Religious motifs : Overview. Search. About religious motifs

The Holy Bible contains among others: The Book of Esther

See also The Koran or Qur'an

Keywords:

Book, scripture, sacred writings, prophecies, gospels, Christianity, Judaism, New Testament, Old Testament

Description of this motif: Greek "Biblia" means books. The Bible is the Christian church's sacred writings, containing The Old Testament and The New Testament. The Old Testament of the Christian Bible is the Jewish Bible, but also some newer scriptures added by the Christian church.

Example 1:

"The labor of righteousness is peace"; and again it is written: "The wages of sin are death!" Much has been said and written that one does not know – or, as it was with Anne Lisbeth, does not remember – but such things can appear before one's subconscious self, can come to mind, though one is unaware of it.

The germs of vices and virtues are alive deep in our hearts – in yours and mine; they lurk like tiny invisible seeds. There comes a ray of sunshine or the touch of an evil hand; you turn to the right or to the left, and the little seed quivers into life, puts forth shoots, and pours its life throughout all the veins. Walking in a daydream, one may be unconscious of many painful thoughts, but they have their being within us all the same; thus Anne Lisbeth walked as if in a daydream, but her thoughts lived within her.

From Candlemas to Candlemas the heart has much written upon it, even the record of the whole year. Many sins are forgotten, sins in word or thought, sins against God or our neighbor or our own conscience;

Comment on this quote:

According to the commentary in H.C. Andersen eventyr, DSL, Borgen, Copenhagen 1990, vol. 7, p. 203, "The labor of righteousness is peace" comes from The Book of Wisdom, one of the deutero-canonical writings of the Old Testament, and "The wages of sin are death!" from Paul's Letter to the Romans 6.23.

Example 2:

When she came to, it was bright daylight, and two men were lifting her up. She was lying, not in the churchyard, but down on the seashore, where she had been digging a deep hole in the sand, and had cut her fingers on a broken glass, the stem of which was stuck in a wooden block painted blue.

Anne Lisbeth was ill; her conscience had spoken loudly to her that night, and superstitious terror had mingled its voice with the voice of conscience. She had no power to distinguish between them; she was now convinced that she had but half a soul, while the other half had been borne away by her child, away to the bottom of the ocean; and never could she hope for the mercy of God until she again possessed the half soul that was imprisoned in those deep waters.

Anne Lisbeth went home, but she was no longer the same. Her thoughts were like tangled yarn; there was only one thread that she could clearly grasp; just one idea possessed her, that she must carry the "sea ghost" to the churchyard and there dig a grave for it. Many a night they missed her from her home and always found her down by the shore, waiting for the "sea ghost." So a whole year passed, and then one night she disappeared and this time was sought in vain. All of the following day was spent in searching for her.

Toward evening, when the parish clerk entered the church to ring the bell for vespers, he found Anne Lisbeth lying before the altar. She had been here ever since dawn; her strength was nearly gone, but her eyes were bright and a faint rosy hue lighted her face; the last sunbeams shone down upon her, streamed over the altar, and glowed on the bright silver clasps of the Bible, open at this text from the Prophet Joel; "Rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." This was just by chance, said people, as so many things happen by chance.

In Anne Lisbeth's face, as the setting sun shone upon it, were peace and grace. Now she was so happy, she said. Now she had won back her soul! During the past night the spirit of her own child had been with her, and had said, "You dug but half a grave for me, but now for a year and a day you have entombed me in your own heart, and that is the only proper resting place a mother can provide for her child!" And then he had returned to her lost half soul and guided her to the church!

"Now I am in God's house!" she said. "And only there can one be happy!"

When the sun had set, the soul of Anne Lisbeth had gone way up from this earth to where there are no fears nor the troubles that we have here, even such as those of Anne Lisbeth.

Comment on this quote: Anne Lisbeths' death in the divine light of transfiguration, which is also sunlight, is a parallel to Ide's death i The Wind Tells about Valdemar Daae and His Daughters and The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf and is similar to the little mermaid's striving for the light and furthermore The Jewish Girl's baptism in fire.