Help For Preaching Narratives

1. The Art of Biblical Narrative (Basic, 1983) by Robert Alter. This classic resembles a well-crafted Time magazine article.
2. Biblical Sermons (Baker, 1989) edited by Haddon Robinson. Includes manuscripts of sermons by Haddon Robinson on Genesis 3:1-7, Jim Rose on 1 Samuel 17, and Donald Sunukjian on Esther.
3. How to Read the Bible as Literature (Zondervan, 1984), especially Leland Ryken’s chapters on the stories of the Bible.
4. The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text (Eerdmans, 1988). See especially Sidney Gredanus’s chapter on “Preaching Hebrew Narratives.”
5. Narrative Art in the Bible (The Almond Press, 1989) by Shimon Bar-Efrat gives a more complete list of literary techniques and devices found in Old Testament narratives.

—Steven D. Mathewson

1997 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us