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The Bible
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..."
— Genesis 1:1

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. "
— Revelation 22:21

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 rage on, and Hilarity Ensues. And that's not taking into account the multitude of different translations out there, not only between languages but within each language.

Relatedly, there are several major opinions on what the Bible is. According to the Christian viewpoint, the Bible is an anthology of books by divinely inspired followers of God and Christ over a period of 1500 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 Jewish perspective, strike out the words "and Christ" and "like in Paul's letters," and reduce the number of years by an indeterminate amount.)

Another set of interpretations was from what is now called, collectively, Gnosticism. The Gnostics did not accept the idea of canon at all, nor any central religious authority. Thus, pretty much every Gnostic collection of scripture contained different sets of documents, some orthodox canon and some written locally. Indeed, the general Gnostic approach to religious literature was one of extreme openness, and a new Evangelion (no, not that one) probably appeared within the various Gnostic communities every day. The Gnostics believed in personal and continuous revelation rather than authority of scripture.

Another view, partially accepted by Islam, holds that some of it is to be taken at face value, while other parts, like the Book of Genesis, are to be taken as an allegory. 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.

Comprising the works of many writers from the 11th century BC to about 200 AD, before the advent of mass communication, the Bible is one of humanity's best-known and longest-enduring books, with 1500 ancient surviving Greek manuscripts making it the ancient world's best seller (Homer, with 643 surviving manuscripts of The Iliad, comes in second). The absence of a single authority with a strictly defined canon policy has proven an obstacle, however. Or rather, the existence of dozens or hundreds of conflicting authorities. Historically, it resulted in the most devastating (literally) Flame Wars (also often literally) ever.

Due to the Bible's sheer size and literary value, in addition to the fact that it is in the public domain (as it predated the invention of copyright; the British Crown holds perpetual copyright over the King James Version in the UK and some newer translations are copyrighted), it is often used as a goldmine of stock plots and characters for modern writers. Sometimes, however, said modern writers cannot avoid the temptation to introduce gratuitous references for the sake of it, and when they take caution to avoid controversial subjects like a specific religion, it can degenerate into such phenomena as Jesus Taboo, Crystal Dragon Jesus and No Celebrities Were Harmed. On the other hand, writers unfamiliar with the religious symbolism can end up with "controversial" character portrayals like King Of All Cosmos, or, in The Theme Park Version, Fluffy Cloud Heaven.

Often cited by Moral Guardians.

One of the Trope Makers; tropes that appear in it are by definition Older Than Feudalism (or Older Than Dirt if they occur in the first five books of the Old Testament).

Not to be confused with Universe Bible. For more info on the fan clubs, see Useful Notes on Christianity and Judaism.

Obviously, a lot of people have strong feelings about this book, positive or negative, so remember the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment and try to keep it neutral.

Trope Namer for:

Provides examples of:

  • Adam And Eve Plot (The Trope Namer)
  • Alternative Character Interpretation (just check out the page. Applies to Judas, Moses, Jesus and even God himself.)
  • Adaptation Decay (too many modern re-tellings to count)
  • Adaptation Distillation (the Qur'an)
    • Your Milage May Vary. Heavily. To the point of literal Flame War.
    • The Diatesseron, written by Christian theologian Tatian in an attempt to consolidate the four gospels into one book.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Probably should be noted that the Torah came first, so The Bible is an expansion.
  • All There In The Manual (Paul's epistles)
    • Although subverted when one starts looking for explanations for some of life's more specific questions like "Why are some foods only acceptable for breakfast and some only for dinner?"
  • Alternate Character Interpretation (so many. So, so many. So, so, very, very many. Just one example is Judas; while Christians generally see him as a greedy betrayer, the apocryphal Gospel of Judas re-interprets him as a misunderstood individual who only betrayed Jesus on Jesus' direct orders, and the Fan Fic Jesus Christ Superstar interprets him as a Tragic Hero.)
    • The Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic text, which implicitly believes that all matter is evil, therefore Jesus wanted Judas to destroy his mortal body to free Him from 'sinful matter'. This goes directly against "Biblical doctrine" (IE mainline Canon) that Jesus lived on this earth, tempted as we are tempted, yet was without sin. Also, Gnosticism is dualism and believed that creation itself is evil because a fallible God made a world that was imperfect, and a powerful dark god is involved in its expansion. To the point where some cults prohibited sex, because procreation is aiding the devil in creating matter. Women, who have no souls, drag the male spirit back into the world of matter, so they should be avoided if one desires to ascend to a higher plane of existence. (Pass the peanuts, please.) This is where the idea that sex within marriage is somehow sinful originally came from. It's heavily subverted in the Song of Solomon, with lusty descriptions of stags gambolling on the twin mountains of myrrh and aloes (read, breasts) all night long. As a wedding song, it's a tad risque, but I suppose it's a case of Values Dissonance or something.
  • Alternate Continuity: a whole lot of it.
    • Christianity vs. Judaism, as represented by the canonicity of the New Testament vs. the canonicity of the Talmud.
    • Orthodox Christianity vs. Christian Gnosticism
      • Um. Gnosticism can be traced via classical Greek philosophy to Neo-Platonism, especially with regards to the Cave Analogy and the world of Forms, as well as Egyptian mysticism. It was never remotely Christian, arose in Egypt and essentially led to the Arian heresy, which led directly to the Council of Nicaea.
    • Islam vs. Christianity: many passages are changed or given figurative status, particularly the sacrifice of Ishmael instead of Isaac.
    • Christianity vs. Christianity: Each sect, church, and individual follower reads the Bible slightly differently. Southern Baptists do not come to the same conclusions about the Bible as Quakers. And as for the Mormons...
  • Always Chaotic Evil (Scythians were probably what the horde of anthropomorphic locusts refer to in Revelation.)
    • Or so you heard?
    • Arguably the Philistines as well.
      • No, they were highly organised, efficient soldiers and administrators in bronze armour, who came, it is thought, from Crete (Kaphtor). The Israelites they considered barbarians who fought with sticks, and they spent a lot of time mocking them for it. They also controlled all the metalworking technology in ancient Canaan, so essentially the Israelites in the time of Saul could not make weapons. Or even have ploughs and sickles sharpened without their help (for a large fee). In fact, the armour of Saul was the only set of armour in Israel at the time, and Saul was the tallest man in their army (about seven feet), yet was hiding in his tent.
    • And the Amalek, which the Hebrews were actually commanded to fight.
      • Destroy completely. But they didn't, which came back to bite them in the ass in the time of Esther.
    • Not to mention Satan and the demons.
