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    Setting in Biblical Narrative: How To Read The Bible: Episode 7

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    joshuagnanasekar
    The document discusses how biblical authors use settings to generate expectations and influence the meaning of stories. Settings can be places, situations, or time periods that carry symbolic significance and memories from previous biblical narratives. Authors skillfully build up and subvert expectations through creative use of settings. Key examples include Egypt, which usually signals trouble unless an author purposefully subverts that expectation, and periods of forty days/years that often involve tests of faithfulness.

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    Setting in Biblical Narrative: How To Read The Bible: Episode 7

    Uploaded by

    joshuagnanasekar
    21 views7 pages
    The document discusses how biblical authors use settings to generate expectations and influence the meaning of stories. Settings can be places, situations, or time periods that carry symbolic significance and memories from previous biblical narratives. Authors skillfully build up and subvert expectations through creative use of settings. Key examples include Egypt, which usually signals trouble unless an author purposefully subverts that expectation, and periods of forty days/years that often involve tests of faithfulness.

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    The document discusses how biblical authors use settings to generate expectations and influence the meaning of stories. Settings can be places, situations, or time periods that carry symbolic significance and memories from previous biblical narratives. Authors skillfully build up and subvert expectations through creative use of settings. Key examples include Egypt, which usually signals trouble unless an author purposefully subverts that expectation, and periods of forty days/years that often involve tests of faithfulness.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    21 views7 pages

    Setting in Biblical Narrative: How To Read The Bible: Episode 7

    Uploaded by

    joshuagnanasekar
    The document discusses how biblical authors use settings to generate expectations and influence the meaning of stories. Settings can be places, situations, or time periods that carry symbolic significance and memories from previous biblical narratives. Authors skillfully build up and subvert expectations through creative use of settings. Key examples include Egypt, which usually signals trouble unless an author purposefully subverts that expectation, and periods of forty days/years that often involve tests of faithfulness.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    HOW TO READ THE BIBLE: EPISODE 7

    Setting in
    Biblical Narrative
    STUDY NOTES

    SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO SETTING 00:00–01:04

    Jon: In every story you’ve ever heard, the action took place
    somewhere. And that place is called “the setting.” And since
    we’ve been learning how to read Biblical narrative, let’s talk
    about how settings work in the Bible.
    Tim: So settings are a crucially important tool in the hands of the
    biblical authors.
    Jon: Really?
    Tim: Yeah. Think of it this way: when you start a story, everything
    is new. The plot and the characters are a mystery, until
    things unfold.
    Jon: Yeah, we have no idea what to expect.
    Tim: Except authors can use the setting of a story1 to prepare
    you for what’s coming.
    Jon: How so?

    1. Setting acts as a stage from which the WATCH THE “SETTING IN BIBLICAL NARRATIVE”
    author positions the story. It frames VIDEO AND LEARN MORE AT THEBIBLEPROJECT.COM
    and orientates the reader to the “when”
    and “where” of the story.
    Tim: So let’s say a story begins in a courtroom. What do you
    think is going to happen?
    Jon: I expect a story about crime and justice.
    Tim: Yeah. Or how about the setting of a dark, old, run-down
    house?
    Jon: Oh, something scary is about to happen.
    Tim: Exactly. So settings evoke memories and emotions because
    of other stories you know that happened in similar places.
    The authors know this, and they can use settings to
    generate expectations about what could happen in this
    story.2 And a good author will get creative with settings,
    and they’ll mess with your expectations in order to make a
    point.

    2. This literary convention is called a


    “type-scene.”
    SECTION 2: THE SETTING OF EGYPT IN BIBLICAL NARRATIVE 01:04 – 03:51

    Jon: This happens in the Bible?


    Tim: All over the place. For example, think about the setting of
    Egypt in the Bible.
    Jon: Yeah—big, middle eastern empire on the Nile.
    Tim: Sure, now think about the first biblical story where
    someone ends up in Egypt. It’s about Abraham. God calls
    him to journey by faith to a new land, and he promises
    to give him a huge family.3 So he sets out, but he arrives
    during a famine. Now, is he going to trust God and stay in
    the promised land, or will he leave the land and go look for
    food on his own?
    Jon: Yeah, Abraham leaves and goes down to Egypt.
    Tim: And there in Egypt, things go downhill fast. Abraham
    denies that Sarah is his wife to save his own neck, and then
    Pharaoh tries to marry her for himself.
    Jon: Okay, first impression of Egypt—not a great place to visit.
    Tim: But God then rescues them. He strikes Egypt with plagues,
    and so Pharaoh relents and sends Abraham away with loads
    of wealth. So what do we learn about Egypt as a setting
    from this story?
    Jon: It’s the place people end up because of stupid decisions,
    but it’s also a place where God comes and rescues his
    people.
    Tim: Yeah, and the next main story in Egypt follows the same
    pattern. Abraham’s great-grandsons make a bunch of
    stupid choices, and they eventually lead them to Egypt
    because of another famine.4

    3. You can read this story in Genesis 4. This story can be found in Genesis
    12:10-13:2. chapter 42.
    Jon: Down in Egypt, uh-oh.
    Tim: So generations pass, and the family ends up as slaves in
    Egypt. And what do you think is going to happen?
    Jon: God’s going to send some plagues and rescue his people.
    Tim: It’s like you saw it coming! After the Israelites get back
    to the promised land, God tells them to never go back
    to Egypt for any reason.5 It’s the place of trouble and
    oppression.6
    Jon: So when future biblical characters go to Egypt, I’m
    supposed to cringe.
    Tim: Right. Like Solomon, at the peak of his wealth and power,
    he married the king of Egypt’s daughter, and then he
    started sending Israelites there to import Egyptian stallions.7
    And then a generation later, that alliance goes bad. Egypt
    oppresses Israel all over again.
    Jon: So biblical settings carry with them all of these memories of
    previous stories, which create expectation.
    Tim: Yeah. It’s a brilliant literary device to infuse stories with
    meaning. Now, biblical authors, they’re brilliant. They can
    build up your expectations, but also creatively mess with
    them.

