Bible Study Tools
How to Understand Scripture as Literature
Photo credit: Max Pixel, Creative Commons.
Introduction
How should we study the Bible? Some people look at pieces of the Bible like a slide show: a few verses or a chapter at a time. While that can be useful, we advocate first looking at an entire biblical book like a movie. We first watch the whole movie. Then, when we understand the big plot arc, we look at specific scenes or characters to see how they move the story along. We pay attention to “director’s cuts” and ask what scenes were not included in the final piece. We pay attention to background music, patterns of storytelling, and allusions made to stories outside the Bible and earlier stories in the Bible.
In formal scholarship, since the mid-twentieth century, Jewish and Christian scholars of the Bible identified sophisticated literary patterns and techniques in the Bible. They were responding to nineteenth century German critical scholars who had tried to identify fragmentary sources behind the final text. Those German scholars believed the Bible reflected political compromises between different factions in Israel, and later, in the Church. All of that was heavily conjectural. In response, the Jewish and Christian scholars looked at the final composition of the biblical text. Their approach has become known as a literary-canonical approach and composition criticism.
Below are sections: Sample Messages; Methodology 101; Methodology 201.
Sample Messages
Text of a message on Exodus 3:1 - 12 given by Mako Nagasawa to Neighborhood Church of Dorchester in Boston, MA. When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush by Mount Sinai, (1) He was revealing Himself in Moses’ ordinary routine of tending sheep; (2) using the burning and climbing mountains motifs as symbolic of the refinement and strengthening of Moses’ character; and (3) retelling the story of the fiery sword outside Mount Eden, showing Moses that the way back home was there. This is a nice example of biblical patterns and intertexuality, with the application of God’s restorative, not retributive, justice, for the sake of our spiritual formation.
Video of a message on Matthew 17:1 - 8 given by Mako Nagasawa at Newton Covenant Church as a guest on January 29, 2023. In Matthew, Jesus refers to mountains not as "obstacles" but as places God was present. Mako shared about how to “move this mountain by faith” — which means moving God’s presence from the particular place of the Jerusalem Temple to wherever you go. He shared about Christian intentional community and empowering black and brown homeownership. He referred to church planting (bringing God's presence in a transitory place like Boston) and undoing the impact of Christian heresies: John Calvin's endorsement of interest rate lending, which led to our banking system's exploitation of people's indebtedness; and the Catholic and Protestant idea of grouping people by race, especially to create the segregated suburb via both private and government channels.
Being Filled by the Holy Spirit: Having Something to Say
Text and slides of a message from the Gospel of Luke and Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, integrating together every single instance where Luke mentions the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” It does not primarily mean having an emotional experience, or even speaking in another tongue/language. It means having an experience of speaking about Jesus in a clear and understandable way.
The Theme of Eating at Jesus’ Table: Return to the Banquet Table
Text of a message from the Gospel of Luke and Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, integrating together every single instance where Luke mentions Jesus eating, or being at a meal, which is his table fellowship practice. This message was given by Mako Nagasawa to the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Asian-American campus ministry staff gathering, as an encouragement and vision for campus ministry work.
Methodology 101: Scripture as Literature
The Art of Biblical Narrative: Special Focus on Luke-Acts
Relates modern movie-watching skills to four major literary principles in biblical narrative: themes, echoes, disclosure, and structures
The Art of Biblical Narrative: A Workshop on Luke 5:1 - 16
This is an example of using literary principles to understand a short passage.
Reconciling the Gospels: The Legion Demoniac - An Application of the Literary Methodology
This study asks why Matthew told the story of two demoniacs, whereas Mark and Luke told the stories of one demoniac. Literary analysis provides the most helpful explanations.
Reconciling the Gospels: Did Matthew, Mark, and Luke Believe Jesus was God? (TBD)
Contrary to the argument that the church slowly came to attribute divinity to Jesus later, literary analysis shows that Jesus’ self-concept was minimally that he was embodying the return of the God of Israel, and that Matthew, Mark, and Luke had a “high christology” like John.
How to Develop Bible Studies and Curriculum from the Gospels
This one page document gives a simple paradigm for understanding each Gospel
The Bible Project, Literary Styles in Biblical Narrative (The Bible Project, Jun 22, 2017)
The Bible Project, The Bible as Jewish Meditation Literature (The Bible Project, Aug 3, 2017)
The Bible Project, Plot in Biblical Narrative (The Bible Project, Sep 28, 2017)
Shows how we have to contextualize smaller stories into each biblical book and into the overall biblical story (a literary-canonical approach); points out how we use the story of Gideon setting out a fleece out of its context
The Bible Project, Character in Biblical Narrative (The Bible Project, Jan 18, 2018)
The Bible Project, Setting in Biblical Narrative (The Bible Project, Mar 1, 2018)
The Bible Project, Design Patterns in Biblical Narrative (The Bible Project, Mar 29, 2018)
An excellent treatment; uses the “new life through water” motif of God's creation, and the “see-take” motif of human sin.
