The Bible: Difference between revisions

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]:

** Hebrews, ostensibly the most Jewish book of the New Testament.

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: David and Goliath. Judas and Peter. Michael and Lucifer. However, all or most of these were common names at the time; we've only decided which ones to pass on to our children, and these have become normal.

* [[Aint No Rule]]: May qualify as [[Loophole Abuse]]. Many perhaps odd-sounding laws in the Old Testament--those regarding sex, for example -- were likely designed to prevent this.

** Twelve--Originally the number of Jacob's sons from which the Israelite tribes descend.

** Forty--Originally the number of years that the Israelites roamed through the desert and number of days and nights it rained during the deluge. Commonly used in the Bible and other ancient Near Eastern literature as shorthand for "a long time".

** In the Old Testament, there's Elijah and Enoch.

** In the New Testament, {{spoiler|Jesus}}.

** Most adaptions for children take out some more adult parts. For example, Esther was chosen by King Xerxes because of how good she was in bed. In the judgment of Solomon, both women claiming to be the infant's mother were prostitutes--and the song of Solomon is a full-blown celebration of sex. Lot's daughters get him drunk and rape him right after his wife is killed.

** The story of Joshua, as told by [[Superbook]], portrayed Rahab as an innocent woman bullied by the soldiers of Jericho (she was actually a whore), and completely ignored the fact that every living thing in Jericho, apart from her and her family, were slain.

* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]:

** According to the Talmud, Cain and Abel each had a twin sister. Cain married Abel's, and Seth married Cain's.

** Also, there's the case of Amnon and Tamar in Samuel II, where Amnon [[Playing Sick|pretends to be sick]] so that, when his sister, Tamar, came into his room to feed him, he could rape her. Now THAT is [[Squick]]-worthy. And it did not end well for him.

* [[Burn the Witch]]: God did not allow witchcraft-practitioners to live in the Mosaic Covenant period, although the method of execution was more likely stoning. Used later in history to justify witch-burning.

* [[Butt Monkey]]:

** Job and Jesus. The former gets a "prize" from God, the latter saves all the people that would be baking in Hell if He didn't, including you.

* [[Canon Dis Continuity]]: Where do we start...?

* [[Celibate Hero]]: Jesus, and possibly others we forget. Some people think that Jesus was married, but that his wife was not mentioned in the Bible (there are also a lot of speculations about why this is). Other people see this idea as heresy.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Both used and averted with Moses and the burning bush. God teaches Moses how to turn his staff into a serpent, and how to turn the skin of his hand leprous (as well as cure it), both in order to demonstrate that he is a prophet of the Lord. He performs the former, but the latter never shows up again.

* [[Cherry Tapping]]: Samson kills 1,000 '''Philistines''' ''[[Badass|with a donkey's jaw]]'', and then follows it up with a pun.

* [[Decapitation Presentation]]: Judith with the head of Holofernes. Possibly also Salome with the head of John the Baptist.

* [[Defiled Forever]]: In the old testament there are several rules regarding purity and defilement. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 22 for example demands death penalty for various forms of sex outside marriage, but notably clears the woman if rape is proven (she was heard crying for help) or assumed (there's no way to prove she WASN'T crying for help), making this a slight yet notable aversion.

* [[Depopulation Bomb]]: Several.

* [[Descend From a Higher Plane of Existence]]: Jesus.

* [[Dub Induced Plot Hole]]: The King James translation is said to contain a few mistranslations that alter the plot/meaning. In the New Testament, some references to the Old Testament are missed due to it being translated by two teams -- one for the Hebrew and one for the Greek. Some instances of this were perpetuated by earlier translations of the Bible, as well; Horned Moses, anyone?

* [[The Dragon]]: [[Inverted Trope|Inverted:]] The Dragon in Revelation ''is'' the [[Big Bad]]. Some sects (and [[Shin Megami Tensei|some videogames that base their version of Satan on such beliefs]]) have Satan as God's agent.

* [[The Dutiful Son]]: Brother to the Prodigal Son

* [[The Eeyore]]: Qoheleth/Kohelet, the traditional author/narrator of ''Ecclesiastes''. Given his title "Son of David, King in Jerusalem," he's probably also Solomon. (''Kohelet'' is the [[Lost in Translation|Hebrew and original name]] of ''Ecclesiastes'', but it's not uncommon for something in K'tuvim (the last third of the Old Testament) to be anonymous.)

* [[Empathic Environment]]: Many times, including when {{spoiler|Jesus}} was killed.

* [[Enemy to All Living Things]]: Part of Cain's curse.

* [[Enigmatic Empowering Entity]]: This role is fulfilled by God as he shows himself to Moses in a burning bush.

** Which leads to a number of people who mistakenly believe that the Pharaoh who got the plagues = The Pharaoh that gave the genocide order...

* [[Everyone Is Related]]: For once, this is ''canon''. '''Literally.'''

* [[Everything Is Worse With Bears]]: 2 Kings 2:24.

* [[The Evil Prince]]: Pretty much all of David's sons except for Solomon, each of whom inherited a variety of David's traits except for his faith in God.

* [[Extra Eyes]]: Thrones and various other angels.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: King Saul, Pharaoh (multiple times), Absalom

* [[Fallen Angel]]: Lucifer (also known as Satan) and his supporters are the [[Ur Example]].

* [[Gendercide]]: Twice, in Exodus.