      • Debatable, since you could also say that they're evil angels, and therefore not Always Chaotic Evil.
      • Really, Satan doesn't sound like that bad a guy from his actual actions...
  • A Million Is A Statistic
  • Anachronic Order (The books of prophecy tend to skip around; Jeremiah's revelations while in prison precede the account of his imprisonment, for instance.)
    • As does the book of Daniel: in some stories he's an old man, in others he's a youth of between fifteen and twenty.
  • An Aesop
  • 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. However, it makes an appearance in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, which recounts the story of Joseph and Mary taking Jesus into Egypt to avoid Herod's massacre of babies.
    • Out of Egypt I called my son...
      • God and His Prophets repeatedly tell Israel not to rely on Egypt for aid against Assyria.
  • Ancient Greece: Entirely 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.
    • Not ancient. Not even classical. The Ancient Greek period is from Mycaenae down to about the time of Homer; the Classical period predates the Roman period, and even the Romans detested "modern" Greeks while admiring Greeks of the classical period, like Solon, Aristotle, Plato, et al.
    • Koine (common) Greek was considered the lingua mundi at the time. Only a complete barbarian wouldn't know Greek, and the Romans considered having pure, Attic, Greek as a mark of distinction.
  • Ancient Rome: Only in the New Testament. The Romans controlled Judea for all of Jesus' lifetime, and ended up having him executed.
  • And Man Grew Proud: And built a tower which would reach Heaven. And you know the rest.
  • Angel Unaware: Several times. You'd think people would figure it out after their grandparents fell for it.
  • Animal Stereotypes (Snakes are "slier than every beast of the field")
    • Dogs and pigs come off very badly as well.
  • Animated Adaptation (Many, but most notably, Superbook)
  • Apocalypse How - several, including Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekial, Revelation, and other odd parts of the New Testament.
  • Apocalyptic Log (The Revelation to John of Patmos)
  • Arc Number - several of them repeatedly used in various contexts:
    • seven (originally: six days of creating the World + one day of resting)
    • twelve (originally the number of Israelite tribes)
      • There are actually thirteen, but twelve is a more... um, significant number.
      • It's cause the 13th child of Jacob is a girl named Dinah.
      • Technically two of those tribes are both descended from the same son of Jacob, the original is the Twelve Sons of Jacob.
      • Thirteen remains a significant number for Jews. Less so for Christians.
    • forty (originally the number of years that the Israelites roamed through the desert)
      • Note that some scholars believe that 40 is better translated as "many"
  • Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence (More than once. In the Old Testament, there's Elijah and Enoch. In the New Testament, Jesus. Apocryphally, Fanon dictates that the woman in the sky in Revelation must be Mary, Jesus' mother, so this must have happened to her off-page.)
    • The Queen of Heaven is associated with the Bride of Christ, and is either the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the church and its twelve apostles, or possibly both...
  • The Atoner
  • Author Filibuster (the epistles in the New Testament)
  • Back From The Dead (Famously, Lazarus — and Jesus.)
  • Badass - the unnamed man (some people think it's Jesus) leading his forces against the Hellions in Revelation. Pretty awesome.
    • 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.
    • Really, 2nd Samuel has a list of Badasses who worked for King David, and were referred to as the "Mighty Men". The entire list is filled with stories of people killing off hundreds of people singlehanded, or fighting wild animals.
      • Benaiah, who "killed a lion in a pit on a day when it had snowed"
    • 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.
      • Note that a "sling" is something almost completely unrelated to the child's toy known today as a slingshot. A "sling" is a serious, if crude, weapon that throws rocks really, really hard. The Other Wiki has details.
      • Another example of David's Badassery- in order to marry his love, Michal, Saul ordered him to bring 100 Philistine foreskins. He brought twice that number, just for the hell of it. The Power Of Love, indeed.
      • Subverted because they ended up hating each other.
      • Thus, Mooks
    • Jacob wrestled an angel for an entire night. The angel had to resort to cursing Jacob's hip in order to win. And Jacob still obtained a blessing (which remains in effect to this day) before he let the angel leave.
      • Many scholars believe that the "angel" was actually a theophany (i.e. an appearance of Christ before the Gospels.) So, in that case, Jacob didn't wrestling an angel, he wrestled God...and won!
  • Badass Normal (Judas Maccabeus; should not be confused with Judas Iscariot)
    • Well, technically he's not in the Bible, but we'll let him stay
      • Depends which Bible.
    • The Judges.
  • 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)
    • Perhaps an even more common misquote would be "the Tree of Knowledge" instead of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
      • "Of good and evil" being a then-current Hebrew idiom meaning the equivalent of "from A to Z", it's not that much of a misquote after all.
    • 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...
      • "I am all things to all men, that I might win some of them"?
      • Going the extra mile. You know, cos Roman soldiers were entitled to make conquered Jews carry their packs, but only for a mile.
    • "Pride goeth before the fall". Parodied hilariously in Bill Fitzhugh's "Pest Control", as two Columbian drug lords debate semantics and paraphrasing right after they shot a trespasser to death and had his body torn apart by dogs.
  • Bed Trick (Jacob's wedding)
  • Belly Of The Whale (Jonah, Trope Namer)
  • Berserk Button - When some people decided to turn God's temple into a marketplace, Jesus was not amused.
    • Twice! Check it out...
  • Bible Times. The Trope Namer.
  • Big Bad: Pharoah in the Old Testament, Antioches Epiphanes in the Apocrypha, and The Devil in the New Testament.
    • depending on your viewpoint, God Himself (he's certainly killed a LOT of people).
  • Big Bad Friend (According to popular legend, Judas was Jesus' best friend. Yes, it is supposed to be like that with the apostrophe.)
  • Biggus Dickus: "For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses." (Ezekiel 23:20) It must be wonderful down in Egypt.
  • Bond One Liner (Judges 15:16 Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." Even more awesome when you substitute "ass" for "donkey.")
    • And even more of a one-liner when you consider that "donkey" and "heap" are homophones (or something of that nature) in Hebrew.
  • Bowdlerise (the original Thomas Bowdler; also done countless times before and after him)
    • 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. Childrens' adaptions try to avoid that
      • 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 exterminated when the city fell.
  • Breaking The Fourth Wall - Going so far as to say the world was created for the book and such. You'd be surprised how seriously some people take it.
  • Broken Aesop: Thomas being painted as a jerk because he does not instantly believe Jesus has returned. Even though the Bible also warns about false prophets and christs.
    • He wasn't there. And I think he wasn't being painted as a jerk; Jesus merely said, How happy are those who believe without seeing me. Which is most of the subsequent church...
