Biblical narrative learning is a non-critical educational approach for Christian communities with diverse learning backgrounds, involving three sets of movement: inquire and invent, interpret and imagine-inspire, and imitate and impart. It is grounded in humankind's universal capacity to teach and learn through stories and built on practices in narrative learning, along with biblical narratives. The Gospel of John provides a model for this interpretive process that continues the teaching of living in a loving relationship with God and one another. John uses many literary devices to enhance an affective and reflective learning. The literary devices create the familiar-strange effect. John's narrative fosters remembrance of the Story and guides the learner to adequate faith in God. It inculcates adequate faith to wait in suspense, while the Jesus Story and our stories, when they are remembered, create new understanding and transform the life experiences of the person.

Comprised of contributions from scholars across the globe, The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative is a state-of-the-art anthology, offering critical treatments of both the Bible's narratives and topics related to the Bible's narrative constructions. The Handbook covers the Bible's narrative literature, from Genesis to Revelation, providing concise overviews of literary-critical scholarship as well as innovative readings of individual narratives informed by a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. The volume as a whole combines literary sensitivities with the traditional historical and sociological questions of biblical criticism and puts biblical studies into intentional conversation with other disciplines in the humanities. It reframes biblical literature in a way that highlights its aesthetic characteristics, its ethical and religious appeal, its organic qualities as communal literature, its witness to various forms of social and political negotiation, and its uncanny power to affect readers and hearers across disparate time-frames and global communities.

How do children read the Bible? This book makes a major contribution to this underexplored area by analyzing how children interpret Bible stories, focused around an empirical investigation of one group of eleven- to fourteen-year-old children, and their readings of the Gospel of Luke. The first section of the study establishes the nature of the text and the readers in this project: exploring the Gospel of Luke as a narrative of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection, and then looking at the developmental traits of children as readers. The next section offers a model account of how biblical scholars can investigate empirical readings of Scripture, by describing the methods used to bring together one group of child readers and Luke. The third section then analyzes the resulting multitude of interpretations that the children offered in their reading of the book, concentrating on the key trends in their interpretive strategies. It critiques the children's readings of Luke, but it also points to some of the surprising and beneficial results of reading Luke using the interpretive strategies of a child.

Multiple and sometimes unexpected forms of closure in biblical narratives bring their stories to satisfactory close. Knowledge of these conventions and how they affect their stories is valuable to students of Bible and of narrative.

Scholars interested in narrative critical / narratological analyses of the Old Testament and New Testament Bible will welcome this extensive practical study that discusses all aspects that should be evaluated when a narratological analysis is undertaken. All the relevant aspects, such as the relationship between narrator and narratee, plot development, characterization, temporal relationships, focalization, and setting are discussed in such a way that it is easy to follow, yet of high academic quality. Each aspect is illustrated by several examples from the Old Testament and New Testament. At the end of each chapter is a bibliography directing readers to more technical books/articles on the subject.

There is not much enjoyment in contemplating a single piece from a jigsaw puzzle. It may create some level of interest—but not much. Even looking at three pieces, or even ten pieces, isn’t that interesting. What makes a jigsaw puzzle attention-grabbing is the process of figuring out how the pieces fit together. Slowly, a pleasant, unified, comprehensible picture begins to appear. The more complete that image becomes, the more anxious we are to grab another piece and see where and how it fits. In some ways, the books and stories of the Old Testament are like the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. In and of themselves they create some level of interest—but they don’t become attention-grabbing until we begin to see how the individual pieces relate to the whole. For many, the study of the Old Testament may never reach beyond looking at the individual pieces. Nothing fits the pieces together. How is the book of Leviticus connected to the book of Hebrews? How is John’s reason for writing his Gospel related to Psalm 2? How do we connect the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15 with the cross—much less understand that ceremony to begin with? Why is the book of Ruth included as part of the Bible? What does it have to do with anything? Or better yet, why do we have the book of Esther—where God is not mentioned at all? What makes each of these important? How are they related, or are they? In short, how is God’s story—God’s revelation—unified? And that’s where A Forty-Day Study of the Biblical Story comes in. We journey through Scripture in a way that brings all of the bits and pieces into a unified whole—because our focus is going to be on what makes the Biblical Story whole: Jesus Christ. We examine the Old Testament through the lens of what we learn about Jesus.

