Bible Stories

Bible Stories


Basic Info


Artists highlight the Bible stories that seem most relevant to the people of their times and places. In each era, the interests and priorities of Christians change, and various Bible stories become popular. In one century, the Passion and Crucifixion may be the hot topics, while the Nativity or the Last Supper might be more popular in other centuries. Parting the Red Sea may be Moses’ biggest achievement for one group, while bringing the tablets of the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai may be more important to another. In recent years, we have seen the cool Jesus of Godspell (1973) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), the angst-ridden Jesus of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and the Jesus suffering incredible physical torment of The Passion of the Christ (2004).


Comparing artworks from different periods means comparing different religious priorities. Consider an artist painting the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19–31). During an economic crisis caused by the greed and excess of a few wealthy people, the artist might focus on the rich man’s luxurious excesses with poor Lazarus begging at his gate. But during an era when death rates are astronomical, as during the Black Death, an artist might focus on the rich man’s torment and the horrors of hell.


When an artist sets out to depict a Bible story, the artist chooses a particular moment or aspect of the story to depict, takes a particular perspective on the story, fills in details that are not in the Bible, and sometimes omits details that the Bible does include. Even with no other information, a viewer can use these to start interpreting biblical art.


Historical Notes


When Christians began decorating sarcophagi and burial chambers with images in the second and third centuries, the Bible stories that were most common were Jonah (Jonah 1:11—2:11), the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1–44), the multiplication of loaves (Matthew 14:13–21, 15:32–39; Mark 6:30–44, 8:1–10; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–14), Jesus’ healings (various), the Good Shepherd (John 10:1–18), the three young men in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:13–97), and Daniel in the lions’ den (Daniel 6:2–24). Jonah (3 days in the belly of the fish) and Lazarus were reminders of Jesus’ Resurrection. The loaves, healings, and Good Shepherd were reminders of the new life, new abundance in Christ. And the fiery furnace and lions’ den were reminders that, in the face of persecution, faith in God is the best response. These stories reflected best what was important to early Christians: Jesus’ Resurrection, new life in Christ, and facing the persecutions.


Because Christianity emerged as a socially and politically acceptable religion (4th century), a plurality of religious priorities has existed so that the kind of sweeping description of the Bible stories popular in earlier centuries is not possible for later eras.


What to Look For


Sometimes the easiest way to notice these details is to compare the artwork with the mental image you hold of the story. Christians have heard Bible stories all their lives but sometimes still retain the picture that was in the picture book of Bible stories read to them as small children. Beyond that, attending to the basic elements of story can help with interpretation. Consider noticing the following in an artwork:


  • Narrative Moment(s) Depicted
  • Beginning or Lead-up
  • Foreshadowing, of the climax or another outcome
  • Importance of preparation
  • Problems with preparation
  • The mood of the anticipation (e.g., hopeful or despairing)
  • Direction things seem to be going
  • Middle or Climax
  • Emotion of the moment of utmost importance
  • Context of the turning point
  • Power and direction of the climax
  • Any surprise twist
  • End or Resolution (a video reflection on an example of this is below)
  • Emotion of the aftermath or resolution
  • The payoff
  • Relationship with the story’s expectations
  • Perspective
  • Zoom or Close-up
  • Emotion, complexity, or ambiguity
  • Which details are emphasized
  • Intimacy and vulnerability
  • Middle ground
  • The story itself
  • The composition of the scene (i.e., integrated or scattered, simple or complex, active or static)
  • Mood
  • Wide-angle or far off
  • Context in which the story unfolds
  • Whether the artist invites an analytical eye rather than an emotional one
  • Which details are not lost in the distance
  • Details filled in
  • Context
  • Who is added (servants, midwives, bystanders, crowds, children, old people, etc.)
  • The setting (crowded / deserted, bleak / lush, sterile / homey, biblical era / artist’s era, etc.)
  • The clothing (Biblical era or the artist’s—the idea that the setting and clothing should be historically accurate for 1st-century Palestine is important today but wasn’t always important)
  • Expressions
  • Eyes
  • Mouths
  • Faces in general
  • Relationships
  • Gestures / Postures
  • Bodies
  • Hands
  • Which direction a figure is facing
  • The relationships between figures
  • Other story elements
  • An exhaustive list would be impossible here, but there are a number of details about which the Bible is silent, including these:
  • The appearance of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:17 and 3:6)—European artists often make it look like an apple, while artists from tropical cultures often make it look like a mango.
  • The gender of the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1–5)
  • Whether Saul / Paul was walking or riding an animal on the road to Damascus when he was struck down and blinded (Acts 9:1–30)
  • The kind of animal the Good Samaritan put the injured man on in the parable (Luke 10:30–37)
  • Details omitted
  • This often occurs when an artist blends two or more versions of one story but can occur for other reasons as well.
  • Supporting people: midwives, servants, farmers, travelers on the road, stable boys, etc.
  • Characters or objects relevant to an earlier or later part of the story but not the moment depicted
  • Characters or objects mentioned in one biblical account of the event but not another
  • Characters or objects that might detract from the artist’s focal point (e.g., the other two crosses at the Crucifixion)
  • Emotional qualities or dynamics that seem like common sense



Questions to Focus a General Interpretation


After considering the artist’s choices about which moment of the story to depict, where to “stand” in relation to the story, and which details to emphasize and leave out, what emerges as the most important aspect of the story in this artwork?

What light does this important aspect of the Bible story shed on an understanding of God, of human beings, or of the relationship between God and human beings?

This interpretation may be different than the one you normally understand from this story. How does the new interpretation impact the old interpretation? Are they simply sequential? Are they out of sync in only a couple of details and thus reconcilable? Are they conflicting and thus calling for further study of the story and other artworks in interpreting the story? (For example, the road to Jericho is usually depicted as deserted in the Good Samaritan story. An artwork that depicts the road as crowded raises a new issue: Did the Samaritan experience peer pressure to stay on the road and not tend to the man in the ditch beside the road? Does the viewer need to rethink the whole story or just the Samaritan’s motivation?)


Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation


Does the artist’s emphasis invite you to a more nuanced, subtle, contextualized, complex, or mature understanding of the story?

Does the artist’s interpretation call you to respond to life or God in any new way?

What about the artwork attracts you? What repels you? What might that say about what is going on in your life right now?

Imagine yourself as one of the characters in the artwork? What can you see and feel from this character’s position within the work? How is this character experienced by others in the work? What new insights does this character’s perspective and position offer you?

Would you depict the story differently? What would you emphasize?


Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation


After discerning which aspect of the story the artist considered important, consider what was, or what might have been, going on in the artist’s time and place that makes that aspect of the story especially significant or relevant. Consider the politics, economics, social structure, historical events, and status of Christianity in the artist’s time and place.

Would an artist or patron of that time and place be likely to have an agenda for communicating to the people about a Bible story such as this one? What might it have been in this instance?

Does the artist’s choice of settings and clothing reflect an emphasis on an event that happened long ago or far away? Can the event depicted be understood as real and significant in the artist’s own time? How might Christians of the artist’s day understand themselves as “belonging to” or “in” this story?



Even if you had no more detailed frameworks for interpreting art that depicts Bible Stories, you could go a long way with this framework. Nevertheless, the links below will help you dive deeper into one of the subtopics common in Christian art:


A Reflection on an Artwork that Focuses on the End of a Biblical Story


Return to Interpretations Return to Engaging the Art
Share by: