Shrek=Balak

"In later times Jewish fancy tricked out the story of the flood with many new and often extravagant details designed apparently to satisfy the curiosity or tickle the taste of a degenerate age, which could not rest satisfied with the noble simplicity of the narrative in Genesis."
In the past few weeks, we have often talked about intertexuality between the Bible and literary works that have been influenced by the Bible. Ever since this topic was first discussed in class, I am always subconsciously looking for hidden references to the Bible in my everyday life. And guess what...I find them all over the place. Looking for these hidden meaning, references, or parallels has made reading Plotz, Frye, and the Bible more interesting because it conveys relevance to my everyday life.
One of the funniest examples of intertexuality that I have found so far is from the story of Balak and his donkey. This funny duo seems to be a predecessor to Shrek and Donkey. It seems to me that Balak and his donkey have the same type of bantering wit that Donkey and Shrek have. They also have the same bantering and unwilling relationship with each other. The "masters" Balak and Shrek want nothing to do with their respective donkey except to use them as a tool. Balak uses his "tool" as means of transportation and Shrek uses Donkey as a sort of sidekick during his first adventure. But both donkeys save their counterpart at least one time, if not more times. When reading what Balak's donkey to Balak "Am not I thy ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine  unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee", can't use just imagine modernize that sentence and putting it to Eddie Murphy's voice speaking to Shrek? It is definitely something that Donkey would say after Shrek was being a jerk about something, which did happen quite a bit during all of the movies. I had heard this story several times before reading it myself for this class but never had I connected it to Shrek and Donkey. It makes me wonder what other references to the Bible that I am missing because of my ignorance in actually reading the Bible myself. I often thought of myself as both averagely well versed in Biblical matters, as I attended a private Christian boarding academy for several years. However, I am definitely learning that I may know the stories of the Bible but I do not know how they have affected my life in the literature that I read, the saying that I say, the movies that I watch, and in many more facets of my life.