HeyJ XXIV ( I 983),pp.

417-430

THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN

WILLIAM BLAKE‘S JERUSALEM
LESLIE-ANN HALES
The King’s College, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

The vision of Jesus Christ which reaches its climax in William Blake’s
Jerusalem’ is radically Christian. Emerging gradually in Blake’s poetry
and finding its most powerful expression in Jerusalem is a portrayal of
a Jesus who is grounded in Scripture (and therefore is intended to recall
gospel accounts of Jesus) but who also transcends the restrictions of
orthodox doctrine, especially by his intimate association with Human
Imagination. This view should not be confused with the opinion that Blake’s
Jesus is basically a symbol for Human Imagination. The statement that
Jesus Christ is a symbol of any kind in Blake’s poetry can only be made
with the important qualification that, as a symbol, he points beyond himself
ro himself. It is not the symbol itself which liberates and redeems, but rather
the reality behind the symbol. In Jerusalem this reality is Jesus Christ. Blake’s
later prophetic poems witness to his belief in a Redeemer who fully under-
stands the need for redemption because he dwells immanently in the Human
Imagination. Equally important, this Redeemer can effect redemption
because he transcendently possesses the will and the power to do so. It is
the latter transcendental aspect of Blake’s Jesus which has been misunder-
stood or denied by many critics of Blake’s poetry. The late additions to
The Four Zoas as well as the two prophetic poems, Milton and Jerusalem,
testify to the fact that Blake became increasingly confident of and comfort-
able with his belief in the paradoxical immanence and transcendence of Jesus
Christ. In the final plates of Jerusalem, Jesus exercises transcendent power
in order to rescue Albion from Eternal Death. Secular humanist interpre-
tations of Blake’s poetry deny this reading of the climactic events of
1 This article is derived from the author’s Ph.D. dissertation, ‘The Figure of Jesus
Christ in the Poetry of William Blake’ (Glasgow University, 1980).
2 Following the trend of most current Blake scholars, my quotations from the
Blake poems discussed in this article indicate page references for the two established
editions of Blake’s writings: David Erdman’s The Poehy and Prose of William Bhke
(New York: Doubleday, 1970). abbreviated as E. and Geoffrey Keynes’s Blake The
Complete Writings, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), abbreviated as K.

417
418 LESLIE-ANN HALES

Chapter 4 of Jerusalem and, although they do not necessarily ignore the

figure of Jesus in the poetry, they do tend to underplay his role, to dilute
his significance, or subtly t o mould him into a kind of principle of imagi-
nation which is in accordance with secular humanism. But this simply is not
the way that Blake responded to the figure of Jesus. By the late eighteenth
century, when Blake was writing, the transcendence of the godhead had
degenerated into deism, had become abstracted from humanity. Probably
this explains why Blake felt the need to be circumspect in his own expression
of the transcendence of the godhead, or at least to maintain a delicate
restraint. However, to treat transcendence with restraint is not the same as
doing away with it altogether. No one, of course, questions that the figure of
Jesus in Blake’s poetry is also immanent and intimately associated with
Human Imagination through his relationship with Los. But to give sole
consideration to the immanence of the Christ figure is to limit oneself to
a partial interpretation and also to fail to do justice to the wholeness of
Blake’s vision of Jesus.3 The Jesus Christ figure conceived by Blake does
not conform to orthodox teaching; neither was Blake’s personal approach
to Jesus that of the doctrinally orthodox Christian. However Blake’s own
testimony that he considered himself to be a ‘Soldier of Christ’ should be
taken seriously to denote a commitment to the person and Gospel of Jesus.
What has been partially responsible for confusing readers about Blake’s
response to Jesus is that his attitude towards the institution of the Christian
orthodox Church was so consistently negative. However one cannot over-
emphasize that Blake’s criticism of the Church was intended to be remedial,
for he believed that, over the centuries, the Church had effectively buried
the radical, transforming and redeeming message of Jesus Christ. Hence
Blake’s bitter reflection that ‘the Modern Church Cricifies Christ With the
Head Downwards’. But such criticism never deflected Blake from his attrac-

