Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 178:711 (Jul 2021)
Article: The Bible As Story: What The Literary Elements Reveal
Author: Sandra L. Glahn

BSac 178:711 (July-September 2021) p. 272

The Bible As Story: What The Literary Elements Reveal

Sandra L. Glahn

Sandra L. Glahn is Professor of Media Arts and Worship, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

Abstract

The Bible has enhanced many storytellers’ execution of their craft. But that benefit goes both ways. Understanding the literary tools that biblical authors used in the pages of Scripture—narrative voice, setting, plot, and characterization—enhances one’s understanding of the Bible’s stories and the divine author behind them.

Novelists have long drawn on the pages of Scripture for title ideas. John Steinbeck chose East of Eden from Genesis 4:16; Henry James, The Golden Bowl from Ecclesiastes 12:6; and Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises from Ecclesiastes 1:5—to name three.1 More recently, Toni Morrison titled a novel Song of Solomon; and author Jane Hamilton won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for best first novel with The Book of Ruth.

But the Bible has inspired far more than titles. The entire Western canon of literature from the Middle Ages is built on a foundation of the biblical one in its themes.2 Consider the Scripture-based content in works such as Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, and Dante’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy.

Indeed, the Bible has provided great content for those working to craft literature. But the benefit can go both ways. That is,

BSac 178:711 (July-September 2021) p. 273

knowledge of the storyteller’s tools can add to the reader’s understanding of scriptural content, because the biblical writers, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, used the same tools for their storytelling: narrative voice, character development, plot, and setting. This essay considers how basic knowledge of such elements can aid the reader in understanding the biblical text.

Narrative Voice

Narrative voice includes the tone and the perspective from which the narrator communicates with the reader.3 Part of this voice is the narrator’s point of view (POV). Options generally include first person, “I” (Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes; Neh 1); second person, “you” (the beginning of A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh; Ps 23:5–6); and third p...