The Bible: Difference between revisions

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Before we get to the tropes used in the Bible, it should be noted that there are several different traditions as to what the Bible contains; while most material is shared, historically members of religious groups have decided to include or exclude different writings. The Book of Tobit, The Book of Judith, the Maccabees books, and many others are included in some tradition's orthodoxy and wholly ignored by others' (as is the entire New Testament, for that matter). Debates about what's [[Canon]] and what isn't continue to this day. That's not taking into account the multitude of different translations out there, not only between languages but within each language—leaving plenty of room for cases of [[Lost in Translation]].

On a related note, there are several major opinions on what the Bible ''is''. According to the [[Christianity|Christian]] viewpoint, the Bible is an anthology of books by divinely inspired followers of God and Christ over a period of ''600 to 1600'' years, including: biographies, histories, manuals of rules and laws, songs and ritual prayers, advice for living like in Paul's letters, and divine revelations. (For the traditional [[Judaism|Jewish]] perspective, strike out the words "and Christ" and "like in Paul's letters," and reduce the number of years by two to six hundred years.) There is debate among Christians over just what "divinely inspired" entails; some say this means everything in the Bible should be taken completely at face value, while others hold that some parts (like the book of Genesis, for example) are meant to be taken as allegorical or symbolic writings, not to be interpreted literally. The latter view is held by most mainline Protestant denominations and is the official position of the Catholic Church.

 

 

The view of those who don't belong to the Abrahamic religions generally ranges from seeing the events of the Bible as somewhere between "exaggerated history" and "pure fiction". Likely, [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on which one of the views you take.

Often cited by [[Moral Guardians]]. Not to be confused with [[Universe Bible]].

 

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{{tropenamer}}

* [[Adam and Eve Plot]]

* [[Belly of the Whale]]

* [[Bible Times]]

* [[Crucified Hero Shot]]

* [[David Versus Goliath]]

* [[Good Samaritan]]

* [[I Am Legion]]

* [[Jesus Saves]]

* [[Judgment of Solomon]]

* [[Never Accepted in His Hometown]]

* [[Pals with Jesus]]

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]

* [[Tower of Babel]]

* [[Turn the Other Cheek]]

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{{tropelist}}

* [[Adaptation Decay]]: There's plenty of things in both the Torah and the Bible that have become [[The Theme Park Version|theme park versions]] of what's ''actually'' written when adapted into other works. Look up Daniel 7 and Ezekiel 10 for descriptions of a few angels. While there's implications in the Bible that angels can take a human-like form, those passages are far and away from the [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]] [[Winged Humanoid]]s that everyone thinks of when they think of an angel. Then there's [[God|the big man]] himself—how many times in media does He get portrayed as an old, bearded man with a toga?

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]:

** [[The Talmud]].

* [[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.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: The prefaces of many Bible versions tell why the writers used a specific translation, why there are italics, and what the Footnotes mean.

* [[Anachronic Order]]: The books of prophecy tend to skip around; Jeremiah's revelations while in prison precede the account of his imprisonment, for instance. The book of Daniel also tends to skip around; in some stories he's an old man, in others he's a youth of between fifteen and twenty. There is a well known Hebrew phrase that means (loosely translated): "There is no early or late in the Torah." ("ein mukdam u'meuchar ba'Torah")

* [[Ancient Egypt]]: Mostly in the Old Testament, specifically Genesis and Exodus; the Hebrews spend time in the Nile Delta and (after some pharaoh decides to enslave all the Semitic tribes that have settled in the country) leave the country. Later, God and His Prophets repeatedly tell Israel not to rely on Egypt for aid against Assyria. In the New Testament's Gospel of Matthew, Joseph and Mary take Jesus into Egypt to avoid Herod's massacre of babies ("Out of Egypt I called my son").

