The Art of Story Structure

When we explore the literary artistry of the Bible, one of the first questions we have to ask is how biblical authors organize their stories. In this essay, we are looking at the two main ways they do that.

Before we get to these two main ways, though, we have to talk about the simple, straightforward way stories are organized: linearly. That is, they start at the beginning and end at the end. They follow sequence three by sequence through chronologically to the end of the story. That describes 99 percent of stories both inside and outside the Bible. Unless you are doing some crazy dischronologized narrative—some Christopher Nolan Memento stuff—that is simply how it happens. Even when out-of-sequence dischronology does occur, normally it is just for a scene or two. Most stories are linear.

Now, if you are a great narrative artist, you will do other things on top of telling a story in linear order from beginning to end. You will lay another layer of artistry over it. In the Bible, there are two main kinds of literary organization beyond chronological sequence: parallel literary structures and symmetrical literary structures.

The reason for doing this is that when you add another layer of organization and design, you can communicate additional things about the thesis of the story, the main character, or some of the themes. It simply adds another level of depth.

Parallel Literary Structures

Parallel literary structures come in two flavors in the Bible: paired parallel structures and sequential parallel structures.

A paired literary structure is where you have two scenes that are paired, then two more scenes that are paired, and then two more, depending on how long the story is. You have these couplets that share similarities and differences, but you are supposed to read them together. You read one story and then the next, and you realize it is a similar scene, a similar character, or a similar sequence that leads you to believe these two episodes should be compared and read alongside each other.

A beautiful example of this is the Joseph narrative, the climactic and longest narrative in the book of Genesis. The narrative of Joseph unfolds in fourteen sections, or seven pairs—seven doublets.

Here is how it looks. In the first two scenes, you have trouble and conflict between Joseph and his brothers. Then you have two scenes involving sexual temptation: one between Judah and someone, and one between Joseph and someone. When you compare them, you see that Judah fails, but Joseph succeeds. Next, you have two scenes of Joseph interpreting two dreams. Then you have two scenes where the brothers come to Egypt for food, and so on. It is just this wonderful, deliberate design. That is a paired parallel literary structure.

The second kind of parallel structure is sequential. Here, you have a number of scenes or episodes—say, three, four, or five—that form a sequence or pattern, and then that whole pattern repeats. The first item in each sequence corresponds in some way, the second item corresponds, and so on.

A wonderful example of this is the entire book of Jonah. You have a sequence of three scenes that repeats twice. In the first episode of each sequence, Jonah is commissioned by God to go to the Ninevites. In the second scene, Jonah interacts with a pagan counterpart or interlocutor: in the first sequence it is the pagan sailors, and in the second sequence it is the Ninevites. Then in the third scene, Jonah offers a prayer. The first time around it is a grateful, thankful prayer to God; the second time around it is a resentful prayer.

The Genius of the False Conclusion

The fascinating thing about the Book of Jonah is that it contains an additional literary feature: a false conclusion.

A false conclusion occurs when the narrator writes the story in such a way as to lead you to believe that the story has ended. Perhaps he resolves many of the major themes, or provides an expected summing up of things, and then gives an additional scene.

What is fascinating about this is twofold. First of all, you simply get more of the story. You are already rapt and interested, and you get to know more. But more importantly, the great genius of a false conclusion is that very often—and this is true in Jonah—that final scene delivers the very heart of the story. You get the central theme and the central thesis, which suddenly leads you to reconsider what the entire book was actually about.

That is exactly what happens in Jonah. You get a final, climactic scene where God orchestrates a parable for Jonah.

Symmetrical Literary Structures

Our other main category is the symmetrical literary structure, also called a chiasm or a chiastic structure.

It is somewhat like the parallel sequential structure, but the second half is flipped around. In this structure, the first and last scenes or sections correspond to one another, then the second and second-to-last correspond, stepping inward all the way down to the center of the story. At the center, you have a central focal scene, or sometimes two scenes back-to-back. Typically, that central point marks the primary emphasis, the turning point of the story, or both.

A great example of this is the Abraham narrative. The Abraham story begins and ends with God calling Abraham to do something. It is the only time in the Abraham story where this specific verb is used for God calling Abraham, creating a very striking bookend for the entire narrative.

Move one step inward, and you have an episode where Abraham’s wife is endangered and attacked by a foreign ruler. Move another step inward, and you have a situation involving Lot and Abraham where Abraham has to rescue Lot. As you keep moving inward, you come to the covenants close to the center of the story.

Interestingly, the covenant with Abraham is not the center itself. At the very center, you have the episode with Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Here is the fall of Abraham. When it comes to the promise of children, kingdom, and everything God had promised, Abraham lacks patience. With unmistakable echoes of that original primal sin of Genesis 3 and Adam and Eve in the garden, the text shows us that Abraham listens to the voice of his wife and takes this woman, knowing her. Both are clear allusions back to the original sin: one having to do with knowledge—though here it means sexual knowledge, unlike the garden—and the other being listening to the voice of his wife instead of the voice of God.

That is what happens in the first part of the central section of Abraham’s story. But there is also another part to this central scene: the story of Hagar, Abraham’s foreign wife. She goes off into the wilderness, and God comes and cares for her there.

That is how the Abraham narrative is organized. Those are the two main ways biblical authors organize and design their stories—parallel and symmetrical structures—and understanding them prepares us directly to understand the literary design of Genesis chapter 1.

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