Aesop’s fables, Netflix series and the Bible

“Fiction is actually one of the best ways for finding truth” (Author Amy Tan)

We say stories to each other from the ancient times. Think of Aesop’s fables or the myth of Prometheus, spanning from ancient Greece to the movies such as Dune or Marvel hero stories.

Storytelling can be found in every culture and in any period of our history. Every genre of drama, comedy, fiction, horror, etc. that we find in every means available wether it is a book, a movie, a play, animation or a graphic novel… Well, they are not just entertainment.

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One way or another, all these narratives ask deep questions about life that are already existing in our minds and hearts. That is the reason they entertain us. We Identify with these stories and there is something that resonates within us.

Now, the theme of this series of articles is the Bible and how its authors are telling us the narrative of this world. Some might think that the Bible is full of rules or ways of how to live our lives, and this is not wrong in a sense. But let us look at Jesus, the main character in the Bible. He asks questions and tells stories. Jesus’ parables are stories that challenge you with a question: “Who are you in the story?”

We all had this feeling of sadness when we‘ve just finished a book that we love or our favorite tv series on Netflix. We had entered so deep into the narrative, we are not ready to face the real world again.

We need time to process the story and think which character we liked, maybe which character we identify with, or we want to discuss everything with our friends that we watched a movie or read a book together. Sometimes we take one thing from these stories that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Deep down, we wish it would be true that we are living in a story with adventure, deep emotions and real feelings, not in this dull world.

Bible authors as a whole are narrating the story of this world this way, like the stories with dragons in a fantasy world or the stories about some group of lost kids trying to find their way back home, or the stories about the unexpected hero who sacrifices himself to save the world. Bible’s message to us is that, in fact, we do live in a story.

Notice for example this excerpt from the first book of the Bible, called Genesis:

“The Lord God said to the serpent,

‘Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life’ - Genesis 3:14

There is this evil character right from the beginning. If we read few verses before we understand that the story of the Bible begins with God creating the world and giving humans, the authority upon earth and this evil character is stealing the authority from them.

But there is a prophecy right after that:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel” - Genesis 3:15

Putting it in other words, the Bible message to us is that we live in a story with a “dragon” (the snake that rules over our hearts) but there is also a “dragonslayer”: the offspring of the woman.

This is the beginning of a great story, and the authors of the Bible are saying that we live in it.