Bible Interpretation, Student Workbook, SW05

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B I B L E I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

* In looking at the propositions included in this lesson on story theology, are there propositions that seem overstated or untrue to you? Explain your answer. If so, how would you reword the proposition to be more in line with what you believe? * Have you ever studied the materials of prophecy and apocalyptic in a thorough way before? What would need to happen before you would tackle a study of this kind of literature in the Bible–where are your gaps in knowing how to study them?

Too Many Rules

In looking at the diversity of literary material in the Bible (i.e., poems, prose, songs, hymns, stories, metaphors, symbolic literature, prophecy, allegory, parable, etc.) some become extremely discouraged at genre study. You can clearly understand why. Who could possibly spend enough time to learn all of the genres of the Bible in order to gain a pretty good understanding of them all? Isn’t such a task impossible? Aren’t there scholars who have spent decades of time pouring over a particular genre, and still confess that they barely understand any of it? How are we, neither expert in the biblical languages nor the genres themselves, ever to use these rules as the basis for our Bible study? Doesn’t a genre-oriented approach to the Bible offer us simply too many rules to know and master before we can begin to glean some of the fresh understanding that the Word of God offers us? The children’s sermon in many churches is quite simply a story time. This is not without interest or significance. Usually armed with an object in hand to serve as the introduction to the sermon, the children each week are given insight into the will of God invariably through a story that has been carefully selected to deal with an issue usually related to how the children ought to think, speak, behave, or choose. The story provides an illustration for the main truth, the moral of the story, which the story serves to illustrate. For many, this kind of elementary use of story is its primary and most direct application. Frankly put, many believe that stories are for children, specifically for the children’s Sunday School, children’s sermon, or the vacation Bible school. At the heart of this belief is the notion that story is a more elementary and simple form of religious truth, and that doctrine is the deeper, Stories Are for the Children’s Sermon

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