I've really enjoyed using "The Narrated Bible" for my bible study. The idea is to put the bible in chronological order. I'd been reading from the beginning for some time. Then our small group studied Genesis followed by Exodus. Wow! The OT is not dead! I think we had some very interesting discussions.
Since then I've gone on through the story of David. The NB combines Samuel and Chronicles to keep the story all together. The "Abs" referred to in the title are ABner, JoAB and ABsalom, but really it includes all the other folks involved. I wonder what it was like to be a person hearing the story or experiencing it in reality. Did they understand the motives of all the different people? I can't decide if I'm too dense or lazy to really get it or if we all just think very differently in our modern times. I imagine I'm watching it like a play so that I can stop a character (and the play) and ask him "Why are you doing this? What are you feeling right now?" Maybe he would tell me. Then the action would begin again and he would stab someone with a spear or whatever. Why did so-and-so do this-n-that? The broader story isn't that hard to understand but there are all sorts of little things going on that perplex me. I wonder if anyone has written a fictional account trying to fill in the emotions of the characters while staying true to the actual bible story. Hey, all you readers out there! Here is your chance to fill me in!
3 comments:
Ron,
This is a very good post. I also find the Narrated Bible to be a very useful tool. I’ve also recently read through the David narrative and I am likewise struck by the actions of the characters with often no explanation of motive or emotion.
One book I’ve found very helpful is Eugene Peterson’s “Leap Over a Wall” which is the best treatment of the life of David I have found. It is not fiction, but Peterson offers some speculation to “fill in the gaps.” Influenced by Peterson is Max Lucado’s new book on David called “Facing Your Giants.” I call it “Peterson Lite” and when there’s a conflict in the speculation I usually go with Peterson. But Lucado’s book is very good too. “The Shepherd’s Song” by Lynn Anderson is also very good.
David did have a lot of Abs. Added to the list could be Abigail, ABishai, and ABishag.
Keep up the good blogging!
I finally made it over here. I am very excited by the Ron Cole musical taste right here at the tips of my fingers. I like your post. Best thing you said . . . The OT is not dead! We definitely saw that in our study of Genesis!
Hey Dad,
I couldn't agree more with your comment about the OT not being dead... We are reading a book called "The Book of God" by Walter Wangerin Jr. for our small group class. It goes through a number of important/interesting/dramatic people and times of the Bible from the Old Testament to the New. The author takes historical and cultural data and combines it with the Bible to retell "the stories of the Bible in novelized form." He even has an index of scripture for each chapter so that you can follow the story in the Bible. Obviously you have to take the book with a grain of salt (he takes liberties here and there), but the author really does a good job for the most part sticking to the details of the Bible. We make sure in every class to discuss anything that we disagreed with or that appears differently in the Bible and there isn't usually much. What is neat is that it brings an interesting perspective to what these people were like, and often provides plausible motivations to stories where sometimes it's difficult to understand. This particular book has just a couple of chapters dealing with David's life so if you want something specific to David, this might not be it. I think though that it is a very interesting read and really gives a neat perspective into lives of Biblical (for lack of a better term...) characters. Right now we are only to Elijah... so we haven't read it all, but what we have read has at least provided good biblical conversation and gotten us reading the Old Testament more!
Post a Comment