Bible Stories

The Bible stories I provide in this newsletter are retellings of the text that I hope will guide you as you prepare your sermon. Retelling the story is one of the oldest forms of Biblical interpretation. The Bible itself contains retellings of older stories designed to draw out their theological meaning for new generations (compare the stories in Chronicles to Samuel, for example). This tradition only deepened in later Jewish and Christian interpretation.

The retellings in this newsletter tends to fall into categories: Traditional retellings and modern retellings.

Traditional retellings are those retellings that come out of Jewish and Christian legend. These stories may seem strange and extra biblical to modern ears but they connect us to the ways our ancient ancestors thought about and wrestled with these texts. My purpose in presenting Midrashic tales or Apocryphal Christian stories is not so that you will tell them in place of the text but rather alongside. They can give our hearers a window into the past and reassure them that the same things that trouble and confuse them, have troubled and confused interpreters through the ages.

Modern retellings are those retellings which help draw out their theological meaning of the text for the hearer today. Unless indicated otherwise, these retellings are my own attempts to faithfully and imaginatively engage the text. Modern retellings provide many of the things that modern hearers expect in storytelling that the ancient writers of the Bible weren’t as concerned with such as inner thought and character growth. They also seek to fold in historical, liguistic, or geographical details that the original hearers of the stories would have taken for granted. Though these retellings range from straightforward to more creative, they all seek to be faithful to the inspired word of God.

I pray you find these retellings meaningful. Whether you use them in whole, in part, or simply as springboard for your own wonderful retelling, may they aid you in bringing the word of God to the people of God.