  • Broken Base (Oh, man. This fandom puts Joel vs. Mike to shame.)
    • And they won't even keep it among themselves, either!
  • Brother Sister Incest (According to the Talmud, Cain and Abel each had a twin sister. Cain married Abel's, and Seth married Cain's. Not to mention the whole only-one-family-in-the-world thing Adam and Eve's kids went through...
    • The only-family-in-the-world thing is debatable. Sources disagree, but it's suggested there were other people in the world by the time Cain was grown up (who did God promise to protect him from?)
    • Also, there's the case of Amnon and Tamar in Samuel II, where Amnon 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.
    • Did everyone suddenly forget about Noah's arc?
      • Noah's sons brought their wives along, so the pairings in the next generation were only cousin incest, perfectly acceptable in the insular culture of the Israelites. The repopulation of the animals, on the other hand....
  • 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... This Troper is surprised it didn't catch on quicker.
  • Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie (Joseph)
  • 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.
  • Cain And Abel - The Trope Namer.
  • Canon Discontinuity - 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.
  • Character Derailment - in critical literature, God is popularly depicted as being more benign and loving in the New Testament, and more vengeful in the Old Testament. Can be easily refuted however, as God performs tremendous acts of mercy and undeserved compassion in the Old Testament (read Jonah) and also demonstrates unchecked wrath in the New (read Revelation). God is established early in the Torah as being both compassionate and strict. Character derailment issues are based on the New Testament's focus on the person of Jesus, whose mission was to demonstrate/personify God's mercy. Yet even Jesus gets in on the judgement side of things in Revelation.
    • Let's not forget the doctrine of eternal damnation, which is only really present in the New Testament. Would you rather be smitten by a vengeful God one time and descend into Sheol, or be damned to an eternity of torment?
  • 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, 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 with a donkey's jaw, and then follows it up with a pun.
  • The Chosen One (Saul and David start a war over the fact that they are both the chosen one.)
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe (clapping is an expression of worship in Psalms, and in many churches today)
    • True believers gain special powers depending on their level of faith.
      • Highly debatable
  • Colony Drop (Wormwood among other stars during Revelation)
  • Come To Gawk
  • Cosmic Horror (Angels, actually.)
    • God himself could classify, since iirc looking at him in his full glory is supposed to be fatal
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome (Moses splits The Red Sea)
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: During the "speaking in tongues episode"
    Crowd: These men are drunk.
    Peter: Of course we're not drunk. It's nine o' clock in the morning.
  • Crucified Hero Shot (Jesus)
    • The Trope Namer, though not necessarily the original.
    • Some sects claim the Greek stauros refers to a vertical pole, not a cross, and others claim the cross was T-shaped.
  • David Versus Goliath (again, Trope Namer)
  • Deadpan Snarker: Paul of Tarsus, usually in his epistles. In one instance, mediating an argument amongst the Galatians about circumcision, he helpfully recommends to the conservative Jewish converts agitating against the pagan converts that they "go the whole way and cut the entire thing off!"
    • The Old Testament was way ahead on the snark front. One memorable moment from the book of Jonah:
      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!"
    • Heck, according to the Gospels, even Jesus himself loved to snark once in a while. No Really
      • If you truly knew the Scriptures... But perhaps it was a metaphorical point of view. Also, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel is a hilarious image if you really think about it.
  • Death By Sex (Sarah's husbands in the book of Tobit)
  • Depending On The Writer (Jesus' character tends to vary quite a bit depending on who's describing him)
  • Depopulation Bomb (Several)
  • Descend From A Higher Plane Of Existence (Jesus)
  • Deus Angst Machina (Job and everyone he knew)
  • Deus Ex Machina (literal God)
  • Deus Exit Machina (Lots of explanations have been attempted for the problem of evil)
  • Did Not Do The Research: There is considerable debate over the existence of factual/scientific errors in the Bible. Made more complicated by the abundance of poetic language.
    • Not to mention The Fundamentalists
    • This is more a fault of interpretation/translation as relates to the perceived scientific errors; for example, in the idea that the Bible implies that the earth is only 6000 years old. In truth, the Bible is frustratingly vague when it comes to the Creation, and could be interpreted in many different ways.
      • Though that doesn't change the fact that there are two differing creation stories.
      • In fact, several people have noted it to be self-contradictory on the subject, and suspect that the first chapter or two had a different writer, who wasn't entirely on the same page as the next guy.
      • Apologists have also come up with answers to every apparent "contradiction."
  • Dis Continuity
    • Protestants rejected the additional (not in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh) Old Testament books that came from the Greek Septuagint and call them "apocrypha" (not Canon), whereas they're considered Canon by Catholics. Though not by the Jews, whose culture originated them.
      • For one thing the Jews didn't appreciate all of the nice things Maccabees had to say about the Romans in retrospect.
    • Then there's the New Testament apocrypha, some of which are just weird. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, for instance, is possibly the first example of Super Dickery, featuring a very young Jesus that blinds, kills, and heals people left and right, then proceeds to lecture his teacher on theology.
    • The entire New Testament is rejected by the Jews.
    • On the other hand, 'mainstream' Christians reject the Gospel of Thomas, which was widely read by early Christian communities, on the basis of its much later origin and the fact that it was most certainly not written by Thomas or anyone in his general time period.
      • Not like the other Gospels are written by their supposed authors. As a matter of fact, they were initially anonymous.
    • Fairly justified, as the Nicean council ruled that it wasn't authentic.
  • Disney Death: Jesus
  • Distant Finale: the Book of Revelation; just how distant depends on who you ask.
    • There are actually several major interpretations of what the Revelation of John is. First, a book of prophecy of the future. Second, a description of present conditions of the Christian ecclesia. A third is that this book is like other Apocalypses written in roughly the same time period, and primarily an account of the salvation of a single soul, John of Patmos.
      • Or D: All of the Above.
      • Or E: None of the Above. It's confusing, to say the least
  • Disproportionate Retribution People during those times had much different ideas about what constitutes a "just" punishment and many of them will look completely disprotionate and cruel compared to what is a just punishment today, or if a punishment is necesary at all.
  • Downer Ending (end of the Old Testament)
    • In some terms, yes. The "ending" (remember that chronologically, Ezra and Nehemiah are among the last books of the OT) is that Judah was restored with Persian (Yes, those Persians) protection, and the Messiah is coming soon. However, one of the last prophets of the OT predicted the destruction of Jerusalem.
    • Depends on the order you go by. This Troper's Bible has Chronicles as the last book, which ends in Cyrus allowing Jewish exiles to return to their homeland. Most Christian translations, though, put Chronicles earlier and have significantly more depressing books last, so Your Milage May Vary.
