Denial and Restoration by a Charcoal Fire

Sandra Glahn notes in a discussion on the importance of paying attention to narratival settings offers a detail that I had noticed before in the Gospel of John. She writes,

"Peter denies the Lord three times by a charcoal fire (John 18:17). Later, this setting provides Peter with a do-over in order to fully restore him. Three times Jesus gives Peter the opportunity to declare his love. And where does Jesus do so? By a charcoal fire (21:9). Through use of the charcoal-fire detail, readers can see what a grace-based ministry looks like. Interestingly, having experienced threefold grace following his threefold rejection, Peter would go on to exhort his flock to “grow in grace” (2 Pet 3:18)."

Sandra Glahn, "The Bible as Story: What the Literary Elements Reveal," Bibliotheca Sacra 178 (2021): 277.

The Narrator in Stories

I have been revisiting Rhoad’s and Michie’s insightful, Mark as Story. Here is one of the helpful insights from the book. 

"When the narrator is omniscient and invisible, readers tend to be unaware of the narrator’s biases, values, and conceptual view of the world. The reader tends to trust the narrator as a disinterested observer of the events of the story. But the omniscient narrator is not a disinterested observer. Rather, the narrator functions as would the director of a movie., as someone who is responsible for the presentation of the whole story. Viewers observe the scenes and characters from the director’s perspective, although they never see the director. Similarly, the narrator of a story in literature is responsible for not just the asides but for the presentation of the whole story. The narrator narrates the story with certain loaded words, in a certain order, and with various rhetorical techniques. So the narrator is always there at the reader’s elbow shaping responses to the story—even, and perhaps especially, when the reader is least aware of it."

 
David Rhoads and Donald Michie, Mark as Story: An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982), 39.

Preaching Biblical Chiasms

Chad Ashby provides some good advice here.

Irony in 1 Samuel 31

Stephen notes several instances of irony in 1 Samuel 31.

Ironically of course, David kills the Amalekite because he believes his lie (2 Sam 1:15-16). If the Amalekite had told the truth, he might have lived. In a further irony, David succeeds at something Saul had failed to do (i.e., kill Amalekites). At the same time, however, the Amalekite armor bearer lays claim to killing Saul — something that David, Saul's former armor bearer (1 Sam 16:21-22) would not or could not do. But perhaps the deepest irony is that Saul, although rejected by God from the kingship, remained "the Lord's anointed" and under divine protection to the last (2 Sam 1:14). Yet he could not protect himself from himself.

Stephen B. Chapman, 1 Samuel as Christian Scripture: A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 213.

Free Logos Book for March: How Bible Stories Work

The free Logos Book for the Month for March is Leland Ryken's How Bible Stories Work: A Guided Study of Biblical Narrative.  You can also purchase Ryken's Jesus the Hero: A Guided Literary Study of the Gospels or Short Sentences Long Remembered: A Guided Study of Proverbs and Other Wisdom Literature for $1.99 and $2.99 respectively. You can also register for a chance win the 40-volume Weaver's Titles Bundle. For all these offers, go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

Narrative Closing Conventions

Leland Ryken in a recent volume on biblical narratives notes that there are six kinds of closing conventions in narratives.

• A brief recapitulation of the main action
• A summary of the immediate results of the action that has been narrated
• A summary of the long-term effects of the action
• An account of the fortunes that later befall one or more of the characters in the preceding story
• Some echo or reminder of what happened earlier, or the issue that began the plot
• Narrating the physical departure of one or more characters to a new place, thereby drawing a boundary around the preceding action

Leland Ryken, How Bible Stories Work: A Guided Study of Biblical Narrative (Wooster, OH: Weaver, 2015), 89-90.

Revelation's Interpretive Challenges

Ian Paul has an interesting and helpful post here on some of the interpretive challenges presented by the way language is used in Revelation.

Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories

HT: Dylan Cope

Robert Alter on Ancient Israel

  
Adam Kirsch has a review of sorts on Robert Alter's new book on Ancient Israel here.
 

Esther's Outstanding Literary Characteristic and Preaching

Robert Gordis suggests that,
 

"The outstanding literary characteristic of the author of Esther is his interest in the swift flow of the action. He, therefore, strips the plot of all non-essentials, concentrating on events rather than on motivations, on incidents rather than on descriptions of character. Thus, he does not inform us as to the reasons for the king's two banquets, or Vashti’s disobedience, or the grounds for Bigthan and Teresh’s conspiracy. We are not told why Mordecai instructs Esther not to reveal her origin, nor why he himself refuses to bow down to Haman.