The Bible Project, The Art of Biblical Poetry (The Bible Project, May 24, 2018)
Explains how Hebrew poetry “rhymes” concepts and not primarily sounds.
Methodology 101: Parallels from Movies, Music, and Literature
Morten Lauridsen, How He Wrote “Dirait-On” (Classical Chops, Jun 13, 2012)
Discusses in musical terms how to use repetition, inversion, etc. to explore a chord/phrase of music which is made very memorable as a result. This process of creation and musical structure is a valuable parallel to the literary craft involved in biblical storytelling.
Mike Klimo, Ring Theory: The Hidden Artistry of the Star Wars Prequels (Star Wars Ring Theory, Oct 31, 2014)
A lengthy but entertaining example of a chiastic story structure.
Mazinho Vieira, Thanos’ Fate: In Infinity War vs. Endgame Comparison (Mazinho Vieira, May 5, 2019)
A short YouTube spliced video showing how the filmmakers did a call-back of Infinity War in Endgame, but reversing Thanos’ victory in Infinity War to highlight his defeat in Endgame; in biblical studies, this is called “echo” or “literary allusion.”
Tricia Aurand, Brian Bitner, and Alex Calleros, Iron Man vs. Captain America — The 11-Year Character Arc (Lessons from the Screenplay, May 29, 2020)
A brilliant focus on the character arcs; where Tony Stark and Steve Rogers embody certain qualities, are forced to grow towards what the other embodies, and then have to confront their earlier selves and recapitulate their earlier stories. In Scripture, human beings must retell the stories of their predecessors, for the sake of personal growth but also because of the larger connectedness of covenant-community.
Jonathan Carlin, Why Luna is Actually Snape (Super Carlin Brothers, Jan 22, 2019)
An excellent example of storytelling: the current generation fits patterns of the previous generation, in order to correct a character flaw and complete a vocation. Harry is James; Ron is Sirius; Hermione is Remus; Ginny is Lily; Neville is Peter; Luna is Snape. This pattern is very much the principle of recapitulation theory, an observation made by Irenaeus of Lyons, which is central to Medical Substitutionary Atonement because it focuses on Jesus’ human journey correcting a character flaw and completing a vocation of the human.
Jonathan Carlin, Dumbledore’s Big Plan: The Philosopher’s Stone (Super Carlin Brothers, Apr 21, 2020)
A delightful (see also his treatments of each successive book), because Dumbledore is constrained to respect the prophecy but must discern Harry’s character and prepare him to confront Voldemort. This helps us understand the covenantal dynamic between God and Israel, and ultimately the human development of Jesus.
Filup Molina and Tommy Bechtold, The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 7 Reaction! (Chapter 15) (The New Rockstars, Dec 11, 2020)
Explores the question, “Are we sure we’re the good guys?” The Believer, the title of this episode, is the character Mayfield, who comes to believe that the Empire is not the same as the Republic, that not all forms of order are the same, which is what he believed before. Filup Molina and Tommy Bechtold do a great job exploring color, costume, etc. in the Star Wars universe to substantiate their point. The Believer is also Mando Din Djarin, who is coming to believe in another variation of the Way of the Mandalore, and the way of the Force. See also James Hunt, Who Is The Believer? The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 7 Title Explained (Screen Rant, Dec 11, 2020) “The Mandalorian season 2, episode 7 is called "Chapter 15: The Believer," and the title applies to several characters in the installment.” This points to the personal investment we have to believe we are on the side of “the good guys” in the end. Something in us wants to believe it. That something, in Christian theology, is the image of God.
Ryan Arey, Star Wars: Three Crucial Fight Scenes That Explain the Entire Saga (Screen Crush, May 4, 2021)
An elegant 17 minute video where Ryan Arey notes the contexts of fire (Mustafar in Episode 3), air (Cloud City in Episode 5), and water (ruins of the Death Star in the sea in Episode 9). These battles are fights with the other and also with the self. They are life-taking and life-restoring. The final scene is earth (Tatooine) which represents home.
Ryan Arey, Loki: Tragedy of a Hero Born to Lose, Over and Over and Over and Over | Marvel Character Breakdown (Screen Crush, Jun 4, 2021)
Explores Loki’s character arc as trapped in a loop, because of self-protection. Only through his relationship with Thor, his brother, was he able to reach acceptance and break the loop. This is a helpful example of how in Scripture, sin sets a person into a loop, from which we need to break free.
So Uncivilized, The Importance of Luke Skywalker (So Uncivilized, Jul 31, 2021)
Luke’s desire to be heroic (will to power, self aggrandizement, even being a friend who never questions his own loyalty to his friends) is what undoes him; Luke winds up needing to be saved, and relies on the goodness of another
Susana Polo, ‘You Shall Not Pass’ is Classic Gandalf, But His Greatest Line in Key to Lord of the Rings (Polygon, Nov 10, 2021)
Polo remarks on the physical height that Gandalf and Galadriel appeared as when they revealed their true strength. Height reflects power and the raw physicalism often present in myth and in biblical poetry, like when Isaiah sees God as very tall — “lofty and exalted” — in Isaiah 6. Curiously, the more Jewish Gospel of Peter uses this physicalism: out of the tomb, the two angels where “of the two the head reached unto the heaven, but the head of him that was led by them overpassed the heavens.”
