The Bible - Television Tropes & Idioms

"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. "

— Revelations 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 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 140 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), 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, despite the fact that a considerable portion of its content would be considered immoral and even Squicky by modern standards. They don't ever seem to remember those bits, or if they do, they're quite willing to Handwave them away.

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.

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)
Adaptation Decay (too many modern re-tellings to count)
- Not even counting the fact it was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; the English Gideon Bibles you get in your hotel room are not reading the original text. Despite this, some fans take offense if you mention that the original Canon might've been Lost In Translation. This is especially true for the King James Version, and there is a not-insignificant group of people in the world who believe the KJV to be the only reliable version of the Bible ever published, including the original texts.
  - One common explanation is that though the odd word might have been mistranslated (one part of the Pentateuch suggests that you ought to help either your neighbor's son or your neighbor's pack animals out of a ditch, thanks to a translator missing a bit), the meaning, which is the important part, has been preserved. Saying that John, Paul, George, and Ringo lived in a yellow submarine is sufficiently like saying that four people lived in a yellow submarine that there's nothing lost.
  - Another that this troper has heard and, being Christian, believes to be the case is that God, being the sovereign all-powerful deity of life, the universe, and everything, is not going to allow His (for all intents and purposes) biography to be messed with.
Adaptation Distillation (the Qur'an, or whatever holy text you believe in)
- The Diatesseron, written by Christian theologian Tatian in an attempt to consolidate the four gospels into one book.
- Probably should be noted that the Torah came first, so The Bible is itself Adaptation Distillation or Adaptation Decay depending on what you want to believe, but it's undeniably Adaptation 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 Jesus Christ Superstar interprets him as a Tragic Hero.)
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
- 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.)
- Arguably the Philistines as well.
- And the Amalek, which the Hebrews were actually commanded to fight.
Anachronic Order (The books of prophecy tend to skip around; Jeremiah's revelations while in prison precede the account of his imprisonment, for instance.)
An Aesop
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Angel Unaware
Animal Stereotypes (Snakes are "slier than every beast of the field")
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.
  - Technically two of those tribes are both descended from the same son of Jacob, the original is the Twelve Sons of Jacob.
- 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 Pope Pius XII invoked papal infallibility and declared Mary's ascension Canon in 1950.
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 Revelations. 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.
  - All of the Judges fit this trope, though Samson is definitely a standout.
  - AND Ehud, God's ninja.
- 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.
- David himself, killing Goliath, a giant, as well as a lion and a bear, with a sling.
  - 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.
- Jacob wrestled God for an entire night. God had to resort to cursing Jacob's hip in order to win.
  - WHAT? He wrestled an angel, which had to leave by sunrise to sing praises to God and so injured Jacob's thigh. Trust me, God won't be beaten by a mortal.
  - The "man/angel" was God Himself (Genesis 32:28, 30). Jacob's new name, "Israel", literally means "He who fights with God and wins", and God has taken physical shape before to eat a meal with Abraham in Genesis 18.
  - Some have interpreted this to be one of several Old Testament appearances of Jesus.
Badass Normal (Judas Maccabeus; should not be confused with Judas Iscariot)
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.
- 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...
- "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.
Big Bad Friend (According to popular legend, Judas was Jesus' best friend. Yes, it is supposed to be like that with the apostrophe.)
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.")
Bowdlerise (the original Thomas Bowdler; also done countless times before and after him)
Broken Base (Oh, man. This fandom puts Joel vs. Mike to shame.)
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...
- 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.
Burn The Witch - Kill It With Fire is God's preferred method of punishment and God commanded people to kill witches... 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 baking in Hell and you.
Cain And Abel - The Trope Namer.
Canon Discontinuity - Where do we start...?
Celibate Hero (Jesus, and possibly others we forget.)
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.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe (in Psalms)
- True believers gain special powers depending on their level of faith.
Colony Drop (Wormwood among other stars during Revelations)
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!"
- Heck, according to the Gospels, even Jesus himself loved to snark once in a while. No Really
Death By Sex (Sarah's husbands in the book of Tobit)
Depopulation Bomb (Several)
Descend From A Higher Plane Of Existence (Jesus)
Deus Angst Machina (Job and everyone he knew)
Deus Ex Machina (literal God)
Did Not Do The Research: Some people consider there to be scientific and historical errors throughout the Bible. We won't go into examples to avoid Serious Business.
