Stories - God's medium for self-revelation

Fokkelman (1999:19), a specialist in the analysis of biblical narratives, notes that, “What we have to learn is to read these stories according to their own rules and conventions, in an attitude of respect, and maintaining an open mind as long as possible". A number of issues comes to light from his observation. It is all about how we need to approach Scripture.

In the first place, we need to consider the type of literature (genre) we are reading. If we are dealing with narratives, we need to read them as narratives. We need to establish the rules they are written by. You cannot understand (analyse) Rugby if you do not understand Rugby rules or by applying Soccer rules. The text should thus determine how we read it.

Another, very important issue, has to do with the attitude we approach the text with. We are dealing, after all, with God’s Word. Even if one does not share this believe it should still be dealt with honourably. Respect is also shown when one respect the rules and convention that governs the part of the Bible we are dealing with, allowing it to communicate its message. In other words, we should be careful that we do not read our ideas into the text. By not considering the genre and its rules and conventions, this can easily happen.

Lastly, contrary to common thinking, we need to approach the Bible with an open mind. If we truly respect the Bible as God’s Word, we cannot allow our preconceived ideas (or presuppositions) to override what the text wants to communicate. Sometimes the text communicates, as I have shown earlier, a different message than what we think is true. The question then is whether we will ‘override’ the text or whether we will let the text change our ideas. We all approach the Bible with our own presuppositions (we cannot escape it), but will we allow Scripture to question those ideas and make amendments when and where necessary?

It is interesting, though, that Fokkelman qualifies or limits the idea of an open mind. Having an open mind does not mean we accept everything or just go with the flow. No, we maintain an open mind as long as possible – as far as the Bible allows us.

The question, in terms of my thesis, is therefore, whether we have an option other than to deal with the text as literature. This means that when we get to the biblical narratives that we need to also deal with God in a literary way. Coming to think of it, about two thirds of the Bible consists of stories and God plays a huge part in most, if not all, of them. It then seems stories are God’s medium of choice to reveal himself to us. Maybe we should take them more serious for what they are and how they function.