圣经巴别塔的故事英文

圣经巴别塔的故事英文（精选5篇）

圣经巴别塔的故事英文 篇1

The Most Moving Story in the Bible

外国语言文化学院094班200911303409

Word Count:560

Outline:

1.A brief introduction

2.The detailed description of the story

3.Conclusion

Text:

Among the bible stories, in my opinion, Moses’ story is the most attractive and moving.It’s mainly about the Hebrew hero Moses and his great contributions to his people.Moses was a newborn son of a Hebrew woman.At that time, the king of Egypt gave orders to kill all Hebrew newborn boys and broke Israelites’ spirit by heavy labor because he was afraid of that those

powerful Israelites may become the masters of Egypt.The little boy was protected well by his mother for 3 months but she could conceal no longer.So the mother laid the baby in a basket and put the basket among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.The baby was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and he became the prince of Egypt.The name Moses was given by pharaoh’s daughter.Moses grew up.One day, he went to his Hebrew people and saw one was punished by an Egyptian.He killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.But this was known by Pharaoh and he wanted to put Moses to death.So Moses made good in his escape and settled in the land of

Midian where he got married and God gave him the mission of leading Israelites out of Egypt.Moses and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked him to set those Israelites free and Pharaoh refused.Moses turned his staff into a serpent as God told him.But Pharaoh was very obstinate and didn’t listen to Moses and Aaron.Then Moses changed the water of the Nile into blood and Pharaoh was obdurate as before.Moses had to perform other signs such as the disasters of frogs, maggots, flies and grasshoppers, blights, murrain, disaster of hail and darkness, which still couldn’t persuade Pharaoh.At last, God killed all the first-borns in Egypt

including the first-born of Pharaoh and this made Pharaoh come to terms.When the king of Egypt was told that the Israelites had slipped away, he was seized with remorse.He took his troops to pursue Israelites and he nearly caught up with them by the sea.With God’s help Moses made the waters tear apart so that those Israelites went through the sea on the dry ground.But when Pharaoh’s troops arrived Moses made the water return to its accustomed place and all Pharaoh’s army were inundated.No one survived.This was Israelites’ great success.I like this story most because it presents the adamant people’s strong spirit of looking forward to freedom.Thought the Israelites were weak, they didn’t give in to the powerful king of Egypt.And the main hero was Moses who had strong will to save his people.He understood that the Egyptians were cruel and selfish.He gave up his happy life as a prince of Egypt in the palace and returned to his people.This is why God chose him to perform his miracles.Moses was the loyal follower of God and presented as the representative to deliver God’s ideas.Israelites showed

high admiration to him and he was worthy of it because of his great contributions to his people.

圣经巴别塔的故事英文 篇2

关键词：田纳西·威廉斯,《欲望号街车》,圣经,原型,象征

1 Introduction to Tennessee Williams and A Streetcar Named Desire

American drama has been acknowledged as an expression of mature art with an international interest since 1936 when Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel Prize.After the WWII,while a lot of literature has trapped into the subject of wars,a young playwright's The Glass Menagerie shocked audience with its sentimental poesy story and enjoyed a Broadway success.He is Tennessee Williams,whose second play A Streetcar Named Desire runs for855 performances and becomes the first play ever to win all three major awards,the Pulitzer Prize,the New York Drama Critics'Award,and the Donaldson Award.Wang Yiqun says that Williams is the most excellent playwright because he is both prolific and insightful.As a result,he wins the New York Drama Critics'Award four times and the Pulitzer Prize twice.[1]

1.1 A brief introduction to Tennessee Williams as an Ameri-can first rank playwright

Tennessee Williams(1911-1983)is regarded as one of the most important three American playwrights and the other two are O'Neill and Arthur Miller.His real name is Thomas Lanier Williams.He was born in Clarksdale,Mississippi and"reared in the rectory of his grandfather,the Reverend Walter Dakin,he felt the prestige of being called'the preacher's boy'.His father was a traveling-salesman appearing only often enough to upset the tranquil household and frighten his children.His mother,Edwina,had the beauty and social inclination of a Southern belle."[2]Growing up in this religious-female-dominated environment doubtless gave Tomas the empathy shown in the plays and the woman characters created by the playwright Tennessee.