* [[Geo Effects]]: The Israelites and the Aramites, subverted.

** "To know" [[Is That What They're Calling It Now?|That's what they called it back then.]]

** "Feet" is often used in the Old Testament to refer to something a bit higher.

* [[Go Mad From the Revelation]]: Angels, actually. God himself could classify, since looking at him in his full glory is supposed to be fatal to anyone with sin.

* [[The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry]]: Plain and dowdy Leah vs pretty vivacious Rachel over Jacob.

* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: Jezebel (tried to destroy Judaism) and her daughter Athaliah (had all her grandkids killed, save one, almost destroying David's royal line)

* [[The Golden Rule]]: Used in the stories about Jesus. Invoked by the main character as a moral principle, and also used as [[An Aesop]] in several of the parables (short stories within the main story). The most famous is the story of the Good Samaritan.

* [[Higher Self]]

* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Samson, and ''how.''

* [[Hope Spot]]: Pilate tries to have {{spoiler|Jesus}} released, but the mob insists on {{spoiler|his crucifixion}}. Although Pilate was a jerk, depending on who you talk to. In other branches, he's a saint. Literally.

* [[Humans Are Bastards]]:

** Many cases in the Old Testament.

** The [[Distant Finale]], Revelation; possibly the most literal application of "[[Kill'Em All]] and let God sort 'em out" ever.

** The whole of Noah's story.

** The Red Sea closing on the Egyptian soldiers chasing the Israelites.

* [[The Messiah]] (Many, including the [[Messianic Archetype]], Jesus.) Three big ones. Jesus, Mohammed (technically a prophet, rather than a messiah, but fulfilling a similar narrative role), and the nameless "moshiach", or messiah of the Jews, who don't accept the cannonicity of the New Testement. The last one one has only appeared in previews and foreshadowing, so we're still waiting on the next sequel to provide his name.

* [[Messianic Archetype]] (Jesus)

* [[Mission From God]]: ...Pretty much everyone.

* [[Mix-and-Match Critters]]:

* [[The Mole]]: Judas Iscariot, after a [[Face Heel Turn]].

* [[Moral Dissonance]]: This what is percieved when a particular [[Disproportionate Retribution]] or an example of [[Values Dissonance]] strikes particularly hard and much discussion has ensued between critics and apologists because of it. The priestly codes and laws documented in books like Leviticus are prone to cause this as well. Lot's handling of the mob in Sodom--[[Sacred Hospitality|offering his daughters to prevent them from raping angels sent to visit him]]--doesn't take well, either..

* [[Most Writers Are Male]]: Chauvinist bias is massively averted in many books. One of the Old Testament Judges (rulers of Israel) was a female, Lady Deborah. The church is described as a woman to be the bride of Christ.

* [[Mrs. Robinson]]: Potiphar's Wife

** Whatever it was that Daniel killed.

* [[Out, Damned Spot!]]: Pontius Pilate

* [[The Paragon]]: Jesus.

* [[Parental Favoritism]]: Joseph.

* [[Perfectly Arranged Marriage]]: Isaac and his wife Rebekah.

* [[Please Spare Him, My Liege]]

* [[Plucky Girl]]: Ruth, Deborah, Judith, Esther, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene...

* [[Punny Name]]: Most things. There are plenty of places with names that are similar to normal and appropriate Hebrew words, e.g. ''balal'', confusion, to "Babel".

** Matthias, who was added to the Twelve after Judas betrayed Jesus.

* [[The Soulsaver]]: Jesus dying on the cross saved the souls of all who believe in Him, both those who had died before Him like Abraham and people who came after Him. (Some interpretations have him literally going [[To Hell and Back]] to retrieve the righteous dead.)

** (Both "Jesus" and "Joshua" are written in the same way in Greek, as their names in Hebrew are almost exactly the same. This sometimes caused translation errors; the King James Version, for example, has "Jesus" in a few cases where "Joshua" should be)

** Speaking of Greek, the name that usually gets translated as "James" would be better translated as "Jacob."

* [[The Stars Are Going Out]]: In the Apocalypse, when the stars (or rather, ''shooting'' stars) fall from sky and the [[Weird Moon|moon turns blood red]].

* [[Start My Own]]:

** Gnosticism, as a very early example. And later the Christianity of Constantine, who simply threw Jesus on the pile of gods he already worshipped.

** Early Catholics believed that Muhammad was one of these divisive figures, which is why [[Word of Dante|Dante Alighieri]] [[Divine Comedy|put him in Hell with similar offenders]].

** The story of Lot and his daughters was a [[Take That]] against the inhabitants of Moab, a nation that bordered ancient Israel, insulting them by saying that they were descended from incest, at least according to some commentary.

** The 10 plagues of Egypt were designed to mock Egypt's gods.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: The civilization at [[Tower of Babel|Babel]].

{{quote| ..."Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will o; nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confused their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."}}

* [[The Uriah Gambit]]: [[Trope Namer]]. Named after David's attempt to get a woman and conceal his guilt by sending her husband who is one of his own loyal soldiers to death in the hands of the enemy.

* [[The Vamp]]: Delilah, Samson's girlfriend. Also Queen Jezebel.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Saul ever since God rejected him.

* [[Virginity Flag]]: After Amon rapes her, Tamar tears her garment that was reserved for the king's virgin daughters. Her full brother Absolom immediately realizes what happened when he sees her.