* [[Ancient Greece]]: Although it's set during the Roman period (and therefore not ''really'' Ancient or even Classical), Greece ''does'' feature prominently in the New Testament. Some of the Epistles (Corinthians and Philippians come to mind) are directed to believers in Greece. In addition, the Eastern Mediterranean was thoroughly Hellenized in by the first century, so more or less ''everything'' was Greek by this point.

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

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

* [[As the Good Book Says...]]: Jesus and the Devil tossed references to scripture back and forth in the desert after Jesus's baptism.

* [[The Atoner]]

** The unnamed man (some people think it's Jesus) leading his forces against the Hellions in Revelation. Pretty awesome.

** All of the Judges qualify, but Samson is practically an [[Ur Example]] of this. He killed a thousand soldiers with the ''jawbone of a donkey'', and then he ''collapsed an entire temple'' on top of 3000 more.

** Benaiah, who "killed a lion in a pit on a day when it had snowed."

** [[David Versus Goliath|David himself, killing Goliath]], a giant, as well as a lion and a bear, with a ''sling''. Number of stones picked up by David: five. Number of "sons of Anak" in Philistia at that time: five. A fourteen-year-old boy with that level of badassery: priceless.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Judas Maccabeus in the Apocrypha; should ''not'' be confused with Judas Iscariot. Also, many of the Judges.

* [[Badass Pacifist]]: Jesus "Turn the other cheek" Christ.

* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]:

** The often-quoted "money is the root of all evil", while technically a valid quote, leaves out a crucial section that changes the meaning. It actually says that the ''love of'' money is the root of all evil, or ''a'' root of ''many'' evils depending on which translation you use.

** That, and most of the Rapture-related doctrines (literally and figuratively)

** "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Paul said something vaguely similar, but not quite...

* [[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). Or that he was married to Mary Magdalene. Other people see these ideas as heresy.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Ishmael, Isaac's half-brother in Genesis, fades into the background shortly after he's introduced and [[Put on a Bus|sent off to Arabia]]. [[The Bus Came Back|Turns out one of his descendants was]] [[Islam|a guy named Muhammad]]. Interestingly enough, this loose thread doesn't get picked up until ''after'' '''The Bible''' ends.

* [[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.

{{quote|God (to whiny Jonah): "You cared about a tree which grew overnight and died overnight, and which you did not work to grow. And should I not care about Nineveh, which has thousands of people who do not yet know their right from their left, and also much cattle!"}}

** The prophets are especially full of this sort of thing; such as God mocking how idol-worshipers would cut down a tree, make an idol to worship out of part of it...and cook breakfast over the rest of it.

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

* [[Depending on the Writer]]: Jesus' character tends to vary quite a bit depending on who's describing him.

* [[Depopulation Bomb]]: Several.

* [[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.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: "Bible" means "book". [[Captain Obvious|It's a book of books.]]

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

* [[Expanded Universe]]: [[The Talmud]], [[The Book of Mormon (literature)|The Book of Mormon]]. Early parts of the Bible are almost the Cliffs-Notes of stories and laws greatly expanded in the Talmud.

* [[Gainax Ending]]: The Book of Revelation.

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

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

* [[Get Thee to a Nunnery]]: A few noteworthy ones:

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Stephen, Isaac, Samson, {{spoiler|Jesus}}.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]:

** The whole prayer at Gethsemane scene can be seen as an [[Heroic BSOD]] as well.

** David also has a full-blown one after Saul and Jonathan's deaths.

* [[I Am Legion]]: The original and [[Trope Namer]].

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: King Saul in 1 Samuel 13. God was less than pleased with this attitude and fired him.

* [[I Have Many Names]]: God.

* [[I'll Kill You!]]: Exodus, and probably some other places.

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: Quite a few examples that falls under two categories: God's punishment (usually [[Squick|forcing people to eat their own children or other family members]]) or depicted [[Gorn|for the sake of it]].

* [[Implausible Deniability]]: Cain is enough of a moron to think he can lie to an omniscient, omnipotent God.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Samson killed some Philistines using the jawbone of a donkey.