      • Moses dies without setting foot on The Promised Land.
  • Dub Induced Plothole: The James King translation is said to contain a few mistranslations that alter the plot/meaning. Let us leave it at that.
    • More notable is the incident where some yahoo once accidentally translated the word for "rays of light" as "horns", and a sculptor happened to read this version. Hillarity Ensues.
  • Draco In Leather Pants (Satan — started with Milton, and went downhill from there. A few archangels, and some of the Four Horsemen, too.)
  • The Dragon: Inverted: The Dragon in Revelation is the Big Bad.
  • The Dutiful Son (Brother to the Prodigal Son)
  • Earth Is The Center Of The Universe (whether it's literally the center of the universe or not depends on how literally one takes certain passages)
  • The Eeyore (Qoheleth, the traditional author/narrator of Ecclesiastes. Given his title "Son of David, King in Jerusalem," he's probably also Solomon.)
  • Eldritch Abomination (You know what Angels really look like? Hint: not pretty).
  • Empathic Environment (many times, including when Jesus was killed)
  • The Empire (Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Macedon, Rome... The Persians come across pretty well, though.)
  • The End Of The World As We Know It (At least twice. First Noah's flood, then in the Distant Finale of Revelation)
  • Enemy Mine
  • Enemy To All Living Things (Part of Cain's curse.)
  • Ensemble Darkhorse (Satan, the Anti-Christ, even Judas)
  • Epileptic Trees (Talmud and Midrachim)
    • And everything else involving the Grigori.
  • Everyone Calls Him Bar Keep (Thanks to translations and tradition, YHWH is hardly ever known by His actual Name, and is referred to as, "God" (El / Theos) or "the Lord" (Adonai / Kurios) for most of the Book.)
    • When the English text reads "LORD" in ALL CAPS, it's a circumlocution for YHWH- the taboo against speaking his name wasn't in effect until the Hebrew Bible had already been written.
    • The only person said to have ever spoken His true name was, according to apocrypha, Lilith.
    • Opinions vary on the Name. Several people are credited with knowing (and using) the big secret one, including Moses (to kill an Egyptain slave driver), Solomon (to enslave the demon king Ashmodai/Asmodeus), and various rabbinic sages (to create golems and other miracles).
    • Also, Pharaoh from Exodus, whose name is never given and who is simply referred to as "Pharaoh". Various archaeologists, anthropologists, and Biblical scholars have offered any number of theories as to what historical pharaoh Exodus might be referring to, with Ramses II and Shoshenq I being fan favorites.
      • Which leads to a number of people who mistakenly believe that the Pharaoh who got the plagues = The Pharaoh that gave the genocide order...
  • Everythings Better With Rainbows: After the massive flood in Genesis, God promises not to drown all the creatures again and puts a rainbow in the sky as a symbol of his covenant with them.
  • Extra Eyes (Thrones and various other angels)
  • Face Death With Dignity (Jesus, the Garden of Gethsemane notwithstanding)
  • Face Heel Turn (King Saul, Pharaoh [multiple times], Absalom)
  • Fair For Its Day (Look at how women and children were treated in ancient Rome. "Husbands, love your wives" was a revolutionary concept in those days.)
    • Not to mention the book of Leviticus, which nowadays is looked upon as a long list of difficult rules, but when first made, presented what was, for the day, a refreshingly easy code of law. Especially considering the complex and extremely harsh religious systems of Israel's neighboring countries.
  • Fallen Angel (Lucifer and his supporters are the Ur Example)
  • Fan Dumb (Many fans of this book have done some profoundly stupid things.)
  • Fan Fiction (Milton and C.S. Lewis, among others, possibly the Apocrypha)
    • The Psuedepigrapha. Not canon in any religion, but these writings originated many beliefs not found in the actual Bible. Among other things, the Psuedepigrapha go into detail on the throwaway line in Genesis about the Sons of God lying with human daughters.
    • See also Good Omens and Ben Hur, the latter of which is one of the few fanfics to win an Oscar.
      • And Neon Genesis Evangelion or Dogma
      • Don't forget The Passion Of The Christ.
      • Or Jesus Christ Superstar.
      • Also (shudder) the Left Behind series.
      • Arguably The Silmarillion (well, some of it) is Bible fanfiction.
      • The entire body of oral tradition surrounding the Bible could be considered Fan Fiction. Some of it got written down in the form of various commentaries and interpretations. New ones continue to turn up all the time.
      • Veggie Tales (less shudder, more WTFLOL)
      • Bathsheba ... becomes David's "ducky". You know, a bath toy. (A small plastic one! Stop sniggering!)
    • Don't forget The Rapture, which iirc was made up wholesale in the 1800s
  • Fan Haters (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and some other real-life atheists)
    • Not to mention all the people following a competing religion.
  • Fan Sequel (The Book Of Mormon and other, more obscure examples)
  • Fanon (many apocryphal texts)
  • Fan Preferred Couple - Solomon and The Queen of Sheba.
  • Fan Service: Everyone is naked and perfect in Eden. It's kinda light on the Fan Service after that.
    • Song of Solomon. Just... Song of Solomon. See also Dis Continuity, as most people seem to pretend it never happened.
  • Fan Wank (An entire genre of it called apologetics.
    • Also, some of the details that are commonly associated with the texts in question aren't in the original. For a less controversial example, the fruit of the Tree Of Knowledge of Good And Evil is commonly depicted as an apple, but none is specified (and some depictions use other fruit).
      • Same scene, more controversial: nothing in the text of Genesis leads to the conclusion that the snake was, was working for, or had anything at all to do with Satan.
  • Fetish Fuel (See Foot Focus below.)
  • Filler: Extremely well-done with the Apocrypha.
  • Finding Judas (but not the Trope Namer)
  • Find The Cure (Tobit is blinded, so his son Tobias and his companion ( aka the archangel Raphael in disguise) go search for the cure)
  • Fire And Brimstone Hell (Mostly according to John the Revelator.)
  • First Girl Wins: Adam and Eve. Although according to Fanon, Eve was actually the second girl. A few sources even have her third.
  • Flame War (As stated above, disagreements involving The Bible often ended...less than pleasantly.)
    • Thankfully, nobody involved can have you executed for your opinions anymore!
  • Flaming Sword (The Cherubum.)
  • Foot Focus (Jesus seems to have a big thing about washing people's feet.)
    • Try walking all day in a dusty place like Israel in open sandals...
    • Several references to "feet" in the Old Testament are referring to male genitalia. For example, when David tells Uriah to go into his house and "wash his feet", he's trying to get Uriah to have sex with his wife so her pregnancy doesn't make anyone suspicious.
