One of the best books I’ve come across on interpreting the Old Testament—especially narratives—is Richard Pratt’s He Gave Us Stories: The Bible Student’s Guide to Interpreting Old Testament Narratives. It’s both accessible and meaty.
Over 25 years ago Pratt had an article in the Westminster Theological Journal (45:1) called “Pictures, Windows, and Mirrors in Old Testament Exegesis” (not available online, so far as I know). In it he developed a multi-perspectival way of categorizing our approach to biblical texts that I find helpful. He explores this approach in greater detail in He Gave Us Stories.
He suggests that OT narratives can be viewed as pictures (literary analysis), windows (historical analysis), and mirrors (thematic analysis). These roughly correspond to the theological conviction that the OT is (1) canonical; (2) historical; and (3) for believers.
This is a helpful way to think about various questions that can be asked of the text. Within each of the three categories, there is another threefold set of questions, focusing upon author, discourse, and audience. The results look something like this:
Text as Picture (form + content)
- What dramatic portrait did the speaker intend?
- What picture does the discourse present?
- What portrait may the audience have received?
Texts as Windows (portal to historical events and periods)
- What historical information did the speaker intend?
- What historical information does the discourse present?
- What historical information may the audience have received?
Texts as Mirrors (reflection of the interests and topics of the believing community)
- What did the speaker intend to say about the subject?
- What does the discourse say about the topic?
- What did the audience understand about the theme?
