Breadcrumbs to Follow: Interpreting Historical Narrative

The non-Disneyized versions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales are pretty grim indeed.  Cinderella’s stepsisters?  They actually cut off digits in an effort to make that slipper fit.  “Hey, that glass slipper is full of blood!  You’re not she!”  Worth a shot, I guess.  Snow White?  Remember at the end when the wicked queen is forced to […]

Historical narratives are historical narratives

In our last post, we began to explore the rules of the game for one particular biblical genre: historical narrative.  This is a vitally important genre to properly understand, as it is far and away the largest type of literature found in the bible (at least 50%!).  We discussed the fact that historical narratives are […]

“Tell Me A Story”: Interpreting Historical narrative

Who doesn’t love a good story?  We all do.  People tell ghost stories around campfires.  Kids want a bedtime story before bed.  We watch TV shows and movies, which (with the exception of “reality” TV) allow us to escape into the story of some fictitious (or historical) narrative.  We read novels – murder mysteries, Amish […]

Learn the Rules of the Game

If you wanted to be a rock star in the 80’s, you had to have lots and lots of hair with serious  body to it (even for the fellas). You also needed to wear copious quantities of make-up.  Guitar solos were not optional.  We might ask, “Why?!?” But the only answer could be, “Because that’s […]

Books that Didn’t Make the Cut: The Value of the Apocrypha

We don’t determine the value of something generally based on its lack of value for a particular purpose. If I need a hammer for a particular job for which my screwdriver is not helpful, it doesn’t therefore follow that my screwdriver is worthless and should be thrown away. If I want to play football, I […]