  • Forbidden Fruit: Contrary to popular imagery, it wasn't necessarily an apple. (Other versions have it as a pomegranate, a citron, or a fig.)
  • Fridge Logic (Frequently Hand Waved as God's master plans being incomprehensible to humans)
  • Gainax Ending (The Book of Revelation)
  • Gannon Banned (It's the Book of Revelation, no plural)
  • Gendercide (Twice, in Exodus)
  • Geo Effects (the Israelites and the Aramites, subverted)
  • Get Thee To A Nunnery (especially in the King James version)
  • Getting Crap Past The Radar (Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, depending on what translation you're reading. The average reader is often rendered speechless to find what they can only call pornography in the Bible, and scholars have debated for centuries just how the hell this wound up in the Bible.)
    • And that's after the translators (painfully obviously) did their best to sanitize it!
  • God (Trope Codifier, at least in... most of the West...)
  • The Glorious War Of Sisterly Rivalry (Plain and dowdy Leah vs pretty vivacious Rachel over Jacob)
  • Go Karting With Bowser - When not torturing the souls of the damned, Satan has been known to hang around heaven and take friendly bets with God. This results in the book of Job.
  • Good People Have Good Sex (Solomon and one of his wives)
  • Good Samaritan: Trope Namer
  • Groin Attack: The words 'foreskin', 'circumcise', or some inflection thereof appear over 100 times.
  • Half Human Hybrids (Nephilim, and depending on which ecumenical councils you accept, also Jesus is both 100% human and 100% divine. Try to wrap your head around that one.)
  • Hand Wave (Many consider this the point of the book with relation to REAL LIFE, to the point of hand-waving away actual science that doesn't mesh with their interpretation of things.)
  • Hatedom (Goes both ways: some use it as an excuse to discriminate, others have been discriminated against because they identify with it.)
  • He Who Must Not Be Named: The third commandment instructs the faithful not to take the name of the Lord in vain. This has spawned many practices, stretching from simply avoiding the use of oaths like "For the love of God!", to avoiding using the G-word in any context - typing "G-d" in text, for example, or, among Orthodox Jews, using the word "Adonai", or the Tetragrammaton, as a euphemism.
  • Healing Hands (Jesus and the Apostles healed people by laying their hands on them.)
  • Heel Face Turn: Saul on the road to Damascus, who quite literally "saw the light".
  • Heroic Sacrifice (Stephen, Isaac, Samson, Jesus)
  • Heroic BSOD: Jesus while on the cross asks God why he has forsaken him. Only in Matthew and Mark.
    • The whole prayer at Gethsemane scene can be seen as an Heroic BSOD as well.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners (The conservative interpretation of Jonathan and David's relationship)
  • Higher Self
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: Satan. In the Book of Job, he's depicted as a bit of a cynical Trickster Archetype and troublemaker, not unlike Loki in Norse mythology, but perfectly tolerable enough for God to allow among the other angels and have a little friendly debate with. But by the time the New Testament gets written, he has become the embodiment of ultimate evil. You can't get more of an upgrade than that.
  • Hooker With A Heart Of Gold (Rahab in the Torah, Mary Magdalene in Fanon)
  • Hope Spot (Pilate tries to have Jesus released, but the mob insists on his crucifixion). Although Pilate was a jerk, depending on who you talk to. In other branches, he's a saint. Literally.)
  • Ho Yay: David and Jonathan,◊ Ruth and Naomi. Just don't mention it to certain fans...
    • David mourning Jonathan's death: "Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women"
  • Humans Are Bastards: Humanity's thoughts were bad enough to drive an omnibenevolent being to attempt omnicide. He drowned around 30 million people before he forgave humanity, because humanity's thoughts are bad (uh... huh?) and repented.
  • Humans Are Special: With free will, they actually have the potential to become greater than angels.
  • I Am Legion: The original.
  • 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 Got Better: Jesus.
  • I Know Your True Name: Mostly in the old testament, some power is associated with the names of God, the act of Adam naming the animals, etc.
    • In fact, Moses kills an Egyptian at one point solely by saying God's True Name, which Fanon holds to be 72 or 216 letters long.[1]
  • Idiot Ball: Samson
    • Finds some bees have made their hive in the corpse of a lion, so he eats some of the honey and gives the rest to his parents. The honey that came from a DEAD LION.
      • Especially since they're Nazirites. Their not allowed to touch, let alone eat, corpses or anything that came from corpses.
  • Idiot Plot (Ugh...)
  • IKEA Erotica
  • ILLKILLYOU Exodus, and probably some other places.
  • Im A Humanitarian: Quite a few examples that falls under two categories: God's punishment (usually forcing people to eat their own children or other family members) or depicted the sake of it.
  • Implausible Deniability (Cain is enough of a moron to think he can lie to an omniscient, omnipotent God.)
  • Incest Is Relative: God creates two people, and they have three sons, one of whom is killed, and one is driven away. So who is there for Seth marry except his own mother?
    • Presumably the same people Cain had to worry about.
    • One of his sisters. The Bible doesn't mention any of the other children of Adam and Eve by name, but clearly mentions they were there.
    • Where I come from, marrying your sister is incest anyway....
      • Wow, what kind of twisted, bizarre place do you come from?
    • Don't forget in Genesis when Lot's daughters take turns raping him to carry on the family line.
  • Internet Backdraft (and not just on the Internet either. It's often said that there are two things you just don't discuss in mixed company: politics and religion)
  • It Got Worse: A large portion of the Book of Revelation
  • It Was His Sled (Jesus dies. But he gets better. This has been subjected to one of the most massive spoiler-campaigns ever; people were shouting it out on the streets decades before the Gospels were even written. Please don't feed the trolls.)
  • Jacob Marley Warning - Subverted. In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (a different 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 - Yeah.
  • Jesus Taboo (averted)
  • Journey To Find Oneself (Jesus' 40 days and nights in the desert, sort of.)
  • Judgment Of Solomon (Trope Namer)
  • Just Eat Gilligan
  • Just So Story: The entire purpose of the narrative until Abraham is introduced. Hilarity Ensues among the fandom when some fans start discovering new science and archaeological evidence that contradicts said stories, or at least the then-universally-held Fanon.
  • Kill Em All (the Distant Finale, Revelation; possibly the most literal application of "Kill Em All and let God sort 'em out" ever. Also, many cases in the Old Testament)
  • Kneel Before Zod: This is what God wants people to do.
  • Knight Templar - All over the place. Violations of even some minor laws or commandments are liable to get somebody smote, either by God directly or through a proxy. The Book of Leviticus is the quintessential Knight Templar instruction manual.