3 Blake critics seldom agree in their interpretations of the ’religious’ leanings

in Blake’s poetry, especially Blake’s conceptions of God and Jesus Christ. A compre-
hensive treatment of the various opinions on this subject is not possible here. However,
perhaps a brief outline of the two major trends will be helpful.
One group of critics, in which I would include Northrop Frye, John Beer, Jacob
Bronowski, W.H. Stevenson, Harold Bloom, and, to some extent. Denis Saurat, Michael
Ferber, Milton 0. Percival, and Mark Schorer, incline towards a view which stresses the
immanence of Christ in humanity. These critics also tend to emphasize the humanity
of Jesus because they deny any element of transcendence in Blake’s conception. The
critics who disagree with this view are in the minority. However, within this second
group there is a distinction between those who see Blake as a fairly orthodox Christian
(Margaret Bottrell and J.G. Davies) and those who, while affirming his unorthodoxy,
are not averse to the possibility of transcendence in Blake’s conception of Christ and
who see Blake as, in some way, a radical Christian (Thomas J.J. Altizer). My own stance,
as stated in this paper, is that an ‘either/or’ conclusion on the matter fails to recognize
the full impact of Blake’s vision of Jesus.
 THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S JER LISALEM 4 19
tion to the figure of Jesus. Blake was an authentic Christian and the Jesus
Christ figure of Jerusalem reflects this. His Christianity was highly individual,
although it was in accordance with a tradition, albeit an unorthodox
To underestimate Blake’s use of the phrase ‘Soldier of Christ’ with reference
to himself is to underestimate the extent to which the significance of Jesus
Christ lies at the heart of his prophetic message.
In Jerusalem, Blake’s vision of Jesus is brought to fulness. Here we en-
counter all the imagery which Blake used in The Four Zous and Milton,
but the figure of Jesus now dominates the whole poem in a manner hitherto
not attempted by Blake. The climax of this vision, in which humanity finds
unity in Jesus, is certainly not without precedent. A common theme in the
New Testament letters of the apostle Paul is the idea of the unity of all
believers in the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-14; 1 Cor 12:27; Gal 3:28;
Rom 125; Eph 4:14-16). Such passages are concerned to demonstrate that
the spirit of Jesus is such that it gathers up the many and makes them one,
without destroying the uniqueness of the particular; and that one body is
called Jesus Christ. Blake’s references to the ‘One Man Jesus the Saviour’ and
to the ‘Divine Humanity’ are intended to convey much the same insight.
Jerusalem, the spiritual goal of which is the achievement of such divine
unity, opens with Jesus’ affwmation of precisely this oneness: ‘I am not
a God afar off, I am a brother and friend;/within your bosoms I reside, and
you reside in me.’ As if he has already understood the perception which
Jesus presents to Albion, Blake beseeches Jesus for his blessing as he begins
to write his poem: ‘0Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:/
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life.’5 The image of Jesus as
Saviour and Good Shepherd which was met with in the earlier poems is
retained in Jerusulem but now there is greater emphasis on Jesus’ self-sacrifice
in order that Albion might be saved. In Milton, by way of contrast, the
emphasis fell rather on the self-sacrifice of other characters, albeit through
the example of Jesus. Hence, while Los now performs the major task of

4 Leslie Tannenbaum’s Biblical Tradition in Blake’s Early Prophecies: The Great

Code of Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982) is of great interest on this
point. Without denying Blake’s relation to an unorthodox religious tradition, Tannenbaum
closely examines the enormous impact of the Bible and biblical tradition on Blake’s
poetic prophecies. Indeed, Tannenbaum not only notes the biblical sources of Blake’s
thematic use of the Bible, but also the structural parallels between biblical prophetic
structure and Blake’s poetic prophecies.
5 Almost every Blake critic offers some explanation of Blake’s drumatis personae;
however, readers new to Blake’s poetry will fmd helpful Northrop Frye’s Femful
Symmerry (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1947) and Kathleen Raine’s Blake
and Tradition ( ~ V O ~ SLondon:
., Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968). It is wise to be
wary of too rigid classification of these figures since Blake does alter and develop their
characters as his own prophetic vision matures.
420 LESLIE-ANN HALES
the Eternal Prophet, yet his hope and strength depend entirely upon his
faith in the saving power of Jesus. As in MiZfon this salvation consists of
the definition of error so that it may be cast off forever: ‘Giving a Body to
Falsehood so that it may be cast off forever.’ Just as one strand of Paul’s
teaching sees the Saviour as participating fully in the sorrows of humanity,
so Blake’s Jesus ‘assumes’ or puts on Luvah’s robes of blood and offers
himself up as the victim of error and vegetated vision. Although, from one
point of view, Jesus is beyond error because he can triumph over it, and is
even beyond the ultimate attacks of Satan and Rahab, yet he does not stand
juxtaposed to the suffering caused by the fall; to suggest otherwise would
be to deny Jesus his full participatory significance. The paradox of suffering
participation and transcendent power is suggested in the final plate of ch. 1 :
As the Sons of Albion have done to Luvah: so they have in him
Done to the Divine Lord & Saviour, who suffers with those that suffer:
For not one sparrow can suffer, & the whole Universe not suffer also,
In all its Regions, & its Father & Saviour not pity and weep.
But Vengeance is the Destroyer of Grace & Repentence in the bosom
Of the Injurer: in which the Divine Lamb is cruelly slain:
Descend 0 Lamb of God & take away the imputation of Sin
By the Creation of States & the deliverance of Individuals Evermore
Amen
(E169;K648)
The first four lines of the passage above are reminiscent of Mt 25:40:
‘And the King shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, In as
much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it to me.’
Blake’s parallel is deliberate for he means t o imply the same unity between
Jesus and humanity which is the intention of the gospel passage. Yet side
by side in Blake’s lines is the stark reality of the cruel slaying of the Divine
Lamb together with the prayer that this very Lamb descend and save. Some
notion of Jesus’ transcendence, at least in the sense of his overcoming the
very evil he endures, is suggested here. Indeed, it is only faith in this power
of Jesus which permits Los to continue his work as the Eternal Prophet.
The whole poem hinges on this duality in Jesus’ nature: on the one hand,
the willingness to assume Luvah’s robes of blood and become the victim of
error, and on the other hand, the ability to transcend the State Satan into
which Luvah has fallen.
L o s manifests his faith in Jesus in Ch. 1 during the confrontation with
his Spectre who attempts to undermine Los’ faith by challenging Los with
what the Spectre perceives to be the ‘true’ nature of God:
the joys of God advance
For he is Righteous: he is not a Being of Pity & Compassion
He cannot feel Distress; he feeds on Sacrifice & Offering
 THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S JERUSALEM 42 1

Delegating in cries & tears & clothd in holiness & solitude

(E152;K630)
Whenever he wants to set up the false, distorted image of God, Blake invevitably
returns to images from deism or to the Nobodaddy God which he sees
manifest in much of the Old Testament. It is another example of the way
that Blake read the Bible, which is that there is a disjunction between the
God of the Old Testament and the God who is revealed by Jesus. By con-
trasting the two, Blake intends to show that Jesus provides a purification
of the revelation of God. In the above passage, it is Old Testament allusions
rather than deistic which predominate. But the Spectre betrays a false under-
standing of God, a falsehood which Los must constantly deny in order to
remain faithful to Jesus.
Just as, in Blake’s earlier prophetic poems, there is an intimate connection
between the necessity to reveal Mystery and to confront the delusive female
power, so in Jerusalem the forces of error combine to degrade and destroy
Jerusalem, who is at once the bride of Jesus and the emanation of humanity.
Because Blake’s conception of how Jesus overcomes the forces of Satan-
Rahab is rather curious, it is necessary to give some explanation of what
Satan means for Blake. Jesus is said to ‘Assume the dark Satanic body’,
a complex image which requires some clarification. It is helpful to realize
that Jesus puts this ‘body’ on in order that it may be cast off, but we still
need to know just what is being ‘assumed‘ and ‘cast o f f .
The nature of Satan is bound up with the negative concept of the enclosed
Selfhood, and is described as a State of Death. As the ‘Limit of Opacity’,
or totally opaque vision or perception, Satan represents the lowest boundary
of the fall; his is the most vegetated, naturalistic, unimaginative under-
standing of death and morality. His ‘philosophy’ is one which attempts to
convince humanity that the ultimate meaning of life is death, from which
there is no escape and towards which all life proceeds. Satan is the natural
religion which focuses on the dead body of Jesus on the Cross rather than
on the resurrected, eternal Christ. He is the ‘Accuser’, the materialist principle
of doubt and unbelief. He is revenge as opposed to forgiveness, hatred as
opposed to love, and death as opposed to life. Finally, he is also intimately
associated with Rahab, with whom Jesus has the final confrontation at the
end of Jerusalem Rahab is ‘Mystery Babylon the Great Mother of Harlots’
and it is impossible fully to understand Satan without reference to Rahab.
In the hermaphroditic union of Satan and Rahab, Blake carries the con-
cept of male-female counterparts (Jesus and Jerusalem, Los and Enitharmon,
Urizen and Mania, Tharmas and Enion, Luvah and Vala), over into the
realm of the Satanic. The female Rahab is the antithesis of Jerusalem, although
it is inaccurate to consider Rahab as an independent character. Just as Satan
422 LESLIE-ANN HALES
is the embodiment of the most fallen characteristics of Urizen (or sometimes
Luvah), so Rahab is the embodiment of the most fallen form of Vala. Hence
she is Nature, but Nature alienated, externalized, objectified, and idolized.
Through her daughter, Tirzah, she is Natural Religion, or the worship of
the vegetated world. Sexually, Rahab and Tirzah represent Mystery, hypo-
critical chastity, scornful domination of the male, and tyranny in love.
Rahab is at once whoredom and the repression of a healthy, vital expression
of sensuality and sexuality. She is the feminine counterpart of Satan, the
‘Female Will’ which animates him. The characteristics manifest in both
Satan and Rahab are those of the extreme nadir of fallen existence and it
is this that Jesus must triumph over in his effort to redeem fallen humanity,
or Albion. Thus, in ch. 1, the deluded Hand and Hyle sing of Jerusalem:
‘Cast! Cast ye Jerusalem forth! The Shadow of delusions!/The Harlot
daughter! Mother of pity and dishonourable forgiveness/Our Father Albions
sin and shame!’ (E161; K640). Blake uses the same technique here that he
used earlier in the Spectre’s description of God. Hand and Hyle set up Vala,
representative of Natural Religion, hypocritical holiness, and false chastity,
as the true goddess, while Jerusalem is seen as a harlot who brings with
her defilement and who must therefore be destroyed. This most fundamental
travesty of the truth must be forced to consolidate itself into one body of
