Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ficciones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Investigation and Knowledge
Language and Human Consciousness
Perspective, Authorship, and Subjectivity
Infinity
Reality vs. Illusion
Summary
Analysis
Borges writes about a fictional 20th-century Swedish theologian named Nils Runeberg. Borges argues that, had Runeberg been born in the early days of Christianity, he would have been destined for hell. However, fate found him in the 20th century. Borges is sure to tell the reader that, while Runeberg’s work seems blasphemous, he is a deeply religious man. Runeberg’s works are a defense of Judas, his solution to the “central mystery of theology” of how Jesus could be both God and human. Runeberg’s idea is that Judas, like Jesus, made a sacrifice by becoming an informer against Jesus. In this way, because Jesus’s crucifixion absolved the sins of Christians, Judas was playing an important part in this absolution of sin, sacrificing his own virtue in the process. Thus, Judas acts as a kind of reflection of Jesus, inhabiting the lower, flawed, human level.
Because Runeberg was born in the 1900s, he is able to have an understanding of Christianity that allows him to be both deeply religious and have alternate interpretations of Christian texts and ideas. By focusing on Judas, Runeberg posits a different interpretation of the story of Jesus. Rather than thinking of Jesus as a righteous individual amongst unrighteous ones, Runeberg sees Judas’s betrayal as a necessary reflection of Jesus’s holiness.
Themes
Many theologians and scholars denounce Runeberg. Runeberg amends his theory to say that, while Judas is not necessarily part of God’s plan, he is a self-sacrificer and a man of high moral standing. Judas sacrifices his eternal soul to allow Jesus to ascend to heaven. Runeberg argued that Judas did not act out of greed, but out of ascetism by denying himself the pleasure of having his soul redeemed.
In arguing that Judas’s betrayal is an act of self-sacrifice, Runeberg implies that Jesus in turn seeks the pleasure of having his soul redeemed. This is not to say that Jesus is not righteous, but only that Judas takes on a different kind of righteousness in order to allow Jesus to ascend to heaven and thus move Christianity forward.
Themes
Runeberg argues that vices have a trace of virtue in them. For example, he argues that the sin of murder requires the courage to commit that act. However, Judas’s sins have no trace of virtue. Thus, he sacrifices his soul with the knowledge that Jesus will ascend to heaven as his only reward.
The argument that vices contain a trace of virtue allows for forgiveness of the average person’s sins. However, Judas denied himself this nuance—the ultimate sacrifice.
Themes
In a third version of the theory, Runeberg argues that Judas is greater than Jesus—if God would have become man, Runeberg argues, he would have become a truly sinful man because to sin is to be human. Thus, God was Judas.
Runeberg’s third argument is the most extreme, ascribing God to Judas and putting another man’s virtue above Jesus’s. In this case, Borges shows a man pushing an idea to its limits.
Themes
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Very few people read Runeberg’s work, and Runeberg believes it is because he has revealed a secret that God did not wish “propagated in the world.” Runeberg falls into a spiral, wandering around at night and praying to be sent to hell to be united with Judas. Runeberg dies a few years later of a brain aneurysm.
Though Runeberg’s arguments were well-intended, his loyalty to God still causes him to believe that he has transgressed by defying conventional understandings of Judas’s role.
Themes
