As a child, how did you picture elements of the bible in your imagination?

[Inhuman One]

This is a question for all those who where brought up with the bible. Personly I am not religious anymore and its not required that you still are. Basicly this topic is about the imagination of children. How they may see things. Not knowing much of history as children, you may picture it all very differently after all.

It is in no way meant to insult the bible.

Here's a few things that come to mind for me, more will likely come in time. How I pictured some bible things in my mind as I heard the stories as a child:

-I somehow pictured many tribes and peoples mentioned in the bible that only seemed to be enemies as some sort of martians due to their names.
-I pictured Abraham as Father Abraham, a folk singer known for singing with the smurfs. Including white beard and bowler hat.
-Esau I pictured as some sort of broad hairy action hero with a black beard. When something was mentioned about him carrying weapons I pictured him with a huge machine gun.
-I pictured Goliath being much bigger than he probably was. Like ten times as big as David.
-Somehow I pictured Herodes wearing a red brimmed hat with a feather. Rood is the dutch word for red which might have something to do with that.

[Hoplite of Ilis]

Interesting post. Well, us Greeks, are not brought up by the bible. Sure they teach christianity at school, and they try to connect it with you know what, and if your parents are also teachers of it ... you'll be watching all else going to parties, while you get to go to the church XD. It was like that back in the 80's and a bit of early 90's. As for imagination... we Greeks have so much to choose from. I never took the time to imagine Goliaths or the plagues of Egypt. The Hydra, the Nemean Lion, Talos, Hercules, the Minotaur - shall I go on? - were far more captivating, and they always will be.

[Thanatos]

Back when I took the Bible literally, I just looked up pictures on the internet (whee, back in the good ol' dial-up days) and went from there. There were countless Christian resources around with artists' depictions as to what the ancient Israelites probably looked like, so I just went from there.

I agree with Inhuman One though, about Goliath. I always pictured him as tall as a small building, but now I think he was more realistically around 6'4" or so..... maybe​.

[sumskilz]

Back when I took the Bible literally, I just looked up pictures on the internet (whee, back in the good ol' dial-up days) and went from there. There were countless Christian resources around with artists' depictions as to what the ancient Israelites probably looked like, so I just went from there.

I agree with Inhuman One though, about Goliath. I always pictured him as tall as a small building, but now I think he was more realistically around 6'4" or so..... maybe​.

Bet you didn't know Evangelicals engage in peer-review:

The story of David and Goliath is one of the best-known and best-loved stories in the entire OT. Goliath is nearly ten feet tall, and yet the young David bravely fights the giant and slays him with a single well-aimed stone from his sling. This version of the story is firmly embedded in our tradition, not only through the account of it in our English Bibles, but also through children's books, children's Sunday School lessons, art, and song. Indeed, David's heroic battle against the giant has become a classic paradigm within Western culture of the underdog's upset victory. It probably appears foolish to tamper with such a famous, firmly entrenched, and beloved story, but as I hope to demonstrate, the text-critical evidence, both external and internal, compels us to reconsider the height of Goliath, and suggests to us that we should probably cut the giant down at the knees, reducing him from 9'9" to 6'9".

http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PD...-4_701-714.pdf

[Taiji]

Jesus was a white guy for sure.

[G-Megas-Doux]

I was not brought up by my parents as having a religion. However in the UK at that time all schools taught Christianity in Primary school and I attended a Church of England school when I was a teenager so you can say that I was aware of Christianity throughout my upbringing.

Truthfully I did not ever believe the people in the bible were anything more than characters in a story than any fictional work. To me they were the same as the Norse and Greek tales I read about and nothing more.

[Thanatos]

Bet you didn't know Evangelicals engage in peer-review:

http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PD...-4_701-714.pdf

9'9" would be absolutely out of the question. The tallest man on record, with modern styles of nutrition, is only 8'1", and he looks unhealthy and not fit for combat in any way, shape or form. It was silly for them to even consider 9'9" to be even remotely plausible, especially when everyone back then would be considered midgets by today's standards. Even North Koreans would have been taller than they were back in the day.

