Bible Study: Theology Versus History/Interpretation of The Narratives

Theology Versus History: Interpretation of The Narratives
 
     The Bible is perhaps some of the most beautifully written text in the history of the world. The stories and truths told in God’s Word transcend time and offer stability in an ever changing world. Among it’s books are rich history and genres of literature such as narrative and poetry. This study will be my effort to examine theology versus history in the perspective of the features of biblical narrative (historical and narrative style), what readers should avoid when interpreting narratives, and how modern biblical interpretive theories have affected the interpretation of narrative.
 
Biblical Narrative
     The Word of God is riddled with uses of narrative within its books. I hope to focus on addressing the two main elements of historical narrative and narrative style. For many years there was a lack of the study of literary elements within the text of the Scripture, but was most likely attributed to respect for the Word of God as stated by Mr. Alter when he states, “The one obvious reason for the absence of scholarly literary interest in the Bible for so long is that, in contrast to Greek and Latin literature, the Bible was regarded for so many centuries by both Christians and Jews as the primary, unitary source of divinely revealed truth.”[1]  However, the last couple hundred years has seen a flurry of critical literary analysis of the Bible by both secular scholars and belivers alike. There are many genres of narratives such as: “reports, heroic narratives, prophet story, comedy, farewell speech, judges, popular proverb songs”, and many others.[2] The two main features that are seen in the subject of narrative genre are historical narratives and narrative style.
     Historical narratives make up a huge portion of the narrative within the Scriptures of the Bible. As Duval and Hays point out in the text, “God did not dictate most of the Bible in first person.”[3] Therefore, He chose to reveal the history of the world through the stories and characters of the narratives within the text of the Bible. His ways and methods of delivering this history to us should not be taken lightly as Duvall states, “Since God spoke his message in specific, historical situations (i.e., to people living in particular places, speaking particular languages, adopting a particular way of life), we should take the historical sitiation seriously.”[4] While many people in the world do not recognize this history as accurate nor true, we must not allow that to discourage us from taking this history to heart and applying it to our understanding of the whole method of God’s will for salvation and the coming of Christ. Duval and Hays point out a significant question when he asks, “Why bother to become familiar with the original historical-cultural context? We do so because it offers us a window into what God was saying to the biblical audience. Since we live in a very different context, we must recapture God’s original intended meaning as reflected in the text and framed by the ancient historical-cultural context.”[5] He goes on to give us three areas to focus regarding the historical narrative in Scritpure which are, “the biblical writer, the biblical audience, and other historical-cultural elements” (such as terrain and local laws).[6] It is clear that the historical elements of narrative help to shape how we view the Scripture and God as a whole, deeming it an essential part of the Word of God.
      Narrative in the Bible includes many styles and techniques which come in handy when trying the draw the attention of the reader to certain situations, characters, or symbols. The authors of the text were able to insert their own personalities through the writing and inspiration of the Scripture as Robert Alter points out “Biblical narrative often withholds pieces of exposition until the moment in the story when they are immediately relevant.”[7] God also many times would, “avoid indirect speech.”[8] Speech or dialogue plays a large part in the narrative of Scripture. Alter even goes as far as to say that, “even thought should be reported as speech” when regarding the narrative style.[9] Alter mentions, “Again and again the ancient Hebrew writers exploit the revelatory possibilities of this technique of contrastive dialogue.”[10] Repetition is also a key element to narrative style. Robert Alter is clear to point out that, “One of the most imposing barriers that stands between the modern reader and the imaginative subtlety of biblical narrative is the extraordinary prominence of verbatim repetition in the Bible.”[11] According to Mr Alter, there are several, “repetition structuring and focusing devices in biblical narratives including: leitwort, motif, theme, sequence of actions, and type-scene.”[12] Knowledge is another key factor in narrative style. Regarding knowledge Mr. Alter mentions, “From time to time, a human figure is granted special knowledge or foreknowledge, but only through God’s discretionary help.”[13]
 
