Scripture as narrative

Among Christians there seem to be three primary approaches to scripture, one of which lends itself better than the others to functioning as a "lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path" (Psalm 119:105).

1. Collection of diverse literatures. One view of the Bible sees it as little more than a collection of human writings of disparate origins. Much of the mainsteam of biblical studies is preoccupied with, e.g., discerning the various traditions underlying a text such as the Pentateuch. The Documentary Hypothesis of Julius Wellhausen and Karl Heinrich Graf is typical in this regard in so far as it claims to detect Yahwist (J), Elohist (E), Priestly (P) and Deuteronomic (D) sources behind the first five books of the Old Testament. Similarly, those scholars examining the Synoptic problem attempt to figure out which gospels are dependent on which and whether another source, Q, might have been drawn on by the authors of Matthew and Luke.

To be sure, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such analytical enterprises, as long as their proponents maintain a certain humility concerning their own hypotheses, which usually lack hard manuscript evidence. (No one has yet turned up a copy of "Second Isaiah" in an Egyptian cave!) Yet many such scholars (though by no means all) often operate on the undergirding assumption that the Bible is a collection of heterogeneous writings reflecting the subjective spiritual aspirations of their own faith communities rather than the unique revelation of God's word.

2. Inerrant propositions. This approach to scripture is found among those protestants describing themselves as evangelicals and fundamentalists. Scholars taking this approach will expend great time and effort attempting to demonstrate that, e.g., Job's statement that "the morning stars sang together" (38:7) anticipates modern science's understanding of stellar radiation or that the differing numbers between the Kings and Chronicles are not so contradictory after all. To critique this approach is not to say that there are errors in scripture; it is simply to say that its truthfulness must be understood in ways that conform to the historiographic standards of the nurturing culture. More to the point, like the first approach, the second risks losing sight of the larger biblical narrative.

3. Redemptive-historical approach. This way of looking at scripture understands that, for all the different literary genres comprising it, the Bible is a single story of God's redemptive interventions in history. Thus it begins with the story of creation, culminating with the creation of humanity in God's image. Our first parents fall into sin and die. Their descendants continue to sin and stand in need of salvation. So God sends his Son, Jesus Christ, to accomplish redemption through his shed blood on the cross. He thus inaugurates his kingdom, whose final consummation will come with his return at the end of history.

The first two approaches tend to find people coming to scripture as though it were so much data for scientific scrutiny. But, by concentrating exclusively on the details, such people are in great danger of missing the larger story. Given that this is so often the case, I am pleased to be able to recommend a new book recently published by Baker Academic and written by two of my colleagues, Craig Bartholomew and Mike Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story.



In this book the authors have written a survey of the Bible which takes precisely this redemptive-historical approach. It deserves a wide reading, particularly by first-year university students at christian colleges and universities. I suspect it will catch on in such settings as more faculty learn of its existence. There is also a website associated with the book, titled simply Biblical Theology.

The redemptive-historical approach to scripture, strongly associated with the Reformed tradition, is singularly well suited to serve as a "lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path." The first two approaches are rather less adequate to forming a coherent christian worldview, precisely because they view scripture in fragmentary form, which does not lend itself very well to life application. Moreover, there is a certain risk of blindness which comes with staring into the light rather than shining it on the path ahead. I pray that God will use my colleagues' new book to advance his kingdom further.