You can learn a lot from an English teacher about how to read your Bible. I’m being blessed immensely by the insights gained from those who bring a literary/narrative criticism perspective to Biblical stories. In the past, I’ve recommended Rhoads and Michie’s Mark as Story for help in reading the Gospel of Mark. Another book I’ve recently found helpful is Borgman’s Genesis: The Story We Haven’t Heard. This book is going to have a major impact on the way I preach Genesis this summer. Another book worth getting is Alter’s Genesis:Translation and Commentary. Read together, these books will help you see things in Genesis that they never showed you in Sunday School.
It’s amazing how easy it is to let our committment to the Bible as the “Word of God” blind us to the literary artistry present in Biblical stories. I’ve found that when I read the stories in the Bible on their own terms, as works of literature, as stories crafted by a gifted artist, I am confronted by a deeper and more profound “word from God.” A word that I never encounter if I just turn to a story and starting trying to mine principles and applications out of it that will eventually take the form of a nice, neat, cutely alliterated teaching outline.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons