--- title: Game of Thrones: Religious Origins of That Jon Snow Moment description: That Jon Snow news in Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 2 has religious connotations in Christianity, Judaism and Easter religions canonical: https://time.com/4314749/jon-snow-moment-religion/ author: Rabbi David Wolpe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-02T18:15:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:32.066Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Religious Origins of That Major Jon Snow Moment og:description: Warning: Spoilers ahead og:url: https://time.com/4314749/jon-snow-moment-religion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d20d9ebd3595fdd/69888f298e060109f9465706/jon-snow-game-of-thrones.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: jon-snow-game-of-thrones og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Religious Origins of That Major Jon Snow Moment twitter:description: Warning: Spoilers ahead twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d20d9ebd3595fdd/69888f298e060109f9465706/jon-snow-game-of-thrones.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Religious Origins of That Major Jon Snow Moment > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=ba4207ae-c273-4d2e-9ef2-b6d44aa6c284&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A History of Dragons [Watch (HLS stream): A History of Dragons](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aX3EGE0r.m3u8) (2:51)  _Published 2016-04-22. Professor Christopher Fee discusses the history of dragons in our culture and their relevance today._ by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe May 2, 2016 6:15 PM UTC  Kit Harington as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. Kit Harington as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. Helen Sloan—HBO by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe May 2, 2016 6:15 PM UTC Well, Jon Snow has been [resurrected](http://time.com/4313759/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-melisandre-twitter-reacts/) on _Game of Thrones_. Western culture is no stranger to resurrections, of course. Christianity based itself on belief in just such an event. What many may not be aware of, however, is that the idea of resurrection long predates Christianity and was already present in the Judaism from which Christianity sprung as well as in religions that predate Judaism. In the Hebrew bible the prophet Elisha (2Kings chapter 4) resurrects a child. But not only are incidents of resurrections reported, future resurrections are predicted. In Daniel, we are told that at the end of time: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life.” There are various conceptions of afterlife in the religions of the world. In Eastern religions reincarnation is predominant. Among Western faiths, more commonly discussed is that the soul lives on after us. While it strikes many as the most probable, the truth is we have no experience of a disembodied person. All we know and experience about ourselves is tied to physical experience. The more we learn about our bodies, the more we appreciate the indispensability of physicality to what we know of ourselves. When your brain changes, you change as a person. So what is the imperishable essence that is not also part of our material being? That is why the idea of resurrection has a certain appeal. It affirms the essential goodness of the body. It says that in our ideal states, we will have bodies, and therefore bodies are not bad or essentially sinful. Moreover, resurrection is faithful in some sense to our experience—as we were once born from nothing, we would recreated from nothing, or from the dust of what we were. Vladimir Nabokov’s book [_Speak Memory_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679723390/?tag=timecom-20) opens with a passage declaring that our existence is a brief crack of light between two darknesses, the one before we were born and the one after we die. Dying is, in a sense, returning to the prenatal death. But of course, if there was once a birth, why not again? Judaism and Christianity are hardly the first or the only to imagine rebirth. It seems inevitable, as nature gives us examples of resurrection each spring, when flowers re-bloom from the dead earth. In ancient Egypt, Osiris suffered, died and rose again. Ancient Greek and Near Eastern writings similarly tell stories of death and resurrection. Apart from theology, hints of resurrection thread through our lives. We look for old ideas to be renewed, old joys and music rediscovered, the things and people we once knew or loved somehow springing up anew. There is a Jewish practice of saying a blessing when you encounter a friend you have not seen for a long time—”Blessed be God who resurrects the dead.” Our lives, which are full of things passing away, are full of resurrections. The most painful of course, is that those whom we have truly lost do not return. Not yet, anyway. As some small consolation, for now, we have Jon Snow back. ## Transcript Well, dragons never seem to go away do they? They occur in culture after culture. They occur in story after story. The idea of. Of being able to live in world full of magical creatures well that offers a certain excitement and joy and curiosity. Dragons are like a canvas upon which we paint our fears and desires as a culture and I think they remain relevant because they change with us. [ MUSIC ] Well in today's world we often define a dragon as a giant, scaly, winged reptilian beast, often can breathe fire. In the ancient world this wasn't always the case. They were very often giant serpents of various kinds. And they could be also multivalent. In the Asian world for example, dragons are often Symbols of good luck, good fortune. While in the biblical tradition, on the other hand, dragons are clearly evil. In the middle ages, dragons were indeed emblems of greed, avarice. Most people in America today would know that through the Hobbit and Smaug the dragon who was clearly developed on that exact theme and that In the Arthurian tradition, dragons are associated with the rise of a mighty, powerful, royal house, as well with omens and portents having to do with their demise. It seems to me that in Game of Thrones, this association with royalty and portents comes most clearly from the Arthurian tradition which Dragons might represents [ UNKNOWN ] [ MUSIC ] One of the ways that dragons myth spread was through travellers coming back with stories of dragons. So imagine if you will that, you travelled to North Africa from England When the 12th to 13th century and you saw a crocodile wouldn't that appear to you to be a monstrous, demonic beast? In our culture, dragons tell us about that which we fear not just out on the world like a crocodile but within ourselves like greed. Game of Thrones Plays with our sense of light and darkness, the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. And this tension is developed fully in the symbol of the dragon. Because the dragon, Dragon represents great power, but it also represents greed and destruction. And this bring together of these ideas tell us something about ourselves. Both what we fear, what we want, and what we would like to be. 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