Hermeneutics

Chris Palmer on Narrative Hermeneutics

Nobody comes to the text as a blank slate.

Literary criticism - looks at the work as a literary unit. enables the reader to read and experience from beginning to end and focuses on the author of the text and the reader.

Narrative criticism (branch of literary criticism) - focus on a close reading of the surface structure of the text (theme, motifs, characters, rhyme, structure).

Most are familiar with the historical-grammatical method.

Examples of story-teller: Mark 6-7, 14:10-11 describes what someone was thinking in 3rd person narration.

Narrative World - stage that the narrator sets. It’s a landscape painted by the author for the plot to happen. i.e. In John 10, John notes the Feast of Dedication, winter season, and the columnade of Solomon. We are expected to keep these details in mind as the plot progresses. It can also include supernatural settings (Matthew 3). Let’s not demythologize the text by insisting the settings must be earthly/natural.

Evaluative Point of View - values, beliefs, and worldview which the reader is expected to adop to judge the events and characters of the narrative (things we deem right/wrong). i.e. In Luke 22:3-6, the author intends Judas to be portrayed negatively.

How are we hearing the story and how are we supposed to be hearing the story?

Plot

Causation

concerns the relationship of one scene to another. Plots progress as one scene moves to the next. Sometimes they’re implied; sometimes they’re explicit. i.e. In Mark 1:45, Jesus’ fame is implicitly caused by his healing. In John 11:45-47 there is an explicit cause explaining that Lazarus’ resurrection is the turning point of the Pharisees to plot Jesus’ death.

Conflict

In Mark 1:12, there is a conflict between Christ and Satan. Verse 21 says he proceeds to Capernaum and begins teaching. He transfers location from the wilderness to the synagogue. There was a man with an unclean spirit who challenges Jesus. Conflict with the same enemy arises against demonic power in a different setting. The conflict is cosmic.

Mark narrates in 2:6 as 3rd person omniscient knowing the thoughts of the Pharisees. The conflict is earthly . The cosmic conflicts from Mark 1:12 sets the stage with the conflicts with the Pharisees. Conflicts with cosmic powers to conflict with earthly religious leaders suggests to us as readers that it is possible the religious leaders are in league with Satan. This is not seen propositionally but from the narrative level.

Time Sequence

Time of the story - passage of time in the narrative world of the text.

Narrative time - manner of time in which the story is narrated. i.e. Time is sped up in Matthew 9:35. Months are summed up.

Flashback in Mark 6:17 of Herod imprisoning John the Baptist. Notice the time sequences and analyze them to see how they affect the story, or how it can yield something theological.

Sequencing of time can give us something theological. i.e. Matthew 4:25 - 5:2; Story is quick up until the Sermon on the Mount. Ascending the mountain in Matthew 5 suggests Jesus being the new Moses, alluding to when Moses gave the Israelites the law from Mount Sinai.

Matthew slows down the story on the Sermon on the Mount to show how important it is. This also happens at the time of his crucifixion.

Characterization

describe how the characters are portrayed to the reader.

Matthew 1:19 - we are told about the character of Joseph. Mark 2:4 - individuals with the sick man cannot get near Jesus because of the crowd. Same with the bleeding woman. Also with insisting on Jesus’ crucifixion. If we see the crowd as a character, the crowd prevents people from getting to Jesus and wants to crucify Jesus. Look at how they’re being portrayed; not just what is said. Not everybody in the crowd who started with Jesus stayed with Him.

Round characters - more dimensions. i.e. Peter, he’s spontaneous, complex, and unpredictable.

Flat characters - more predictable. i.e. Pharisees, they’re hyprocrites and self-righteous. They later develop in the book of Acts.

Static character - does not change much throughout time. i.e. Sadducees and crowd. Dynamic character - change as the narrative develops. i.e. Nicodemus in John 3:2 is “still in the darkness”. In 7:51, he speaks up for Jesus. In 19:38, he recognizes Jesus’ kingship and comes out of the darkness (contrasted with Joseph of Arimathea who also came secretly).

Setting

John 3:37 → John 8:12 → Jesus refers to himself as the Light of the World and as Living Water at a festival that was characterized by the pouring out of water and the lights of lamps. Details made by John.

Intertextuality

the varied ways that writers of the NT engage the OT and the studies of those connections.

from The Name of the Rose → books always speak of other books. every story tells another story that has already been told.

New Testament is affected by the Old Testament. i.e. Preachers reflect their influences.

Three ways:

1. Citations → i.e. Acts 1:20, Luke 4:18-19
2. Allusions - NT reference to OT text consisting of just a few words, often including a thematic connection that assists in its recognition. Not a direct quote.
   1. Jesus indicts the temple in Mark 11:17 by referring to Jeremiah 7 who warned against the false hope of the indestructability of the temple. He calls it a den of robbers which foreshadows the temple’s destruction in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians. Jesus predicts the temple’s downfall in 70 A.D.
3. Echo - NT reference to OT text made by implicit evocation more than through verbal linkages. These connections are usually subtle and often recognized only as related echoes accumulated across a NT book.
   1. Metalepsis - a concept in literary theory that suggests that references to earlier text evokes a wider context beyond the precursor.
      1. Luke 22:20 → Jesus uses the phrase New Covenant. The only time it is used in OT is in Jeremiah 31. Jesus’ audience hears Jeremiah’s New Covenant.
      2. Why NT writers use OT?
         1. To show God was at work now as He was then.
         2. To develop Christology. Christ’s work is a continuation of what happened in OT.
         3. Impacts the readers.

Examples in John: John 1:1 → uses language from Genesis 1:1

• 1:5 → Genesis 1:3 John intro Jesus through the story of Creation. It alludes Creation is being made new again through Jesus.
• 19:41 → John gives interesting detail that Christ’s crucifixion happened in a garden (Genesis 2:7). He is the only Gospel writer who mentions this detail in the setting. By highlighting the garden setting for the passion and resurrection, he’s suggesting Jesus’ death and resurrection inaugurate a time of new creation.
• 19:5 → John’s detail concerning Herod’s comment concerning Jesus as a man may hint at a deeper meaning that he’s presenting a new man through the crucifixion (Genesis 1:27).
• 20:19 → John suggests that a new week of human history has begun because of the work of Christ (Genesis 2:2-3). Re-creation has begun.