What is important for us to know about the genre of narrative in the Bible?

from the old testament

• The majority of the Old Testament is narrative. The historical books span from Genesis through Esther. Even the prophetic books contain narrative accounts, as do the Psalms, though in a more poetical form. It is a major form of teaching, doing so through example. This means that understanding how to handle this genre is key to correctly understanding and applying it to life.
• A “narrative” is a historical story. They can be either a single story arc or a larger story with multiple arcs. For example, Genesis as a whole shows how God worked through history from His promised seed in Genesis 3:15 through the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 49:1–28). However, within that larger story arc are several smaller ones, such as how God preserved humanity through the flood (Genesis 6–9), God’s preservation of Abraham’s son Isaac (Genesis 22:11–14), and so forth.
• Like with all stories, narrative has a beginning, middle, and end. They are not intended to be read partially but to be understood as an entire unit. So, while one may learn some aspects about God or man in the middle of a story (e.g., Genesis 39:2, 21), discovering the reason the author included the entire story is key to finding out what they intended the reader to learn.
• Many narratives teach something about who God is and what He has done. For example, they show how He preserved His people (Genesis 50:20) to encourage readers that God is working out history even when things seem to be going badly. They also show that He keeps His promises (1 Kings 8:56), that even human sin does not negate or undo those problems. They also show how God views and treats the unrepentantly wicked (Genesis 19:23–29).
• From narratives, we also learn about the characters of both godly and ungodly men and women. Note, however, that an author’s point is rarely “to be like so and so” or to “not be like so and so.” There are certainly such lessons, but generally the larger point is about how God used faithful men and women to accomplish His plan (c.f. Hebrews 11:32–34), encouraging believers that God can also use them.
• One danger to avoid when reading a narrative is asking questions the author never answers. For example, asking whether Rahab was still a prostitute when God used her (cf. Joshua 2:1) is not answered by the author because those answers are not the point of the story. The point is how God worked through imperfect people to save His people. Therefore, understanding narrative is sometimes as much about observing what doesn’t matter to the story as about seeing what does.

from the new testament

• In the New Testament, the Gospels and the book of Acts are the primary narrative texts. They recount the historical realities of Jesus, including His life (John 1:14), death (Matthew 27:50), and resurrection (Luke 24:6). They also include accounts of His teachings (Matthew 5:1–2), healings (Matthew 9:35), and other acts of ministry (John 2:1–11). They also teach about how the church was birthed (Acts 2:1–4) and how the gospel spread (Acts 1:8).
• In addition to those books, the epistles (letters) are also set in historical contexts, so that while they are more directly teaching than narrative passages, they teach people in a specific historical context. This grounds them in a narrative-like approach when understanding the reasons an author is writing a letter to a specific church.
• For all narratives, but particularly when applying New Testament passages to the modern context, there’s a useful question to ask oneself: is the passage descriptive or prescriptive? A descriptive passage describes a historical event. For example, in Matthew 10:1–8 we read about Jesus sending out disciples with a specific mission and authority. That event is descriptive, detailing the authority granted to those specific disciples. In contrast, a prescriptive passage applies to all believers, such as when Jesus taught the disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9–13). Identifying which the author intended will help prevent the introduction of bad theology that attempts to apply a historical event that was never intended to prescribe an expectation for all believers.

implications for today

It’s interesting to note that God did not relay all of His truths in didactic (teaching) fashion. Indeed, much of what we know about Him and how He wants us to live comes from the historical accounts, the narratives of the Bible.

This is because God is not merely a transcendent Being who relays commands to us. Rather, though He is transcendent, He is also immanent, being near us, in relationship with us (Acts 17:26–28). That ongoing relationship between God and humanity most naturally reveals itself within narratives.

Because the stories themselves are the teaching tool, and like with reading any story, we must be careful to discover the author’s intended points. The stories were not written for us to look for life verses tucked away within the accounts but to learn about God and ourselves. We learn this through real-life storytelling, character arcs, and plot twists.

Because much of the recorded history, particularly in the Old Testament, is from a time and culture so removed from our own, sometimes narratives require work to understand what the author meant. But Paul said that all Scripture is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16–17), making it worth the effort to try to understand it.

The Bible has many narratives. As we read them and discover what the authors were intending to say, we will find that we come to know God and ourselves better and learn the importance of faith and obeying God.