Bible and its Worlds—The Art of Biblical Story (SC 400)

SÉAMUS O’CONNELL

The Bible is not the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. Attempts to make it so
all too often twist it to ignoble ends, and mean that we do not hear it speaking with
its own voice. (John Barton, Professor of Old Testament, University of Oxford)

Lecture ONE: Module Orientation and Overview

1.1 What does this Module seek to Achieve? To permit participants
• to know the shape and contours of the Bible and have a ability to approach it as the living
word of the living God;
• to gain an understanding of how the Bible came to be, and an initial knowledge of the
cultures, peoples, and times out with which the biblical texts were formed;
• to develop a sensitivity to the different genres of biblical literature;
• to be able to engage with designated key texts from both Old and New Testaments in a
way that permits them to illuminate life for people of good will;
• to approach the Bible in such a way that the knowledge, insight and sensitivity acquired
will provide a foundation for an ongoing engagement with the Scriptures.

1.2 How does it try to achieve this?

• by an engagement with biblical texts and their discourse (reading)
• by engagement with the worlds projected by these texts (reflection)
• by an engagement with interpreters of these texts and their traditions (study)
• by the attempt to ‘understand’ these texts even initially (interpretation or exegesis)

1.3 Taking NARRATIVES Seriously—Two ‘Wedding’ Videos

• What does the narrative of each video communicate? What are the similarities, the contrasts?
• How do you ‘evaluate’ what it is saying? What effect does it have on you?
• What is the relation of each video to real life?

1.3.1 Narratives and their WORLDS: The text and its ‘worlds’
• The ‘world’ BEHIND the narrative • the ‘world’ BEHIND the text
• The ‘world’ OF the narrative • the ‘world’ OF the text
• The ‘world’ IN FRONT OF the narrative • the ‘world’ IN FRONT OF the text

1.3.2 Considerations—Forget MESSAGE !!!

• What are we looking at (reading)? • What surprises us?
• What questions does it evoke? • What values are at play?

1.4 A Text to Explore—The Anointing Woman (Luke 7: 36–50)

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and
took his place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was [literally: used to be;
[imperfect]) a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s dwelling, brought an
alabaster jar of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, began to bathe his feet
with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing
them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this [man] were a
prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—
that she is a sinner.’
Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’
‘Teacher, speak,’ said he.
‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one was indebted [for] five hundred denarii, and the other [for] fifty.
When they could not pay, he gifted the debts to both of them.
Now which of them will love him more?’
Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he gifted the greater debt.’
And Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’
Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon,
‘Do you see this woman?
I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet,
but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.
You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven;
hence** has she [shown] much love (lit. loved much). [[**or because]]
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’
Then he said to her, ‘Your sins have been forgiven.’ [perfect]
But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves,
‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’
And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’
1.4.1 The TWO Words that KILL the Bible (and its Good News)
• SHOULD • MESSAGE
What is it about ‘should’ and ‘message’ that chokes the life of the text?
1.4.2 Horizons opened by this Narrative
•J • Opposition to J
• Gender • Social Status (and Mores)
• Bias • Suspicion
1.4.3 CAVEAT! • • Be careful not to get lost in the temptation of “Background” • •
1.5 Beginning to Read a Biblical Text—CRITICALLY
• First Critical STEP: not dismissing the text!
This text may appear naïve but just because an ten-year old could
have written it means nothing ….
• ATTENDING to the DETAIL (of the text)
[Aside: biblical texts are more like poetry than news]
• ATTENDING to the DISCONTINUITIES (in the narrative)
What doesn’t make sense? Where are the GAPS in the narrative?

1.6 Core Text for Module [220.61 BAR and as eBook (via Library website)]
John Barton, The Bible: the Basics. Second Edition. London: Routledge, 2019.

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Lecture TWO: The Bible as a Library—Discovering Genre
2.0 Questions Arising from Lecture ONE
2.1 Not just ‘the Good Book’ … rather, a Complex Library!
What is in the Bible?

