Notes on Plot from Brown’s Hope Amidst Ruin

As I mentioned yesterday, I deeply appreciate A. Philip Brown’s book, Hope Amidst Ruin: A Literary and Theological Anaylsis of Ezra.

Here are the notes I took on what he says about plot–page numbers in parentheses refer to Brown’s book:

Plot: ordered arrangement of the incidents . . . which has a beginning and a middle and an end (66).

What plot is: “the principle of interconnectedness and intention which we cannot do without in moving through the discrete elements—incidents, episodes, actions—of a narrative. . . . a plot . . . is a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality” (66–67 n. 4).

What plot does: “serves to organize events in such a way as to arouse the reader’s interest and emotional involvement, while at the same time imbuing the events with meaning” (67 n. 4).

“the structure of [the narrative’s] actions, as these are ordered and rendered toward achieving particular emotional and artistic effects” (67 n. 4).

“Plot is a selected sequence of logically-caused events that solve a conflict by utilizing established literary conventions such as introduction, complication, crisis and denouement” (67 n. 4).

“plot structure refers to the large-scale layout of the plot in terms of episodes, phases, and scenes” (69 n. 12).

“A ‘phase’ is a group of logically or thematically related scenes, and a ‘scene’ is an event or event sequence that is complete in itself” (69 n. 16).

Models for Analyzing Plot Structure:

(1) Analysis in terms of the beginning, middle, and end;

(2) Analysis in terms of a pyramidal model of conflict development and resolution;

(3) Analysis in terms of the rise or fall of the protagonist’s fortune (69–72).

The Best Literary and Theological Analysis of Ezra Available

A. Philip Brown II has given us a treat in his published dissertation, Hope Amidst Ruin: A Literary and Theological Analysis of Ezra. If you like biblical theology that is sensitive to the literary features of the biblical authors, you’ll love this book.

One of the aspects of this book that I most appreciated was the way that Brown provided crisp definitions and descriptions of things like plot, point of view, and characterization. It reminded me of listening to the lectures of one of my favorite literature profs at the University of Arkansas, Skip Hays.

Over the next few days I’ll post my notes on what Brown says about plot, point of view, and characterization. Excellent stuff, and the description of Ezra’s theology is even better. I recommend you buy this book and read it.

Piano Hymns

We are blessed at Kenwood Baptist Church to be led in worship by Josh Philpot, Associate Pastor extraordinaire.

You’ll love his work on the piano. He writes:

Here are twelve hymns I recorded on piano for my wife as a birthday gift in April (she really liked it!). I thought some of you may enjoy them. Many thanks to Andrew Case for the mix, and for Clifton Baptist Church for letting me use their piano!

I Will Glory in My Redeemer

In Christ Alone

Amazing Grace

Before the Throne of God Above

Come Thou Fount

Holy, Holy, Holy

How Sweet and Aweful is the Place

Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners

My Jesus, I Love Thee

The Power of the Cross

Trust and Obey

I Surrender All

I had to minimize the files, so unfortunately the quality is not the best. Also, most of these were recorded on the first take so you may here mistakes here or there (i.e. copyist errors…).

Are There Errors in the Bible?

I don’t think there are errors in the Bible, and I think that valid explanations can be given for difficulties that do exist. I started a new sermon series on Ezra – Nehemiah this morning at Kenwood, and I had planned to comment on some numerical discrepancies in the text. Because of time, I decided to cut this whole section from the sermon, so here’s the portion of my manuscript that got passed right over:

The material in Ezra 2 is repeated almost exactly in Nehemiah 7, but there are some differences between the two chapters. One of those differences is that in Nehemiah 7:7 there are 12 names. Many scholars think this indicates that there were probably 12 names in Ezra 2:2, and one of the names was not copied by mistake.[1] If this is correct, the fact that there were 12 leaders of the returnees represents an intentional reconstitution of the 12 tribes of Israel. Even if this wasn’t originally the case with Ezra 2:2, it is the case with Nehemiah 7:7.

Let me be very clear about what I’m saying here. I am not saying that the author of the book of Ezra made an error. I am saying that it appears that those who copied the book of Ezra made an error. This kind of thing is why evangelicals say that the Bible is inerrant in the autographs. An autograph is the hand-writing of some famous person. The autographa or autographs of the biblical manuscripts are the hand-written copies made by the authors themselves. We believe that the authors of the books of the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit kept the authors from making errors. God is true and trustworthy, and what he communicated in the Scriptures through the biblical authors is true and trustworthy. So when we say that the Bible is inerrant in the autographs, we are simply saying that God did not inspire every scribe who copied the Bible so as to preserve them from error.