"Because of the same over-riding consideration, the author does not concern himself with filling in the background against which the incidents take place. The structure of government and administration in Persia, the relations subsisting between the Jews and the general population, the religious practices and ethnic customs of the people—all these are passed over in silence, so as not to impede the swift pace of the narrative."

Robert Gordis, “Studies in the Esther Narrative,” Journal of Biblical Literature 95 (1976): 45.


If Gordis is correct concerning the author's intention, then this has important implications for how the story might be preached. That is, too much historical background might not help but actually hinder "hearing" the story as the author intended. Furthermore, if the author does indeed show little interest in the character's motivations, then the preacher might be wise to tread lightly here as well. A number of messages that I have heard on Esther have been prime examples of the so-called "sanctified imagination" where the preacher has waxed eloquently on why a character acts as he/she does or even what he/she might have been thinking. While such forays into the white space around the text might be occasionally beneficial, one should recognize that it might actually draw attention away from what the text actually states. Or in other words, spending too much time on what the a text does not say means that we have less time to spend on what a text actually states. This is something, but it is not really exposition.
  

New Website on Point of View

  
Gary Yamasaki has a new website related to the new book Perspective Criticism: Point of View and Evaluative Guidance in Biblical Narrative.
  

More on Genre

  
I recently posted a quote on genre here. Michael Jensen has now posted a nice discussion on the topic here.
 

Genre as Family Resemblance

  
Jonathan Pennington has a helpful explanation of genre in his new book, Reading the Gospels Wisely. Pennington writes:

“When we use the word ‘genre’ top describe a recognizable type of writing with a certain style, purpose, and identifiable features. Genres are neither purely prescriptive nor descriptive. That is, there are no concrete, unbreakable rules for a genre, or even a set number of genres that exist (such as in a classical prescriptive view). However, this does mean that genre is a useless term that has as many meanings as there are different works of literature (thus only descriptive). Rather, a genre is an overall term that we can use to describe a grouping of literary works that share a set of common characteristics, allowing flexibility for any particular work to manifest or omit some of these characteristics or to emphasize others. A genre is a matter of culturally understood conventions. The best analogy to describe this is that of ‘family resemblance.’ Even as the various members of the family might share identifiable characteristics, such as height or shape of cheekbone or nose, yet remain distinct people, so too we can note that the members of a family of literary works—or genre—clearly overlap with one another yet are not identical. Thus we can speak of a genre we are discussing certain characteristics that are identifiable as overlapping between different pieces of literature. These are conventional and may vary by culture.”

Jonathan T. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 19.
 

Point of View: Four Planes

  

Yesterday I talked about point of view. Today I want to introduce four “planes” in which point of view is expressed. Borrowing from the work of Boris Uspensky, James Resseguie identifies and discusses four different “planes” of point of view:

1. Phraseological point of view which seeks to ask and answer what words and phrases are used in a narrative.

2. Spatial-Temporal point of view which seeks to ask and answer where and when are the events narrated.

3. Psychological point of view which seeks to ask and answer what are the characters’ thoughts and behaviors.
 

4. Ideological point of view which seeks to ask and answer what are the narrator’s norms, values, and worldview.

James Resseguie, Narrative Criticism in the New Testament: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker, 20905), 169–73.

  

Point of View

 

People tell stories and stories tell people. How a story is told tells us something about the storyteller. In reading biblical narratives it is important to at consider point of view, that is, how do the authors (both human and divine) feel about the story. Or as James Resseguie puts it, point of view relates to “the narrator’s attitude toward or evaluation of the action, dialogue, characters, setting, and events.”[1]

[1] James Resseguie, Narrative Criticism in the New Testament: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker, 20905), 169.

Diagrams of the Genres of the Bible

C. Michael Patton has created two nice diagrams of the different genres contained in the Bible. You can access them here.

Not Always as It Seams

See Michael Barber's post on literary seams vs. literary artistry. I tend to agree with Barber.

Namelessness in the Bible

There is an interesting article here on the phenomena of nameless characters in the Bible. While I don't personally find much of the literary analysis in the article persuasive, but the article does serve to raise the importance of literary analysis, including characterization, in interpreting biblical narratives.