Tennessee Williams is the front rank playwright in American theatre,as Roudanépoints out:

"If such playwrights as Eugene O'Neill,Susan Glaspell Thornton Wilder,and Clifford Odets dominate American theatre in the first half of the twentieth century,and Arthur Miller,Edward Albee,Lorraine Hansberry,Sam Shepard,and,among many others,David Mamet the second half,Tennessee Williams animates the middle years of the century.In a very real sense,then Tennessee Williams inhabits a central place within the American theatre.The centrality of Williams's theatre,however,has less connection with chronology and more with the original nature o his theatrical imagination.While O'Neill was the tragic dramatist and Miller remains the theatrician of the ethical,Williams emerged as the poet of the heart,a master of sensitive characterization,and a writer of an exquisite tastes."[2]

1.2 A brief introduction to the story of A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire tells a simple story.Blanche DuBois,a faded South belle,whose family once possessed property in Mississippi and title to position in the circle of refined Southern respectability,has been reduced to the lowest financia estate.She has taught English in a high school.But she has los her job and has come to stay with her younger sister Stella in New Orleans.Blanche expects to find Stella living in an environment compatible with their former background,but finds instead that Stella is in the kind of sordid neighborhood.Blanche is shocked at these Elysian Fields(literally the name of this particular spot in New Orleans,just as the streetcar she took to reach it is actually called Desire).She is even more shocked by her sister's husband,Stanley Kowalski,an ex-sergeant,a machine salesman,and a rather primitive,almost bestial,while handsome man full of animal vitality.Blanche finds herself no match for his sexual hold over Stella.

Mitch,one of Stanley's poker pals,is attracted by Blanche's delicate beauty and genteel manners.Blanche almost succeeds in winning him over after she confides in him about her past-her marriage with a handsome young man,her discovery of her husband's homosexuality and his horrendous suicide.However,Stanley reveals to Mitch that Blanche was forced to leave her hometown because of her promiscuity and alcoholism.Blanche's dream of marrying Mitch and starting a new life is totally smashed.After Stella is rushed to hospital with labor pains,Stanley rapes Blanche both physically and spiritually.In the end,Blanche is sent to a mental institution,with nothing but the kindness of strangers to depend on.

2 Literary Review of the Research on the Play

Critics have focused on three points about Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.They are the declined South,the frustrated Southern belle and the sex depiction.

2.1 A reflection to the conflict and contrast between the old South and the new world

Many critics comment this play takes people into violent contrast between a South dreamworld and an animalistic realism.Tennessee Williams traces a path pioneered by such famous Southern writers as William Faulkner and sings an elegy of the decline of the South,which is symbolized by the deteriorated South belle,Blanche DuBois.George Jean Nathan says,"Impressionistically,the play suggests a wayward bus occupied by William Faulkner and James Cain,all tipsy and all telling stories simultaneously,and with Williams,cocking his ear to assimilate the goings-on,as the conductor"[3].Ren Shengming comments that the play is a metaphor,in which Blanche represents the old fantastic South and Stanley the new industrial material world.[4]Annette finds Williams sets all his plays in the"Southern social scene"and A Streetcar Named Desire"offers a parable of the conflicts and values of American society at mid-century and mediates the awesome polarity of the nature and civilization,fact and fancy,so central to Williams…"[5].Wang Yiqun summarizes that Tennessee Williams is deep in his South background and closely connected by a blood tie with Faulkner,Thomas Wolfe and Carson McCullers.[1]

2.2 Portrayals of two kinds of women characters,mainly the frustrated Southern women

The majority of comments on the play stresses Tennessee Williams's portrayal of a pathetic and melodramatic protagonist,Blanche DuBois,for whom Williams is most renowned-the neurotic Southern white woman of aristocratic origin.Desmond Reid says Blanche is"perhaps Williams's most forlorn character.She has been a gentlewoman knowing wealth and ease;now she is destitute,an alcoholic,an ageing nymphomaniac.She scrabbles frantically for a hold,something with which to lift herself from the depth.…Human beings crumble under strain or loneliness"[3].Robert Emmet Jones says:

