Was Game of Thrones inspired by The Bible? Is Jon Snow a modern Jesus? Let’s take a look.
Religion in Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin might have invented many different religions for HBO’s hit, Game of Thrones, but many of them are actually inspired by real-life religions.
For example, the Faith of the Seven is loosely based on seven aspects of one god and is derived from the Christian Holy Trinity.
However, much of his astoundingly popular series might actually be inspired by the holy book itself.
Here are 10 ideas and themes Game of Thrones took from the world’s best-selling book (according to the Guinness Book of World Records), The Bible.
1. Resurrection
It goes without saying that death and resurrection are popular themes in The Bible and Game of Thrones.
And while that might be an easy deduction to make, the focus on this theme seems especially important to both.
Like Game of Thrones, the good book is scattered with miraculous stories of men and women who died and returned from the grave.
In 1 Kings, Elijah resurrected the son of Zarephath’s widow. In 2 Kings, Elisha resurrected the son of the great Shunammite woman. Also, in Kings, a dead man comes back to life when he touches Elisha’s bones.
And that’s without mentioning the many people Christ resurrected in the Gospels.
2. Jon Snow And Jesus
Speaking of resurrection, the main heroes of both books, Jesus and Jon Snow, are characters who are wrongfully murdered at the hands of their people but return from death after a number of days.
Having a character that closely resembles Jesus Christ is a common literary allegory; however, Jon Snow seems a little more on the nose than most. You only need to consider the fact that both had a mysterious birth, both have incredible leadership abilities (both have/had many followers), both were betrayed (Snow even died underneath a cross), and both are destined for greatness (the Prince that was Promised).
To some extent, Game of Thrones‘ Jon Snow even looks similar to traditional depictions of The Bible’s Christian saviour.
3. Prophecy, Dreams And Visions
Just like The Bible has many books dedicated to prophecy, visions and dreams, George R.R. Martin’s books also place a special focus on the power of prophecy and destiny.
One only has to look to popular Bible characters such as Joseph, who had the ability to interpret dreams, Isaiah, who had the gift of seeing the future, and John, who had seen visions of the end of the world, to see parallels between the two. The Three-Eyed Raven has similar abilities.
“The Lord let you come back for a reason. Stannis was not the Prince Who Was Promised, but someone has to be,” says Melisandre to Jon Snow.
4. Mystical Creatures
Believe it or not, the scriptures also speak of strange mythical creatures, including beasts, giants, dragons, unicorns, behemoths and even Pegasus.
While some descriptions are symbolic and are simply meant to represent certain nations or ideas in prophetic visions, others are described as real.
This certainly fits in with the wonderful and weird universe Martin has created.
5. Themes Of Good And Evil
Themes of good and evil are present in most stories. However, good and evil are depicted differently in both books.
When you think about it, nobody is truly 100% good or 100% evil in Game of Thrones and The Bible, with the exception of Jon Snow (who struggles to tell lies) and Jesus. Everyone else strives to be either good or bad. There are no absolute evil people – which is a lot more like real life.
The Book of Books has its fair share of characters like Littlefinger.
6. The Night King And Satan
When you consider the two, both the Night King and Satan seem awfully similar.
They are both figures that were created at or before the birth of humanity. They are both hell-bent on killing off the human race. They both rule an army of evil demons. They both possess supernatural abilities. They are both incredibly smart. They are both depicted with horns on their heads.
And they both are the epitome of evil.
7. Forbidden Relationships
You think that Game of Thrones has scandalous stories? Well, believe it or not, The Bible’s stories might be even crazier.
Lot’s daughters got their father drunk and had sex with him in order to have children.
King David sent Bathsheba’s husband to the forefront of the war after he watched her bathing naked from his roof and slept with her.
King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Abram had a child with the maid.
The Lannisters have nothing on some of these characters.
8. Stories of War
If you enjoy epic battles, both books have their fair share of war and disaster.
While The Hound, The Mountain, Jaime Lannister, and Nedd Stark are all great war heroes, they don’t have anything on the epic Bible heroes.
David was a shepherd boy who killed a lion with his bare hands before taking on a giant. He eventually went on to lead armies in different wars.
Samson killed tons of soldiers with the jaw of an ass.
Moses led an army to destroy multiple tribes while travelling to the Promised Land.
There are endless examples of badass war heroes who fought in incredible battles in the old book.
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9. Heroic Leaders
Just like Game of Thrones, The Bible is filled with many different thrones, both of this world and beyond.
There are countless amounts of kings and queens fighting and manipulating to rule. And then there are also those who are not interested in ruling over others, those who are simply interested in leading humanity to salvation.
Winter is coming!