- Not to mention The Fundamentalists
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 "deuterocanonical" (secondary canon) by Catholics.
- 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.
  - That's just a bunch of quotes that either plagiarize from the other Gospels, or makes up whatever it doesn't quote from the other Gospels.
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.
Downer Ending (end of the Old Testament)
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.
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)
Eldritch Abomination (Many of the Angels in both the Old and New Testament are described as really bizarre creatures—the Ophanim or "Wheels" being one of the most famous examples. The monsters in Revelations are other examples.)
Empathic Environment (many times, including when Jesus was killed)
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.)
- The only person said to have ever spoken His true name was, according to apocrypha, Lilith.
- 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)
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)
- 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.
Fan Haters (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and some other real-life atheists)
Fan Sequel (The Koran, The Book Of Mormon and other, more obscure examples)
- Arguably, the New Testament is the Fan Sequel to the Torah.
Fanon (many apocryphal texts)
Fan Service: Everyone is naked and perfect in Eden. It's kinda light on the Fan Service after that.
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).
Fetch Quest (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.)
Fetish Fuel (See Foot Focus below.)
Filler: Extremely well-done with the Apocrypha.
Finding Judas (but not the Trope Namer)
Find The Cure (Tobit)
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.
Flame Wars (As stated above, disagreements involving The Bible often ended...less than pleasantly.)
Foot Focus (Jesus seems to have a big thing about washing people's feet.)
Forbidden Fruit
Fridge Logic (Frequently Hand Waved as God's master plans being incomprehensible to humans)
Gainax Ending (The Book of Revelation)
Gendercide (Twice, in Exodus)
Geo Effects (the Israelites and the Aramites, reversed)
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.)
- It's metaphorical, with the Jews as the wayward wife and G-d being the husband. Which is how it got through, although I've seen some translations that actually give the metaphorical meaning (which is no fun!). Anyway, Ecclesiastes was the book most debated for inclusion—it was thought that it could be interpreted as heretical, but the last verse cleared everything up.
God (Trope Codifier, at least in... most of the West...)
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.)
- An Omnipotent deity did it
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 are 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 B So D: Jesus while on the cross asks God why he has forsaken him.
Heterosexual Life Partners (The conservative interpretation of Johnathan and David's relationship)
- What that meant was that the friendship-love between them was so pure that it was as dear to G-d as that between a husband and a wife.
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.◊ They had a very... intimate relationship, some people think it was romantic.
- And some people celebrate it.
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
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.
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.
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?
- 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.
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 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)
Judgment Of Solomon (Trope Namer)
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)
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.
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.)
Load Bearing Hero (Samson, though it's an inversion since he brings down the temple!. He's still the hero, though.)
Loads And Loads Of Characters
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)
Meaningful Name (literally hundreds, here's a full list)
Memetic Badass (Jesus. Ex.: Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.)
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.
Moral Event Horizon - Depending on who you ask, God crosses these a few times. From the story of Jepthah to even just the occasional mass baby-cide, there's quite a few to choose from...
Moses In The Bullrushes: Trope Namer
Most Writers Are Male
- Not all, though. Harold Bloom claims that the J author, who wrote much of the Pentateuch, was a woman.
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 Revelations of John, so they count too.)
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 Midianite, 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)
Older Than They Think - Many of the stories and themes of the New Testament were adopted from older sources.
- You know Danae in Greek mythology who got a visit from Zeus in the form a a shaft of light and gave birth to a super-powerful son?
Omniglot: One of the powers of true believers, 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!
- The Church added that centuries after the original was written. Mark originally ended at 16:8.
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.
- Inverted with all those names (Emmannuel, Joshua, Jesus) that are all meant to be for the same dude.
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)
Pals With Jesus: Trope Namer?
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
Please Spare Him, My Liege!
Pride Before A Fall (the Tower of Babel was to reach the heavens. Guess how that worked out)
Puff Of Logic
Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Lot's daughters are not seen as bad for raping their own dad.
- They thought they were alone in the world. Though that does not reduce the Squick. Wonder what Lot thought when he woke up...
Rape Of The Lock (Samson)
Recap Episode (Chronicles)
Replacement Goldfish (After Job's loved ones, friends, and nodding acquaintances are all killed horribly, God gives him shiny new ones.)
Reptiles Are Abhorrent (The story from Genesis with the snake...)
