When I signed up for Biblical Literature my junior year of high school I did not know what to expect. Dozens of questions flooded my mind like the floods to Noah’s ark. To what extent will we be studying the Bible? In what way will we be studying the Bible? Will this class have a super religious atmosphere? As an atheist, I had no intention of being converted to Christianity, so when I received the syllabus I was both relieved and intrigued. I was pleasantly shocked by the freedom the course offered. We were expected to study the Bible through various different lenses which proved to be immensely valuable. For my very last project, I chose to use a very unconventional lens to view the story of Jesus. That lens was Lorde and this is that project.

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Lorde, the New Zealand singer, has an abundance of stylistic songs containing various interpretations. Her entire discography can be dissected to find layer upon layer of meaning. Heart-wrenching, moving, danceable, and contemplative are just a few words to describe her music. With Lordes’s intensely provocative writing technique, it is no surprise connections can be found in every corner, but it might be somewhat unexpected to find those connections in one of the oldest pieces of text to exist, the Bible. Though Lorde is a musician whose musical themes are so often rooted in the rewards and challenges of modern life, connections can still be made with the New Testament. To be more specific, many of Lorde’s messages and tones in her music can directly parallel those of Jesus. Jesus was portrayed as a modest and forgiving man who rejected material wealth and gathered with his disciples for God. These themes of modesty and harmony are demonstrated through Lorde’s songs Royals and Solar Power.

Lorde’s third track, Royals, from her first studio album Pure Heroin is an excellent display of Jesus’s idea of modesty. In scripture, Jesus told his disciples not to give into material wealth. He said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” (Luke 9:25). Here, Jesus told his disciples that wealth means nothing if you lose your soul in the process of obtaining it. This concept is what Royals is all about. The first line of the song is “I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh” which could be interpreted as Jesus’s rejection of luxuries. Later in the song, Lorde talked about how everyone seems obsessed with Cadillacs, Cristal, diamonds on timepieces, jet planes, and other objects attached to lavish living. Her response to those obsessions is this lyric: “We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair. And we’ll never be royals, it don’t run in our blood. That kinda luxe just ain’t for us, we crave a different kind of buzz”. Though these lyrics contain multiple allusions to the modern-day, it still parallels Jesus’s message to his disciples. He told them not to worry about acquiring massive amounts of wealth and instead focus on living their lives with genuine happiness. Lorde also used the plural pronoun “we” in the lyric, which could connect to Jesus’s encouragement of all those around him to follow his lead. With its rejection of the fancy, materialistic lifestyle, this song can be seen as an edgy, modern-day homage to Jesus’s message of living in content modesty. 

Solar Power, the second track on Lorde’s third studio album of the same name, is yet another demonstration of Jesus’s practice of harmony. Jesus is famous for many things, one being his disciples. Throughout his travels, these people loyally followed Jesus as he taught them life lessons and essentially became their mentor. Jesus himself prophesied this leadership in Chapter 4 of Luke when he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach, the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18). A connection can be drawn between this prophecy of Jesus and a lyric of Solar Power. Over the chorus of the song, Lorde repeats the line, “Lead the boys and girls onto the beaches. Come one, come all, I’ll tell you my secrets”. This section of the chorus is an essential element to the song’s theme of unity, a theme that is also evident in Jesus’s prophecy. He spoke of preaching to all those considered inferior by society and like Lorde, gathered with those people to find them solace. Another lyric of the song goes, “Forget all of the tears that you’ve cried, it's over. It’s a new state of mind”. Here, Lorde is telling those who follow her not to worry about previous anguish, such as regret or impairments, and instead step into a new state of being. This could be a direct link to Jesus’s extensions of forgiveness, like in Chapter 18 of Luke when he healed and forgave a blind man. He told the man, “Receive your sight, your faith has made you well” (Luke 18:42). The formerly blind man then followed Jesus, having forgotten his prior pain, and rejoiced in the name of God. Both Lorde and Jesus were united with those who followed them and offered their followers solace which puts them in very similar practices of harmony. 

Through song, Lorde has demonstrated her strong use of layered meaning, so effective that a correlation with The New Testament, one of the oldest pieces of literature on Earth, could be found. Her very first hit song Royals, is a modern representation of Jesus and his passionate denunciation of material wealth. The song, much like Jesus to his disciples, teaches those who listen to be content with modesty instead of getting caught up in the gilded world of the rich. Her song, Solar Power, off her newest album, is a superlative example of living in harmony with others and helping them find it for themselves. Generally, the song also has a particularly spiritual, harmonious mood to it which are two attributes that are often associated with Jesus. Comparisons between Lorde and a man who lived hundreds of years ago are quite unexpected to be sure. But this proves that the Bible, however old it may be, still holds some modern relevance, even with one of today’s most popular musical artists. Lorde said it herself in Solar Power: “I'm kinda like a prettier Jesus”.