How Did Dante's Inferno Corrupt

Dante’s Inferno was written by a Renaissance Poet named Dante Alighieri born in 1265. He wrote this poem after being banished from his home town in Italy; and naturally he wrote a story about his enemies burning in the eternal inferno that is Hell. This epic poem tells a tale of Dante being led by Virgil (Who is another poet that Dante looked up to) down through the inner circles of Hell. Dante gives a lot of gruesome details about what happens in the Inferno and tells us of various beasts and historical people along the way. Even though a lot of the epic poem is fiction and Dante being dramatic, Dante’s Inferno has many parts that are Biblically accurate. The eternal torment that awaits those in Hell is quite true to the Bible, Matthew 25:46

states, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” This is Jesus speaking of the eternal torment that awaits sinners who don’t follow Christ. Another thing that Dante was correct about, is that everyone shall be judged. “They yearn for what they fear for” (Canto III Dante). This quote from the poem can help explain how even Dante understood that the judgment day will be coming. Lastly, a huge thing in Dante’s day is that; no matter your social status you will still go to Hell with everyone else. This is contrary to the corrupt Church at the time which would allow a pardon from your sins if you had the coin. In the poem Dante’s Inferno, not everything is true to the Bible, but he was right about the eternal suffering, that

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everyone will receive judgment, and that no one can escape this judgement if they do not have Christ.

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8). This is what the Bible has to say about the torment that await those in Hell. They will burn for eternity in a lake of fire, this is the eternal torment that all sinners deserve. This is very similar to what Dante writes about in his poem where he states, “But fix thine eyes below, for the river of blood is near, in which boils whoso doth harm to others by violence. “Empedocles taught, as Dante may have learned from Aristotle, that Love and Hate were the forces by which the elements of which the world is composed were united and dissociated. The effort of Love was to draw all things into a simple perfect sphere, by which the common order of the world would be brought to chaos.
Oh blind cupidity, both guilty and mad, that so spurs us in the brief life, and then, in the eternal, steeps us so ill! I saw a broad ditch, bent in an arc, like one that embraces all the plain; according as my Guide had said. And between the foot of the bank and it, in a file were running Centaurs armed with arrows, as they were wont in the world to go to the chase. Seeing us descending, all stopped, and from the troop three detached themselves, with bows and arrows first selected. And one shouted from afar, "To what torment are ye coming, ye who descend the slope? Tell it from there; if not, I draw the bow." My Master said, "We will make answer unto Chiron near you there: ill was it that thy will was ever thus hasty." (Canto XII Dante) This explains the punishment similar to a lake of fire Dante imagined.
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However, Dante imagined a punishment for sinners who committed sins of violence to be a river of boiling blood. This wasn’t all the punishment though because if they tried to stand up and get their body out of the blood they were shot with arrows by centaurs looking on. This is where it starts to go into the more fictional realm because the Bible does not say anything about centaurs; which are mythical beasts that are half man and half horse. Even though Dante adds some fiction to his idea of Hell he gets the point across of how scary it really is.
“Jesus speaks the fiery judgment of hell so much (Matt 13:41-42) that it makes us ask, “Is there literal fire in hell?” This fire is said to be “the unquenchable fire” not “an unquenchable fire” perhaps indicating that each person’s hell is different. Jesus shows us that there are different degrees of punishment in hell when He said “that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating” (Luke 12:47). In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, there was memory of the rich man’s former life and family, there was a fire that could not be quenched, there was thirst so we’ll have all of our senses, and we’ll have regret meaning that our conscience will still be active (Luke 16:19-31). We’ll also be separated from God. Is it a literal fire intense mental anguish? That “weeping and gnashing” indicate utter despair and eternal regret. You could always tell when my cousin was anxious; he would be grinding his teeth. He did it more when we had to wait for an appointment or something. The longer he waited, the more he gritted his teeth. He was simply “gnashing” his teeth…waiting, hoping, longing…but unlike his appointment, those in hell wait forever. All who enter here, it was said of hell, abandon all hope.” (patheos.com)

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Everyone that does not have their sins paid for by the blood of Jesus will go to Hell, however before this they will be judged. This judgement will be very hard for many, even those who have followed Christ. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15). This verse explains that God will look at all of our lives closely and judge our every individual action while seated on his throne. In Dante’s Inferno he has a different way of people being judged;
“Minos hears the souls confess their sins, and then wraps his tail around himself to determine the number of the circle where the sinner belongs. Minos tells Dante to beware of where he goes and to whom he turns. Minos cautions Dante against entering, but Virgil silences him, first by asking him why he too questions Dante (as Charon did), and then by telling him, in the same words he used to tell Charon, that it was willed, and what is willed must occur. (The word "Heaven" is not used, here or anywhere else in Hell.)” (Canto V Dante)

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Needless to say Dante had the judgement different for those in Hell, having a spirit judge the sinners and giving them a different punishment depending on their crimes. This doesn’t seem very likely however because Jesus tells us that all sins are judged the same by God. So it seems that different punishments that are worse for certain sins wouldn’t be a thing however; Hell is such an awful place that it is absent of God’s holy presence. So potentially there could be different punishments here for different sins although the Bible does not confirm this at all.

As the previous topic stated, everyone will receive judgment yet no matter how rich one is, or their social status they will still be judged.

In Dante’s time the rich and the church were very corrupt. Dante would not stand for this so he started to stand up politically to the church, this is why he was banished from his town. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin are death, and Dante was very aware of this but the church did not want to listen to him. The church was full of sin, they would lie to the church members and accept money to cleanse someone of their sins. Because the Bible wasn’t as readily available then as it is now, the priests could get away with whatever they wanted and tell the followers that it was in the Bible. Dante could not stand this, so he wrote about it. In his poem he wrote about these corrupt politicians and priests in the lowest circles of Hell and even added clever dialogue about how they wished they hadn’t committed these

sins.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in epurple and fine linen and fwho feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate gwas laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with hwhat fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by ithe
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angels jto Abraham’s side.6 The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in kHades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and lsaw Abraham far off and Lazarus jat his side. 24 And he called out, m‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and ncool my tongue, for oI am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that pyou in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have qMoses and the Prophets; rlet them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, sfather Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear qMoses and the Prophets, tneither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ” (Luke 16:19-31)
This story is a good explanation of how wealth affects your eternal life. No matter how much you have, you cannot escape the judgment that is inevitable. This is what Dante was trying to get across to the people of his time. You cannot escape judgement; this is why you must accept Jesus’s sacrifice for your eternal life. The Bible even says that wealth is usually a bad thing for it states, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus requires us to give up everything to follow him so it’s no wonder that

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Dante had made enemies with the church leaders of the time; they were hardly followers of Christ.

Dante was very Biblically accurate when writing about judgment.

Dante’s poem is a good tool to use to understand Hell and the end times. It is not God-breathed so nothing in it is one-hundred percent true, but it is a good and creative resource. He makes many cases that almost Biblically accurate, but he throws in too much fiction with creatures and punishments. His creative thoughts are very passive aggressive at times towards his enemies, and are very intriguing to us these days. It is interesting to compare Dante’s Hell to say a simple Hell from a cartoon like Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry is a cartoon about a cat who is always trying to capture a mouse, and of course the cat eventually goes down to Hell and has to be judged for his actions against the cat. This modern interpretation of hell is similar to Dante’s in the fiery and shadowy

atmosphere.