"There are basically two types of women in the plays of Williams:the women who are the relics of the moribund tradition of gentility in which Williams himself was reared,women who are unable to accept the twentieth century and who prefer living in the illusive and legendary world of something that never really was-the mythically cavalier Old South;and the healthy,uncultured,basically sensual women,usually of Latin origin,by whom Williams has been attracted in his more recent plays,and who seem to have been conceived by their creator,if not as representatives of a sort of salvation,then at least as attractive earth goddesses whose salvation is their own sexuality.However,the former type is his real success and contribution to literature."[3]

The two sisters fall into the category,the elder the former type and the younger the latter.The focus,naturally,has been on Blanche and her ruin.

2.3 Fighting between the opposite sexes

Ren Shengming mentions that A Streetcar Named Desire is influenced by Freudianism and D.H.Lawrence.And sex becomes an outlet of the modern people's despair.Unfortunately,differen from Lawrence,Williams believes that sex will leads to a worse situation.[4]R.Brustein comments that the conflict between Blanche and Stanley implies the conflict between women's gentility and men's libido.[4]The playwright has been severely criticized for this point and his implication of gay or lesbain."No American playwright before Williams eroticized the stage the way Williams did.…Williams presents what John M.Clum calls a'sex/gender system'that only recently has been more fully appreciated by both homosexual and heterosexual audiences."[2]

Critics pours numerous comments on the play while little attention has been paid to his Christian background and the biblical empathy in this play.Therefore,this paper aims at an analysis on the biblical archetypal symbols in the play and hopes to reveal a grand look about the intention of Tennessee Williams's masterpiece.

3 Frazer,Jung and Frye's Theory of the Displaced Archetypal Structure

The introduction to archetypal criticism involves James G Frazer and Carl Gustav Jung(1875-1961).The word"archetype"according to Jung,was much used in ancient Greek,"arche meaning'roor'and'origin'while typos'pattern'or'model'"[6]The modern concept of the archetype appeared in the late nineteenth century,referring to the recurring literary phenomena such as motifs,themes,and narrative designs."The first one to use the concept in the sense it now appears in contemporary archetypa criticism is cultural anthropologist James G.Frazer at the turn of the century,to explain the structural principles behind the archetypal myths and rituals in the tales and ceremonies of diverse cultures."[6]Jung agreed with Frazer that myth was the means by which the primitive people experienced the world,bu to him myth concerns humanity in general,including modern men,via a concept called collective unconsciousness.Jung believes that collective unconsciousness is the reason why a piece of literature can hear its echo throughout hundreds and even thousands years.The Canadian scholar Northrop Frye(1912-1991)developed the concept with the literary archetypes in the1950s.

Frye is best remembered for the Anatomy of Criticism(1957),which expresses his belief shared by the New Critics and literary psychoanalysts that literary criticism should possess the methodological displine and coherence of the natural science.For him,the coherence reveals itself in the recurrence of archetypes in literature,and the discipline he works out is the schematic structure of literature.The Bible serves as a great source of archetypes to Frye.[6]

In his Anatomy of Criticism,Frye presents three archetypal symbolic structures.The first is the undisplaced archetypes,the second is legendary and romantic,and the third is of realism.This paper finds much in common with the first structure.

1)A god or a devil turns up in two opposite symbolic worlds:one is an ideal world symbolized by the Heaven or Eden;the other a devil's world,the realistic earth.Frye calls the former the image of Revelation where Jesus Christ centers and the latter the image of man with Satan as the seducer.

2)In the structure there is a theme-seeking.

3)The dilemma of man.[7]Naturally,detailed symbols often speak for the playwright when he consciously or unconsciously falls into the"collective unconsciousness"to picture his delicate play.

