Some of the Bible is written as sermons or preaching. Some is written in poetry. Some are epistles, or letters. Some is written in a more conversational or even storytelling way— typically this last way of writing is called prose. We will look at the differences between these styles of writing in other articles. In sermons and in poetry there can be both action and speech. Speech can contain other stories with action and quoted speech. In this article we will focus on the forms of prose found in the Bible which consist of narration and people talking. This is contrasted by the terms narrative and dialog. Starting with non-technical definitions
Narrative=All the text that isn't people talking.
Dialog=All the talking.
Narrative can contain descriptions of places and time, motivation, and events. A large portion of the book is given to describing the events and surroundings for the words spoken by the persons in those books. These are books like Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jonah, the Gospels, and Acts.
What we are calling Dialog are the words spoken by the people during a Narrative. In the practice of 21st century American English the words the people speak are usually set apart by narrative verbs of speaking or thinking and by quotation marks. In the Bible, all the narrative sections use third-person pronouns and verbs: “He ran,” “she prayed,” “it fell,” “they will see,” etc. In dialog the speaker can use first-person ( I, my, we, our), second-person (thee, thou, thy, you, yours, ye), or third-person pronouns and verbs. Sometimes the speaker tells a story. This means that there is another smaller narrative within the dialog.
An example in English is taken from the New King James Version Gospel of Mark 15:34-39. In this little section of the Passion Narrative we see examples of how Narrative text can be used to set the stage for understanding the words spoken by the persons. Here is the text laid out according to current American English conventions:
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”When we look at the example above we can see that the Narrative consists of a sequence of events.
35 Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, “Look, He is calling for Elijah!” 36 Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.”
37 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.
38 Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
Jesus cried out.
He said.
Which is translated.
People heard.
They said.
One person got a drink for Jesus.
He said.
Jesus cried out.
Jesus breathed His last breath.
The veil was torn.
The centurion saw Jesus.
He said.
Attached to these basic Narrative events are points of information. Each narrative event says Who did What. The additional details add information on When, Where, How, and Why.
And at the ninth hour When
Jesus Who
cried out What
with a loud voice, How
saying, What
This Narrative event with the extra information sets the immediate context for the words of Christ, the Dialog:
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”
This Dialog, however, is not in the same language as the Narrative. The Narrative explains the purpose for the next Dialog.
which is translated
This sets the context for understanding that the next bit of Dialog is the same event and content as the previous bit, but made clear in the language of the Narrative.
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
There are some stretches of Narrative that are longer without Dialog. But one of the main functions of the Narrative is to provide a sequence of narrative events and relevant information to provide a context for the Dialog.
A way that might be able to show more clearly how the Narrative serves the Dialog in this short section is to use a chart. In the following table the left-hand column are labels of function. In the right-hand column is the narrative. It is broken down into shorter phrases. The phrases are indented to show subordinate relationships. The order of the words is the same as the paragraphs above.
When, Who
How
|
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus
cried out with a loud voice,
|
What
|
saying,
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”
which is translated,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
|
Who
Where
When/Why
|
35 Some of those
who stood by,
when they heard that,
|
What
|
said,
“Look, He is calling for Elijah!”
|
When, Who
Where, How
How
Why
|
36 Then someone
ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine,
put it on a reed,
and offered it to Him to drink,
|
What
|
saying,
“Let Him alone;
let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.”
|
Who
How
What
|
37 And Jesus
cried out with a loud voice,
and breathed His last.
|
When/Why
What, How
|
38 Then
the veil of the temple was torn in two
from top to bottom.
|
When, Who,
Where
What
Why
What
|
39 So when the centurion,
who stood opposite Him,
saw
that
He cried out like this
and breathed His last,
he said,
“Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
|
The above example does not cover all kinds of uses of Narrative and Dialog. It is a discussion of a very common use in the Bible. The conventions discussed are based on contemporary English usage. While the conventions of the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic of the Bible have common features there are some significant differences in the structuring of Narrative and Dialog in those languages.
Perhaps some examples of those can be explored here in future articles.