What Readers Should Avoid When Interpreting Narratives
           
     While reading narrative within the Scripture should always be a fun and entertaining experience, there are some elements and thought processes that readers may want to avoid when interpreting the narratives. These may include pre-concieved ideas based on the views of society and modern culture. Our lecture also mentions that narrative “is not: filled with hidden symbolism and meaning, intended to teach moral lessons, and written primarily to you in and individualistic sense.”[14] These perspectives regarding the narratives can send us in directions God and ourselves, had rather us not go. With errors such as taking Scripture to prove symbolism or hidden meanings could throw off our whole understanding of God’s Word and distort the Gospel in many ways. I would argue that it is likely most cults were not started with rebelling against God’s Word in mind, but with a pre-concieved notion that there were possibly symbols and hidden meanings among other things within the Scripture narratives.  
     When regarding taking on the role of a character such as a judge in the Old Testament and comparing him/her to ourselves we must keep in mind the human limitations and divine hand on that judge’s life. William Klein brings up a good point when he mentions, “Such an approach to a portion of Scripture can have great value. Noting how a character is developed may help one understand whether the author wants the readers to identify with that character or to avoid imitating that person. In other instances, characterization may be deliberately ambigious.”[15] This helps point out that we must pay close attention to the details of the story before jumping to conclusions or assumptions about a character/story. Another set of mistakes to avoid when attempting to interpret narrative is mistakes such as fallacies. Fallacies as those mentioned in our text by D.A. Carson such as, “The root fallacy, semantic anachronism, semantic obsolence, and appeal to unknown or unlikely meanings.”[16]
 
How Modern Biblical Interpretive Theories Have Affected The Interpretation of Narrative
 
      How we view narrative has a lot to do with how we interpret it as well. Dr. Elwell points out that, “Narrative captures the story, but the narrative is not the same as the story, exhaustive of the story, or meant to replace the story; yet the story is not given apart from its telling in narrative.”[17] If one of these elements get out of balance, it could throw off the whole meaning and interpretation for that reader, but when kept in balance it can enhance the knowledge and understanding of the reader as well. Our text by Mr. Alter points out that narrative text collectively regarding the history of mankind and our faith can be conveniently referred to as “prose-fiction.”[18] This term is used to try and justify the claim of history on the narrative texts and the stories within them. Many secular scholars will not accept the Bible as accurate history, therefore I feel that Bible scholars often feel pressured to assume terms and meanings that appeal to these secular opinions. While the movement of modern biblical interpretive theories have had a positive result regarding the narrative of Scripture, changes like these have not.
    However; we view these changes, it is clear that they have certainly played a role in our interpretation of narrative. Our lecture states, “In order to interact with the current literature on hermeneutics, especially as it relates to narrative, at least a cursory knowledge of post/modern hermeneutic theory is beneficial.”[19] The lecture goes on to point out that, “The reader must take into consideration the authorial intent of a text, which is complicated in evangelical circles because of the belief that the scriptures are both man-written and God-breathed.”[20]

Conclusion
 
    It is my hopes that any reader who opens the Bible with an equivalently open mind will be able to see how narratives play not only a vital role in the text of Scripture, but in the method of how the details and history are also delivered with such elegance and style. It is clear that our ability to understand the Word of God is as good as our ability to understand the narratives that deliver that Word. Now that we know the main elements, what we should avoid, and how modern biblical interpretative theories have affected the interpretation of narrative, we may now have a much firmer knowledge of God’s Word. Join us as we dive into the awesome wonders and wisdom of the biblical narratives.
 


[1] Robert Alter. The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2011) 17.
 

[2] William Klein et al. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2004) 65.

[3] J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. Grasping God’s Word: A Hands On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012) 116.

[4] J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays. Grasping God’s Word. 116-117.

[5] Ibid. 117.

[6] Ibid. 118-121.

[7] Robert Alter. The Art of Biblical Narrative. 83.

[8] Ibid. 83.

[9] Ibid. 85.

[10] Ibid. 91.

[11] Ibid. 111.

[12] Ibid. 120-121

[13] Ibid. 196.

[14] Grand Canyon University, “Old Testament Exegesis: Exegeting the Narratives” (lecture 2, Biblical Hermeneutics, Grand Canyon University, February 16th, 2017).

[15] William Klein et al. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. 65.

[16] D.A. Carson. Exegetical Fallacies. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017. Web. 16 June 2017.

[17] Walter A. Elwell. Bakers Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Narrative Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001.) 813.

[18] Ibid. 25

[19] Grand Canyon University, “Old Testament Exegesis: Exegeting the Narratives” (lecture 2, Biblical Hermeneutics, Grand Canyon University, February 16th, 2017).

[20] Grand Canyon University, “Old Testament Exegesis: Exegeting the Narratives”