stephan huller

I was watching a Spanish version of this fable (nursery rhyme?) and it struck me that it might have been adapted from the Pauline narrative. Sure there is no fire in the story but the wolf (= Devil) takes its place. What do you think?

sotto voce

At what point did the Spanish open Bibles?

Toto

It's entirely possible. Three_Little_Pigs "was included in The nursery rhymes of England (London and New York, c.1886), by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps.^[1] The story in its arguably best-known form appeared in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, first published in 1890 and crediting Halliwell as his source.^[2]"

At this point in history, the Brits were reading their Bibles, right sv?

Google says that more than one sermon has been preached mentioning those three pigs along with 1 Corinthians 3, and Bruce Fisk makes mention of it in his book First Corinthians (or via: amazon.co.uk), but mainly to contrast the collective salvation of Paul versus the individual efforts of the Three.

sotto voce

Very true, they were. The Pilgrim's Progress had gone through many editions by then, and was a best-seller, also. But this particular passage has never been preached from very much, nor very well understood. Bunyan was pretty comprehensive, but he did not include this passage, which has never been part of English idiom, like 'under the sun' and 'sour grapes'.

So I think both these allusions have come from common observation of their intended readerships. People in Paul's day were more familiar with straw, hay and wood burning than most urban dwellers today, as were most of the English population, even in 1890, and the question seems more feasible to us because we don't often see things burning, except gas on cooking stoves, and then in a controlled way.

That does surprise me. I wonder whether the preachers understood what Paul meant. The pigs theme is closer to the parable about building on sand or rock.

Collective salvation? Where does he get that from?

PhilosopherJay

Hi stephan huller,

It does seem probable that the nursery rhyme is getting its material from Paul, but Paul is most probably gettting his material from Heraclitus:

aeebee50

Since you talked about a nursery rhyme, I would like to know about Jack and the bean stalk. Sir Francis Palgrave once thought it could have arrived from tales of the Vikings when they sailed around on their boats. It would be interesting if it could be pointed to the Old Testament or the New Testament.

stephan huller

the beanstalk might be the heavely ladder of jacob but that's a stretch i think

aeebee50

Thanks, this all came about because of a dream. I will check Jacob, Jonah and the controversy with St. Jerome versus St. Augustine. Wikipedia had some suggestions.

I thought the three little pigs were in line with Disney during WWII. The wolf may have been Hitler. Comparing the wolf and Satan is a good comparison. Hitler could be compared to Satan. Since Paul's brother Hebrews were upset with him, Paul could of had a lot of deams.

Saramago

Interesting possibility. Google search brings up several instances of it as a sermon topic &/or Christian website topic.

sotto voce

In how many of these sermons do the pigs survive, as in the Spanish video version, that may well have been cleaned up to remove the views of two pigs being eaten? The death of pigs is part of the traditional version, that doesn't accord with Paul's meaning, nor even with the erroneous interpretation that almost all preachers give it.