world. you occupy a space in both of those realms. you may claim to not be into spiritual things, but the fact of your humanity testifies that you are, unavoidably and irrevocably, a spiritual being. that being said.............. Here's my exegesis: "I used to rule the world Seas would rise when I gave the word Now in the morning I sleep alone Sweep the streets I used to own..." I think there's some credence to the idea that the song describes life from Jesus' perspective. even the title "viva la vida" which means "live the life" is an allusion to the Bible. Jesus claims that the way he's teaching is the best possible way to live your life. the title almost sounds like a command "Live the life!" just as Jesus said "I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest!". The Second line seems consistent with this interpretation because it describes God's sovereign control over the seas. Jesus would have slept alone instead of being surrounded by angels who adored him and cared for his every need... in fact, he wouldn't have slept in heaven, but now he not only has to experience this thing called "sleep" but experience in loneliness. Reformed christians would say that Jesus went to hell during his death and that this lonely sleep is an allusion to the three days he was dead. If the song indeed references Jesus, then the last line could be an allusion to his servanthood. Both Matthew and Mark record Jesus as saying: "The Son of Man (a phrase describing the messiah (g: christos)) did not come to serve, but to be served as a ransom of many" I used to roll the dice Feel the fear in my enemies eyes Listen as the crowd would sing: "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!" The Jesus interpretation is a little trickier to catch in this stanza because the dice is kinda a strange reference given the interpretation. and the last line is a bit tricky to decode as far as who the people are referring to. In ancient times, they believed that because God is ultimately sovereign, that "random" didn't exist. Instead, the believed that God controlled every event that happened and that every event that happened happened for a reason. so if you rolled the dice to make a decision, God was ultimately in sovereign control of the results of those dice. He had sovereignly decreed before the foundation of the earth that the dice would land that way that the decision that was made from those dice was God's sovereign decree.... assuming God's sovereign control as reformed christians do to this day, this makes sense. God's sovereignty would mean also that he triumphed over his enemies at all times. If you're a lowly angel and you're up against the sovereign God of the universe, you're screwed! So his enemy is rightly fearful. The last line is a very interesting way of looking at things... it could refer to a lot of things, Abraham becoming a jew based on God's revelation. specifically that instead of many gods, there is one God. so the old king (the gods) is dead, long live the (new) king (God (h: Elohim)). it could also refer to Pharaoh (the old king) and God (long live the king). this seems like a better interpretation since he seems to be referring to a past time when the old king ruled and he deposed him in the past. another possible interpretation is that Jesus is referring to the laws of sin and the law of grace. so the old king is the law of sin that rules over us and now him, the new king, can rule over our hearts and free us from the laws of sin and death. the only weakness in this interpretation is that when Jesus sings the song, he is on earth after giving up his royal, Godly power to live among us. The bible says that Jesus didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped. so when Jesus came to earth, he gave up his God power to be like us. if so, then it seems kinda strange that Jesus is talking about how he no longer has that power at a time when he would have gotten it back (after his resurrection). it's for this reason that I favor the second interpretation that he's referring to pharaoh and himself. One minute I held the key Next the walls were closed on me And I discovered that my castles stand Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand Jesus gives the keys to the kingdom to his church. This phrase "give the keys to the kingdom" is actually an ancient hebrew expression. what it meant to a hebrew person was that the person that held the keys, had the authority to bind and loose doctrine. you see... rabbis each had interpretations of the torah, and so this interpretation they called their "yoke". so when Jesus says "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" he's referring to his interpretation of scripture, or specifically the things that he allowed and forbid (loosed and bound respectively they called them). Any rule in a rabbi's yoke that forbid you from doing something was called "binding" and any rule that opened you up to doing things and allowed you to do them, was called "loosing". and a person who had quite a lot of bindings in his yoke, was said to have a heavy yoke. Jesus interestingly says that his yoke is "light" so one moment Jesus holds the keys to the kingdom, and the next "the walls were closed on me". this is actually quite a difficult part considering that you'd expect doors to be closed on Jesus, not walls. this could possibly be a neo-idiomatic expression used for an old context. in that case, Jesus would be saying first everything's great and I have the power to bind and loose, next the walls are closing in and I'm about to die. Next we see an interesting phrase: "And I discovered that my castles stand, upon pillers of salt and pillers of sand". The piller of salt could be a reference to the old testament and the pillers of sand could be a reference to the new testament. if so, the pillers of salt are a reference to the story of sodom and gommorha when Lot's wife turns back and turns into a piller of salt, and the piller of sand a reference to Jesus' sermon on the mound. If so, it's difficult to decipher what this phrase is saying exactly... and it begs the question "well, what were Jesus' castles? It could also reference the disciples who scattered when Jesus was killed. This scattering would be the disciples running away because their lives are not founded on Jesus Christ, but instead on pillers of salt and sand, the old testament lust for sin and the new testament lack of a firm foundation on which to stand in one's life. thus they crumbled and scattered as if a million pieces. I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can not explain Once you know there was never, never an honest word That was when I ruled the world I think the first two lines are Jesus' enumeration of the two groups that wanted him dead: the jews (jerusalem bells a-ringing) and the gentiles/romans (Roman Cavalry choirs are singing)... Jesus appeals then to his followers. In Genesis when it talks about the creation of the world in Genesis 2, it says that the Collective of persons of the elohim (who is a single being) decide to make humans in their own image... a three in one-ness entity. if you think about how a human works, they are a body, and a spirit, and a soul which consists of a mind, a will, and a heart. in this way, we are modeled after this same primary three persons in one being. Later, in the New Testament, it talks about how God is conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul makes a reference to the mirror in describing how we see poorly our old life and are now being seen clearly in love (Jesus Christ). The N/T also refers to us as the army of God, his defenders who war against not flesh and blood but powers and principalities of the air in this dark age. He also charges us to preach the good news that God, through his son is gonna put everything back together, he's gonna repair the whole universe and set everything ultimately right again and that we get to be part of this awesome communal-putting-everything-back-together work of creation. The next part is hard to make sense of. it seems that Jesus is expressing that somehow, once you know there was an honest word, that was when I ruled the world... I removed the "never, never" because it seems it might be a double negative of emphasis. This could be a reference to when Jesus says "you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free". One thing to notice is that when Jesus ruled the world was before he was incarnated. keeping this in mind, "once you know there was never, never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world" seems to make a bit more sense, when Jesus ruled the world, the world practiced deceit because of it's sin. Since sin which is the most elemental form of dishonesty pervaded, then never an honest world when Jesus ruled the world makes sense... this is highlighting what Jesus has now come to fix. It was the wicked and wild wind Blew down the doors to let me in. Shattered windows and the sound of drums People could not believe what I'd become Revolutionaries Wait For my head on a silver plate Just a puppet on a lonely string Oh who would ever want to be king? the first two lines almost scream satan if you can see it... angels are spirits.. in the ancient languages the Bible was written in (hebrew and greek) the word for spirit was "ruah" and "pneuma" respectively. When someone has fluid in the lungs where they breathe, we call it "pneumonia" which is a derivative of the latter greek term. pneuma/ruah means "spirit, breath, wind, movement of air" it is sometimes translated "breath of life" and it's etymology is based on the simple observation that humans have this fundamental in and out cadence, this rhythm to their bodies that if that beat stops, that the person ceases to live and that if the person has this cadance then that person is alive. the ancients simply associated this cadance to the essence of who the person was and thus the concept of spirit was born. anywhere you see "wind" or "breath" or "spirit", the words are interchangable. so for this wicked and wild spirit, to blow down the doors (This event was called "the fall" and it's at this point where God now has to bail us out of our sin prisons that we've made for ourselves. Jesus now must be let in so that we are no longer in a place where Jesus/God is absent from our lives. Shattered glass doesn't seem to have a biblical analogue and thus seems out of place but given the whole phrase "shattered windows and the sound of drums" we realize that the shattered windows is referring to the broken people who are in the world marching to the beat of an evil drum (sin). People couldn't believe what I'd become seems to be a reference to when Jesus returned to Nazareth to minister and the people said "isn't this mary and joseph's son, who was born illegitimately? and he's claiming to be the messiah?". The Revolutionaries who wait for Jesus Head on a silver plate could be a reference to the agents of heaven who wanted to depose of God in heaven and still do to this day (they are no longer angels but demons and the enemy himself: satan). it could also be a sarcastic reference to the pharisees who wanted him dead. they were far from revolutionary but they tried to put themselves out there as though they were. Jesus doesn't seem like he'd be a puppet but if you think about how he was under the orders of God the Father to die for the sins of the whole world, and that he had to partake of this cup alone, perhaps "puppet on a lonely string" is quite appropriate. and then he says "Oh who would ever want to be king?" given the circumstances the king had to go through to keep his subjects and fix everything they broke, who WOULD ever want to be king? I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can not explain I know Saint Peter won't call my name Never an honest word And that was when I ruled the world (Ohhhhh Ohhh Ohhh) Hear Jerusalem bells are ringings Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can not explain I know Saint Peter will call my name Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world Oooooh Oooooh Oooooh These chori are the same, but it's sung twice. the only change in these chori is that it now says "I know saint peter won't call my name" now, catholics believe that peter is the first magisterium of the Church. and that he had a line of successors and that he really does stand at the gates of heaven guarding it and that whoever's name he calls from the book of life will get to enter. Still It should also be noted that Jesus has just been resurrected but is still on earth and thus in no posession of his heavenly power. The only event that really corresponds to this phrase in scripture is the specific incident where Peter denied Christ three times... it's a lot easier to then see where "never an honest word" come from... but that was when Christ ruled the world suddenly becomes difficult, unless the intent here is that even in death he ruled the world, he'd never really lost his control over everything. as it says at the end of Matthew: "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore....." Given this data, I have to chose the latter interpretation based on peter's denial of the Christ. In conclusion, the interpretation that the song is Christ talking casually about how things used to be when he ruled the world and the changes he's made through his death and resurrection seems to stand up quite well given a further analysis. It takes this kind of examination to find the meaning of any text, whether the scripture or a song by Coldplay. Things used to be really bad because of sin.... but that's when Christ ruled the world.