* [[Jacob and Esau]]: [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Jacob Marley Warning]]: Subverted. In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (a different [[Back from the Dead|Lazarus]]), the Rich Man goes to hell so he begs the Lord for the chance to warn his family of the dangers of their ways. The Lord knocks the idea down, pointing out that he's sent plenty of prophets to spell it out for them all already.

* [[Jesus Saves]]: [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Jesus Taboo]]: [[Captain Obvious|Averted]].

* [[Load-Bearing Hero]]: Samson, though it's an inversion since he ''brings down the temple!'' He's still the hero, though. He also pulls up a set of city gates and walks away with them.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: There are dozens of books written over a period of many centuries, and some of them include genealogies or history.

* [[Lost in Translation]]: The Bible both averts and suffers from this. Most scholars agree that the Bible is "remarkably well-preserved" from translation to translation (we ''are'' talking about something that's incredibly [[Serious Business]] for its copyists, after all). However, there's still cases where a word in the original Hebrew text isn't given a proper contextual translation; for example, the lost contexts involving [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] and God [[More Than Mind Control|mind-controlling the Pharaoh]]. This leads to some serious misconceptions. Then there are groups like the King James Version Movement, who believe that a Modern English reading of the ''Early'' Modern English King James Version is ''the'' [[Word of God]].

* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: The Song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32:1-43 which was sung as the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land. In the passages beforehand, God had flat out told Moses that his people were going to mess up badly in the end, and gave the song to Moses as a reminder of what they needed to do once that day came to repent. Nevertheless, it's about as uplifting as a kick in the balls.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Literally hundreds, [[wikipedia:List of Biblical names|here's a full list]].

* [[Memetic Number]]: 40. Forget 11 or [[Thirteen Is Unlucky|13]] or even [[Number of the Beast|666]], this number is one of the more memorable ones in the book. Examples include the forty days and nights Noah spent in his Ark during the Deluge (another round before he even looked out the window), the number of days the Israelites took to explore their Promised Land, and the number of days Jesus fasted. There's even [http://www.40day.com/40_in_the_bible.html this website] that is focused around the number 40. That number is one [[Badass]] dude.

* [[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.

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

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

** When not described as [[Eldritch Abomination]]s or imitating human form the Angels are described as such (in Book of Daniel for instance).

** Revelation 13 has two examples: a beast coming out of the sea who "resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion", and another beast coming out of the Earth who "had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon".

* [[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..

** Whatever it was that Daniel killed.

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

* [[Pals with Jesus]]: [[Trope Namer]]?ish... not literally, but considering that a large chunk of the book is ''the'' source about Jesus...

* [[The Paragon]]: Jesus.

* [[Rock of Limitless Water]]: In one of the earliest examples of this trope, Moses strikes a rock with his staff, and by God's power, a waterfall begins spewing out.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: Lamentations (destruction of Jerusalem) and Joel (destruction of a field by locusts).

* [[Science Is Bad]]: The Bible is often interpreted to support this message, especially concerning the Tower of Babel.

* [[Science Marches On]]: The concept of the world being a few thousand years old—a tenet of Young Earth Creationism—stems from early attempts to date the age of the Earth by various scholars and historians, who used known history in conjunction with the Bible (note that Genesis, in the original Hebrew, doesn't give a specific date or rate of creation). Later on, the science of geology developed, and scientists found out that the world is much, ''much'' older than they thought ...

* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: Adam and Eve are banished from Eden, in part, so that they won't be able to eat from the Tree of Life, causing them to live forever with the curses they received for eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

* [[Word of Dante]]: Obviously, the Divine Comedy. But also ...

** The bit about Mary Magdalene being a harlot.

** The Antichrist/'false messiah' concept. Revelation describes a despot ruler and his false prophet, but there's nothing about him actually claiming to be any kind of Jewish messiah.

 

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