4 An Analysis of the Archetypes in Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire

Apparently,there are two contrast environments in the play,which is equivalent to Frye's undisplaced archetypal structure.It lays the base for the whole setting of the play and creates similar tragic sense among audience when the Eden is lost and human being are driven to the earth.This sense is confirmed by the theme of Blanche's seeking for salvation.Furthermore,three characters in the play symbolize Jesus Christ,Satan and Adam.Coherently,the play reveals the author's deliberate design of a biblical archetype to impress his audience a tragedy of the famous religious sacrifice and provoke the social significance of man's spiritual salvation in modern society.

4.1 The archetype of the settings

There are two types of environment in the play.One is the flat in New Orleans and the other the Belle Reve.New Orleans originates from the archetype of the cursed earth and the Belle Reve is the symbol of the Eden.

The play starts with the scene in New Orleans,a sordid and filthy wastland.The first feature is that there is no green plants or any sign of nature.People are restricted in the bounded spots,mainly the small crowded flat.Frye says that a devil's world is always characteristic by its boldness and isolation.[8]Everything on the earth is bounded and cursed as a punishment because of the first sin resulted from Satan's seducement.[9]The second feature is the terrible heat.People complain a lot about the hot weather as if they were in"fire"or"furnace".It's very true that fire and heat are the symbols of the evil.Frye mentions that a world of fire is the evilest place in the world like Sodom and Gomorrah in Bible.The third symbol is the pack of raw meat Stanley throws to Stella.Raw meat in Frye's theory is also a metaphor of sparagmos in the savage state.The fourth one is that Stanley rapes Blanche finally and it's incest,which is a reoccurring image in Frye's depiction of the realistic evil world.

Oppositely,Blanche comes from Belle Reve,a beautiful plantation which she has lost due to her financial incompetence.Garden is the major symbol in the ideal world.Eden,actually,is a garden.Trees symbolize liveliness.Beautiful birds and stocks are the common images in the Heaven as well.What's more,the Garden of Eden finally is lost.So the archetype of the lost paradise becomes the dreamlike Belle Reve,which people cling to while it is impossible for them to come back after the first sin Belle Reve is not only the symbol of the Old South as some critics argue.Williams says himself,"Belle Reve is a home for al the people who are eager to find a shelter and it is a dream instead of a real house."[2]"The squalid dwellings which are the homes of his characters symbolizes the decay and corruption o our world".[3]

Hence,the contrast between these two places becomes implicit and tense.The lost Belle Reve remains there as an illusion because there is no way for Blanche or Stella to return.They are bounded in New Orleans and they are seeking for a salvation Williams designs such a tense contrast that his audience fee both naturalistically and spiritually real.The setting archetype paves the path to people's expectation of a further developmen of a biblical theme.

4.2 The archetype of the seeking theme of the play

Williams excels in the theme of seeking in A Streetcar Named Desire and the strongest sense of tragedy can be found in this point,too.Frye concludes that the Bible,in both general and particular structure,follows a routine of"U"of seeking.

There is mainly one kind of seeking in the play,Blanche's Blanche's seeking starts from the Belle Reve.After her husband's committing suicide,she begins her journey of looking for her own beauty or value by her amatory adventures.She shoulders all the burden and wanders in the evil wasteland.She is not welcomed and the world is hostile to her.She talks to her sister and hoping to pull Stella back from the corrupted world,yet fails.She finds Mitch,who is superior to those devils,and shares her secrets with him.But she fails as well when she almost wins.Finally,she is declared abnormal and sent to a mentalhouse.Blanche's journey ends at that moment."The play's story shows us Blanche's seeking haven in a simple,healthy person and that in this,too,she is defeated because everything in her environment conspires to degrade the meaning of her tragic situation.She is an almost willing vitim of the world that has trapped her and in which she can find'peace'only by accepting the verdict of her unfitness for'normal life."[3]

In the Bible,a general seeking path also starts from the moment of the awareness of sin.Then follow confession and sacrifice,which,however,do not help.Any mortal man in this world cannot achieve the ascension.The seeking journey stops at the hopelessness of the realistic world.These neither of the two seeking journeys can run a circle,which implies the perfection and the routine of"U"means the impossibility and gap between human's ideal and reality.