[MaximiIian]

I was never really raised around Christianity or really any religion. My parents were atheists and, while they didn't deliberately try to "shield me from religion" or anything like that, I just didn't have much exposure to it. Mostly through my classmates or characters on television shows did I learn about any of it, and only little snippets here and there. I celebrated Christmas and Easter with my family, sure, but it was always a secular thing; religion literally never came into it.
So, actually, my mental image of the narratives in the Bible are influenced most strongly by Rugrats episodes.

[sumskilz]

9'9" would be absolutely out of the question. The tallest man on record, with modern styles of nutrition, is only 8'1", and he looks unhealthy and not fit for combat in any way, shape or form. It was silly for them to even consider 9'9" to be even remotely plausible, especially when everyone back then would be considered midgets by today's standards. Even North Koreans would have been taller than they were back in the day.

Wikipedia tells me Robert Wadlow was 8'11", but no matter. For me, 6'9" is plausible, but I still think it's a bit of an assumption not to assume the initial version of the text was an exaggeration or that the number was pulled out of someone's ass. Surely some very big Philistine warrior could have existed and been the basis for the story. I do think it's interesting to see how an actual academic approach can proceed based on biblical literalism. I feel like messing with the guy, and sending him an email asking him to consider whether he's basing this on the Egyptian cubit or the Canaanite cubit. I mean the Philistines were in Canaan, but they did have close contacts with Egypt via coastal trade and proximity, and was the author using an Israelite measurement or going by the Philitine's figures.

[Aeneas Veneratio]

Regarding Goliath, I think during that time anyone above 2.20 meters would be in for a very short life, even without the risk of having stones shot at one's head.

[Col. Tartleton]

http://www.bricktestament.com/home.html

I wish I'd had this.

[Hobbes]

I had very limited imagination as I child (and I still do, I think). I had an illustrated book of the OT so I pictured the various figures and places as they were drawn in that book. I also pictured the NT based on my school book illustrations. What a dumb kid. Probably a dumb 20 something, too.

[Inhuman One]

In the mind of a child it can all be quite different.

Samson was practicly a cartoon strongman to me, who'd pick up one guy by the leg and use him to beat the others and more such things.
Does not help either that "suske en wiske", a belgian cartoon with a strong character actually pretty much featured this bible story with the strong character filling the part of Samson.

[sumskilz]

Samson was practicly a cartoon strongman to me, who'd pick up one guy by the leg and use him to beat the others and more such things.
Does not help either that "suske en wiske", a belgian cartoon with a strong character actually pretty much featured this bible story with the strong character filling the part of Samson.

So you know the scene where the Philistines are hiding inside the city gate waiting to ambush him, and he picks up the whole gate and carries it off. Well, that's presumably with them inside. Here are typical city gates from the region in that period:

[Thanatos]

In the mind of a child it can all be quite different.

Samson was practicly a cartoon strongman to me, who'd pick up one guy by the leg and use him to beat the others and more such things.
Does not help either that "suske en wiske", a belgian cartoon with a strong character actually pretty much featured this bible story with the strong character filling the part of Samson.

Well, I mean, the guy did pick up a jawbone and kill a whole bunch of Phillistines with it. That's pretty badass in and of itself.

[don_Durandal]

Well, I mean, the guy did pick up a jawbone and kill a whole bunch of Phillistines with it. That's pretty badass in and of itself.

That sounds like a bible version of a Chuck Norris joke...

[hellheaven1987]

I just think them like Santa.

No I still believe Santa is real!!!

[G-Megas-Doux]

That sounds like a bible version of a Chuck Norris joke...

A younger Chuck Norris met Sampson. A surprised Sampson said, "No one is going to believe this." Chuck Norris responded, "You are right, however you are a figment of my imagination." Sampson then ceased to exist as a real person fading from the reality that Chuck Norris graciously lets us inhabit.

[Thanatos]

I had very limited imagination as I child (and I still do, I think). I had an illustrated book of the OT so I pictured the various figures and places as they were drawn in that book. I also pictured the NT based on my school book illustrations. What a dumb kid. Probably a dumb 20 something, too.

To be fair, if the illustrations were trying to emulate what people back then actually dressed and lived like, it would make sense.

[sumskilz]

To be fair, if the illustrations were trying to emulate what people back then actually dressed and lived like, it would make sense.

They're usually worse with the terrain than anything else.

A few depictions of David and Goliath:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Now here's were it was supposed to have happened:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: