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The Bible translated into Malagasy by the English missionaries, in a central kingdom that became hegemonic in the nineteenth century (the Imerina), became the linguistic reference before becoming the norm for the believers. A Malagasy elite, both social (noble), patriotic, intellectual (literary) and Christian (evangelical), dates from this period, one which always provides references to the literary field. Contemporary literature, in both Malagasy and French, is the heir of this founding event, as well as of traditional oral culture and, for francophone writings, of Western models. This study presents how the Bible can be a model or a counter-model in literature and thus continues to structure the Malagasy literary field.