error. When this does occur, it is Jesus himself who confronts and triumphs
over it. In fact, in ch. 1, Albion is moved by Jerusalem’s pfieous plea to be
returned to the Divine Vision, her ‘Lord and Saviour’. But Albion’s terror
and misery overcome him so that he totally misunderstands how true repen-
tence is received by Jesus:
Blasphemous Sons of Feminine delusion! God in the dreary Void
Dwells from Eternity, wide separated from the Human Soul
But thou deluding Image by whom imbu’d the Veil 1 rent
Lo here is Valas Veil whole, for a Law, a Terror & a Curse!
And therefore God takes vengeance on me: from my cold-clay bosom
My children wander trembling victims of his Moral Justice
(E167; K646)
Albion’s speech both recalls King Lear and suggests Melville’s Ahab, raging
against a tyrannous destiny, but blind to the disease within. Erroneously
perceiving the Divine Vision to be an illusion, Albion cannot yet open himself
to Jesus.
Ch. 2, which is dedicated ‘To the Jews’, opens with an unhappy reflection:
‘Ye are united 0 ye Inhabitants of Earth in One Religion. The Religion of
Jesus: the most Ancient, the Eternal: &the Everlasting Gospel -- the Wicked
will turn it to Wickedness, the Righteous to Righteousness.’ In Jerusalem,
all that is loving, creative, and free in the Gospel of Jesus is distorted into
sinfulness and wickedness or into ‘righteous’ commandments. These veils
 THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN WILLIAM BLAKE‘S JERUSALEM 423
over the truth are the Veils of Mystery which Jesus must rend. Hence the
.
statement by the ‘Eternal Ones’ that ‘. . the Divine Mercy/Steps beyond
and Redeems Man in the Body of Jesus Amen’. Unlike his role in the earlier
prophetic poems, Jesus’ role is much more verbal in Jerusalem. The message
he brings to those in despair is a message grounded in his power to transcend
the worst that Satan can do: ‘Jesus replied. I am the Resurrection & the Life./
I Die & pass the limits of responsibility, as it appears/To individual perception’
(E211; K696). Based on John 11 :23-27, these lines are echoed in the phrase:
‘In me All EternitylMust pass thro’ condemnation, and awake beyond the
Grave!’ In no poem prior to Jerusalem are we made so conscious of what
might best be termed Jesus’ ‘authority’. Given Blake’s extreme antipathy
for authority in its abused institutional and ’vegetated’ form, this is scarcely
surprising. Only with the maturation of his vision of Jesus in the years after
1804 was Blake able to conceive authority more positively. Authority with
reference to Jesus does not mean the ’power to enforce obedience’ (O.E.D.)
for Blake certainly would have discounted a Jesus who enforced obedience
to himself. Jesus’ authority is rather a ‘power to inspire belief, title to be
believed’ (O.E.D.). In Jerusalem Jesus is his own justification beyond
which no further reference is required. When he speaks to Los or Albion or
Jerusalem, two tones of voice are always present. One is the voice of Jesus’
love and sympathy for those who have fallen and are in despair. The other
is the voice of confidence, of Jesus’ awareness of his power to redeem:
his authority. Perhaps the most striking instance of this authority occurs
in Plate 3 1 (35) of ch. 2 wherein Jesus says:
Albion hath enterd the State Satan! Be permanent 0 State!
And be thou for ever accursed! that Albion may rise again:
And be thou created into a State! I go forth to Create
States: to deliver Individuals evermore! Amen
(E176; K662)
In a considerably softened voice, Jesus speaks with similar authority to
Jerusalem, saying: ‘Only believe in me that I have the power to raise from
death/Thy brother who sleepeth in Albion’, and in Ch.4, Jesus says to
Albion, ‘Fear not Albion unless I die thou canst not live/But if I die I shall
rise again & thou with me’. Jesus stands out clearly here as the ‘God of Fire
and Lord of Love’, and it becomes obvious that the redemption of Albion
is totally dependent upon Jesus’ authority and power. Such dependence
upon Jesus is a new element in Blake’s vision, although there were suggestions
in the late additions to The Four Zoas that Blake was moving in,this direc-
tion.6 Bath recognizes this human dependence upon Jesus in his speech to
Albion in ch. 2:
6 H.N. Fairchild says: ‘Since “all Deities reside in the human breast”, there k a sense
in which His [Jesus’] existence depends upon the mind of Los, and hence upon the mind
424 LESLIE-ANN HALES

In Selfhood, we are nothing: but fade away in mornings breath.

Our mildness is nothing: the greatest mildness we can use
Is incapable and nothing! none but the Lamb of God can heal
This dread disease: none but Jesus! 0 Lord descend and save!
Albions Western Gate is clos’d: his death is coming apace!
Jesus aIone can save him . . .’.
(E185;K675)
These lines recall Blake’s confession in Milton that he is ‘nothing and vanity’,
dependent upon Jesus even for the creative power to write the story of
Milton’s deed. The repeated affirmation ‘only in Jesus’ reveals how com-
pletely Blake has given himself over to a ‘Christ-ian’ vision. Only in Jesus is
there a possibility of salvation and redemption. Only in Jesus does humanity
experience the opportunity to achieve its full human potential. Only through
Jesus does humanity open itself imaginatively and spiritually to the New
Jerusalem. This is not merely a secular humanistic affirmation of the powers
of the Human Imagination, though neither does it belittle Imagination.
Blake had too little faith in humanity’s ability to redeem i t s e l n y itself to
conceive a vision of redemption based solely on a human faculty. At the
same time he recognized the potential power of Imagination to work for
humanity’s redemption insofar as it opens itself to and manifests the spirit
of Jesus. To the extent that Human Imagination is the ‘throne of God’ and
a ‘Tabernacle & Temple of the Most High’, it is the divine body of the Lord
Jesus; it is through Imagination that Jesus’ immanence is made manifest.
The transition in Blake’s drama from Los as potential Redeemer to Los
as Eternal Prophet of the Redeemer was a necessary one, for Blake wished
to retain the rich potential of the character of Los but also saw the need to
transfer the actual power of redemption to Jesus. Hence, when Los’ anger
is aroused, it is the prophetic anger of the true Elijah. Naming Los Elijah,
Blake intends to strengthen the idea of relationship between Los and Jesus
and to move away from his earlier position when it appeared that Los might
fulfil the role of Saviour. Despite Los’ efforts to prevent his friend Albion
from falling into Eternal Death, however, Albion finally collapses altogether:
‘Hope is banish’d from me’. But ‘the merciful Saviour in his arms/Receiv’d
him in the arms of tender mercy’. As Albion sinks into a deathly torpor,

of Blake ... There is nothing to suggest that Jesus is exempt from the omnipotence of
human imagination’ (Religious 7Yends in English Poeny, Vol. 111 (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1949), p.111. I believe Jerusalem patently refutes this statement.
Even in The Four Zws Blake emphasized that Los is dependent upon Jesus, not the
other way round. See, for example, The Four Zoas IV,. E331, K304; VII(a), E355, K330;
VIII E357, K341; VIII E358, K342. Also seeferusalem E149, K626. Secondly, Blake’s
Jesus is very much the Jesus of Scripture and therefore not dependent upon the mind
of Blake. Finally, the fact that Jesus, not Los, intervenes to redeem Albion testifies to
Jesus’ independence and authority.
 THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S JERUSALEM 425
Jerusalem remam banished, mocked by Vala, ‘Because thou art the impurity
& the harlot: & thy children!/Children of whoredoms’. Except that Los
refuses to relinquish his task as Eternal Prophet, ch. 2 seems to draw to
a close with human existence nearly at the nadir of despair. Yet despite
this apparent hopelessness, so poignantly voiced in Albion’s final words,
there is still an undeniable sense of the abiding presence of Jesus in whom
some continue to place their trust.
The prose passage dedicated ‘To the Deists’ which opens ch. 3 is as serious
and passionate a defence of the Gospel of Jesus and polemic against deism
as Blake ever wrote. Earlier works, fragments, and epigrams from the
Notebooks evidence how satiric and vituperative Blake could be when he
so chose. In this passage, however, he completely dispenses with that mode
of attack. The Blake who speaks here is serious, impassioned, and faithful
as he clearly expresses his understanding of the Gospel of Jesus. So confident
now is he of his belief that he chooses to call this Gospel Christianity and
he also chooses to align himself with it. If we still do not wish to call Blake
a Christian then we must conclude that what he says in this passage is either
inaccurate or not seriously intended by Blake. The following excerpt is
representative of the passage as a whole:
Deism is the Worship of the God of this World by the means of what
you call Natural Religion and Natural Philosophy, and of Natural
Morality or Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural
Heart . . . Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but
can never be Forgivers of Sin. The Glory of Christianity is, To Conquer
by Forgiveness. All the Destruction therefore, in Christian Europe has
arisen from Deism, which is Natural Religion
(E199; K682)
‘The Glory of Christianity is To Conquer by Forgiveness.’ In a single state-
ment, this expresses Blake’s belief concerning the true message of Jesus and
the true nature of Christianity. Again, one must distinguish between Blake’s
understanding of the Gospel of Jesus and his criticism of the Church. Other-
wise one is caught up in an endless confusion regarding the sincerity of
Blake’s religious responses which need not be a troublesome issue if one
pays attention to the above quotation. To some extent Blake plays the role
of apologist in this passage and perhaps it is simply not true that Christianity
has never been the cause of war. Probably Blake’s reply would be that the
Church may have been the cause of war but that true Christianity which
embodied the Gospel of Jesus could never have been.
The climax of the poem occurs in ch.4, but ch.3 plays a cpcial role
in driving the forces of Mystery and delusion into greater opposition t o
the gospel of Jesus in preparation for the end. It is perhaps Jerusalem who
suffers most in the early parts of ch. 3, believing, yet despairing and forever
426 LESLIE-ANN HALES
mocked by the cruelties of Vala:
All night Vala hears: she triumphs in pride of holiness
To see Jerusalem deface her linements with bitter blows
Of despair. While the Satanic Holiness triumphd in Vala
In a Religion of Chastity & Uncircumcised Selfishness
Both of the Head &Heart & Loins, closd up in Moral Pride
(E208; K693)
But Jesus again speaks to Jerusalem’s despair in words based on Matthew
28:20, assuring her that Vala’s triumph will not be permanent. Those re-
assurances from Jesus shine like brief shafts of light through the gloom of
Jerusalem’s anguish and Albion’s death-like torpor: ‘Fear not! lo I am with
thee always.’ Such words are not merely comforting platitudes; the activity
of the forces of error drives the drama towards the confrontation between
Jesus and Rahab. But Jesus now begins to disclose that he can transcend the
forces of Rahab:
Jesus replied: I am the Resurrection & the Life.
I Die & pass the limits of possibility, as it appears
To individual perception.

I will command the cloud to give thee food & the hard rock
To flow with milk & wine, tho thou seest me not a season
Even a long season & a hard journey & a howling wilderness!
Tho Valas cloud hide thee & Luvahs fires follow thee!
Only believe & trust in me, Lo. I am always with thee!
(E211; K696)
It is this vision of the Lamb of God which permits Los to live and breathe in
hope. Jesus knows that there is still a great conflict with Rahab to be faced
before Jerusalem and Los can see him clearly. At present he is still only seen
through mists. He asks of them belief and trust; he promises life. This is the
single most important characteristic of Jesus in Jerusalem. Turning his back,
Albion has lost the Divine Vision and precipitated disaster. Yet Jesus has
the power, the desire, and the intention to restore life to Albion, to restore
Vala to Albion, and to restore humanity to unity with the divine. Blake
manages a finely balanced juxtaposition of Jesus’ human-divine or earthly-
transcendent nature here, for the words which Jesus speaks to Jerusalem,
to Albion, and to Los are based largely on gospel accounts, in other words,
on that which Jesus is reputed to have said while he lived as a man. But in
Jerusalem this does not account for everything Jesus says. In this poem, he
often speaks from a position of transcendence, a position which is, in some
sense, continually ‘above’ or ‘outside’ the drama at the same time that he is
intimately involved. This may well be part of Blake’s point about the paradox
which Jesus poses: that he is somehow immediate and constantly present,
but also eternal and transcendent.
 THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S JERUSALEM 427
Two other events occur in ch. 3 which pertain to the task of Jesus in
ch.4. The first of these, perhaps, less an event than a gradual movement
and involves the consolidation of the spectrous female forces. Later in the
chapter (plate 67) this female will be called Rahab, but here she is still
called Vala. From one point of view the consolidation of the Daughters of
Albion into Vala seems a portent of disaster. However it is actually a hope-
ful sign, for it is only when this Mystery and error have been revealed that
they can be confronted and cast out by Jesus. This movement is followed by
the consolidation of Vala with the Spectre, ‘a dark Hermaphrodite’, and it
is they who ’vote the death of Luvah & they naild lum to Albions Tree in
Bath’. As sacrifice follows bloody sacrifice, Rahab’s consorts descend into
a frenzy of torment and ritual. Of Rahab, Blake says: ‘. . . her heart is drunk
with blood/Though her brain is not drunk with wine’. This double event -the
consolidation of Rahab and the symbolic crucifixion of Luvah - drives the
action forward to the climax in Ch. 4. The female who animates Satan is the
female who consolidates and is responsible for Luvah’s death, and now that
she has begun to act, the time is nearly come which has been awaited by
those in despair.
Ch. 4 is dedicated ‘To the Christians’ and bears a riddle-like epigram at
its head:
I give you the end of a golden string
Only wind it into a ball:
It will lead you in at Heavens gate,
Built in Jerusalems wall
This epigram could almost serve as a rule of thumb guide for reading not
only Jerusalem, but all the prophetic poems, for it is a call to exercise the
‘Divine Arts of the Imagination’. In 1810, in ‘A Vision of the Last Judgment’,
Blake again referred to this point, the following passage reading like a gloss
on the epigram in ch. 4:
If the Spectator could Enter into these Images in his Imagination
approaching them on the Fiery chariot of his Contemplative Thought
if he could Enter into Noahs Rainbow or into his bosom or could make
a Friend & Companion of one of these Images of wonder which always
intreats him to leave mortal things as he must know then would he arise
from his Grave then would he meet the Lord in the Air, & then would
he be happy
(E550; K611)
This is precisely the ’reader response’ which Blake anticipates, particularly
in the case of Jerusalem. The association of Imagination with Spirituality
in the introductory prose of ch. 4 reinforces this point:
The Apostles knew of no other Gospel. What is th_e Divine Spirit?
What are all their spiritual gifts? is the Holy Ghost any other than an
Intellectual Fountain . . . What is Mortality but the things relating to
428 LESLIE-ANN HALES
the Body, which Dies? What is Immortality but the things relating
to the Spirit, which Lives Eternally! What is the Joy of Heaven but
Improvement in the things of the Spirit?
(E229; K717)
Such passing back and forth between the imagery of the Imagination and
that of the Spirit may be interpreted as a simple equation: Human Imagination
equals Spirit. But there is really no need to do this and the fluidity of the
imagery of Imagination and Spirit is much richer if one avoids such an
equation. Blake believed that one could only truly understand his poetry and
painting if one opened oneself to them through the development of the
highest imaginative faculty possessed by humanity.
Ch. 4 opens with the forces of Rahab combining against Jesus and Jerusalem.
Division remains and even Enitharmon, the emanation of Los, continues to
express her desire for dominion over LOS, a sure sign of fallenness. Yet Los
continues to act the role of Eternal Prophet. Blake’s words about Los in this
chapter, particularly those which occur in plate 88, could almost have been
written about Jesus: ‘The blow of his Hammer is Justice. the swing of his
Hammer: MercylThe force of Los’s Hammer is eternal Forgiveness.’ The
terrible hermaphrodite still rages against Los, but the prophet persists in the
struggle to relay the message of Jesus that ‘He who would see the Divinity
must see him in his Children/One first, in friendship & love; then a Divine
Family, & in the Midst/Jesus will appear.’ Now Los is reassured in his faith
in Jesus, that he will triumph over Rahab and over death: ‘Fear not my
Sons this Waking Death. He is become One with me/Behold him here! We
shall not Die! We shall be united in Jesus.’ The experience of Jesus becoming
one with Los heralds the climax of the poem, and although the extended
passages of almost Bacchic violence which marked the harvest and vintage
in The Four Zoas are absent, yet the drama climaxes in a more impressive
manner: ‘Time was Finished! The Breath Divine Breathed over Albion.’
T h s moment, for two reasons, seems to signal an act of intervention on
Jesus’ part. In the first place, one cannot really say that Albion has contri-
b u k d anything to his own awakening since he has remained in a deathly sleep
throughout the poem. Secondly, even though Albion is awakened by the