2.1.1 From Barton’s Summary of his Third Chapter

The books in the Bible form a collection of material of very different types, and in this chapter
attention is paid to differences of genre. About half of the Bible consists of narrative—all the
Old Testament books from Genesis to Esther, and the gospels and Acts in the New Testament.
Then there are prophetic books, often difficult to understand in a modern context: some contain
predictions of disaster, others of hope for the future. Later Old Testament books include
apocalyptic material, which can also be found in the New Testament (Revelation). Laws, which
are embedded within the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch), are discussed
against their ancient Near Eastern background. The Old Testament also contains a great deal of
poetry, and the Psalms in particular are outstanding examples of this: their origin and use in
ancient times has been the subject of much interest. Proverbs and related books (Job,
Ecclesiastes) constitute the Old Testament’s ‘wisdom literature’, a kind of early philosophy. In the
New Testament the major genes are the gospels, whose origins remain obscure but which seem
to represent the distillation of a long process of oral tradition, and the letters or epistles, both
those of Paul and those attributed to other apostles.
2.2 What is a Literary Genre (Gattung)?
2.3 Narrative
What is a narrative?— that which organises a type of discourse called story! (Todorov)
Modern narratology arose out of the distinction between the ‘what’ of the narrative (the
story) and the way in which the story is told (the discourse).
Marguerat & Bourquin, How to Read Bible Stories (London: SCM, 1999), 18
Biblical Narratives: history, truth, fiction
Example: 2 Kings 1:5–15, John 8:1–11
Historical Narratives: 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings …. Jonah? Joshua?
Mixed and Embedded Genres
Example: Laws in narrative: Exod 20:1–17 and Deut 5:1–21
Song of Hannah 1 Sam 2 ➝ Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55)
The Purpose of Narratives—how long is a piece of string?
2.4 What is a Gospel?
While initial definitions of a gospel as ‘a story of Jesus’ or a ‘portrait of Jesus’ may be insightful,
there is also a need to look beyond such helpful starting points in order to come to a appreciate a
certain ‘difference’ in the gospels.

2.4.1 A gospel is a text written for Christians: it is an ‘insider’ document.

• The gospels are not written by outsiders looking at Jesus or at Christians. They are written by
Christians looking at each other and telling the story of Jesus in that light.
• The gospels emerge from the reflection of early Christian communities on who they are.
[In the NT] are gathered together a group of documents which testify to the saving
effects of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus … [V]irtually every page is affected

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 by the fact that for each author Jesus Christ has become the central focus of [their]
life and [their] faith in God.
Frances Young, “A Cloud of Witnesses” in John Hick (ed.), The Myth of God Incarnate
(London: SCM 1977) 13–47; here 14.
2.4.2 A gospel is a COMMUNITY TEXT: it is to be read over and over again. [a classic text]
• As such a gospel can have more in common with a poem than with a novel.
• We keep this in mind when we approach the parables.
2.4.3 A gospel is not a classic novel: the end is known from the beginning
• The writers and the hearers of the Gospel knew who Jesus was: they knew that he was the
Messiah of the Lord, the God of Israel.
• The writers and the hearers of the Gospel knew the story of Jesus: that he had come from
Galilee, that he had been crucified and that he had been raised from the dead.
2.5 Corollary ONE: gospels bear witness to the resurrection; they are not a proof of the resurrection.
• The (implied) audiences of the gospels believe that Jesus is Lord and that he is Lord because
he has been raised from the dead. [On resurrection, see the NOTE below]
• Gospels seek to explore the consequences of the Lordship of Jesus.
In 1Corinthians 15, Paul is answering questions about the resurrection, and does so by
contrasting the earthly existence of Adam with the heavenly existence of Christ. In other
words, Paul believes certain things about Christ and uses the Genesis narratives to explore them.
Steve Moyise, Paul and Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 30 [227.06 MOY]
The resurrection creates the need to write the NT in the first place. The belief in a
crucified messiah whose resurrection was understood as a powerful sharing in God’s life
forced the early Christians to interpret the Scriptures and account for Jesus’ ministry.
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters (London:
DLT, 2003), 180–81. [238 JOH]

2.6 Corollary TWO: in gospels (and in other biblical books) : time is not linear
In a gospel: while there is a (literary and physical) end of the narrative, that end is
frequently less of an end, and more of a beginning! Gospel beginnings tend to be as
much points of arrival as of departure: e.g., the beginning and ending of Mark, the Infancy
Narratives in Luke (Luke 1–2), the ‘Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9), and in a more
subtle way, the woman who embalms the living Jesus for his burial (Mark 14:3–9).
2.7 Reading gospels is more about Reading for TRANSFORMATION, than Reading for Information
In Liturgy it is the repetition of the pattern, a ritualised form, that moulds people’s lives
as a community of faith. This is precisely what happens with the reading or proclamation
of Scripture. We do not read Scripture to find out about what we don’t know or have
forgotten but rather to let the pattern of the biblical story to continue to form us.
John F. Baldovin SJ, “The Bible and the Liturgy: Part 2 Catechumenate 11/6 (Nov. 1989): 3
2.8 For Lecture 3 Exploring Genre • Encountering Parable [You are expected to read these]
Reading 1: Walter Wink “Letting Parables Live” Christian Century (5.11.1980): 1062–64
Online: www.religion-online.org/article/letting-parables-live/
Reading 2: John Barton, The Bible: the Basics, 50–56, 71–76. [Library and Moodle]
Reading 3 (New Testament): Luke 15:11–32 (The Lost Sons and the Weak Father)

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