    5. You can read this in Deuteronomy power politics. These settings have all
    17:16. gained a character because of unique
    patterns that are frequently seen there.
    6. “In the Bible, places are not only real Biblical settings likewise are stigmatized
    locations, but also contain meaning. because typical things come to be
    Frequently the geographical location associated with them.” — R AY L U B E C K ,
    and/or physical circumstances RE AD THE BIBLE FOR A CHANGE
    themselves convey a stereotypical
    atmosphere, and therefore influence 7. See 1 Kings 3:1 and 10:28. For more,
    the meaning of the action. Today in check out Tim’s blog post “King
    America, Las Vegas is associated with Solomon: Love Him or Hate Him?” at
    gambling,Hollywood with movie thebibleproject.com.
    star glitz, and Washington, D.C. with
    Jon: Like how?
    Tim: Egypt is a perfect example. In the Gospel of Matthew, when
    Jesus is born, his family flees to Egypt.8
    Jon: Uh-oh, so this is a problem.
    Tim: You would think so, but pay attention. Instead of Egypt
    being the bad place, it’s the place of safety. Because who
    are they fleeing from? King Herod, who is behaving exactly
    like Pharaoh did, but he rules Jerusalem, not Egypt.
    Jon: Matthew is messing with me to show how Jerusalem has
    become Egypt.
    Tim: Exactly. You can find these kinds of patterns in many
    different biblical settings: Babylon, Moab, the wilderness,
    Bethlehem, the list goes on.
    Jon: Which is a big list.

    8. You can read this in Matthew 2:13-23.


    SECTION 3: SITUATION AND TIME AS SETTING 03:51–05:25

    Tim: And it gets bigger because sometimes the setting isn’t just
    a place on a map, it’s a type of situation, but they work
    the same way that settings do.9 For example, when people
    move “toward the east,” expect trouble. Adam and Eve are
    banished “to the east,” and then Cain10 wanders “to the
    east.”
    Jon: People move “to the east” to build Babylon.
    Tim: And all of these narratives are designed to point forward to

    9. DISCUSS: There are a ton of type- 10. Associations between a character


    scenes in biblical narrative. Think about and their chosen location also paints
    what happens when a man meets a a fuller, more meaningful picture of
    woman at a well, or when a character them. Think of John the Baptist in
    passes through a body of water. What the wilderness, Lot in Sodom, David
    other type-scenes can you identify in in Jerusalem, Jesus at Capernaum in
    biblical narratives? What connections Galilee, Naomi living in Moab, etc.
    come to our minds when we read
    about the sea in the Bible? A garden?
    The wilderness?
    when the Israelites as a people will be exiled “to the east” in
    Babylon.11
    Jon: Aha. Nice.
    Tim: Which leads to one more type of setting in biblical
    narrative, and that’s time, or how long events take. Like
    time periods of forty are often associated with stories
    where people’s faithfulness is tested. Noah in the boat for
    forty days and forty nights, then he gets off and gets totally
    drunk. The Israelites get impatient during their forty days of
    waiting for Moses on Mount Sinai, so they made the golden
    calf. Or after the Israelite spies investigate the land for forty
    days, the people rebel, so they have to wander in the desert
    for forty years.12
    Jon: But then there’s the story of Jesus, who is tested in the
    desert for forty days, and he reverses the expectation–he
    overcomes the test!13
    Tim: Exactly! Across the whole Bible, places, situations, and time
    periods14 become full of meaning by evoking memories
    and setting expectations. And the New Testament authors
    reuse all of these settings to show how Jesus is the one
    carrying our world from the garden, out of Egypt and the
    wilderness, and into the new creation.

    11. You can read about Adam and Eve and the wandering in the desert in
    being banished east in Gen. 3:23-24. Numbers 14:34.
    Cain lives east of Eden in Genesis 4:16.
    13. You can read this in Matthew 4:1-11.
    People move eastward to build Babylon
    in Genesis 11:1-2. Israel’s exile to 14. D I S C U S S : Consider how the stage is
    Babylon can be found in 2 Chronicles set in the very first verse of the book of
    36:15-20 and all throughout the Old Ruth. What associations immediately
    Testament. For more about the exile, come to mind regarding the time of
    check out the blog post “Jerusalem the judges? Now combine that with
    Has Fallen: Despair & Hope” at the meaning Bethlehem and Moab
    thebibleproject.com. and how they contrast to each other,
    both in their Hebrew names and in past
    12. See the story of Noah in Genesis
    narratives. Right away, what kind of
    chapters 6-9; the Israelites waiting for
    mood does this setting give the book of
    Moses in Exodus chapter 32; the spies
    Ruth?
    investigating the land in Numbers 13;

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