Breath Divine and rises in anger to resume command of the fragmented
zoas, yet he still must learn from Jesus to understand the significance of
this event before he can achieve the condition of unity already granted
Los (plate 96). In other words, although it takes place in a very few lines
compared to the length of the whole poem, Albion’s awakening is not so
much an ending to the poem as a beginning, for the end of the poem signals
the introduction of humanity into spiritual unity with Jesus. Of course, on
one level, what has happened to all the other zoas has also happened to
Albion, because they are Albion. On the other hand, he has been presented
 THE FIGURE OF JESUS CHRIST IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S JERUSALEM 429
as asleep and he too must learn the message of Jesus’ Gospel before a real and
comprehensive unity can be achieved.
Jesus’ descent to Albion in plate 96 has generated a good deal of inquiry
and comment because of the particular form in which Jesus appears:
Then Jesus appeared standing by Albion as the Good Shepherd
B y the lost Sheep that he hath found, & Albion knew it
Was the Lord the Universal Humanity, & Albion saw his Form
A Man. & they conversed as Man with Man, in ages of Eternity
And the Divine Appearance was the likeness & similitude of Los
(E253; K743)
Some readers interpret this passage as further evidence that Jesus is, for
Blake, a personification of Human Imagination. However, I would suggest
that, on the contrary, it is Los who is subsumed by Jesus, not Jesus by Los.
A number of factors support this interpretation. Firstly, there has been no
indication in the poem thus far that Jesus and Los are one and the same being.
It is true that Los has ‘kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble’and that he has
acted as prophet of Jesus, but this only indicates that there is someone other
than Los who is the Divine Vision. Secondly, it is Los himself who calls
upon, prays to, and is strengthened by Jesus. It would be a strange tautology
to suggest that Los merely calls upon himself for help or that he prays to
himself for guidance and strength. Thlrdly, there is the statement by Bath
that ‘none but the Lamb of God can heal/This dread disease: none but Jesus’.
Finally, there is Albion’s amazement and wonder in the climactic passages of
ch. 4 at what he calls Los’ ‘sublime honour’. If Blake somehow intended that
Los is Jesus, then there is no honour involved in the fact that Jesus appears
in Los’ form. The honour lies in the very fact that, after all his prodigious
efforts, Los has finally been united with Jesus so that the ‘body’ of one is
the ‘body’ of the other. The result of Los’ ‘I act not for myself is that he
has been transformed into a greater than himself and has been completely
unified in Jesus. Indeed, this is what happens, not only to Los, but also to
Albion at the moment that the latter finally shakes off his Selfhood: ‘So
Albion spoke & threw himself into the Furnaces of affliction/All was a Vision,
all a Dream: the Furnaces became/Fountains of Living Waters flowing from
the Humanity Divine’ (E252; K744). The ‘Furnaces of affliction’ are now
understood t o be the delusions of Selfhood, as having no more substance than
a bad dream. But insofar as Albion has ‘not for himself but for his Friend
Divine’ thrown himself into these furnaces, he has gained salvation in the
‘Fountains of Living Waters’. Albion’s act of selflessness has brought him
into unity with the spirit of Jesus, but again, it is important t? recognize
that, even after this event, Blake does not identify Albion and Jesus any
more than he identifies Los and Jesus or Luvah and Jesus. In John’s gospel,
even Jesus himself uses a metaphor to describe a state of unity such as Blake
430 LESLIE-ANN HALES
wants to articulate: ‘I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in
me, and I in him,the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye
can do nothing’ (John 15:6). It is a state of unity such as this into which
Albion has entered. He has not become Jesus, for after the passage in which
Albion emerges from the furnaces of affliction into the fountains of living
water, Blake continues to speak of Albion and Jesus as distinct identities:
‘Then Albion stood before Jesus in the Clouds/Of Heaven Fourfold among
the Visions of God in Eternity.’ Immediately after this, as Albion calls to
Jerusalem to awake, Blake writes: ‘So spake the Vision of Albion & in him
so spake in my hearing/The Universal Father.’ Blake does not say that
Albion is the universal Father. He says that the Universal Father spoke in
or, perhaps, through Albion. What Blake wants to convey is that what
Albion (humanity redeemed) now says and does is said and done ‘in the
spirit’ of the Universal Father. Twice in the same plate (plate 97) Blake
writes that the resurrection to new life in which Albion now participates
is ‘Forgiveness of sins according to the Covenant of Jehovah’. It is not the
Covenant of Albion which has now been fulfilled, but the Covenant of
Jehovah. This also suggests that the Universal Father, or Jehovah, is some-
how separate from humanity, is transcendent. Any religious language is
properly and inevitably the language of symbol and image. As long as we,
as readers, are guided by this principle, we need not entangle ourselves in
complex ontological discussions with regard to the final plates of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem conveys an increasing sense of urgency and clarity on Blake’s
part as to the mature expression of his vision of Jesus. Through the redemptive
action of Jesus throughout the poem, but especially in the final chapter,
Blake explodes the idea that Jesus Christ is, for him, only a symbol, an
abstraction, or some kind of poetic principle of Imagination. Jerusalem is
a complex poem which incorporates and expands much material from the
earlier prophetic poems. This in itself, however, can be explained partially
by Blake’s gradual realization, beginning around 1802, that, as comprehensive
as the scheme of the four zoas might be in describing humanity, it could not
adequately describe the figure of Jesus Christ. The move away from Los
and towards Jesus as Redeemer may also help to explain why Blake never
completed The Four Zoas for publication, for the new emphasis on Jesus
was inconsistent with the generally humanist thrust of that poem. Milton
served further to explore the Gospel of Jesus - ‘forgiveness of sin’ - and
Jerusalem offers the culmination of the vision. As unorthodox and radical
as Blake’s understanding of Jesus undoubtedly was, yet it is Jesus Christ
who, in Jerusalem, effects the salvation and redemption of Albion, who
vanquishes Eternal Death, and who establishes the New Jerusalem.