The most comprehensive and accessible introduction to scriptural art yet written Literary Study of the Bible: An Introduction approaches each book of the Bible (including several of the apocrypha) with non-sectarian literary questions, exploring the meanings that the Bible reveals when we read it like a poem, narrative, or play. As a unique hybrid of introductory guide, essential handbook, historical survey, and absorbing commentary, this book fills a gap in literary Bible study with its fresh perspectives on the biblical writers’ many arts. Readers will engage in wide range of textual approaches and interpretive traditions through this broadly informed, accessibly written text. Dr. Christopher Hodgkins has taught Literary Study of the Bible for 25 years, over which time he has field-tested the many lenses—of genre, image, language, characterization, plot, and craft—used throughout this book. Tracing the sources, composition, and influences of the Biblical text, this book places the Bible in a tradition of ancient near eastern, Hebrew, and Hellenistic literary art, giving new depth to the way we understand the familiar stories of scripture. Unlike other literary introductions to the Bible, this book uniquely combines these elements: Approaches the Bible as a richly collaborative and coherent work of literary art, exploring how earlier books influence the creation and interpretation of later ones Provides illuminating commentary supplemented by explanatory textboxes, maps, illustrations, and study questions to enhance interest and expand learning Introduces poetic and narrative devices like doubling, juxtaposition, and irony within the context of scriptural art and editorial design Gives extensive attention to each biblical book, resulting in the most comprehensive introduction to literary Bible study to date Presents these materials through an accessible and lively text permeated with references to both high and popular culture Literary Study of the Bible will be a welcome addition to personal, school, college, and congregational libraries, as well as an excellent text for students of the Bible in both secular and faith-based settings.

Adultery, though not an umbrella concept for all the sexual prohibitions in the Hebrew Bible, enjoys a certain pride of place. Remarkably, it is the one sexual prohibition attested in all biblical genres, which makes it very representative in the Hebrew Bible. It is the only Hebrew biblical sexual prohibition explicitly mentioned in the Decalogue. A solid understanding of Hebrew biblical adultery, therefore, is an important step towards grasping the vital role of human sexuality in the Hebrew Bible, both in terms of inter-human relationships and the relationship between the human and the divine. Without prejudice to the contents of the Hebrew biblical lexicons and theological dictionaries, this work aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of adultery in the Hebrew Bible: its meaning, punishments and the implications thereof. Among others, it corrects some wrong assumptions about the concept of adultery in the Hebrew Bible, and provides a balanced and unbiased Hebrew biblical conception of adultery and the implications thereof for todays couples.

How does the world's oral majority--adults with limited formal education (ALFE)--really prefer to learn? Few pause long enough to ask those who eschew print. The result of scholarly research and prolonged immersion in the Cambodian culture, Connected Learning exposes the truth about orality--the shame associated with limited formal education; the unfortunate misnomer that is orality; the place of spirituality, grace, and hope; and the obvious but overlooked learning preferences. ALFE have different ways of learning and knowing, a different epistemology and culture from print learners, even though we all begin alike. The choice is not between Ong's orality or literacy, but between learning from people or from print. Dr. Thigpen, a veteran cross-cultural worker, shares remedies for the hegemony and inequities unwittingly fostered by the literate minority. In a dominant culture where learning from people is prime, how can educators with a preference for print adapt? Providing an important tool in the Learning Quadrants diagram, Connected Learning advises teaching to the quadrant and calls for seven necessary shifts in teaching. Anyone versed in orality will admit these findings have "global implications and applications" (Steffen). The reader who heeds will positively impact a huge portion of humanity.

Throughout its history, the Christian church has had a troubled relationship with the arts, whether literature, poetry, music, visual arts, or other forms of artistic expression. This volume is not designed to resolve the issues, but it is designed to present a number of different statements about various dimensions of the arts in their relationship to the Bible. The Bible is the document that stands behind the Christian church as an inspiration to it and to its arts. As a result, we have divided this volume into six parts: perspectives on the arts, culture and art, visual enactments, contemporary interpretations, music, and the Bible and literature. Many of the issues that the history of the interaction of the arts and the Bible within the Christian church has uncovered are insightfully and artfully addressed by this book. The wide range of contributors runs the gamut from practicing artists of various media to scholars within varied academic fields.