Can someone help me on interpreting this passage?

For a long time now—eight centuries already—we
have not been with you, but with him. Exactly eight centuries ago we took from him
what you so indignantly rejected,28 that last gift he offered you when he showed you
all the kingdoms of the earth: we took Rome and the sword of Caesar from him, and
proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth, the only rulers, though we have not yet
succeeded in bringing our cause to its full conclusion.
What exact thing is the Inquisitor referring to?

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The jews

There is a passage from the bible where lucifer showned to Jesus all kingdoms on Earth and offered them to him if he vowed in exchange. Might be something referring to that.

Matthew 4:8-9 and Luke 4:6-7

But what happened 8 centuries ago? I should have clarified in the original pic.

Jesus died you dumb cunt

Western and Eastern churches departed, I think.

you are retarded. the story takes place in the 16th century you retard

that would have been 8 centuries before the events of the novel not the events of the parable

> we took Rome and the sword of Caesar
This happened.

Are there still any based Russian authors?

The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th-century Russia, wikipedia dumbcunt

> posting on Yea Forums about books you haven't read
Every time.

shmoop.com/brothers-karamazov/setting.html
Slightly less embarassing than not knowing the setting of a novel you supposedly read.

and if you are refering to the story within the novel:

In 755 AD, eight centuries before the Inquisitor’s time (mid sixteenth century), Pepin the Short, king of the Franks, took the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis (“five cities”: i.e., Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinnigaglia, and Ancona) from the Lombards and turned the territories over to Pope Stephen II, thus initiating the secular power of the papacy.

See, I did a better job at understanding this novel than you did, and I didn't even read it.

you knew already, didn't you fag?

this is the correct answer

That's some interesting context to the story, user. I think the general point the Inquisitor is making is that where Jesus declined the Devil's offer of dominion over the world, the Church did not. The Church enforces the teachings of Christ, rather than teaches them. So, in a sense, the entire thing is pointless. If you force someone to believe something, they cannot be redeemed as they did not come to any conclusion on their faith through a natural form of learning. When faith is imposed, when the Church takes up the sword of Caesar, it immediately distances itself from the original teachings of Christ and becomes estranged from God. I think that is what is being said, and it's why Jesus is so hated by the Church when he returns to Earth - he exposes their un-Christian ways.

You are a legit retard. The novel takes place in the 19th century, but the story takes place in the 16th. You are so fucking retarded I cant comprehend it.

Actually, I understand it better than you. Seeing as you thought it took place in the 19th century.

lmao this is verbatim from the endnote of the P+V translation, which i was also going to post, but yeah this is right. although don't claim you understood that yourself, you are better at googling things than most of this mongy board though

A little confused by some of the posts in this thread.

It can be found better explained elsewhere on the internet. However, the Inquisitor is telling Christ that the Church took the world when offered it by the Devil.

I don't have the novel in front of me, but if I remember correctly the Inquisitor explains that the Church gives the peoples of the world bread and miracles- the two temptations denied by Christ. The Inquisitor believes that humans are more base than they are spiritual, and despite their yearnings for goodness, will follow the one who provides bread for them not to starve. Likewise the Inquisitor explains that humans would rather see a miracle performed in front of their eyes than take something on faith. Having given the world these first two miracles through the help of the Devil, the Church has complete power over the peoples of the world- the last temptation Christ was offered (and rejected) in the desert.

Because of this, the Inquisitor declares that they cannot let Christ go. However, Christ kisses the Inquisitor in the cheek in a show of unconditional active love. Deeply moved, the Inquisitor lets Christ go, in spite of all that he has said and believed.

This is the final, great refutation of the Grand Inquisitor by Dostoevsky. It is telling that it is wordless. Love is continually championed by Dostoevsky as the ultimate transformative power, and for all the Inquisitor's power, corruption and views of human nature, he lets Christ go, defeated by the love he's been shown.

Nobody will likely read this but I'm passionate about the novel and the passage is really rather beautiful. I hope this helps.

i like your post - i am reading the novel for the first time and read this chapter yesterday.
i would emphasise though the idea of freedom as one of the main points of the story; Jesus refused to force man to follow him by giving in to the devils temptations and so gave them freedom, but the Inquisitor says that this was in an incredible cruelty and that freedom is harmful for man, so the Church took the name of God and forced the people to follow it, removing their freedom but making them happy. i think an important point was made in the discussion after he told the story, in which ivan says that such a man could exist, one who truly loves mankind and had complete faith in god and would be amongst his favourites etc would actually renounce god, because he would see how the majority of men aren't as strong as himself and cannot overcome the vices in their life, so by giving them the freedom to choose, God has actually ruined them and sentenced them to a life of sin.
this was just my first impressions anyway sorry it's rambling, my post is probably complete shit but the whole chapter completely blew me away, it's honestly fucking incredible

Nice, I remember TGI and Ivan's problem of evil monologue really hit me deep when I stumbled through the book as a teenager.
I've reread it twice since and feel like I pick up more depth each time.

What's your take on Ivan's devil hallucination? That's always been one of the sections I feel is very significant but I've never really understood. The idea of having to walk a quadrillion kilometers to heaven and immediately being glad you did so was a cool metaphor, but a lot of their actual conversation was kind of lost on me. I can't tell if it's meant to be confusing since Ivan's going insane at that point.

correct answer

Not him but I'm pretty sure it was literally Satan, but he convinced Ivan that he was just a projection of his own troubles with faith.
The casual banter at the beginning catches Ivan off guard, and he insidiously uses Ivan's own reasoning humanism to convincingly argue what's basically "do as thou wilt".
I think this coupled with Smirnoff killing himself immediately after blaming Ivan for getting him on that train of thought is what pushes Ivan over the edge once and for all.

I still really wish we'd gotten the second part of TBK, I feel like Ivan's redemption arc could have been incredible.

No, you're pretty spot on there- it's another big theme in a very rich passage. Likewise, Jesus' kiss is in many ways the answer, since it is mirrored in Alyosha's kiss to Ivan after Ivan raises the point. The man Ivan conceives of would not actually turn from God because he loves Him. Ivan wants a logical, reasoned argument persuading him from his beliefs, but actually the answer isn't one that can be articulated.

I think it's meant to be confusing in a lot of ways. The main thing I took from it (again, going by memory) was hope that is felt by man. Mankind is defined by hope, a notion of something 'better', and will go to the ends of the Earth to pursue that hope. In this case man will spend uncountable years in monotony if he knows Heaven waits for him at the end. It could also be a parallel for the seemingly meaningless suffering and confusion the characters go through, only to see some redemption in Alyosha at the end. It's notable that the Devil flees in terror when Alyosha arrives to meet Ivan.

I agree- I also think it was an actual manifestation of the Devil. It is a real shame we didn't get the second part. Although, supposedly it was meant to detail Alyosha's fall from grace, culminating in his assassination of the tsar, so...