History Literature / TheBible

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The people of Amalek. They raided the Hebrews as the were leaving Egypt, which led to God declaring a war of extermination upon them.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The people of Amalek. They raided the Hebrews as the were leaving Egypt, which led to God declaring a war of extermination upon them. Satan also applies here, sort of. The Jewish interpretation (which is carried into the Old Testament) is sometimes that he's a NecessaryEvil in God's service, or that he is truly evil but only can do what God permits. The Christian interpretation is usually that he was once a good angel, but rebelled against God and became forever corrupted in his evil.

* BiggusDickus: "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses." (Ezekiel 23:20 NIV)

* RealityEnsues: 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.

* TropeOverdosed (and the TropeMaker, TropeNamer, or TropeCodifier in many cases) Of course, we should bear in mind that it's technically a collection of several dozen books (the exact number depending on the canon you adhere to).

* OneMarioLimit: Outside of Spanish-speaking countries, you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone else named Jesus nowadays.

* TheHandIsGod: God was HeWhoMustNotBeSeen lest [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the viewer die]] or [[GoMadFromTheRevelation go mad]]. As such, God appears in AFormYouAreComfortableWith, with perhaps the most famous being the burning bush that appeared before Moses. In the book of Daniel, chapter 5, He fills this trope, appearing as a disembodied hand (or just fingers, depending on the translation) in the palace of King Belshazzar, where He writes a prophecy of doom on the wall, foretelling the judgment of Belshazzar's kingdom.

* ChekhovsGunman: Ishmael, Isaac's half-brother in Genesis, fades into the background shortly after he's introduced and [[PutOnABus sent off to Arabia]]. Turns out one of his descendants was [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} a guy named Muhammad]]. Interestingly enough, this loose thread doesn't get picked up until ''after'' The Bible ends.

* HeavenAbove: In Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and English editions of The Bible, the word for sky[[note]]respectively, ouranos, caelum, ciel, cielo, cielo, Himmel, and heaven[[/note]] is also used as the word for the Kingdom of God.

* MassResurrection: According to The Bible, God will do this on the Last Day to everyone who had ever lived, raising them from the dead just before the Judgement.

* ChekhovsGunman: Ishmael, Isaac's half-brother in Genesis, fades into the background shortly after he's introduced and [[PutOnABus sent off to Arabia]]. Turns out one of his descendants was [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} a guy named Muhammad]]. Interestingly enough, this loose thread doesn't get picked up until ''after'' Literature/TheBible ends.

* FinalSolution: Literature/TheBible has many cases of this. Some carried out by various heroic kings, some carried out by God himself. In all cases, it's [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide treated as a good thing]]. The three most famous cases are:

* TheHandIsGod: This trope does have some accuracy to ''Literature/TheBible'' where God was HeWhoMustNotBeSeen lest [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the viewer die]] or [[GoMadFromTheRevelation go mad]]. As such God appears in AFormYouAreComfortableWith, with perhaps the most famous being the burning bush that appeared before Moses. In the book of Daniel, chapter 5, He fills this trope, appearing as a disembodied hand (or just fingers, depending on the translation) in the palace of King Belshazzar, where He writes a prophecy of doom on the wall, foretelling the judgment of Belshazzar's kingdom.

* HeavenAbove: In Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and English editions of Literature/TheBible, the word for sky[[note]]respectively, ouranos, caelum, ciel, cielo, cielo, Himmel, and heaven[[/note]] is also used as the word for the Kingdom of God.

** Judas's betrayal of Jesus, as recounted in Literature/TheFourGospels of Literature/TheBible. This betrayal was arguably ''necessary'', as in Christian doctrine Jesus had to die to wash away mankind's sins, but Judas still has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment followed by (in one account) a DrivenToSuicide moment shortly thereafter.

** Picture if you will a being that exists outside of space and time that can make and unmake the universe at will just with its voice, who sometimes sends messengers into the mortal world to manipulate mortals into performing seemingly insignificant actions as small parts of a ''very'' long-term plan that is inscrutable to all beings except itself, that has the power not only to destroy said people's bodies but also to lock their souls into an eternal state of AndIMustScream for failing to follow said plan, and that is so incomprehensible to human beings that the mere sight of its true form would kill them instantly and even a small fraction of its power is able to induce bowel-clenching visceral terror in even its most loyal of servants. No, it's not some Lovecraftian EldritchAbomination; that's {{God}} Himself. And He's not out to destroy or mutate the reality He created with His sheer Eldritchy might, He's the (what most Christians believe him to be) benevolent guardian of humanity who sends a manifestation of Himself (UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}) to show them the light, and protect them from a lesser but actually evil entity ({{Satan}}).

