Two thousand years ago, people didn't go to the movies! They didn't have TV! They must have been very bored!
Actually, they were better off than we often give them credit. They were great storytellers. Stories were important to their culture and they were much better than us at preserving them. Their attention span and memory was better trained than ours. God used this culture to bring us the Bible.
The stories in the Bible are more sophisticated than we typically recognize. Their structure and layout helped the hearers memorize them and this structure contributed to the deeper meaning behind the stories. The process laid out on this page will help us have fun, be creative, learn, and see the beauty and depth of Scripture.
So, pick a story. It is probably easy to begin with a story from one of the gospels, but make sure it is a narrative. I also suggest starting with a shorter story on the first try, such as Jesus calling the disciples in Mark 1:16-20. This will be our example text. Portions of the gospels where Jesus is teaching are a little more complex to handle, but they certainly can be treated through this process.
Actually, they were better off than we often give them credit. They were great storytellers. Stories were important to their culture and they were much better than us at preserving them. Their attention span and memory was better trained than ours. God used this culture to bring us the Bible.
The stories in the Bible are more sophisticated than we typically recognize. Their structure and layout helped the hearers memorize them and this structure contributed to the deeper meaning behind the stories. The process laid out on this page will help us have fun, be creative, learn, and see the beauty and depth of Scripture.
So, pick a story. It is probably easy to begin with a story from one of the gospels, but make sure it is a narrative. I also suggest starting with a shorter story on the first try, such as Jesus calling the disciples in Mark 1:16-20. This will be our example text. Portions of the gospels where Jesus is teaching are a little more complex to handle, but they certainly can be treated through this process.