4.3 The archetypes of the characters in the play

The play pictures two characters,Blanche&Stanley,apparently and the third kind of character implicitly.Blanche echoes to the archetype of Jesus Christ,Stanley the opposite side,Satan and the third human beings symbolized by Mitch.

4.3.1 Blanche vs.Jesus Christ

Frye's theory has an important concept of"displacement"Blanche seems a displaced Jesus Christ.First,Williams mentions the color of white with Blanche 22 times and the image of water34 times in the play.Such numbers are not mere counting o word repetition.And white in the Bible symbolizes purity and perfection.Jesus Christ is always in white.Blanche is in the white dress,white hat and white gloves when the play starts.She looks like a white moth or a white angel in Mitch's eye.The very name of her,Blanche,is a French word meaning the color of white as well.The color of white is holy in the Bible and Williams's emphasis on it implies his real intention of the portrayal of Blanche.She symbolizes the purity and perfection of Jesus Christ.Water shows the meaning of refinement and purifying the same way.

Second,Blanche's teaching is also a symbol.She was a teacher and has been deprived the right of teaching.However when she finds Stella is fully blind about her situation,she talks to and convinces her sister to her side.When she finds Mitch a gentle and kind man,she confesses her sins and wins his trust She even talks to those who do not care about what she believes truth and beauty are.Most of the time she is rejected.That's what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.[9]

Third,the image of candle and moonlight imply the grace of Jesus Christ.In the play Blanche like the light of candle or the moon instead of the bulb because the bulb belongs to the realistic world and it's"too blinding to be endured.A naked bulb is a rude remark or vulgar action"[3].Blanche believes the value of a light is in its beauty and truth,which is embodied by love.So when Mitch speaks to her by the moonlit lake,love comes to them;later Mitch listens to Stanley and looks at her under a bulb,he changes into a man like an animal,which means the death of love.How to love is the most important issue in the New Testament of the Bible.Therefore,Williams pictures Blanche as a pure,refined,pious seeker for truth,beauty and love,whose displaced archetype in the Bible is Jesus Christ.

4.3.2 Stanley vs.Satan

Stanley shows us three features by his actions.First,he is the embodiment of animal force and brute life.Williams uses strong words to impress us.Stanley shouts,cries,yields,screams,grunts,and never speaks."He is all muscle,lumpish sensuality and crud energy.He is the unwitting antichrist of our time."[3]Satan is in the same image.Second,Stanley is as sly as the serpent in which Satan takes the form.He conspires a entire plan to drive Blanche away by spying,seducing,forcing,temptation frightening and deceiving.Satan does the same in the Old Testament and New Testament.Third,Stanley wants to revenge and be the king in his world.He cannot endure Blanche's teaching to Stella and Mitch.Thus,the battle between Stanley and Blanche is on the weak and hesitated human beings:Mitch and Stella.In the bible and Frye's theory,Satan is the seducer and beast who wants to control man.The poker games changes the New Orleans flat into a real devil's world and this symbol reveals Williams original plan of Stanley as the Devil.

4.3.3 Mitch vs.Adam and Stella vs.Eve

Mitch and Stella are crucial in the play since they are the prey for Stanley and the last hope for Blanche.Mitch and Stella are the symbols of man and woman in the world who cannot decide their life and fate.They are not meant a couple as the original archetype and the displacement helps Williams grasp a flexibility to show the weakness and dilemma of human being.

Mitch looks superior to and much more gentle than Stanley because he is a man created by God to His image and Satan deteriorates after his Fall though he was once an angle.Mitch feels lonely and needs a partner to his kind,which is the request o Adam in the Genesis.The bride he wants is Blanche.When Satan tempts him and he does wrong,Mitch puts the responsibility on Blanche and cries in his dilemma.He wants to make advance while he is afraid of his background.He cannot withdraw as he has realized the sin.Human beings are at the edge of the spiritual gap in modern society.It is the very reason why audiences have never neglected the role of Mitch,which is actually s response of echo and identity.Therefore,Mitch speaks for the playwright Williams about his concerns on the existential dilemma of modern people.At the end of the play,Blanche is leaving and Mitch is crying,which means he is not the man he was and there are still expectations on him.

