Paradise Regained

This segment of Paradise Regained opens with a shift away from Jesus and Satan: Milton considers the perspective of the onlookers who witnessed Jesus’s glorification at the baptism. Some fishermen, who are followers of Jesus, gather together and call upon heaven to send the Messiah to save Israel from oppression. Moreover, Jesus’s mother Mary is worried that her son has not returned from his baptism. She too is aware of Jesus’s purpose as a savior and—despite her qualms about her son’s whereabouts—accepts that her role is to wait for Jesus’s actions to play out according to a divine plan.

Jesus continues to roam the desert, reflecting on the momentous purpose that has been set before him as the Son of God. Meanwhile, Satan returns to his fellow fallen spirits. As the tempter explains, Jesus has proven much more difficult to lead into sin or transgression than Adam and Eve; for this reason, Satan requests the advice of his subordinates. One of these spirits, the lustful Belial, advises Satan to present Jesus with women to seduce the would-be savior. As Belial points out, even the wise Solomon was vulnerable to women’s charms.