** Subverted in Literature/TheFourGospels on at least two occasions. The first time, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} chats with an unnamed Samaritan woman at her town's well, and does not treat her with contempt for [[SerialSpouse having been married and divorced five times]] and living with a boyfriend as a [[TheMistress "kept woman,"]] even though everyone else does, to the point where she comes to the well at high noon instead of at dawn or dusk when the other townswomen do. The second time, a woman who was caught in the act of [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]] is being brought out to be executed by stoning[[note]][[DoubleStandard Her lover is not mentioned as being about to be executed]], even though he was caught, too, and even though the laws laid out in the Literature/BookOfExodus said that ''both'' the man and the woman were to be executed[[/note]]. The townsmen ask Jesus what should be done with her, and He calls on the sinless among them to throw the first stone... leading them to spare her life. He then tells her that he doesn't condemn her, and to go and live her life and not cheat again.

* MissingEpisode: [[invoked]] There are references to lost Jewish texts, such as the Book of Jasher and Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

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 [[TooSoon controversial subjects]] like a specific religion, it can degenerate into such phenomena as JesusTaboo, CrystalDragonJesus and NoCelebritiesWereHarmed. On the other hand, writers unfamiliar with the religious symbolism can end up with "controversial" character portrayals like KingOfAllCosmos, or, in TheThemeParkVersion, FluffyCloudHeaven.

* HeWhoMustNotBeNamed: 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", "Hashem" (literally means "the name" in Hebrew), or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton the Tetragrammaton]], as a euphemism.

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 (Creator/{{Homer}}, with 643 surviving manuscripts of ''Literature/TheIliad'', 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 some of the the most devastating {{Flame War}}s ever, and in actual wars as well.

** In 2 Maccabees, when the Jewish people rebelled against the corrupt high priest Jason, who had been appointed by King Antiochus IV, and ran him out of town, the king left Egypt for Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, he massacred many, young and old, women and children, virgins and infants. In 1 and 2 Maccabees (2 Maccabees is not a "sequel', it's another viewpoint of what happened in the the first book), King Antiochus IV then decreed that everyone take up the customs of everyone else, except the Jewish customs. He outlawed all Jewish customs, including circumcision. The children who were circumcised were killed, as were their mothers and whoever performed the circumcision.

** Subverted in the Literature/TheFourGospels on at least two occasions. The first time, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} chats with an unnamed Samaritan woman at her town's well, and does not treat her with contempt for [[SerialSpouse having been married and divorced five times]] and living with a boyfriend as a [[TheMistress "kept woman,"]] even though everyone else does, to the point where she comes to the well at high noon instead of at dawn or dusk when the other townswomen do. The second time, a woman who was caught in the act of [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]] is being brought out to be executed by stoning[[note]][[DoubleStandard Her lover is not mentioned as being about to be executed]], even though he was caught, too, and even though the laws laid out in the Literature/BookOfExodus said that ''both'' the man and the woman were to be executed[[/note]]. The townsmen ask Jesus what should be done with her, and He calls on the sinless among them to throw the first stone... leading them to spare her life. He then tells her that he doesn't condemn her, and to go and live her life and not cheat again.

* PurgatoryAndLimbo: The descent of Christ into Limbo and subsequent [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrowing_of_Hell Harrowing of Hell]] were explored in greater depth in the apocrypha and became a common subject of medieval artwork. Following his crucifixion but before his resurrection, the soul of Christ descended into the realm of the dead and brought salvation to the the "Limbo of the Patriarchs" -- the outer part of Hell inhabited by those righteous folk who lived and died in the days before they could be baptized and redeemed. Christ "[[OpenSaysMe trampling the gates of Limbo underfoot]]" seems to have been an ''especially'' popular (and vivid) image.

%%* BibleTimes: [[CaptainObvious The Trope Namer]].

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "Bible" means "books". [[CaptainObvious It's a book of books.]]

%%* JesusTaboo: [[CaptainObvious Averted]].

** Subverted in the Literature/TheFourGospels on at least two occasions. The first time, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} chats with an unnamed Samaritan woman at her town's well, and does not treat her with contempt for [[SerialSpouse having been married and divorced five times]] and living with a boyfriend as a [[TheMistress "kept woman,"]] even though everyone else does, to the point where she comes to the well at high noon instead of at dawn or dusk when the other townswomen do. The second time, a woman who was caught in the act of [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]] is being brought out to be executed by stoning[[note]][[DoubleStandard Her lover is not mentioned as being about to be executed]], even though [[CaptainObvious he was caught, too]], and even though the laws laid out in the Literature/BookOfExodus said that ''both'' the man and the woman were to be executed[[/note]]. The townsmen ask Jesus what should be done with her, and He calls on the sinless among them to throw the first stone... leading them to spare her life. He then tells her that he doesn't condemn her, and to go and live her life and not cheat again.