Stella catches critics'attention as Eve for two reasons:one is her obedience to her husband and the other her compromise for her new-born baby.Eve is punished by God and one of the punishment is"your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you".Thus even after a slap on the face,Stella went downstairs to her husband's arms.When she is told the truth and she can have a choice at the end of the play,Stella decides to keep her family at the cost of her sister.Child is the reason why she is called Eve.Genesis says,"The man named his wife Eve,because she was the mother of all living."

5 An Implication of the Biblical Archetypal Analy-sis of the Play

Tennessee Williams's A streetcar Named Desire is one o the most popular Broadway performances.There is no deny tha Williams employment of the biblical archetypes contribute to the success of the story structure and the character portrayal.The playwright may suggest his thinking on the spiritual dilemma to his contemporaries that biblical tradition shall not be forgotten completely.

参考文献

[1]汪义群.当代美国戏剧[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社,1997:70-71.

[2]Roudane,Matthew C.The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams[M].Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2000,1(6):43-52.

[3]Hurrell,John D.Two American Tragedies[M].New York:Charles Scribner's Sons,1969:89-90,101,111,102,93,115,95.

[4]任生名.西方现代悲剧论稿[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社,2000:170-172,178.

[5]Rubinstein,Annette T.American Literature Root and Flower[M].Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,1998:787.

[6]Zhu Gang.Twentieth Century Western Critical Theories[M].Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Lan-guage Education Press,2001:128,128,143.

[7]张首映.西方二十世纪文论史[M].北京:北京大学出版社,2001:116-117.

[8]叶舒宪.神话-原型批评[M].西安:陕西师范大学出版社,1983:190.

《圣经的故事》出版人语 篇3

《圣经》包括六十六卷历险记、历史、诗歌、书信等等,由多位不同的作者,历时数百年写成。《圣经》包括《新约》和《旧约》。《旧约》原著是用希伯来文写的,那是古代犹太人的语言。《旧约》原是犹太教的圣书,主要内容是关于世界和人类起源的故事和传说、犹太民族古代历史的宗教叙述以及他们的法典、先知书、诗歌和箴言等。《新约》原著是用希腊文写的,那是耶稣在世时,罗马帝国人人通晓的语言。《新约》是基督教本身的经典,记叙了有关耶稣的历史传说、耶稣的言行、早期教会的状况、使徒们的书信和神的启示等。

我们编辑的这本《圣经故事》,就是从《圣经》里面选取的,最著名和最重要的故事这里面都有。特别是经过玛丽·巴切勒先生的精心编纂,原先较为零乱的故事之间有了清晰的脉络,读来就像一部长篇小说。约翰·海森先生还为本书配了精彩的插图。

圣经故事参孙和大利拉的文学阐释 篇4

关键词：《圣经》,叙事学,参孙

美国学者罗伯特 · 艾尔特是《圣经》纯文学研究的主要代表, 其著作有《圣经的叙事艺术》和《圣经的诗歌艺术》。他认为《圣经》叙事构成一个整体是靠他称之为“潜在提示”的各种手段来实现的, 其中一个非常主要的手段就是“重复”。而且“重复”也是《圣经》最早的口头流传历史所必然造成的叙事现象。他归纳出了《圣经》重复叙事的五种方式, 即: (1) 词根的重复; (2) 模式的重复; (3) 主题 (或内容) 的重复; (4) 情节 (或称系列动作) 的重复; (5) 类型场景或格局的重复。

根据艾尔特对重复叙事的分类, 参孙和大利拉的故事中主要有两种重复叙事方式:词根的重复和情节的重复。

一、词根的重复

在参孙和大利拉的故事中, 与绳子有关的词是重复出现的, 如青绳子、麻线、绳子、线和发缕。不管是各种各样的绳子, 还是一缕一缕的头发, 它们都有一个共同点:都是呈线状的。随着这些词的先后出现, 读者可能会猜想参孙的力量是否与他的头发有关, 因为故事中始终重复着“线”这个意象, 不断强化着这个意象。在希伯来文中, “参孙”这个词的意思是“太阳的”, 一方面, 它指参孙像太阳一样拥有无穷的力量和光芒, 另一方面, 也隐含地解释了为什么参孙的力量来自头发, 如果我们把太阳比作头的话, 一缕缕光线正像一缕缕头发。光线和头发的线性特征也正好暗合。所以, 这些词的反复出现, 既推动了情节的发展, 又加深了故事的主题和内涵。

