Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FABLE

A fictitious narrative or statement in which there are marvelous happenings in unusual circumstances, usually involving animals or plants which speak and act like human beings. Originating in an oral folk tradition, the fable seeks both to entertain and teach a moral lesson. The genre is known in the literature of the ancient Near East centuries before it appears in Hebrew literature. There are also pictorial representatives from the 2nd millennium b.c.e. involving animals and plants which suggest that a crucial moment in a presumed fable is being illustrated.

One of the best examples of the fable genre is found in Judg. 9:7-15, a narrative of Abimelech’s efforts to establish a kingship in Israel. The negative attitude toward kingship is illustrated graphically in Jotham’s fable of the thorn or bramble tree (Abimelech) which was chosen king instead of more worthy trees — the olive, fig, and vine (Jerubbaal’s sons). The olive, fig, and vine each offer lengthy reasons in poetic form why they cannot agree to the request of the trees to rule over them, but the bramble accepts conditionally.

Another example of a fable featuring talking plants occurs in 2 Kgs. 14:8-10 (cf. 2 Chr. 25:18). King Jehoash sent a message to King Amaziah of Judah simply mentioning the “thornbush on Lebanon” arrogantly challenging “a cedar on Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife.’ ” This arrogance was met with a wild beast from Lebanon trampling down the thornbush.

The talking serpent in the Garden of Eden in Genesis represents a fabulistic element in this primeval tale of temptation, disobedience, and fall from grace. The folktale of Balaam’s wondrous talking donkey (Num. 22:21-35) is a longer and more complete example of the genre told in a humorous and ironic way. Solomon, who spoke “of trees” and “of beasts,” may have also had a reputation as a fabulist (1 Kgs. 4:33[MT 5:13]).

New translations of the NT translate Gk. mýthos (1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Tim. 4:4; 2 Pet. 1:16) as “myth” instead of the KJV’s “fables.”

William R. Goodman, Jr.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FABLE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)