Practical Advice for Reading OT Narrative

I have found seven principles particularly helpful.

For the past twenty years, I studied, taught, and reflected upon biblical narratives. During this time, I have found seven principles particularly helpful.

First, pay attention to what is odd. Hebrew narrative often includes details that seem odd or out of place. This is a key for us to pay attention. For example, in Exodus 19–24, Moses ascends and descends the mountain on many different occasions. And we don’t always know when he is up or down. Why does this happen? What is going on here? The answer, I think, teaches us something important about our relationship with God.

Second, read each story within the argument of an entire book. You cannot read a story in 1 or 2 Kings without knowing what 1 and 2 Kings are about. Each story contributes to the whole. And knowing that whole meaning will not only make preaching and teaching the individual narratives easier, but you will struggle much less on particular meanings in a story. To illustrate, 1 and 2 Kings uses Deuteronomy throughout to interpret whether kings are good or bad over Judah and Israel; and Deuteronomy also explains why both kingdoms went into exile. So I know that part of what Kings is doing is helping to know right from wrong in accordance with Scripture. This helps to guide me in preaching and teaching Kings.

Third, pay attention to the structure of books and narratives. Authors structure works to communicate meaning. For example, in the Pentateuch, at key moments throughout the story appear long poems (e.g., Gen 49; Exod 15; Num 23–24; Deut 32). These represent key theological points.

Fourth, related to the last point, poetry in narrative is where key theological revelations tend to occur. Given the word centred nature of Scripture, it would make sense that words elevated to poetry are where theology most clearly comes through. Hence, the Psalms are pound-for-pound the densest theological work in the Bible.

Fifth, every story in the Bible exists within the created-cosmos, which is ordered towards Christ. So while not every Scriptural narrative will explicitly be about Christ, narratives in the Bible contribute to the purpose of reality.

Sixth, don’t be afraid to preach the moral sense of the Old Testament. In the late twentieth century, some Protestant scholarship emphasized that we should preach the Gospel, not Law, from the Old Testament. And that the moral sense was a sort of legalism. Usually, this meant we should not imitate Old Testament figures. Saying “be like David” in his courage was viewed as moralism. We need to be careful and wise here since David is a figure who both does good and evil, and so we only want to imitate what is good. And Paul tells us that what was written in former times was written so that we might avoid evil. So maybe we should say, “Don’t be like David!” more than we should say, “Be like David.”

Seventh, narratives in the New Testament like the Gospel Books and Acts are somewhat unique and present challenges that we should keep our eyes open to. For example, the Gospel books are biographies about Jesus himself, yet have theological intentions. Acts likewise shows how the kingdom of God grew through the Church and the Acts of the Risen Lord.

I could probably list many more principles. These seven are ones that came to mind. Let me known in the comments what you have found valuable. I’d love to learn!