The Manga Bible: From Genesis To Revelation - Narrative

Narrative

The Manga Bible is a summary of the Bible, which implies that many parts are left out, altered a bit, or only partially used. The text and the drawings are based on the original scripture, but they also use free interpretation. Even though many of the important stories from the Bible are included, there are also some that would be expected, but are left out. For example, the building of the Tower of Babel and the whole Book of Esther are missing, In the Old and the New Testament only about half of the books are used as a source for The Manga Bible. Many of the books that are left out would give only little to the development of the narrative, such as the Leviticus or books from the second part of the Old Testament, such as Micah or Habakkuk. This is mostly due to the style of manga, where the use of epic stories and action play an important role. Thus, The Manga Bible focuses on books that provide action and it also shows the violence and sexuality that is portrayed in the Bible. In the Book of Joshua the bloody fall of the Israelites’ enemies is shown. The weakness of different characters is illustrated with the examples of the moral downfall of David with Bathshebe or when Samson is deceived to give away the secret of his power.

In The Manga Bible’s rendition of the Old Testament entitled “The Book of God’s People”, Moses narrates the story of Genesis to a group of children. For a less conventional narrative style, the chronology of the books is sometimes changed or parts of one book are inserted in another one. So that for example the Book of Jonah is put between the two Books of Kings. The Book of Jonah is called “A Comedy Short” and is supposed to bring comic relief between the heavy issues of war and destruction that are persistent in the Old Testament. To emphasize the difference Siku uses a subgenre of manga called super deformed, in which the drawing is very simple or minimalist.

The story line is set up with many traditional images from the Bible. Siku shows the reader how the relationship between God and the people changed over the course of the Old Testament, so that he would no longer talk to his chosen people directly. After the Exodus, the Book of Judges plays a prominent role. The Book of Ruth is drawn in a different style and is mostly told as a love story. The stories of Samson and David are developed in more detail. The Old Testament ends with Prophets such as Daniel and leads over to the New Testament.

The second part, consisting of the New Testament is shorter than the first. The story of Jesus’ birth is only told through the three kings, who were ordered by King Herod to look for a newborn. The events between the first encounter of Jesus with his disciples and his death are told in less than thirty pages, including the Parables of the Good Samaritan, the Unforgiving servant and the Prodigal Son. Those Parables are also drawn in a more informal style to indicate that the stories are, although important, not necessarily part of the overall chronology. This summary of Jesus’ life requires many omissions, such as of the miracle of the loaves and fish, or most of the Parables. The narrative after the death of Jesus is mostly taken from the Acts of the Apostles.

The Book of Revelation differs from the rest of the New Testament, because it contains mostly visions and prophesies. Siku represents this by telling the revelation through the dreams of a girl in a hospital in the 21st century.

There are also several examples where contemporary ideas come in. In the Book of Job, Job asks himself, how he could have deserved his faith, when a bomb labeled “Fat Man” hits his house. Siku also includes maps in the Old Testament for example to show the journey of the Exodus. In the New Testament Jesus is seduced by the devil, who promises him the power over the world represented by contemporary New York and parts of other modern cities.

The book also makes use of irony or jokes, for example, when Adam sees the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden and his response is “Cool!” Noah later loses count of the animals heading to the ark, when he is up to 11,344, so he has to start all over again.