Throughout history we often see the character that is willing to give up or sacrifice their life for someone else. Now what makes this character so pure hearted that they are willing to sacrifice their life? The archetypal sacrifice is a pure and innocent human that is giving up their life for someone else. In Christian beliefs, Jesus Christ portrays the traits of the archetypal sacrifice though his sinless nature, countless acts of benevolence, and through his love.

As expressed in the Christian bible, Jesus was sinless while the rest of the world was sinful which separated him from the world and making him the idea sacrifice. A sacrifice must be pure, generally writers depict the character that is being sacrificed as pure or innocent. Throughout Jesus’ life he was tempted to sin but never did fall into sin. Nothing or no one can make Jesus sin for example: The devil tries to tempt Jesus in the wild but Jesus would not allow it. Jesus was tempted many times in his life but being Jesus in his perfect nature never faltered. Many sacrifices were animals but how can they really be pure, they do not know what was going on nor did they consent to being sacrificed because they cannot speak. Jesus was no animal he knew exactly what he was doing, he wanted to die for us even though he knew people would deny him. Jesus was sinless and died for all the sinful people in the world which makes for the perfect archetypal sacrifice.

Often in stories we see a character performing selfless acts of benevolence, which later on plays a key role in the story, the sacrifice. The selfless character cares more for what is good for the rest of the world not so much as what is best for themselves. Many times this vital character gives up their life for someone or something. According to the Christian Holy book Jesus was this selfless character to the very point. Jesus performed many acts of benevolence even for people that did not believe in him. A writer typically creates this character that performs these acts and asks for nothing in return, so when the time came for them to sacrifice themselves people would realize how truly selfless they were. Jesus’ acts of benevolence, some would refer to them as miracles consisted of: raising a man named Lazarus from the dead, healing a blind man, and healed a paraplegic man. The most important act Jesus did was forgive; he forgave everyone that wronged him so that they could have a chance of getting to heaven if they chose to live that life.

Another classic trait that writes often gave to the role of the sacrifice was an uncanny ability to love unconditionally. Every war has its patriotic soldiers that fight as hard as they can for their country. Now why do you think they fight for their county? It’s certainly not because they have to, it’s because of their love for the Country they live in. They risk their lives every single day for their love of the Country, that is the ultimate sacrifice. In the same way Jesus loved the world so much that died for it and for all of the people in the world. If all the soldiers resented that they join the army or if Jesus didn’t love the world enough to die for it how can it be a true sacrifice? They would have died for a world they all resented. The writers who create characters with this quality know that you can’t have someone sacrifice their lives out of hatred, the sacrifice would have been for nothing.


The archetypal sacrifice has to have all these traits otherwise the sacrifice has no meaning. Jesus encompasses every trait that a sacrifice must have: sinless/pure, selfless acts of benevolence, and love. We see it all throughout history these characters are not made unintentionally.