故事中提到过的一个词也值得关注:拿细耳人。尽管它在文中只出现了一次, 但在参孙故事中, 它与先前的故事构成了重复。在参孙出生的情节中, 多次提到“拿细耳人”。参孙生来就是神选中的拿细耳人, 他必须遵守三个条件:不吃不洁净之物;葡萄树所结的都不可吃, 清酒浓酒都不可喝;不可用剃头刀剃头。这几个条件在参孙故事开始出现了三次, 可见这三个条件的重要性。但参孙并没有严格遵守这三个条件, 前两个一一被他打破, 先是“到了亭拿的葡萄园”, 接着吃了狮子尸体中的蜂蜜, 即不洁净之物, 在参孙和大利拉的故事里, 又被人剃去了头发, 到此, 三个条件全被参孙破坏。随之而来的, 是参孙力量的消失和拿细耳人地位的丧失。那么文中仅出现一次的“拿细耳人”这个词, 在内容上与前文相互呼应, 保持意义的完整性;在结构上起到了连接的作用, 使参孙和大利拉的故事与整个故事有机的联系在一起。

二、情节的重复

参孙和大利拉的故事中, 有很明显的“3+1”模式的情节重复, 即前三次情况相似, 第四次有关键的转变。在大利拉一次次的引诱中, 参孙的回答也一步步接近事实, 这样一种层层递进、稳中求变的重复, 推动了情节的发展, 人物形象在这过程中逐步立体、丰满起来, 同时也使读者产生一种期盼, 期盼某种意料中的结果。

除了故事内部的重复外, 参孙和大利拉的故事与参孙和亭拿的女子中的故事也存在重复。亭拿女子是参孙的第一个妻子, 在参孙大摆宴席那天, 他给来宴席的30 个亭拿人出了一个谜, 并许诺猜出谜底的有赏。亭拿人猜不出, 便威胁参孙妻子, 让她去骗取谜底。结果参孙禁不住妻子的啼哭, 告诉她了谜底, 这样亭拿人说出了谜底, 赢了赏。分析这两个故事, 不难看出, 二者在情节上有着不少共同点:

(1) 故事开始有个迷需要破解。

(2) 众人猜不出迷。

(3) 参孙妻子受命去探迷。

(4) 参孙禁不起妻子软磨硬泡说出谜底。

在亭拿女子的故事中, 参孙的性格弱点略显一二。首先固执己见。他坚持与异族女子结婚, 而与异族通婚在以色列人中是绝对不允许的。其次禁不住女子的诱惑。亭拿女子在他面前啼哭, 他就说出了谜底。在大利拉的故事中, 参孙的禁不住女子诱惑的性格弱点更是有增无减。首先, 参孙到了迦萨与一个妓女亲近。其次, 面对大利拉的每天唠叨, “他心里烦闷要死” (he was tired of death) , “就把心中所藏的都告诉了她”。而他心中所藏的秘密甚至比他的生命还重要, 因为这是他力量的源泉, 是他作为神选中的拿细耳人的最后条件, 然而他还是告诉了大利拉这个大秘密。通过这个重复, 参孙的性格弱点得到了进一步的揭示和强调。

两个故事的情节在重复, 但二者的结尾却不一样。亭拿女子中, 参孙“杀了三十个人, 躲夺了他们的衣裳, 将衣裳给了猜出谜语的人”, 大利拉中, 参孙被人挖了眼睛, “用铜链拘锁他, 他就在监里推磨”。前后参孙的地位发生了戏剧性的变化, 从一个胜利者沦落为一个阶下囚。而这种转变正是参孙生命轨迹从上升到下降的体现。亭拿女子的故事只是参孙事业上升的开始, 在“参孙做以色列的士师二十年”达到一个顶点, 而大利拉的故事则是他生命轨迹的最低点。所以, 这种“稳中求变”的重复将参孙的人物形象刻画的更加深刻。

参考文献

[1]刘意青, 《《圣经》的文学阐释——理论与实践》[M].北京:北京大学出版社, 2004.

