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When the song hits the second chorus, it expands upon the above two lines:
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This, however, is only the beginning of the song’s Biblical allusions, references, and parallels. Isaiah 43 may be the most direct reference, however the Bible passage even repeats the reference to water in a dry land just as the song’s chorus does. These lines are direct references to the book of Isaiah, which contains multiple passages that mention creating rivers in a desert (or other dry land), including Isaiah 41:18 43:19-20 and 50:2. The song in question is titled “Rivers in the Desert,” and in addition to being arguably one of the most JAMMING songs on the fantastic soundtrack, its title (borrowed from a line in the chorus) is an incredibly overt Biblical reference. The thief parallel pales in comparison to the direct Biblical allusions found in the song that plays during the final boss-the unequivocal exclamation point to the game’s themes. While Jesus does this for anyone who accepts his gift of salvation and chooses to turn to him, the Phantom Thieves do this same thing for a girl who eventually becomes their ally: Futaba, who recognizes she is trapped inside her mind and is desperate for relief, knowing the Phantom Thieves are her only hope for a healthy life.Īnd this isn’t even the most overt reference to Christianity in Persona 5. Still, there is a case where both parties change the hearts of someone who volunteers-no, desperately begs them-to change her heart. While the Phantom Thieves hardly ask permission of their villainous victims to change their hearts, Jesus never forces anyone to accept his change of heart. However, one might argue, unlike the Phantom Thieves, Jesus only comes to steal away a heart freely offered. In both cases, the “thieves” steal to set people free. While the Phantom Thieves snatch away a person’s “treasure” (someone’s most cherished idea) to destroy their distorted desires, Jesus snatches our hearts away from Satan, providing a way for us to be cleansed of our own distorted desires: to form a relationship with Jesus and to become more and more of the purified, true self we were meant to be. Neither the Phantom Thieves nor Jesus attempt to steal material wealth and goods they’re operating on a spiritual, soul-level, dealing with people’s hearts. The Phantom Thieves use their ability to enter into others’ minds (their “superior strength,” as Mark 3 puts it) to plunder powerful, “strong” men, 3 just like Jesus does. Instead, they’re all “Robin Hood”-like thieves: the kind who steal from criminals to bring about justice.īut the similarities don’t stop there. Neither Jesus nor the Phantom Thieves are thieves in the typical sense of the word (that is, criminals who take things from good people). This disobedience put Earth in the hands of Satan (Matthew 4:8-9) essentially, by choosing to sin, we became Satan’s “goods.” However, Jesus came to steal us back.Īnd this is where the verses comparing God to a thief-and Persona 5’s Christian parallels-come into play. When humanity chose to disobey God, we chose a life where we would be subservient to our own “distorted desires,” as Persona 5 calls the evil (sinful) desires of humankind. Why would the Creator of the universe need to steal anything? And wasn’t that wrong? Sinful?įunny enough, it was the Phantom Thieves of Persona 5 that helped me understand these verses better. I always thought these passages were strange: they seemed out of place for the Bible and out of character for God. For instance, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, where “the day of the Lord’s return” is said will come “like a thief in the night.” 1 Or, more overtly, Mark 3:22-27, in which Jesus (who is God in human flesh) reveals that he came to “enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods,” 2 a metaphor for how Jesus would overcome Satan and save humanity from sin, spiritual death, and eternal torment. The Bible contains a couple passages where God equates himself (or his actions) to that of a thief. Still, I found the amount of Christian references and parallels in Persona 5 striking.įor starters, both Persona 5 and the Bible are about particularly notable thieves. This reliance on mythological beings for combat is a staple of the Persona franchise and its mother series, Shin Megami Tensei, meaning mythological and religious references really aren’t anything new for this series.
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Atlus 2016-2017 Screenshot from Persona 5 by JohneAwesome on YouTube