The Story’s Subject Matter
Posted by Pastor Pat on December 21, 2008
The Bible is a story. It is a story from which all other stories find their substance. Words such as epic, larger-than-life, and classic find their source in this one story. Folklore and mythology all find their soil in the Bible. It would be erroneous to think of the Bible as folklore or mythological. The Bible is the true standard from which all deviations and distortions originally flowed. It is a story of a Creator who acts, an Author who writes, a King who rules, and a Hero who wins. It contains villains, war, defeat and victory.
Often we read the Bible as if it was not a story or as if it were a poorly written story. I have read many books over the years, and all the good ones have a single plot with many different sub-plots contributing to the one story. I just finished reading SHOGUN. James Clavell wrote the work in 1975. It has various characters such as Blackthorne, Toranaga, Ishido, Mariko, etc. Yet with all of the various sub-plots, the story is singular. Everything James Clavell places in the story contributes to the final end. This same idea rings true with J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic work, The Lord of the Rings.