    • But see, it's not being a "Knight Templar" if the Bible is true. A Knight Templar does evil in the name of good. if God truly gave those commands and is all-knowing and all-good then those commands, harsh though they may be, wouldn't be evil.
  • Know When To Fold Em — It may seem pretty badass of Satan to try and overthrow God, until the prophecies are fulfilled and he loses. When it comes to fighting the one responsible for the very existence of yourself and everything, it's really wiser to fold em.
  • The Lancer (Peter to Jesus.)
  • La Resistance (Israel, repeatedly: see 1 and 2 Maccabees, which are part of the Catholic but not Protestant Bible, and the book of Judges, which is pretty much considered canon.)
  • Les Yay: One interpretation of Ruth and Naomi's relationship. Not popular with conservatives, obviously.
  • 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.
  • Love It Or Hate It
  • Macekre (Long before Carl Macek, there was King James; of course, some consider it some kind of Adaptation Distillation that's more canonical than the original.)
    • Part of this was the source material. The translation of the New Testament was largely based on the Textus Receptus, a Macekre in itself. (it was composed of late Greek manuscripts that had quite a few interpolations that the earlier, more accurate manuscripts lacked. And some of it was actually back-translated from Latin)
      • There is no proof to that claim. 95% of all extant copies doth not a Macekre make.
  • Meaningful Name (literally hundreds, here's a full list)
  • Memetic Badass (Jesus. Ex.: Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.)
  • 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)
  • Mind Screw - Revelation. According to some historians, the man who wrote it actually was on drugs.
  • Misaimed Fandom - Satanism
  • Mission From God - ...Pretty much everyone.
  • Mix And Match Critters - When not described as Eldritch Abominations or imitating human form the Angels are described as such (in Book of Daniel for instance).
  • 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 particullary hard and much discussion has ensued between critics and apologists because of it.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Sodom's collective attempt to gang rape an angel happens right before they get destroyed, this part gets forgotten in modern times when most people think of Sodom for well... Homosexuality.
  • Moses In The Bullrushes: Trope Namer
  • Most Writers Are Male
    • Some have speculated that the J author, who wrote much of the Pentateuch, and the writer of Luke, which is much more pro-feminist than any other gospel, were women.
    • Chauvinist bias is massively averted in many books. One of the Old Testament Judges (rulers of Israel) was female. The church is described as a woman to be the bride of Christ.
    • This feminism did not stop many fans from using selections from the text to support a chauvinist agenda, however. Have we mentioned how incredibly fiercely divided this fandom is?
  • Mrs Robinson (Potiphar's Wife)
  • Murder The Hypotenuse (David and Bathsheba)
  • My Death Is Just The Beginning (Jesus. Enoch and Elijah are considered the two prophets in the Revelation of John, so they count too.)
    • Does it count if they didn't really die?
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much (Although several groups receive an Always Chaotic Evil characterization, it's pretty common for there to be a member of the group who is virtuous- like Ruth as a good Moabite, the Good Samaritan of the New Testament, and some rabbis mentioned in the Talmud who were supposedly descended from evil people like Haman)
  • Never Accepted In His Hometown (Jesus and most prophets. It's the Trope Namer, after all)
  • No Doubt The Years Have Changed Me (Joseph to his brothers, literally The Oldest One In The Book).
  • Nightmare Fuel - Pretty much every end of the world prophecy. Especially the one where the soldiers' flesh melts off.
    • The Wisdom of Solomon (from the Greek Septuagint) is all about this trope applying to Solomon.
    • Dude, this troper's freaking out just thinking about this one: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Hebrews 10:26-27)
      • These verses are often misinterpreted. You see, that verse in Hebrews is about the Jewish Christians who were turning back to Judaism. Christians believe that Jesus fulfilled the law for us, in a sense removing the need for sacrifices and offerings for sin. So if they turned back to Judaism, any sin offering they make is in vain.
  • Now I Know What To Name Him — According to some, an angel not only told Mary that she was giving birth to the Messiah, but apparently, that angel also called him Jesus, and Mary was like, "Well, I don't like that name, but I better not make God angry."
  • The Obi Wan (David to Solomon)
    • Also John the Baptist and Jesus
    • Perhaps more fittingly, Elijah to Elisha, and Paul to Timothy.
      • Elijah and Moses to Jesus.
  • Older Than They Think - Many consider stories and themes of the New Testament to be adopted from older sources. Ex.: Classical Mythology's Danae = Mary, or at least the later Catholic depiction of her.
    • There have also been accusations of Jesus being an Expy of figures including the Greco/Roman god Dionysus/Bacchus, the Egyptian god Horus, and many others.
    • Much fanon and interpretation has been accused of transplanting the canon of Zoroastrianism in
  • Omniglot: One of the powers of true believers, according to Fanon, along with the ability to drink anything poisonous, exorcise demons, heal the sick, and for truest of true believers Nigh Invulnerability against demons and evil spirits!
  • Omniscient Morality License: God. Just ask Job!
  • One Steve Limit - Nope. There are three Herods during Jesus' lifetime.
    • As well as princess...you guessed it...Herodias (who married two different Herods, both her uncle, in her lifetime).
    • As well as two Judases and two Lazari.
    • There are even other Jesuses, Jesus himself being a form of the name Joshua. In fact Jesus was a popular name during his time.
    • Inverted with all those names (Emmannuel, Joshua, Jesus) that are all meant to be for the same dude.
    • Just among the 12 Disciples we have 2 James, 2 Judas, and 2 Simons (though one also went by Peter)
  • Only Mostly Dead: That little girl (Tabitha), maybe Lazarus, averted with Jesus where the guards did some prodding to check.
  • Only Sane Man: Jesus
  • Out Damned Spot (Pontius Pilate)
  • Padding: Lots of repetition at points, like with the book of Numbers.
  • Pals With Jesus: Trope Namer?
  • The Paragon (Jesus)
  • Parental Favoritism: Joseph.
  • Parental Incest (Lot and his daughters in Genesis 19:30-38. Though, technically, that was rape. By the daughters.)
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage (Isaac and his wife Rebekah)
  • Please Spare Him, My Liege!
  • Playing With Fire (Elijah incinerates much of Israel during his time as a Badass Preacher, including all the foreign prophets who opposed him during a dramatic standoff.
  • Pride Before A Fall (the Tower of Babel was to reach the heavens. Guess how that worked ou.t)
  • Protagonist Centered Morality (And HOW.)
  • Rape Of The Lock (Samson)
  • Reality Ensues (Abimelech, first self-proclaimed king of Israel, is killed by a woman who threw a rock at him. He ordered his armor-bearer to run him through with a sword so that no one will know how he really died. Well, someone found out.)
