Biblical Narrative

I know that this textbook is written by two different authors, but they each had input into
each others chapters. However, after reading the Preface to the First Edition, I noticed that
Professor Stuart wrote chapters 5 and 9 to 12 (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg. 15). With that in mind, I
will be using his name while writing about what the books said
One of the first things stated in Chapter 5 is that the narrative is The single most
common type of literature in the Bible (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg. 89). Stuart simply defines
narratives as stories purposeful stories retelling the historical events of the past that are
intended to give meaning and direction for a given people in the present (pg. 90). Biblical
narratives are slightly different, however, because they are inspired by the Holy Spirit and we are
written into them in some way. Stuart does note that Biblical narratives do follow most of the
same guidelines of regular narratives. This is to say both of the types of narratives still have
people in them, they still have some sort of plot or conflict, and they also both have a resolution
to the plot or conflict. In Biblical narratives, God is always the protagonist (the primary
person in the story), Satan (or evil people/powers) is always the antagonist (the person who
brings about the conflict or tension, and Gods people are always among the agonist(s) (the
other major characters in the story who get involved in the struggle) (pg. 90).
Stuart goes on to describe the three levels of narrative. The highest level, known most
often as the metanarrative (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg. 91), has many parts, but is the main story
of the Bible. It includes Gods plans for His people through creation, Original Sin, the story of
our need for redemption and ultimate redemption through the sacrifice of Christ. The next level
is the story of God redeeming us not just once, but twice, first through the original covenant and
then through the new covenant with Jesus through his death and resurrection. The final level,
which they say we will be dealing with most in Chapter 5, includes all of the individual
narratives that make up the larger narratives of the first two levels.
Before reading the section about the types of narratives, I never realized how much all of
the stories/narratives in the Bible were intertwined. I never realized that a story in Genesis about
Cain and Able could so easily relate to the story of why God sent His only Son down to die for
our sins. I had always just read the stories as individual passages and figured they all just stood
on their own in the Old Testament. I never thought about, as Stuart states, that God is the
ultimate character, the supreme hero (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg. 98) of every story in the Bible, no
matter what the moral of the story is or who the other characters of the story are.
At the end of Chapter 5, Stuart discusses the 10 main principles for interpreting Biblical
narratives. One of the ones that stood out to me the most is that Most of the characters in the
Old Testament narratives are far from perfect as are their actions as well (Fee & Stuart, 2003,
pg. 106). This is interesting because it shows that the people in the narratives are going through
events in the past, and, these are being used to help us decide what to do in our current or future

situations. It gives us context for how the Lord wants us to carry ourselves, no matter when we
have lived in this world. Another one that jumped out for me was that What people do in
narratives is not necessarily a good example for us. Frequently, it is just the opposite (pg. 106).
This goes to show us that no one in this world is perfect. It also shows to us why God had to send
His only Son to die for our sins and redeem us.
One of the final cautions that we are given stood out to me personally. Decontextualizing
the message and Ignoring the full historical and literary contexts, and often the individual
narrative (Fee & Stuart, 2003, pg. 103) can be very dangerous and something that I personally
have done. By decontextualizing, we can become very prone to either misinterpreting the
narrative, or missing the subtle clues that are in the narrative and only looking for the ones that
are obvious. When we do this, we may have problems deciphering the true means, or, as Stuart
states, you can make almost any part of Scripture say anything you want it to (pg. 103). I think
this is something that happens very often in todays society. People try to use narratives to allow
certain things they agree with or try to keep others from doing certain things they dont agree
with based on what they say God has told us. Many times, when they do this, they are missing
the larger meaning of the narrative.
Stuart, I am sure with some assistance from Fee, did a great job of helping us to
understand the Biblical narrative. I know that I will look at the Bible in a completely different
way than I have in the past. More people need to learn about the context of what they are reading
instead of just reading the Bible to say they have read it.
Work Cited:
Fee, G. D., & Stuart, D. K. (2003). How to read the bible for all its worth. (3rd ed.). Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company.