Judge Holden is the Devil
The Judge in McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is Satan. The book tells us so within the first few pages when he confronts a tent-revival preacher with a litany of false accusations. The reverend says,
This is him. The devil. Here he stands.
Case closed.
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Jordan
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May 30, 2015 01:46PM
Personally, I prefer to see him as something more akin to the Demiurge or an archon, or BOB and the other residents of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks; as a being human in form but from Somewhere Else and definitively demonic in nature.
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The tent revival scene constitutes one of many hints that the Judge is ageless and his powers of survival have a supernatural origin. There's also the metaphysical contest between the Judge (absolute nihilism) and the Kid (nihilism salted with occasional mercy) that plays out like a darker version of the temptation of Christ.