  • Recap Episode: Most of Deuteronomy. And Chronicles.
  • Replacement Goldfish (After Job's loved ones, friends, and nodding acquaintances are all killed horribly, he eventually has new ones.)
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Played straight with the story from Genesis, in which the snake is the bad guy. Played with in the incident involving Moses at Pharaoh's court where serpents representing the rival gods duke it out (guess who wins). Played straight in that all reptiles fall into the category of "unclean" species. Averted later in Exodus when a pillar with bronze snakes is set up to cure the Israelites of a plague.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified (Moses is effectively literature's first bio-terrorist, and takes out his aggression against the government on the civilian population. And then there's Jesus, who "came not to bring peace, but a sword..." even though this refers entirely to the division that will be created when Christians are persecuted by their own families. Context, people.)
  • Ret Con (several, one of the most noticeable being that the serpent from Genesis was retconned in Revelation to have in fact been Satan)
    • Never explicitly stated as such: this may be better characterized as Fanon.
  • Salieri Syndrome: Notable examples include Cain and Joseph's brothers.
  • Science Is Bad (a frequent fan interpretation, especially of the Babel story)
  • The Scourge Of God
  • Scry Vs Scry: Moses against Pharaoh's priests. They turned their staffs into serpents; Moses's staff became a serpent which devoured the others.
  • Secret Test Of Character (God's command to Abraham to kill his son; Job's Deus Angst Machina suffering; the original Judgment Of Solomon)
  • Selective Enforcement (Does anyone even recall the non-homosexuality laws given in Leviticus?)
    • Yes. Jews remember and study them all, though some aren't practicable any more, since they depend on extinct species or currently nonexistent buildings.
    • Homosexuality is confirmed to still be sinful in many passages in the New Testament.
      • "Many" meaning "two". There are far more passages, in the Old and New Testaments, which would make modern Capitalism a sin. The early Christian community in Jerusalem is idealized as having held all property in common, distributing to each according to their needs.
    • On a related note, one of the largest chunks of the fandom ignores the section on God-commanded dietary restrictions entirely.
  • Serious Business (many fanclubs with literally religious zeal)
  • Shaming The Mob ("Let he who is without sin...")
    • Not to mention the pissed-off mob at Jesus' trial.
  • Shared Universe (many ancient books collected together)
  • Shoot The Dog
  • Shout Out (Sumerian mythology, according to secular historians. Not relevant among believers.)
    • The Law of Moses was both a civil and religious code. Many of the civil laws can also be found in other period law codes.
  • Shipping (there's this whole thing with Jesus and Mary Magdalene...)
  • Sibling Rivalry (Cain vs Abel, Jacob vs Esau, Joseph vs his 11 brothers)
  • Sixth Ranger (Paul, who starts out an enemy of the early church but later joins up with them, and ends up being one of the best-known and most frequently quoted Christians of the first century)
    • Matthias, who was added to the Twelve after Judas betrayed Jesus.
  • Spell My Name With An S (Both "Jesus" and "Joshua" are written in the same way in Greek. This sometimes caused translation errors; the King James Version, for example, has "Jesus" in a few cases where "Joshua" should be)
    • That'd be because it's almost the same Hebrew name. Joshua has an extra 'heh', which is very close to being a silent letter.
  • SpinOff (New Testament from the Tanakh)
  • Spirit Advisor (Jesus to his disciples following his death and resurrection, before returning to Heaven until the Second Coming on Ascension Thursday.)
    • Arguably, God Himself to any of the prophets. Joshua used Him as a Spirit Military Advisor.
    • Furthermore, Jesus promises to leave the Holy Spirit with believers in order to serve as an aide / "moral compass" for them until he returns to Heaven
  • The Stars Are Going Out (In the Apocalypse, when the stars fall from sky and the moon turns blood red.)
    • Even though stars are bigger than the Earth...
      • I'm fairly certain its talking about meteors a.k.a. shooting stars.
  • Start My Own (In popular legend, when Simon Magus couldn't bribe his way into the new Church—thus inventing the term "simony"—he went around heckling Peter and trying to raise his own church by magic. They then had a showdown in Rome, where Simon wound up dying with varying degrees of impressiveness, Depending On The Writer. In the actual verse where he's mentioned, though, it says he became a lay worshiper.)
    • 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 Dante Alighieri put him in Hell with similar offenders.
  • Stuffed Into The Fridge (Job's family, servants, and employees, as a wager between two supernatural beings, at least in the South Park version of events. Satan, literally, the Accuser, in the Bible proper has the authority and right to test ANYONE through suffering, within limits. In Job's case, God had sheltered him disproportionately up to that point, hence the extreme fridge-stuffing.
  • Taken For Granite (the wife of Lot, who turned into a pillar of salt)
  • Take That: The seven brothers in 2 Maccabees chapter 7. Also Facing The Bullets One Liner.
    • 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.
  • Tear Jerker (the "suffering servant" from Isaiah. People tend to be split on who the suffering servant is; Christians assert it's Jesus, most Jews assert that it's referring to the Jewish people in general, but either way it's pretty darn sad)
    • David's lament. It has since become a common feature in commemoration ceremonies for Israeli fallen soldiers.
      • The entire book of Lamentations, as suggested by the title. A heart-wrenching account by Jeremiah of Israel's fall to the Babylonians, made worse by the fact that Jeremiah had tried to warn them.
  • Tenchi Solution (Jacob works for Laban seven years to marry his beloved Rachel. When the ceremony rolls around, he finds he's married to Leah, her older sister, instead. Laban's solution: you have to work another seven years to get the other girl, too.)
    • Not only that, but both women bring their handmaids into it, too: Rachel because she's barren (for a while), and Leah because, well, she's the less favored wife and has to keep up. So Jacob winds up having four "wives" and a total of 13 children.
  • The Anti Christ (Trope Namer)(or the Dark Messiah, if God Is Evil)
    • Anti-Christ means a substitute or artificial Christ- a reference to the many, many, many insincere attempts to redefine and recreate Christianity in opposition to the apostles' original teaching. Specifically used to describe the early Gnostics groups who were already forming in the apostles' time.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill (Trope Namer, though technically, it really translates to "You will not murder." The nation given this command killed often with God's approval- both through capital punishment and God-approved wars. And it clearly doesn't cover animals.
  • Time Skip (the Old Testament and New Testament are separated by about five hundred years of time)
    • There is a 400-year gap between the account of the Israelites going into Egypt and them coming out. The Apocrypha assayed to fill in the missing time.
