Bible Study: Genesis

Lesson 1: Approaching Genesis 1-11

Literary Interpretation

Over the last couple of decades new approaches to the narratives of Scripture, which emphasize the literary characteristics of the stories, have been developed and applied with good success. We will try to put some of these new approaches into practice and hopefully come to fresh understandings and new insights.

Literary critic Adele Berlin has said,

"Before we know what the text means, we must know how it means."

In other words, before asking what the meaning of the text is, we should ask how the text intends to communicate this meaning. What tools and devices is the author employing to get the point across? Literary criticism tries to give appropriate attention to the methods that the Hebrew story tellers used to convey their meanings.

Story v. Discourse

One important distinction to make is between what some scholars have called story and discourse. Story is equivalent to the events being described, the raw material of the text. Story refers to the actual events as they happened in space and time. Discourse is how the story is told, what we have before us in the text. To say it in other words, discourse is the story embodied in words. If you think of any random event in your life, say your first date you can easily see what is meant. Your first date, whenever that was, is the actual story with all that happened on that hopefully happy occasion. But when you got together with your friends to tell about your date you were no longer in the story but moved to the level of discourse. Discourse is how you presented the story to your friends. What did you leave out? What did you include? What did you emphasize? What dramatic devices did you use to make the story more interesting (or less interesting if necessary!). There is meaning not only in the events themselves, but in the telling as well. How the author tells the story, what devices he employs, how he orders his material, these features of the text will reveal the meaning of the text to us so we will attempt to pay close attention to them.

Every Word Counts

Hebrew narrative is sparse in its use of words. Every word is chosen carefully to convey the intended meaning. Nothing is there by accident. Why does the author choose certain words? Why does he repeat certain words? Asking such questions will give important pointers toward the meaning of the text.

Author's Point of View

It is the author's point of view that we are after. But this is not always on the surface. It is embedded in the characterizations, scenic depictions, structures, etc. of the story. How are characters described? How are actions portrayed? What comparisons and contrasts are drawn? Answering these and other questions like them, which focus our attention on the literary features of the text, will provide a helpful guide to the central message of the stories of Genesis 1-11.

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