Bethlehem – where Jesus was born

Methuselah found in Genesis who is the longest living man. Ironic that in PB, the cat doesn’t live that long.

Leah- who is the older, less attractive sister of Rachel, and Jacob’s first wife in the Bible.

Chapter Titles – Genesis, Revelation, Judges, Exodus, Bel and the Dragon – all books of the Bible (Bel and the Dragon is in the Apocrypha)

Much more can be found in the Link below. Here’s an example:

“The Demonstration Garden

Nathan’s demonstration garden serves as a wonderful symbol on three levels. First the garden itself can be seen as a stand-in for the attitudes and beliefs that the Prices carry with them into Africa. Like those attitudes, the plants are wildly inappropriate in this environment. The plants become unrecognizable, almost grotesque in their hugeness. More significantly, though, they are rendered inert and useless, unable to fruit. The indigenous North American plants cannot vegetate under the conditions in Africa.

The very act of planting the garden rests upon one of the wildly inappropriate attitudes that the Prices carry with them. The venture reveals Nathan’s blind arrogance, the belief that the Congolese are so backward that they have no idea how to grow their own food. It is beyond Nathan’s capacity to reason that, if the climate permitted this sort of garden, Africans would have planted it themselves long ago. It does not occur to him to consider whether there is some reason, other than their utter stupidity and backwardness, which might account for the fact that there is little agriculture in Kilanga.

Finally, the garden is symbolic because of its biblical resonance. Gardens, in particular the Garden of Eden, play a prominent role in Christian tradition. It is in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve, the original man and woman, ate from the Tree of Knowledge thereby imbuing all future generations of human being with original sin. There is a clear irony in drawing a connection between Nathan’s undertaking and Adam and Eve’s. Adam and Eve sin by grasping for truth and knowledge that is not intended for them. Nathan, by contrast, sins through his willful ignorance, through his refusal to learn anything about the culture around him, and to enlarge and deepen his understanding of the world.”

Each family member is dealing with salvation and redemption in some way. The women of the family are trying to find a way to live in the Congo or are searching for a way out. The father is there for obvious reasons to preach and teach salvation and redemption to the people. There could be an allusion that there is a set answer but in reality it’s EACH person’s perception of what salvation and redemption really is.

The mention of Light and Darkness. The darkness of the land. The darkness of the death they experience. The darkness in their hearts while trying to figure out how to manage this unfamiliar territory. Contrastly, the father is teaching following the “Light”. Following God and enterting into enlightenment.

And the obvious mention of the land. The native Africans live in harmony while Americans (I believe they were American…) are struggling just to survive. The land consumes them and eventually kills Ruth May. The land is a “home” for the natives and a death sentence for the visitors.

Hope this at least gets you thinking about it or helps somewhat!

RE:
Can anyone tell me all the allusions (biblical or otherwise) found in the poisonwood bible?

um there is a biblical allusion to Jesuson page 213. Nathen Price is ministering to the lepers and the outcasts, and that’s what Jesus came to do.