LITERARY DEVICES IN NARRATIVE
The Scene
Our first job is to listen carefully to the text of Scripture, including each narrative passage. The most important feature of the narrative is the scene; the action of the story is broken up into a sequence of scenes. Each scene usually has no more than two characters; where a group is present, it tends to function as one of the characters. One of the most notable feature about biblical narrative is the pervasive presence of God; God is often one of the two characters or the voice of the prophet functions in His place. The interpreter must identify each of these scenes, much as one would break up a long prose passage into paragraphs. It is helpful to draft a summary statement for each scene in the way that we might the theme sentence in a paragraph. The summary should focus on the actions, words, or depictions in the scene, keeping in the direction author seems to be following in the whole sequence of scenes.
The Point of View
The Plot traces the movement of the incidents, episodes, or actions of a narrative, usually as they revolve around some type of conflict. At some point, the author brings to a climax the whole series of episodes in the various scenes, thereby supplying the whole point of view for the story. This point of view forms the perspective from which the whole story is told. The author will often place the point he wishes to make in the form of a quotation or a speech in the mouth of one of the key characters at some climactic stage in the plot.
Example: 1st Kings 17 (4 individual scenes)
17:24: “Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.” (NASB)
The “point of view” is that God’s word was dependable in each circumstances depicted in the four scenes. “Word of the Lord” is repeated in verses 2, 8, 16, and 24.
This feature guides us in discerning what truth the author intended to convey in choosing and recording these episodes. Focusing on the author’s point of view depicted in the larger literary context can keep us from settling merely for surface “lessons” or vague “blessings” as we read the biblical narratives.
Example: 1st Kings 17 (4 individual scenes)
17:24: “Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.” (NASB)
The “point of view” is that God’s word was dependable in each circumstances depicted in the four scenes. “Word of the Lord” is repeated in verses 2, 8, 16, and 24.
This feature guides us in discerning what truth the author intended to convey in choosing and recording these episodes. Focusing on the author’s point of view depicted in the larger literary context can keep us from settling merely for surface “lessons” or vague “blessings” as we read the biblical narratives.
Dialogue
Everything in biblical narrative gravitates toward dialogue. The theme of the passage, which the point of view expresses, is generally carried along in it forward movement by dialogue. Rules for seeing the significance of the movement of dialogue:
The place where dialogue is first introduced will be an important moment in revealing the character of its speaker—perhaps more in the manner than in the substance of what is said. Notice where the narrator has chosen to introduce dialogue instead of narration. Focusing on some sharp verbal exchange between the characters, will help us to focus on their relation to God and to one another.
Dialogue occasionally appears in the form of stylized speech, where one character repeats a part or the whole of what another character said. In such instances, look for slight alterations, reversals of order, elaborations, or deletions. Seldom does a narrator enter the narration directly in order to give a moral to the story. Rather, the narrator often gives a summarizing speech at a particularly critical juncture in the narrative. Dialogue is one of the main ways the narrator can present characterization. The narration that surrounds such dialogue merely tends to confirm what is said in the dialogue.
The place where dialogue is first introduced will be an important moment in revealing the character of its speaker—perhaps more in the manner than in the substance of what is said. Notice where the narrator has chosen to introduce dialogue instead of narration. Focusing on some sharp verbal exchange between the characters, will help us to focus on their relation to God and to one another.
Dialogue occasionally appears in the form of stylized speech, where one character repeats a part or the whole of what another character said. In such instances, look for slight alterations, reversals of order, elaborations, or deletions. Seldom does a narrator enter the narration directly in order to give a moral to the story. Rather, the narrator often gives a summarizing speech at a particularly critical juncture in the narrative. Dialogue is one of the main ways the narrator can present characterization. The narration that surrounds such dialogue merely tends to confirm what is said in the dialogue.
The Rhetorical Devices
Biblical narrators commonly relied on certain rhetorical devices that also appear also in other kinds of prose and poetry.
Three important ones are repetition, inclusion, and chiasm.
1) Repetition
One type of repetition uses the recurrence of words or short phrases. Another links together actions, images, motifs, themes and ideas. The repetition of words (or even sentences) is especially significant.
Example: 2nd Kings 1:3, 6, and 16 repeat the same question: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?” 1st Kings 19:9, 13: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Another type of repetition in Hebrew narrative is “resumptive repetition.” In this type, the narrator returns the reader to the original point in the story after developing a related incident. 1st Samuel 19:12... “So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped.” (NASB) 1st Samuel 19:18... “Now David fled and escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in
Naioth.” (NASB)
2) Inclusion
“Inclusion”refers to a repetition that marks the beginning and the end of a section, thus effectively bracketing or enveloping the marked-off material.
Illustration: Exodus 6:13 and 26 – 27...
What follows v.13 is a genealogical list of only three of the twelve sons of Jacob—Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, with a more detailed treatment of Levi—presumably because that list led to Moses and Aaron. Vv. 26 – 27 function as an inclusion with v.13: “It was this samed Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, ‘Bring the Israelites out of Egypt.’”
These three sons were part of previous negative narratives—Reuben slept with his father’s concubine and Simeon and Levi massacred the Shechemites. The reader might wonder how it would be possible for anyone who came from such origins to be used of God. The point likely is that the calling and gifts of God for leadership had very little to do with heritage, natural endowments or human lineage.
3) Chiasm
Chiasm is a literary device named after the Greek letter chi (χ); it is named for the crossing, or inversion, of related element within parallel constructions. Chiasms may involve the inversion of anything from words or clauses in two parallel lines of poetry to a series of dialogues or even of a series of chapters of narration. The easiest to identify are chiasms where the same words, clauses, or phrases are reversed.
Example: Isaiah 11:13... “Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, And those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, And Judah will not harass Ephraim.” (NASB)
a b c
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah
a b c
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim
Chiasm, more than being merely a superficial decorative ornament, is one of the major artistic conventions used for narrative in the Bible. It can be key in detecting the author’s aims, for the main event or principal ideas typically appears in the apex, the middle of the story. Example: Daniel 2 – 7...
Intro. Daniel 1
A. Daniel 2 Four Gentile world empires
B. Daniel 3 Gentile persecution of Israel
C. Daniel 4 Divine providence over Gentiles
C. Daniel 5 Divine providence over Gentiles
B. Daniel 6 Gentile persecution of Israel
A. Daniel 7 Four Gentile world empires
Following the chiastic structure, the heart of the first seven chapters comes in Daniel 4 and 5. Daniel 4 was God’s final word to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 5 was God’s final word to Belshazzar. For all intents and purposes, these two kings were the beginning and concluding kings of the Babylonian dynasty.
They seem to function as an encouragement and a warning to all Gentile nations about the plans, purposes, etc., God offers to all nations. Daniel 2 – 7 was written in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the day. Daniel 8 – 12 was written in Hebrew. The shift in languages may be a hermeneutical signal that the primary audience to whom each section is address also shifts at precisely those same points.
Three important ones are repetition, inclusion, and chiasm.
1) Repetition
One type of repetition uses the recurrence of words or short phrases. Another links together actions, images, motifs, themes and ideas. The repetition of words (or even sentences) is especially significant.
Example: 2nd Kings 1:3, 6, and 16 repeat the same question: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?” 1st Kings 19:9, 13: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Another type of repetition in Hebrew narrative is “resumptive repetition.” In this type, the narrator returns the reader to the original point in the story after developing a related incident. 1st Samuel 19:12... “So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped.” (NASB) 1st Samuel 19:18... “Now David fled and escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in
Naioth.” (NASB)
2) Inclusion
“Inclusion”refers to a repetition that marks the beginning and the end of a section, thus effectively bracketing or enveloping the marked-off material.
Illustration: Exodus 6:13 and 26 – 27...
What follows v.13 is a genealogical list of only three of the twelve sons of Jacob—Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, with a more detailed treatment of Levi—presumably because that list led to Moses and Aaron. Vv. 26 – 27 function as an inclusion with v.13: “It was this samed Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, ‘Bring the Israelites out of Egypt.’”
These three sons were part of previous negative narratives—Reuben slept with his father’s concubine and Simeon and Levi massacred the Shechemites. The reader might wonder how it would be possible for anyone who came from such origins to be used of God. The point likely is that the calling and gifts of God for leadership had very little to do with heritage, natural endowments or human lineage.
3) Chiasm
Chiasm is a literary device named after the Greek letter chi (χ); it is named for the crossing, or inversion, of related element within parallel constructions. Chiasms may involve the inversion of anything from words or clauses in two parallel lines of poetry to a series of dialogues or even of a series of chapters of narration. The easiest to identify are chiasms where the same words, clauses, or phrases are reversed.
Example: Isaiah 11:13... “Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, And those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, And Judah will not harass Ephraim.” (NASB)
a b c
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah
a b c
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim
Chiasm, more than being merely a superficial decorative ornament, is one of the major artistic conventions used for narrative in the Bible. It can be key in detecting the author’s aims, for the main event or principal ideas typically appears in the apex, the middle of the story. Example: Daniel 2 – 7...
Intro. Daniel 1
A. Daniel 2 Four Gentile world empires
B. Daniel 3 Gentile persecution of Israel
C. Daniel 4 Divine providence over Gentiles
C. Daniel 5 Divine providence over Gentiles
B. Daniel 6 Gentile persecution of Israel
A. Daniel 7 Four Gentile world empires
Following the chiastic structure, the heart of the first seven chapters comes in Daniel 4 and 5. Daniel 4 was God’s final word to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 5 was God’s final word to Belshazzar. For all intents and purposes, these two kings were the beginning and concluding kings of the Babylonian dynasty.
They seem to function as an encouragement and a warning to all Gentile nations about the plans, purposes, etc., God offers to all nations. Daniel 2 – 7 was written in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the day. Daniel 8 – 12 was written in Hebrew. The shift in languages may be a hermeneutical signal that the primary audience to whom each section is address also shifts at precisely those same points.