  • Title Drop: Averted. The word "bible" can't be found anywhere in the Bible. It's "scripture".
  • To Hell And Back: Jesus' decent into Hell shortly after his Crucifixion, called "The Harrowing". This is considered Dis Continuity by some.
  • Too Dumb To Live (Delilah tries to get Samson to reveal his weakness, and Samson tests her by telling her a false one. This fails. While this is very smart by itself, he then allows her to repeat this three times before finally caving in and admitting it's his hair. Honestly, no matter how much you love her, shouldn't you just get rid of her after the first time she tries to sell you into slavery to your enemies?)
    • You forget, Love Makes You Dumb.
    • Or maybe he was just into bondage.
    • Pharaoh after seeing that Moses and Aaron have the power of God on their side, is told by Moses that a series of plagues will come to Egypt if he continues to keep the Israelites. Even after this warning, Pharaoh refused and his country suffered for it (Although their was something about God "hardening his heart"). Then after letting them go, he changed his mind again and sent his cavalry after them, and drowning them in the process when the Red Sea the Israelites crossed through closed up on them.
      • Arguably that was intended more like "(the thought of) God hardened his heart", making it more a straight application.
      • Really? "And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go."
  • Tower Of Babel (Trope Namer)
  • Trauma Conga Line (Job)
  • Trope Overdosed (and the Trope Maker, Trope Namer, or Trope Codifier in many cases- what we have here is a book almost as influential as the Lord Of The Rings!)
  • Turn The Other Cheek (Trope Namer)
  • Twenty Bear Asses (Saul offered his daughter's hand in marriage to David, if David could bring him 100 Philistine foreskins. David one-upped him and brought back 200.)
  • Twenty Minutes Into The Future (the Distant Finale)
  • The Unfavorite (A number of Israel's neighbor nations, most famously the Philistines. The Israelites were God's chosen people, and charged with warring against several of them. The Israelites however, were not exclusively God's only people, but a representative nation. They lived peaceably with many of their more benign neighbors.)
  • Untrusting Community
  • Unusual Euphemism: Two noteworth ones:
  • 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)
  • The Uriah Gambit (Trope Namer)
  • Values Dissonance The Whole book seems to scream of "I was made thousands of years ago" and many things written there were only relevant to the people of that time. So to modern readers those same things can range from strange to downright horryfing also dependeing on the sort of outlook one has on The Bilbe itself.
  • The Vamp (Delilah, Samson's girlfriend. Also Queen Jezebel)
  • Villain With Good Publicity ("the Beast" in the Distant Finale)
  • Villainous Breakdown (Saul ever since God rejected him)
  • Virgin Sacrifice: Jephthah promised to sacrifice the first thing that came up to his doorway in exchange for a "very great slaughter" of his enemies...then, after a successful battle, his own daughter strolls up. And like an even bigger idiot, he goes ahead and sacrifices her anyway.
    • Although many scholars believe this means he brought her to the temple and dedicated her to a life of serving God.
    • Your Mileage May Vary on whether going through with it (regardless of whether it means the devotional life or actually sacrificing her, This Troper has always viewed it as the latter) was "an even bigger idiot" move... you don't make promises to God and not keep your end of the bargain if you know what's good for you. The point is more the fact that Jephthah was an idiot for making the oath in the first place, because God had already promised him victory earlier in the same chapter, and he went ahead and made the promise anyway. Moron.
  • Voice Of The Legion
  • Voodoo Shark
  • Walking The Earth: The punishment to the Israelites (they were made to walk around in circles for 40 years) and to Cain. According to Medieval legend, Cain walked all the way to the moon.
  • Warrior Poet (David, giant slayer and great musician/poet/dancer)
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Apparently, not even an army with the Lord on their side can stand against iron chariots.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist (General Joab, who murdered people because he thought they would hinder David's success. Also, one possible interpretation of Judas, who may have desired the Kingdom of Heaven to be restored by physical force.)
  • What Do You Mean Its Not For Kids: Contains large quantities throughout of illegitimate sex, blood and gore, disease, horribly painful deaths, breaking moral codes, and general villainy. There's probably swear words in there too, if anybody remembered what ancient Hebrew and Greek swear words were.
    • Song. Of. Solomon.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic (Somehow both an aversion *and* a Trope Maker)
  • What Do You Mean It Wasnt Made On Drugs: Book of Revelation. That is all.
  • What The Hell Hero (David's Murder The Hypotenuse tactic gets a very angry and critical response from Nathan)
  • 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 whole "Lucifer = Satan" thing.
    • 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.
    • Judas being the Miser Advisor who told Jesus that they could have sold the oil and used the funds for the benefit of the pool.
      • Wait, what? This is Word Of God, e.g. John 12:4-6 (NIV):
    But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
  • Word Of God (To Catholics: Papal infallibility. Rather reticent to confirm or deny anything though...)
    • To everyone, the entire Bible, at lest the parts that particular Sect or Religion considers Canon.
  • Worlds Strongest Man (Samson)
  • Xanatos Gambit (Judith from the Talmud; and possibly Jesus' entire arc, especially considering Judas's vital role.)
  • You Fail Biology Forever (some more literal fan interpretations perpetuate this)
    • Well, I haven't had any luck breeding speckled and striped goats by having my goats conceive in front of speckled and striped sticks. Do let me know if you have better luck.
      • If you gave them colored water to drink, maybe their wool would grow in colored? It works for flamingos ...
      • If you can get flamingoes to develop stripes by feeding them layered liquids (aka, the only way to get stripes in a liquid), please apply for a nobel prize now.
  • You Cant Go Home Again: The Garden of Eden
  • Youngest Child Wins: Abel's sacrifice is accepted, Cain's is not. Isaac is favored by his mother over Ishmael, his older half-brother. Jacob is favored by his mother over Esau, the firstborn twin. Joseph is favored by his father over all his older brothers, as is Benjamin. Moses's degree of prophecy outranks Aaron's. Solomon, David's youngest son, becomes the next king. Etc.
    • Clearly, God is a youngest child.
      • That... explains a lot, actually.
    • Each of these was meant to be a subversion of the cultural standard. The story of Jacob and Esau even acknowledges that under normal circumstances Esau's the one who had the birthright coming to him.
      • Don't fret. The older brothers got along fine afterwards. Cain founded a city, Ishmael found Allah, Esau founded his own nation and neither Joseph nor Benjamin became leader of the 12 tribes. That honor went to Judah (only because his 3 older brothers engaged in incest and mass murder). Guess which tribe David and Jesus came from?
  • Your Mileage May Vary - And how! Some say it's the direct word of the one true God, others say it's just one book among many which are all equally absurd.
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