[2]梁工, 《圣经叙事艺术研究》[M].北京:商务印书馆, 2006.

圣经故事(8) 篇5

A Hero's Birth

Now that the Israel people had once again disobeyed God, God sent the Philistines to rule over them and the Philistines had made their life miserable¹ for 40 years. Then God decided to change all this, so he sent an angel to Manoah and his wife, who were very religious, but without children. The angel told them a son was coming to them and warned them not to cut his hair, for he was to be born the man to free Israel from the rule of the Philistines. At the beginning they did not believe this, but things turned out all as what the angel had promised.

They named their son Samson. When Samson grew up, he was tall and strong, and as the angel commanded, his parents never cut his hair. One day Samson walked by a grape garden, when he thought he heard the roar of a young lion. The lion and Samson wrestled to the ground in a cloud of dust. Just then, the power of God filled Samson. Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands. This is his first show of strength.

Samson and Delilah

Samson was the last judge² of Israel. He helped the Israel people defeat the Philistine army, and for 20 years he led them against the Philistines. With his great strength, he killed many Philistines and caused enough headache for the five kings of the Philistines.

In order to find the secret of Samson's strength, the Five Kings went to Delilah, Samson's last woman. They promised her eleven hundred pieces of silver each if she could discover Samson's secret.

That night, Delilah asked him sweetly, "What makes you so strong? If someone wanted to tie you up, how could they do it?"

"Well," Samson said, "If they tied me up with seven new bowstrings, that would do it. I would be as weak as any man."

英雄的出生

当以色列人又一次违抗了上帝时，上帝派来非利士人统治了他们四十年，这期间他们的生活非常凄苦。之后上帝决定改变这一切，他派了天使找到玛挪亚和他妻子，他们都非常虔诚，只是没有孩子。天使告诉他们，他们即将有个儿子，但警告他们不要剪他的头发， 因为他天生就是那个可以把以色列人从非利士人的统治中解救出来的人。起初他们不相信这是真的，但事情的发展正如天使曾经承诺的那样。

他们给孩子取名参孙。他长大后身高体壮，正如天使所要求的那样，他的父母没有剪过他的头发。一天，他路过葡萄园，听到小狮子的吼声。狮子和参孙在地上扭打起来，尘土飞扬。就在那一刻，上帝的力量充满了他，他徒手就把狮子撕碎了。这是他第一次展示力量。

参孙和大利拉

参孙是以色列最后一个士师。他带领以色列人打败了非利士人军队，领导以色列人反对非利士人二十年，他用他的神力杀死了很多非利士人，这令非利士的五位国王非常头疼。

为找出参孙力量来源之谜，五王来找大利拉，她是参孙的最后一个女人。他们许诺如果她能发现参孙的秘密就每人给她1100枚银币。

适夜，大利拉甜甜地问参孙：“是什么让你如此强壮呢？要是有人想把你绑起来，该怎么做才行呢？”

参孙回答说：“嗯，如果他们用七根新弓弦捆我的话，那我就虚弱如常人。”

■ 参孙的秘密果真是这个吗？五王的阴谋会得逞吗？请看下期“圣经故事”。

故事后的典故

1. Samson 参孙，大力士

例如：

O, how brave you are, Tom! I think you're like Samson. If there came a lion roaring at me, I think you'd fight him — wouldn't you, Tom? — George Eliot

哦，你真勇敢，汤姆！我觉得你就像参孙一样。要是有一头狮子朝我吼叫，我想你也会和他打的，对不对， 汤姆？——乔治·艾略特

2. Samson's Hair (比喻)力量的源泉

例如：

— You seem to be forever energetic. So tell me where is your Samson's Hair?

— Well probably it's the desire to strive for the very best of everything.

——你似乎总是精力充沛，告诉我你力量的源泉是什么？