Biblical fiction is one of the most rewarding and most demanding genres to write. You are working with stories that millions hold sacred, which means the freedom of fiction comes with real responsibility. Writing The Temptation — a retelling of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness — taught me how to balance creative storytelling with respect for the source.
Start with deep research
Before inventing anything, understand everything. Read the scriptural account closely, then study the historical and cultural context: geography, daily life, language, religious practice. The more you know about the world of the story, the more confidently — and responsibly — you can fill its silences with fiction.
Work in the gaps, not over the text
The most respectful biblical fiction lives in the spaces scripture leaves open: the unrecorded conversations, the interior experience of a character, the texture of a setting. You are not rewriting the account; you are imagining your way into the parts it does not describe. Distorting events the text states plainly breaks trust with the reader.
Give characters genuine interiority
Scripture often tells us what happened, not what it felt like. Fiction's gift is interiority — fear, doubt, temptation, resolve. Rendering the psychological reality of a familiar figure is where biblical fiction earns its place, making ancient stories newly immediate without changing their substance.
Let theme carry the weight
The strongest biblical fiction is about something — temptation, faith, sacrifice, mercy. When a clear theme runs underneath the narrative, every scene gains purpose and the story resonates beyond its plot. Decide early what your retelling is really exploring.
Respect your reader's intelligence
Readers of biblical fiction usually know the source well. Do not over-explain or moralize. Trust them to feel the weight of a scene, and resist the urge to append a sermon. The restraint is what makes the impact land.
Final thought
Writing biblical fiction well means holding two commitments at once: to story and to scripture. Honor both, and you give readers something rare — an ancient narrative they can feel as if for the first time. See how I approached it in The Temptation.