The Narrator’s Toolbox (3) – Inner Personality

As I have indicated in my previous post, the narrator can ‘shape’ a character either directly or indirectly. When the narrator ‘tells’ his audience that a character has specific qualities, he/she wants to create a specific image or perception of the character in the reader’s mind. In terms of God, we find hardly any direct descriptions of God’s outward appearance. When they do appear, it is usually done by means of simile.

Although scares, we do find more instances where God’s inner personality is described than his physical appearance. Already in Genesis 2:18 we read that “God though[1] that it is not good for man to be alone.” Thus, the narrator describes God’s inner thoughts. Two questions arise from this description of God. The first is, “How does the narrator know God’s thoughts (especially before any person was created)? Although we may ascribe to biblical ‘inspiration,’ we should also acknowledge that narrators are often ‘omniscient’ and thus ‘omnipresent.’ And, “Nothing is hidden to the omniscient narrator” (Bar-Efrat, 2004, p. 18). As with any narrative, the narrator is able to tel his audience what a character thinks, including God.

Secondly, our view of God is often challenged by what God’s thoughts and inner feelings. In this instance (Gen 2:18), God created the human and a garden in which he ‘puts’ the human. He then ‘realised’ (thought/said) that the human is alone and that it is not good. For a number of reasons, this verse is rather strange. One, we’ve read in Genesis 1 that everything God made was good and at the end of day six God observed that everything was very good. Here, however, we read for the first time that something of God’s creation is not good – something is lacking. This is quite serious, God, who said that everything was very good, is now thinking (saying) that his handy-work is imperfect. Two, didn’t God know from the start that the human will need a companion? Why does he only realise, by own acknowledgement, that his creature (the human) will need a companion after he was created? In short, it seems God does not know everything beforehand. Three, in order to solve the problem he created animals, get the human to name then and ‘discover’ that none of them is suitable as a helper for the human. It is only then that God put the human to sleep, performed an operation and ‘built’ a suitable helper for him.

Again, information on God’s inner feelings and thoughts are rare and need to be viewed as a matter of special importance (Bar-Efrat, 2004, p. 19). The question is thus, what image does the narrator want to create in the reader’s mind of God .

What one need to realise is that God is portrayed much more ‘immanent’ and ‘human like’ in Genesis 2 & 3 than in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, Elohim (God) is portrayed as transcended whereas YAHWEH Elohim (the Lord God) in Genesis 2 & 3, is portrayed in a more ‘human like’ manner – he forms from the dust, he plants a garden, he builds etc. Furthermore, Genesis 2 & 3 is written in the form of a narrative. One of the strategies that a narrator employs to create suspense and built tension, is to delay the outcome of the narrative. As the climax of Genesis 2 is the creation of the woman, the narrator uses this technique to create tension.

What we do learn about God in from this verse and Genesis 2 in general, is his concern for his creature, the human. God cares for the fact that the human is alone. He thus acknowledges that something is lacking in his creation. Accordingly, he goes to great lengths to provide for his creature’s need. The outcome of what God identified as not good, is brilliant. Look at the human’s reaction when God brings the woman to the human:

The man said,

‘This is now bone of my bones

    and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called ‘woman,’

    for she was taken out of man.’

(Gen 2:23)

 

See also 'High' view of God (2), 'High' view of God (3), 'High' view of God (4) - Harmonising the text, 'High' view of God (5) - Divine accommodation). 

Bar-Efrat, S. (2004). Narrative Art in the Bible. London; New York, NY: T & T Clark International. 

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[1] אמר may translated as ‘say’ or ‘thought.’

The Narrator’s Toolbox: Characterisation (2) – Outward Appearance

According to Shimon Bar-Efrat (2004:47-53), the narrator can ‘shape’ characters in two ways, directly and indirectly. In the first instance, the direct shaping of a character, the narrator ‘tells’ his audience that a character has specific qualities. This is not a tool biblical narrators’ often used and whenever it is employed, it is done so with a purpose. So, if one come across a direct description of some sort, one need to take note, as it will have some significance for the story later on.

Direct descriptions can be divided into two major groups, description of a character’s outward appearance and description of his/her inner personality. In Genesis 27, we are told, for example, that Jacob was hairy whereas his brother was smooth. This ‘insignificant’ observation by the narrator later becomes very important when Jacob and his mother concoct a plan to ensure the Jacob and not Esau receives Isaac’s blessing.

If direct descriptions of characters’ outward appearances are generally scares in the Bible, it is even more so for God. It probably have to do with the fact that God do not allow people to meet him face to face and that anyone who would do so would die (Ex 33:20). No wonder those who experienced a theophany (a vision of God) usually react in fear (Jdg 6:22; Is 6:5; Rev 1:17).

What is interesting is that when somebody saw God and describes him, is the use of similes. God is often described with the use of similes. Now, a simile is comparing one thing with another without the one being the other. Although the one is not the other, there is, however, an ‘overlap’ in meaning in the sense that the one show some resembles of the others – one is like the other. Daniel 10:6 provides us with a short example:

Now his body was like turquoise, and his face was like the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were like torches of fire, and his arms and his legs were like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the sound of a multitude. (see also Ez 1:26 and Rev 1)

It seems that when Daniel wants to describe what he saw, he can only to do it by means of comparison or simile.

Thus, it seems then, that when we do get a ‘direct description’ of God’s ‘outward appearance’, it is quite vague. The best those who had a vision of him can do is to describe what they saw in terms of something else. What they saw was so indescribable that they had resort to imagery. In doing this, the narrator wants to communicate the majesty, the holiness, the greatness, the otherness, etc., of God. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that God forbid the worship of images – even an image of him.

Bar-Efrat, S. (2004). Narrative Art in the Bible. London; New York, NY: T & T Clark International.