How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart
Week 5: Chapter 5 — The Old Testament Narratives: Their Proper Use
Read Chapter 5 of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Key texts: Judges 11 (Jephthah); 1 Kings 17–18 (Elijah).
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The Old Testament stories are among the most beloved parts of Scripture — and among the most frequently misread, because narrative has its own rules that most of us were never taught.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Fee and Stuart open with a striking claim: the Old Testament narratives were not written primarily to give us moral examples to imitate or avoid — they were written to tell the story of God's redemptive activity. How does this reframe the purpose of stories like David and Goliath or Gideon's fleece?
2.The authors describe three 'levels' of Old Testament narrative: the macro-level (the whole sweep of redemptive history), the mid-level (Israel's story in particular), and the micro-level (individual episodes). Why does understanding which level you are on matter for interpretation?
3.Fee and Stuart warn against 'allegorizing' narratives — finding hidden spiritual meanings in every detail of the story. They also warn against using narratives to establish doctrinal or behavioral norms. Using the example of Jephthah's vow in Judges 11, how do these errors appear in practice?
a.What is the narrator actually trying to communicate in the Jephthah story?
b.How would allegorizing or moralizing it distort that communication?
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