From ancient times, stories have featured adventurer-wanderers, sometimes noble and heroic, sometimes not. The epics of Ancient Greece, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey chronicle the Greek seige of Troy, and Odysseus' twenty-year wandering en route home. Within Old Testament biblical tradition, the young David, hunted by King Saul, who knew the shepherd youth had been annointed to succeed him, survived in the wilds with a small band of men, living by his wits and—at times—by raiding various locales for supplies. Eventually, David claims the throne, "coming home" to his family and his people.

The New Testament Gospel of Luke contains the brief parable of the Prodigal Son, a young man who demanded his inheritance, then went off to enjoy himself in a foreign country, eventually losing all he had, and coming back to his father's house, asking forgiveness. The parable of Prodigal carries...