Interpreting Historical Narrative: Characters and Plot

Charles Dickens has lots to say about the horror of orphans living in Industrial Age London.  But he doesn’t just come right out and say it.  He tells his powerful and heart-rending tales, about poor little Oliver Twist, say.  “Please, sir, I want some more….”  Narratives don’t usually come out and tell you “the point.”  […]

Historical narratives are historical narratives

In our last post, we began to explore the rules of the game for one particular biblical genre: historical narrative.  This is a vitally important genre to properly understand, as it is far and away the largest type of literature found in the bible (at least 50%!).  We discussed the fact that historical narratives are […]

“Tell Me A Story”: Interpreting Historical narrative

Who doesn’t love a good story?  We all do.  People tell ghost stories around campfires.  Kids want a bedtime story before bed.  We watch TV shows and movies, which (with the exception of “reality” TV) allow us to escape into the story of some fictitious (or historical) narrative.  We read novels – murder mysteries, Amish […]