Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Fairy tale characters / Bible characters
by LtCmd.Lore 16 Replies latest jw friends
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funkyderek
Great stuff Lore! I can't believe you left this one out, though:
Beauty and the Beast
A merchant gets lost in a forest and finds a castle where he is mysteriously provided with food and drink. On leaving the castle, he picks a rose for his daughter This so enrages the castle's owner, a beast that he threatens to keep the merchant prisoner. The merchant offers his youngest favourite daughter instead and she happily agrees to be the prisoner of a beast and doesn't at all reproach her father for his moral cowardice.
Jephthah's daughter
Jephthah is a judge or warrior or something and is having a little difficulty slaughtering the Ammonites so he prays to YHWH (the beast of this story) to give him victory and he will in turn sacrifice the first person or thing (!) to come out of his house when he gets home. The victory is granted and Jephthah returns home. Who should greet him when he returns home but his only daughter! Remarkably, Jephthah is surprised that the person who comes to greet him is his only child. She's relatively nonplussed about this and agrees to be sacrificed as a burnt offering.
(In some versions of Beauty and The Beast the merchant actually makes the same bargain that Jephthah does: to deliver to the beast whoever or whatever comes out of his house first.)
In both stories, people behave in very unlikely ways in order to move the story along. At least in Beauty and the Beast, everyone lives happily ever after.
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stillajwexelder
Absolutely brilliant stuff folks - how will I ever take the bible seriously agaian - I cant
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edmond dantes
Then there was Chicken Licken who had an acorn fall on his head and went around telling Hen len, Cock lock, Duck luck, Drake lake, Goose loose,the world and his brother that he was going to tell the King that the sky was falling in.Eventually they all met Fox lox and his young ones ,the fox and his little ones got them in their den and ate them all up and they never got to meet the King.
Which typifies the Governing Body of the JWs as Fox lox and everybody who believes them that the sky is falling in is a silly goose and liable to get swallowed up by the evil boys in Brooklyn and never get to meet the King who is ?
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LtCmd.Lore
Well, I can think of a few more small ones. These aren't necessarily about their behavior, but about the similarities in the stories.
Lot's wife turned to salt simply by looking at the city she was fleeing.
Medusa turns to stone simply by looking in a mirror.
Here's a good one:
King Naaman, and King Midas.
King Midas was friends with a satyr (Or he finds a one-wish djinni in some stories) . He helps the satyr out and eventually returns him home to his son, Dionysus. Dionysus rewards him by granting him a wish. Midus wishes that everything he touches turns to gold. This turns out to be a terrible affliction. It is a disease that will eventually kill him, because he can't eat, he also cannot even touch his family or friends. So he asked the god Dionysus to remove this curse. He is told that he can be cured by bathing in the river Pactolus. (This is supposed to be a magic river. It was once rich in gold in real life.)
He does this, he's healed, and he's amazed! But interestingly, this disease didn't simply disappear, it went somewhere else, in this case, it went into the river which turned the sands to gold.
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King Naaman was also cursed with a terrible illness, Leprosy, it would eventually kill him, and he couldn't even touch his family or friends. So he goes to a powerful wizard, the wizard tells him that he can be cured by bathing in the river Jordan. (This is supposed to be a magic river.)
King Naaman does so and he is miraculously healed. But the disease doesn't simply disappear! It went somewhere else, in this case, it went into another man, a man that had a lot in common with king Midas:
Giezi was a greedy man, he tricked king Naaman into giving him money, because of his greed he was cursed with Naaman's leprosy.
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There are a lot of similarities! The most obvious are:
A man being cursed with a deadly disease because of his greed.
A wealthy king being cured of a deadly disease that prevents human contact, by bathing in a magic river.
The disease not disappearing, but going somewhere else.
Fairy tales are FILLED with stories of people TRYING to kill someone, in very bizzare and ineffective ways.
There is of course Snow White's mother trying to kill her by using poisonous ribbons, combs and apples. (Fails all three times)
You may not know this, but the queen of Snow White was in fact killed in the end by being forced to dance while wearing hot iron shoes. (Surprisingly this worked.)
The woodsman killing a wolf by cutting it open and filling it with rocks and then sowing it shut. (Only works in some versions)
A witch cursed Aurora to die by pricking her finger on a spindle on her 15th birthday. (Doesn't work)
You get the picture. All of these murders could have been carried out successfully and in a much easier fashion. Most of the time a simple knife would work better.
The Bible isn't very different.
You have Adam and Eve killed by a poisonous fruit. (Works, but it takes 900+ years)
You have king Saul throwing a spear at David from across the room. And giving him a verbal warning first. (Fails twice, and is followed up by a long inept manhunt.)
Samson burning crops by tying 150 firebrands to 150 pairs of foxes and letting them loose in a field. (Works, but he could have just lit the field himself in one night.)
Yahweh killing people with poisionous snakes. (Doesn't work because he cures them after they build a magic idol...)
Jews stone Paul. (Doesn't work. (How can you fail at that? It doesn't say that god interfered.(He certainly didn't help Stephen)))
God inflicts evil men with hemriods (I don't think any of them die.(They were cured by making golden hemriods and golden mice... What are the mice for?))
Satan attempts to kill Moses by having the leader kill ALL the male children under a certain age. (Doesn't work because his daughter adopts Moses, and then the king takes him in as a child. (If Satan has control of the Pharaoh, then why does he allow this?))
Satan attempts to kill Jesus by having the leader kill all the male children under a certain age. (Doesn't work again, because the flee to Egypt(Why doesn't Satan take control of Pharoah again?))
These are some of the most inept murderers I can think of.
Okay, I'm done for now again. This is actually pretty fun. This is the kind of stuff I think about when I sit at a (b/m)eeting for 2 hours. I may be back with more if I can think of anything during the meeting tonight
Lore - W.W.S.D?
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Leolaia
In a recent post in another thread on archaology supposedly proving the stories of the OT as true, seratonin_wraith wrote:
There was a book released in 1982 which stated there was a place called London, a building called Buckingham Palace and a Queen called Elizabeth II. I've done the research, and it turns out these places and this person really existed! Every source verifies this. That's why I put my trust in all the contents of the book, which speaks of some amazing events people may not believe if it wasn't for facts like these. Oh, the book?
Along the same theme, here is another interesting archaeological discovery hot off the press pertaining to other "fairy-tale" characters unrelated to the Bible, but brings up all the same issues:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2008-02-06-romulus-remus-lupercale_N.htm
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Aculama
Life is very much like a fairy tale. Once words are spoken, they take on a life of their own. They can build, heal, help, or they can tear down, destroy, harm. A word can create an image in the mind of the person who hears or reads it. The word "mother" might bring a positive image and thought to one person, and in another, conjure a negative picture or thought. Many fairy tales were written to convey a lesson or moral to children. It is no mystery to me why they would be simmilar to Bible stories in many ways. Just as we use some fairy tales to teach lessons to our children ( not to talk to strangers, not to risk things we have no intention of giving up, ect. ), God sent His Word to teach us. There is one thing that is absolutely certain, life ( like a fairy tale ), has a beginning and an end. When each individual reaches the last page they will find out how their story ends.
P.S. I have no affiliation with the Jehovah's Witness Organization.
