Is It Okay to Re-Imagine Bible Stories in a Fictionalized Manner?

Question: Is it okay to retell Bible stories? I know there are many stories inspired by the Bible; it’s such a powerful book full of wonderful stories, so it’s kind of difficult to be a writer and not be inspired by biblical themes and lessons. However, I’m wondering if it’s alright to re-imagine Bible stories in a modern or fictionalized manner, and if so, what sort of rules should a writer follow when doing so?

Furthermore, I read somewhere that writers have rewritten the entire Bible to read and flow more like a continuous story. Is it acceptable as long as they give it a different title and keep it separate from the actual Bible? What do you make of that?

Answer: Every time we preach or teach the Bible, we are re-telling it. We re-imagine it in the sense of seeking to understand how it applies to us today. If you do a fictionalized version of a Bible story that is true to the intent of the original author and seeks to be accurate in regard to the cultural setting, I think you do us a service. You are creating a sermon on Scripture for us.

Yes, a continuous story Bible should identify itself as such. That’s a helpful tool for understanding the Bible.

 

One reader’s response: If I created a fictional version of the bible, would it be wrong to make a girl character that represents Jesus?

My reply: The whole question about the sexuality of God is a complicated one. He created animals and creatures with differentiated sexuality, male and female, and that suggests that He is both male and female Himself. Yet He always uses male terminology to describe Himself. Jesus was, to all appearances, male, so the Son took on human nature that was only one gender. There may be social reasons he chose to do that. Women were not always held in high social esteem and that would have made his job much more difficult. So as to your question, I do not think it would wrong to make a girl character who represents Jesus. C. S. Lewis made a lion character that represented Jesus. People understand that this is fiction and do not suppose this represents the biblical account in any literal way.