Michael Ward, Peak Middle-earth: Why Mount Doom is not the Climax of The Lord of the Rings (An Unexpected Journal, Dec 8, 2021)
Ward gives a brilliant exposition of subtle thematic continuity around trees and gold and circles.
Heavy Spoilers, Why the Ending of Loki Season 2 Was Perfect. Heavy Spoilers, Nov 15, 2023.
The Marvel/Disney+ series of Loki Season 2 was not just a thematic closing to Season 1, but the entirety of Loki’s character arc from his first appearance in Thor. In Thor, he sought to destroy the family that raised him, but in Season 2, he built a family around him for himself. In Thor: The Dark World, he said he wanted a throne, but in Season 2, he did not want a throne. In The Avengers, he said that he came to set people free from freedom, but in Season 2, he breaks the time loom in order to preserve free will.
Methodology 201: Scripture as Literature
The Chiastic Structure of the Pentateuch
An example of how perceiving the chiastic structure of a large literary unit — in this case, the Pentateuch in its entirety — helps us organize the material, discern authorial intention, interpret large and small sections of text, and prepare us for understanding the rest of the biblical canon as a literary canon that builds on its foundation point.
A Literary-Thematic Analysis: The Book of Samuel as the Reversal of the Book of Genesis
A paper written for Dr. Eugen Pentiuc, for his class Old Testament Exegesis: The Prophets, at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, Fall 2018.
The Chiastic Structure of Matthew's Gospel and Its Implications
An example of how perceiving the chiastic structure of a large literary unit — in this case, the Pentateuch in its entirety — helps us organize the material, discern authorial intention, and interpret large and small sections of text
The Return of God’s Cloud – To the “Wrong” Mountain? An Exegesis of Matthew 17:1 - 8
A paper written for Dr. Bruce Beck, at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, for his class on the Gospel of Matthew.
The Rich Young Ruler and the Creation Order: An Exegesis of Mt.19:13 -30
An example of how Jesus’ ethic of wealth and generosity in Mt.19:13 - 30 comes from the same source as his ethic of marriage and divorce in Mt.19:3 - 12: God’s creation vision.
A paper written for Dr. Bruce Beck, at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, for his class on the Gospel of Matthew. Establishes that Jesus and Matthew were using the distinction between parents and children from Exodus and Numbers, and applying it to the parents and children of Jesus’ day. This has significance for the accusation that Matthew is anti-Semitic. It also displays the restorative justice nature of the Sinai covenant: disobedient parents had to help undo the harm they did to their children’s faith.
Hell as Fire and Darkness: Remembrance of Sinai as Covenant Rejection in Matthew's Gospel
A long essay exploring how Jesus' use of the phrase "fire and darkness" is a motif that comes from the story of God at Mount Sinai, where Israel rejects the covenant, and resists being purified by God. “Fire” is an intertextual connection to the Old Testament appearances of God; the paper briefly explores virtually all the New Testament texts dealing with "fire" as a motif.
The Resurrection of Jesus: Was It a Legend that Developed Over Time?
A presentation that demonstrates how literary analysis helps respond to the skeptic’s argument that legends about Jesus developed over time, going from simple (Mark) to complex and embellished (John)
A presentation that addresses why (1) we have to recognize that Orthodox have favored John, Catholics have favored Matthew, Protestant evangelicals have favored Romans and Galatians, Pentecostals have favored Luke, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has favored Mark; but meanwhile (2) we have to make applications and conclusions that respect the parameters of the canon; and (3) here’s how.
Methodology 301: Oral and Written; Features of Language
Tom O’Loughlin, Why Study Orality (University of Nottingham, Mar 26, 2013)
Notes how written material was more like a tape recorder; how Scripture was meant to be orally performed; how communal reading is a different context than individual reading
Peter Watts, Why Study Hebrew (University of Nottingham, Nov 12, 2013)
God uses the Hebrew idiom “long of nose” in Exodus 34, which ambiguously means “slow to anger.” Why Hebrew idioms, sentence structure, and word structure are significant.
Peter Watts, Why Study the Koine Greek Language (University of Nottingham, Oct 21, 2014)
Koine Greek was the common Greek (like airline English is today’s common English) which developed because Alexander the Great brought together multiple Greek dialects in his army
John Dyer, The Bible Passes the Bechdel Test. It Also Goes Beyond It. (Christian Today, Oct 28, 2020)
“After a data-driven study of women’s conversations in Scripture, here’s what I found.” A literary analysis of the appearances of women in biblical texts, and their pivotal contributions.
Bible Study Tools: Topics
Bible Studies and Messages from The Anástasis Center:
