Quotes about Narrative

What could be more normal than for different people, living at different times, in different places, who wrote about the past for different reasons and to different audiences, to produce different versions on the past? Nothing. And that's what we see in the Bible.

Wherever biblical writers talk about the past, we should expect them to be shaping the past as well.

The period of the monarchy is not only the meat of the Old Testament narrative of Israel. It's also the period when Israel's grand narrative was written.

How do biblical writers talk about the past?

Then we have the Gospel of John, the odd man out. John's story of Jesus is so out of step with the others that it is sometimes hard to see how he could be talking about the same person.

This is the account of Esau (that is, Edom).

So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why that place is called Sela-hammahlekoth.

Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan.

a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,

And Job continued his discourse:

Many have undertaken to compose an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,

They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.