Paradise Lost: Book 12 Summary & Analysis

Mankind basically starts over with a new Adam (Noah), but human nature is still fundamentally corrupted by the Fall. God doesn’t change anything about the sinful nature of the Earth except for destroying most of it.

Milton defines different chapters of history by sin, and in Nimrod’s generation humans fall victim to a monstrous pride. Nimrod’s sin is similar to that of Satan, as he actively flaunts his power and threatens God’s hierarchy. This vision of Nimrod allows Milton to expound further on his ideas about political and religious freedom.

Milton opposed the monarchy in England (even at risk to his own life, as when writing Paradise Lost), and he saw most monarchs as tyrants. God is a monarch, but his rule is part of the proper order and hierarchy, whereas Milton did not think it proper for men to rule over other men. Milton also warns that even “free” humans can be ruled by their sinful natures, so the only way to be truly free is to use one’s “right reason” and remain obedient to God, the proper ruler who gives true freedom.

Abraham becomes the next “one righteous man” who will father the nation of Israel. It is out of this nation that the Messiah will one day be born. The “Promised Land” of Canaan becomes a metaphor and foreshadowing of the Promised Land of Heaven, to which Jesus will lead the “nation” of all humanity.

Milton remains faithful to the Biblical account of the Exodus, which is another example of people rebelling against an unjust, ungodly tyrant. According to Christian tradition, Moses is the author of the first books of the Old Testament, including Genesis. So, in a strange twist, in seeing Moses, Adam sees the future man who will write the story of Adam himself, and the account Milton will then use for Paradise Lost.

At the beginning of the poem Milton invoked the Muse that inspired Moses when he was on Sinai. The Ten Commandments were given directly by God, but they were then followed by a long list of complex laws that the Israelites continuously failed to uphold.

Milton explains this Old Testament story from the traditional Christian perspective – the old laws existed only to point out how sinful humans were, and how incapable they were of goodness without God. The failure to uphold the law required a sacrifice for God’s justice to be fulfilled, but there was no proper sacrifice until the Son himself died for all humanity.

Michael explicitly points out the Old Testament typology that Christian doctrine emphasizes, noting how Joshua even shares Jesus’s name (Jesus was called Yeshua or Joshua in Hebrew). Milton now starts skipping more quickly through history. He implies that though tyranny is a great sin, God allows tyrants to exist for the sake of punishing the sinful populace.

Michael finally reaches the climax of all this build-up, and the pinnacle of all human history (from a Christian perspective) – the incarnation of the Son. Michael also affirms the metaphorical significance of God’s curse to “bruise the serpent’s head.”

Instead of another violent, terrible war in Heaven, the Son’s ultimate defeat of Satan will involve his love and humility. By “condescending” to become a man and die for the sins of all humans (or, symbolically, Adam’s sin that infected all other humans), Jesus will fulfill God’s proper justice, defeat the power of Death, and begin to restore humanity to its proper obedience and order.

On Judgment Day the Son will return everything to its proper order and hierarchy, but it will be an order that is even better than it was before the Fall, as humans will be elevated to Heaven. Adam’s reaction brings up the theory of the “fortunate Fall,” which says that though the Fall is evil, God brings great good out of it by using it to show his mercy, power, and love to humans in ways they could not have seen if they had remained perfect. Different critics have debated whether the results of the Fall are so “fortunate” that it was actually a positive thing, but Milton doesn’t seem to go this far. He does show that because God exists outside of time, he can include the Fall into his overarching plan for the good of all creation.

Milton now moves into a brief commentary on his own time and the long stretch of human history after Jesus’s resurrection, when Christians still wait for Judgment Day. Milton uses Michael’s voice to comment on the “wolves” (similar to Satan leaping into Eden) of the paid and corrupted clergy who will often lead Christians astray. The motif of the “one righteous man” has been fulfilled by Christ, but all good Christians will continue to be persecuted.

Adam is punished for his own crime, but he has now been shown its results throughout the scope of all human history. The result of all this lofty knowledge is that Adam finally learns his lesson – to be content with the knowledge God has decreed, and to live his life in simple obedience to God. Just as Satan carries Hell within him, so Adam can carry Paradise.

After expanding his ambitious epic through millennia, Milton ends the poem at the beginning of Fallen history. Though Adam has received a sort of “predestination” concerning his offspring, he and Eve still have free will concerning their own personal futures, and they have now learned the lesson of the Fall. They again take comfort in their love for each other and they will now try to be more obedient to God, nurturing within themselves the physical Paradise they have lost.