This portion of Ezra, with the numbers at the end of chapter 1 and the names in chapter 2, seems to have been a challenge for the scribes. The reason for this is that when numbers were written in ancient Hebrew, they used a system of symbols that might not have been clear to later copyists. Derek Kidner refers to “many other indications in the Old Testament that numbers were the bane of copyists.”[2] In the same way, the similarity of many Hebrew names could have caused scribes difficulty as they copied the text. We see difficulty with numbers in two ways in this section of Ezra:

First, if we add up the numbers of vessels in Ezra 1:9–10, they total 2,499, less than half the total of 5,400 given in Ezra 1:11. This could be because of scribal error,[3] or it could be that though the total number is complete, the itemization is only an excerpt.[4]

Second, if we add up the numbers in Ezra 2, we get a total of 29,818. The numbers in Nehemiah 7 total 31,089. The number in the Greek translation, 1 Esdras, totals 30,143. But all three lists state that the total number is 42,360 (Ezra 2:64; Neh 7:66; 1 Esdras 5:41). Kidner writes, “There is general agreement that the divergences are copying errors, arising from the special difficulty of understanding or reproducing numerical lists.”[5]

How should we respond to this kind of information? One way to respond is the way Bart Ehrman does: “What good is it to say that the autographs (i.e., the originals) were inspired? We don’t have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies . . .”[6] If you are looking for excuses to rebel against the Bible, you can go Ehrman’s way.

Another way to respond to this kind of information is to look at what we have and ask if what we have is enough to enable us to get at the message of Ezra? So the numbers of the temple vessels don’t add up, a name appears to have fallen out, and the numbers in Ezra 2 don’t match the total given at the end of the list. There may be valid explanations for each. The lists may be excerpts while the totals are complete. The copyists may have bungled the job. Can we understand the text in spite of these difficulties? I think we can. In fact, I think that going Ehrman’s way would be as silly as receiving a reliable written message from someone you trust, warning you about a nuclear attack, and rejecting the message because the word nuclear is misspelled. Would you risk being nuked because of a spelling error? Would you risk going to hell because there are difficulties (difficulties that have plausible explanations) in these lists in the Bible?

These difficulties do not keep us from understanding the message of the text. We can see, in spite of the question about the numbers of the vessels, that God kept his promise (Jer 27:21-22) and restored those temple vessels. We can see, in spite of the question of the numbers of the returnees, that the people of Israel are restored to their land.

[1] So Mark A. Throntveit, Ezra-Nehemiah, Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 18; Kidner, Ezra and Nehemiah, 37; H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco: Word, 1985), 24.

[2] Kidner, Ezra and Nehemiah, 38.

[3] So Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 46–47.

[4] See Kidner, Ezra and Nehemiah, 35 n. 1.

[5] Ibid., 43. Cf. also Fensham, Ezra and Nehemiah, 57.

[6] Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 7.

For further reading, see my essay on inerrancy: “Still Sola Scriptura: An Evangelical Perspective on Scripture.”

The Presuppositions of the Apostles’ Exegetical Method (according to Beale)

Richard Barcellos is doing a series of posts on the New Testament’s use of the Old, and today’s post includes this from Beale’s seminal essay:

Beale lists five distinctive presuppositions of the apostles’ exegetical method:

  1. the assumption of corporate solidarity or representation.

  2. that Christ is viewed as representing the true Israel of the Old Testament and true Israel, the church, in the New Testament;

  3. that history is unified by a wise and sovereign plan so that the earlier parts are designed to correspond and point to the latter parts (cf. Matt. 11:13-14);

  4. that the age of eschatological fulfillment has come in Christ;

  5. as a consequence of (3) and (4), the fifth presupposition affirms that the latter parts of biblical history function as the broader context to interpret earlier parts because they all have the same, ultimate divine author who inspires the various human authors, and one deduction from this premise is that Christ as the centre of history is the key to interpreting the earlier portions of the Old Testament and its promises.

I’m thrilled to know that Beale’s essay is online: "Did Jesus and His Followers Preach the Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts?" Themelios 14 (1989): 89–96.

