And then the writer just pulled the most unimaginative deus ex machina and the hero just “comes back” from the dead, pff lazy writing.
[deleted]
Submitted 2 weeks ago by lovepeacenquiet@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
It’s really not.
There are large chunks of it that are really repetitive and boring, just things like the number of goats and chickens owned by so and so.
And like a lot of ancient mythology it can be really hard to relate to, given the vastly different cultural context that produced the text. That can be kinda entertaining in it’s own way, but mostly it just means that you’re not really going to understand the character motivations or themes of a story. Also sometimes the protagonist will do something horrifically immoral by today’s standards without the text treating it as notable at all.
IMO all of the actual interesting parts (like Genesis) are all really short and you probably know them already from cultural osmosis.
UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It is also important to note that the bible was curated (and probably even edited) by the Catholic Church in the past. So what you read is basically only what they wanted you to read to begin with. I would really like to get into the apocrypha at some point - especially into alternative descriptions to the biblical canon
m0darn@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I don’t think it’s accurate to only indicate the Roman catholic church. The creation of the bible was a process of curation and editing intentional and accidental.
But the Roman catholic church is defo responsible for the inclusion of the Johannine Comma in the KJV.
volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
There are large chunks of it that are really repetitive and boring, just things like the number of goats and chickens owned by so and so.
That honestly sounds like the exposition of every character in a Wes Anderson movie
oozynozh@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
except that Anderson films use comedy and cinematography to maintain viewers’ interest in expository scenes that might otherwise feel mundane
FilthyHands@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
"I started reading the bible. It Sucks. I can’t get past the first chapter. Don’t buy this author’s books."
- Sir Baby of Cakes
aeronmelon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I had a youth pastor that said if someone made movies out of the Bible, they would all be R-rated and very popular because of all the drama, sex, and violence.
But for some reason it’s okay for little kids to read that shit out loud to each other.
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Their idea is interesting, but there’s plenty of material out there that’s absolutely loaded with drama, sex, and violence that no one cares to watch.
But religious people do love watching religious material. Those Hallmark films don’t make themselves.
night_petal@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The more entertaining read is God saying “fuck you, in particular” to Job.
MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It is entertaining in a fucked up way that god kills his family and then at the end is like “uhh… here’s a new, entirely different family, let us never speak of this again”
oozynozh@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
relevant Crimes New Roman book report on Hell is the Absence of God
Rusty@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I was raised without any religion and when I was 6 I found “Bible for kids” in a fairy tale section of the library. I’ve read it thinking that it’s a weird fairy tale.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I read the Bible last year and tried to imagine how it would be perceived if it were any work of fiction. Looking at it just as a fictional book, it’s very poorly written. For one thing, explanations of Jesus sacrifice only come after the fact. A good book would have set it up and explained the necessity of the sacrifice beforehand.
IlmariGanander@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
I was kind of musing in a corner of my mind that Jesus acting as a sacrifice to god…really only makes sense in a cultural context where basically everyone around you is already sacrificing goats and chickens and bulls and whatever to their gods.
When that cultural context is removed (as in our culture where generally nobody slaughters animals as a sacrifice to any god) the whole crucifixion thing comes off as…weirdly pagan.
Like, HAVING to have a human/god sacrificed to god to…remove sin I guess…it only really makes sense if you have the cultural expectation that sacrificing things to some god is…just what you DO to get rid of sin or stuff that’s harmful like curses or whatever?
I’m not a bible scholar, and I know there’s tons of theology that’s already argued about Jesus “dying for our sins” into infinity.
I’m more vaguely looking at this from a layperson secular standpoint, where I’m thinking about the cultural context of “sacrifice” as it pertains to 2000 years ago, and how it pertains to now in our current culture. Like…wow, the culture and how we see things has totally shifted and the Jesus died thing is a really weird boondogle/relic of those ancient mindsets, isn’t it?
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Yeah, a lot of things in the Bible probably made more sense for the culture it was written for. Of course the books of the Bible were written over hundreds of years and so culture shifted in that time, explaining some of the contradictions. The reason it doesn’t work very well as a book is there is a lot of background information the writers expected the readers to know that now most people don’t
watson387@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Well, it is fiction, so there’s that.
RogueBanana@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
Maybe the author saw his own work, decided it’s shit and the only way to redeem it was to make a religion out of it.
IntrovertTurtle@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
You could made a religion out of this!
ladoga@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Old testament is quite rough. Lots of killing and raping going on.
God tells the chosen people to kill this and this tribe. Take virgins as wives, kill all males. I never understood killing of livestock though.
bizzle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
When I was in college. I took a class about the Bible as literature. It was super good. Really interesting. I’m not even necessarily like religious, but it’s cool to look at it from that sort of a literary perspective especially because it’s such a foundational work in Western Civilization
RattlerSix@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I like some of the stories in the Bible but it’s still pretty hard to read. I don’t know why, I don’t have that problem with other, even older writings. There is nothing confusing about the Enuma Elish, for example. I think the Epic of Gilgamesh is freaking great.
But when the Bible steals a story told in the Epic of Gilgamesh and makes it Noah’s flood, it loses all meaning. The original wasn’t all that exciting to begin with but there was a deep meaning to it being in the Epic. But in the Bible, what is the meaning? What’s the moral to the story? It just doesn’t work.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Read “Ecclesiastes” and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). 👍
mastertigurius@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I find Lord of the Rings to be a better read myself
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It delivers a message of righteousness, even to one’s own physical detriment… If you won’t read the words of the prophets, it’s better than nothing. 👍
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Or just read a good book instead
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ecclesiastes is a fantastic book that’s part of the collection of books we call the Bible!
Gates9@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I find it interesting to consider that Judas was designated by Jesus for the task, in order to fulfill the prophetic criteria in the book of Daniel, which many prophetic figures in Judea were obsessed with, not just the Jesus movement.
Sine_Fine_Belli@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Dank Christian memes
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
honestly I can’t understand this either
TheFunkyMonk@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How else would you read the Bible?
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Under duress, with crushing feelings of obligation, guilt, shame, horror, and dread of course 😄
Colonel_Panic_@eviltoast.org 2 weeks ago
This guy Bibles.
hOrni@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Whack off material.
FenrirIII@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Song of Songs?
FishFace@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
As history