Biblical Narrative Style

The Uniqueness of Biblical Prose Narrative in the Ancient Near East

A significant amount of the Bible consists of narrative prose. This use of prose for long literary narratives is an innovation distinctive to ancient Israel; throughout most of the ancient Near East, poetry was the preferred form for long artistic narratives. The small amount of narrative poetry in the Bible, mostly in Psalms, is a poetic reimagining of prose accounts. Another distinctive feature of the biblical narratives is the virtual absence of myths about the loves and conflicts and creative acts of multiple gods, apart from a fragmentary narrative about marriages between divine beings and human women (Genesis 6:1–4, not included in the Posen Library).

Stylistic Features of Biblical Narrative

Biblical prose narrative is, for the most part, realistic (except for stories about miracles and other divine interventions, which seem unrealistic to modern readers), but its style differs from modern narrative. It is generally told in the third person by an anonymous, reliable, and omniscient narrator (who knows everything and never lies but may withhold information from the reader). God is not the narrator; God is a character in the story. We get to know the characters through the narrator’s description of them and through their words, thoughts, and actions. Their inner lives are amply presented when such details enhance the story. Yet the physical description of people and places is kept to a minimum; only features that figure in the plot are depicted. We are not told what the characters look like, except, for example, that Rachel is shapely and beautiful (Genesis 29:17), King Saul is taller than most people (he looks like a leader but does not always act like one, in 1 Samuel 10:21–23), that Absalom has long, thick hair (which gets entangled in a tree, leaving him as a hanging target to be killed, in 2 Samuel 14:26; 18:9–15). General qualities and social status are more often mentioned; men and women may be identified by their family or ancestry, or they may be labeled as wise, wealthy, old, or wicked. Biblical narrative uses words economically but is fond of repeating phrases, often with subtle changes. Many narratives contain key words that point to the main theme. Wordplays occur in narrative as well as in poetry.

Long and Short Narratives in the Bible

The Hebrew Bible includes long prose narrative, like the more-or-less continuous story encompassing the books of Genesis through Kings, Ezra and Nehemiah (originally one book and still considered one book in Jewish tradition), and Chronicles. This extended narrative recounts the history of Israel from the origin of the world through the return from the Babylonian exile. The Hebrew Bible also contains short prose narrative books, such as the books of Jonah, Ruth, Esther, and Daniel 1–6, which range from four to twelve chapters and which are not part of the narrative continuum that runs from Genesis through Kings. They stand alone, complete in themselves, with loose or no connections to the main narratives of Genesis to Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah. They all date from the Second Temple period (the Persian or Hellenistic periods), although Jonah and Ruth are set in earlier times. Their styles vary, but all have a fictional quality and recount implausible or fanciful events. They read like short stories or novellas.