And If We Refuse We’re Rebels

Erich Auerbach (Mimesis, 14-15) writes that the intent of biblical stories:

“is not to bewitch the senses, and if nevertheless they produce lively sensory effects, it is only because the moral, religious, and psychological phenomena which are their sole concern are made concrete in the sensible matter of life. But their religious intent involves an absolute claim to historical truth. . . . Without believing in Abraham’s sacrifice, it is impossible to put the narrative of it to the use for which it was written. . . . The world of the Scripture stories is not satisfied with claiming to be a historically true reality—it insists that it is the only real world, is destined for autocracy . . . The Scripture stories do not, like Homer’s, court our favor, they do not flatter us that they may please us and enchant us—they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be subjected we are rebels.”

HT: A. Philip Brown II, Hope Amidst Ruin, 28 n. 23.

Why Sentimentality Makes Bad Art

Joe Carter, writing at the First Things site, on the work of Thomas Kinkade:

Sentimentality, as literary critic Alan Jacobs says in a recent interview with Mars Hill Journal, encourages us to “suspend judgment and reflection in order to indulge deliberately in emotion for its own sake.” Reflection reinforces and strengthens true emotions while exposing those feelings that are shallow and disingenuous. Sentimentalists, however, try to avoid this experience of reality and try to keep people from asking questions by giving them pleasing emotions they have not earned. The shameless manipulation of our emotions, says Jacobs, is the ultimate act of cynicism.

Kinkade’s cottage fantasies offer this sort of emotional manipulation. The cottages are self-contained emotional safehouses in which the viewer can shut himself off from true emotions earned through a real encounter with reality, from the rough and sometimes harsh realities of creation, and—most importantly—from other people. The Cottage by the Sea offers a place where the viewer can enter the perfect world of Kinkade’s creation—and escape the messy world of Kinkade’s Creator.

Note: Carter isn’t just bashing Kinkade. Read the whole thing for his discussion of Kinkade’s “inspiring work” as well as his “schlock.”

ESV Audio Bible on Sale

ChristianAudio.com has the ESV Hear the Word Audio Bible on sale right now (along with most of their other books) for $7.49. That’s right, all their audio books are $7.49.

If you don’t have an audio Bible, I highly recommend this one. Regularly priced $28.98, this is a great deal.

May the Word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col 3:16).

Slave Master, by Donald L. Hilton, Jr.

Patrick Schreiner is probably right: everyone looks at the same blogs. Still, I have noticed that I reach a "tipping point" in deciding whether to read something after several of the blogs I look at post on the same thing. So Thabiti first highlighted this, then JT blogged on it this morning, and I’m hoping that people who look at those blogs and mine but aren’t convinced yet will go read this essay from Salvo by Donald L. Hilton, Jr, "Slave Master: How Pornography Drugs and Changes Your Brain."

Here’s a paragraph on some of the moral issues involved:

Pornography has become the sex education venue for the majority of the next generation, an internet candy store, and it teaches that sex is physically and emotionally harmless, with no negative consequences. Men and women are mere visual drugs to be used and discarded, and sex is solely for personal pleasure. The truth, of course, it that those who actually perform sexually to make the pornography are consumed and discarded by pornographers; they are “throwaway people,” as Dr. C. Everett Koop called them.

Read the whole thing, and pray for yourself, your children, and those you love. Hilton writes:

Pornography wants you, it wants your husband or wife, it wants your son and daughter, your grandchildren, and your in-laws. It doesn’t share well, and it doesn’t leave easily. It is a cruel master, and seeks more slaves.

There’s a Dark Lord who is using pornography to ensnare and enslave, a deeper evil behind Sauron’s voice. God help us to love people, and God help us to resist the siren songs that ancient Dragon, who is the Devil and Satan, uses to lure souls onto the rocks of destruction.

Douglas Wilson on Worldview and Preaching

Douglas Wilson makes an offhand comment that is worth further thought regarding:

what makes up a worldview in the first place (dogma, narrative, symbol, and liturgy),

Narrative–biblical theology; Dogma–systematic theology and catechesis; Symbol–art, architecture, etc; Liturgy–the expression of dogma, narrative, and symbol in worship. More to think on here.

In the previous post, Wilson prescribes some good medicine for preachers:

Preachers need to remember that the way to the heart is through the head, but the preacher is to take that route and drive toward the heartwithout stopping. Too many turn aside at the head to eat bread and drink water, and that is why a lion kills them (1 Kings 13:9-10).

Too many preachers wrestle with a point in their messages far too long, as though they were Jacob and that particular point were the angel of the Lord — and so they cry out, “I will not let you go!” (Gen. 32:26).

Unregenerate man is a profanity. Too many evangelical ministers preach as though that condition were an inconvenience, or a mere disqualification for entry into the club. But real preaching overturns tables in the court of the Gentiles (Mark 11:17). Real preaching messes with the profanation.

God help us.