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What do you think? Did Game of Thrones steal from the Bible?
2 Kings 9, Season 6 episode 9
My problem is the r tards that actually believe it. I dont actually think the night king is coming
I guess you guys miss the fact the entire point of game of thrones is about the battle for religious supremacy with each house representing a religious tradition. The best example is Zoroastrianism ( the first monotheistic religion that worshiped fire) giving birth to judaism, Christianity and Islam as represented in the rebirth of John Snow.
The sad thing is that the people who wrote this are so ignorant of history, religion and the world that they don’t realize that the game of thrones is a battle of religious ideas that have existed throughout human history. Each of of the great houses represented those religions in some way. For example, Zoroastrianism the worship of fire and the first religion to introduce monotheism giving birth to Judaism and Christianity that is represented in John Snow.
C’mon man
Ice zombies
Oh gawd Jessica Nadia
GoT satires many types of mythology, not just Christian.
And Lord of The Rings lol
Ummm pretty sure these were themes before the bible.
I’m a Christian and this is reaching
An interesting read. Although your comparison between Jesus and Jon Snow is spot on, there is one flaw in your likening of Satan to the Night King. Saying that “both were created at or before the birth of humanity” is not factually accurate in the case of the Night King. In both GRRM’s version and HBO’s version of the story, the Night King was an ordinary man who was “turned” into a White Walker. He did not choose to become an evil being.
Yes, because Christianity didn’t plagiarize a single thing. *eyeroll*
oh, Jon Snow ..
Like the bible isn’t full of plagiarism !!! :D
Dragons
Most of that was around in numerous religions and tails before anyone bothered to put it in what became the bible. Dumbest article ever.
These are so general that it’s absurd to attribute their originality to the bible. All good stories have these plot elements, some predating the bible like the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Or maybe he just played a lot of D&D well smoking Mary Jane…….
These include, Resurrection, wine, whore and dragons! Who loved the dragon bit in the Bible! Jesus ride into battle on a dragon and saved the slaves!
Or maybe the ideas and archetypes of good and evil are universal tales that have been used again and again and again. C’mon guys. You’re reaching.
Ohh ….so they made a fictional story in a mythical setting from a fictional book? How disturbing….
I was one of the writers or one of my ideas was used for the Bible. You know the story about the troll under the bridge and the kids that lay breadcrumbs out to follow in case they were lost? I came up with that story.
Both are fictional. Does it matter ?
Yet nothing in the bible is original.
Why not the bible took stories from other myths too.
The Bible was probably an influence for George RR Martin
Oh, man. You telling me that one fictional work borrowed from another fictional work?
#MINDBLOWN
both stories are fiction… but only one is entertaining. cersei will pay!!
So what!!!
Religion is a system of control and who would want to be controlled
The real difference is game of thrones is actually good
I would take a bunch of posts to type what all the ideas in the bible were stolen from.
you will be banned for spamming before you could even post 0.1% of those stolen ideas.
That is true.
Because the Bible never borrowed anything from earlier cultures LOL
did you know the image of jesus we know today is painted after a pope’s brother
I think it was his son, Cesare Borgia
oh thought it was his little brother
I’ll be damned if that ain’t reaching….
Who comes up with this drivel?
Maybe this exposition wil make Got come to their senses and they will return the ideas to their original owner! ;)
Next time, post an article on the stories the bible stole lol.
lol should we show all the ideas the Bible stole from every other Religion ;)
wanna hear it from the bible and i’m an atheist: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9
Didn’t Bible itself plagiarized tales from other mythologies and traditions?
Thats a known fact lol
Justin Martin not to some people. lol
if you put the creation myth (the original phrasing, if possible) of Jews/Christians next to Babylonians > Sumerians > Akkadians > Ancient Egyptians, you will see that “Moses” was just the last in a line of plagiarizers. actually not even the last one.
The bible didn’t have an exclusive right to all those. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Egyptian stories about their Gods, The Norse sagas, and every civilization pre and post Hebrews all had tales like these. Just because it’s in the bible doesn’t mean that it was invented there.
I was gonna say, the bible is mostly a retelling of other mythologies.
It’s almost as if all stories can be reduced to a fixed six or eight story archetypes…
Well yes. Fantasy is an archetypal genre.
I see your list, and raise you this one.
http://listverse.com/2013/06/30/ten-influences-on-the-bible/
Get outta here. A lot of those other stories don’t predate the Bible.
Even if I accept your premise (which I don’t), what about the ones that do?
This was a really interesting read!
Hehehehe. Yep, the Bible plagarized the heck out of other religions.
Well they both fiction. So what?
Literally all of these concepts are older than the bible.
Very interesting read