Ret Con (several, one of the most noticeable being that the serpent from Genesis was retconned in Revelation to have in fact been Satan)
- The so-called "Fall" has practically been retconned into oblivion. Christians might be surprised to learn that the original story says nothing about God kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden because they sinned, but rather because he was afraid they'd eat from the other tree and become immortal.
Satan
Science Is Bad (a frequent fan interpretation, especially of the Babel story)
Science Marches On: Well, our rockets haven't hit that pesky firmament yet...
Scry Vs Scry: Moses against Pharaoh's priests.
Secret Test Of Character (God's command to Abraham to kill his son; Job's Deus Angst Machina suffering; the original Judgment Of Solomon)
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)
Shout Out (Sumerian mythology)
Shipping (there's this whole thing with Jesus and Mary Magdalene...)
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
So Bad Its Horrible
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 the same Hebrew name. Fitting the trope, it's a transliteration, not a translation issue.
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 after he returns to Heaven
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.)
- Others include Bishop Valentinius, Marcion, Marion. Christianity was (and is) a very splintered force, with hundreds of competing sects and just as many different views on the life and ministry of Jesus. Not so much a case of one man "starting his own" against orthodoxy, but a bunch of people starting their own and one being canonized retroactively.
- 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.)
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.
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.
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. Jacob's solution? Work another seven years to get the other girl, too.)
The Anti Christ (or the Dark Messiah, if God Is Evil)
- Anyone who denies Christ's incarnation (anyone who isn't a Christian or Agnostic) is an Anti-Christ.
The Atoner
The Chosen One (Saul and David start a war over the fact that they are both the chosen one)
The Dutiful Son (Brother to the Prodigal Son)
The Eeyore (Qoheleth, the traditional author/narrator of Ecclesiastes)
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)
The Lancer (Peter to Jesus.)
The Messiah (Many, including the Messianic Archetype, Jesus.)
The Mole (Judas Iscariot, after a Face Heel Turn.)
The Obi Wan (David to Solomon)
- Perhaps more fittingly, Elijah to Elisha, and Paul to Timothy.
The Paragon (Jesus)
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...")
The Scourge Of God
The Stars Are Going Out (In the Apocalypse, when the stars fall from sky and the moon turns blood red.)
The Unfavorite (The Israelites are God's chosen people, making every other person in the world an example of some degree.)
The Uriah Gambit (Trope Namer)
The Vamp (Delilah, Samson's girlfriend)
Thou Shalt Not Kill (Trope Namer, though it is sometimes subverted.)
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 Isrealites going into Egypt and them coming out.
- The Apocrypha successfully [[Filler fills in]] for the missing time.
Title Drop Averted. The word "bible" can't be found anywhere in the Bible.
To Hell And Back (the "Harrowing")
- Jesus' decent into Hell shortly after his Crucifixion.
- 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.
Tower Of Babel (Trope Namer)
Trauma Conga Line (Job)
Twenty Minutes Into The Future (Some people's view of the prophesy of Revelation)
Untrusting Community
Values Dissonance (slavery, child brides, misogyny, incest, polygamy, cannibalism, tricking your brother out of his inheritance, slaughtering an entire village to restore your sister's honor, girls raping their father, slaughtering an entire village because they refused to leave and make way for your army, setting bears on children when they make fun of you, human sacrifices, arranged marriages, slicing off your wife's hand if she grabs your yogurt hose in the middle of an argument...)
Villain With Good Publicity ("the Beast" in the Distant Finale)
Virgin Sacrifice: Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to God in exchange for a "very great slaughter" of the Ammonites.
Voice Of The Legion
Warrior Poet (David)
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)
Word Of Dante: Obviously, the Divine Comedy. But also...
- The whole "Lucifer = Satan" thing.
- The bit about Mary Magdalen 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.
Word Of God (To Catholics: Papal infallibility. Rather reticent to confirm or deny anything though...)
Words Can Break My Bones
Worlds Strongest Man (Samson)
Writers Cannot Do Math (Pi isn't equal to three.)
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.
  - That's what miracles are for...
You Can't Go Home Again: The Garden of Eden
You Should Know This Already (Um, why does this page have spoiler tags?)
- It's a joke
Youngest Child Wins (Three times in as many generations, in one family)
- Clearly, God is a youngest child.
  - That... explains a lot, actually.