(Part 1)

JBTM Robert D. Bergen
18
If you are able, read the passage from the original biblical language. The truth is, however,
if you have the skill and time to easily read any narrative text in biblical Hebrew or
Aramaic, you’re probably a gray-haired Old Testament professor at a seminary. If you can
at the same time identify syntactical and lexical aberrations in the biblical Hebrew/Aramaic
narrative text and can use those insights to identify author-designated points of special
interest in the narrative, you are also a world-class discourse linguist. Congratulations!
But if you don’t fit into either or both of those categories, I suggest you do the following:
Look at the Old Testament narrative text using a Bible software resource by Logos,
BibleWorks, or a free internet site like BlueLetterBible that will provide you with ready
access to the Hebrew text, definitions of the original-language words, partial parsings of
verbs, and virtually effortless viewing of many different English translations.
Perform a detailed analysis of the text. Biblical narratives were written down primarily
“for our instruction” (1 Cor 10:11, HCSB)—to teach us about Jesus, the ways of God in
the world, and how we can live a God-pleasing life. Narrative Scriptures do this using two
primary features: actions and speeches. Actions performed by human beings in the stories
of the Old Testament function in two main ways: They inspire us to follow a desirable pattern
of behavior—one that results in a blessed outcome; and they warn us by depicting bad
examples and then showing the resulting undesirable consequences. Actions performed by
God within a narrative affirm his active presence in the universe and instruct us regarding
the scope and power of his deeds. Speeches placed in the mouths of a narrative’s major
characters, on the other hand, are repositories of the key information and behavioral guidelines
the author wished to pass along to his audience.
Writers compose narratives using four primary variables: settings, characters, actions,
and quotations. By paying close attention to each of these aspects of biblical narratives, it
is possible to gain important insights into the writer’s intentions for the story. Listed below
are some guidelines for analyzing each of these features.
A. Settings
1) Pay attention to where the events occurred. Narrative settings consist of three important
components: the place, time, and attendant circumstances in which the narrative’s actions
took place. In many Old Testament narratives the biblical author has included explicit
statements that provide the reader with details regarding the geographical location, time
of year or time of day, and weather conditions or other physical circumstances in which
certain of the events in a story took place. For the careful reader these details provide crucial
insights into the author’s communicative intentions for the story.
Specifically, the Old Testament narrators used setting-related details as a crucial indicator
of the relative importance of each of the events in their narratives. Writers boosted
the significance level of the events by explicitly associating them with culturally significant
locations—places like capital cities (Jerusalem or Samaria), popular religious shrines (Shiloh,
Bethel), and places of geographic extremity such as mountains (Sinai [1 Kgs 19:8–18],
Carmel [1 Kgs 18:20–45]) or deserts (Sinai [Exod 19:1ff.]). By taking the narrative’s setting
into account, you will be able better poised to determine the author-intended significance