Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rodney K. Duke" <dukerk AT appstate.edu>]

Lee,

Great question!  It seems to me that the "structures" of narrative (i.e. that 
which makes a narrative
a narrative) are simply the same whether the referent of the narrative 
existed in real time and space
or not.  Without external corroborating data, one cannot tell factual 
narrative from fictional
narrative APART FROM  the kinds of genre clues that communities develop (e.g. 
a newspaper dateline vs.
"Once upon a time").  So, for me the question becomes, "What were the ancient 
Hebrew genre clues that
signaled whether one was intending to communicate via a historical narrative 
or a fictional
narrative?"  I would love to learn from the list members what they think 
these genre clues are.
Rodney

>
> Subject: Nathan's Parable
> From: "Lee R. Martin" <lmartin AT vol.com>
> Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 18:31:58 -0400
> X-Message-Number: 12
>
> Today my first-year Hebrew class read 2 Samuel 12.  They loved it.
> One student asked an interesting question: Why did David react so
> passionately to a narrative that was obviously a parable?
> I replied that the Hebrew text contains no indications that Nathan's
> story was a parable.  Nathan's story begins just like 1 Samuel 1, which
> is not called a parable.
> My question to this list is: Can you think of any biblical narratives
> that are presented as fiction?  How can we determine a factual narrative
> from a fictional narrative?
>

--
Rodney K. Duke
Dept. of Phil. & Rel., Appalachian State Univ., Boone, NC 28608
(O) 828-262-3091, (FAX) 828-262-6619, dukerk AT appstate.edu