How many times have you heard Cinderella? Even the “variations” such as The Egyptian Cinderella or Tattercoats leave you with basically the same story. Usually they are written by a narrator, and occasionally first person, but always from Cinderella’s perspective. How many times have you heard about David and Goliath? I even heard it referenced yesterday on the news talking about George Lucas vs. the residents of Lucas Valley. It has the same problem—always told from David’s perspective and often by a narrator third person approach. “Look boys and girls, David stopped to pick up stones from the river” etc.
Even the movie Ever After, in its retelling of the story, chose to keep it basically from Cinderella’s point of view. Yes it was a fantastic fresh take on the tale and did create variations, but it did not have as dramatic a shift of perspective as other stories have done. Yes I am talking about Wicked. It re-oriented the world of Oz to a completely different character’s view.
I think examining the other people in the Bible can also lead to some surprising and intriguing results. What would David and Goliath be from, say, Goliath’s perspective? We would learn a great deal about the Philistine culture, perhaps even how it can be easy to become legitimately proud of our accomplishments and talents to the point of letting that feeling overcome us, and maybe that even if it appears as though are sure exactly what will happen the smallest thing can completely ruin our plans. What about someone in the army of Israel and what they thought of what was going on. Were they conscripted? Did they consider going against Goliath? Did they think it was fair David won? Were they just happy to be able to go home after the battle?
It isn’t the story that is bad—it is the fact we hear it in the same narrative voice from the same perspective over and over. Next time you are called upon to tell the story of Cinderella or David & Goliath, try it from a different character’s voice. Whatever the age of the audience, they will appreciate the opportunity to hear new ideas from an old tale.
Form Criticism is like baking—the cake batter may be rather similar, and it might even taste a lot alike, but choosing between making cupcakes and a layer cake involves choosing a form. If you drag out the cupcake pan from a bottom drawer and put your batter in it there will be a different result than if you hunt for a bunt cake pan or start flouring your pans for a five-layer cake with chocolate in between each. Often when the words “criticism” and “Bible” are put in the same sentence, it is easy to freak out unless you are completely detached and don’t put much credence in the Bible to begin with. I think vocabulary is starting to get in the way of what is actually a great practice to think about both with the Bible and any half-way decent book or short story.
Each one of the writers of books in the Bible has a unique style both in language and how they arrange the narrative. You have to admit, after reading a snippet of Mark and a snippet of John that each person brings their own personality to how their book is written. Each of them is also writing to a different target audience, so they are bound to write in their own manner. If you look at the Prophets, what they are saying may be similar to stuff in Deuteronomy and Numbers with the law, but it sounds a lot different. Why? Because prophets tend to choose a different cake pan. Even with individual prophets some like to rush about juggling lots of different types of baking in their language choices, and others stick to one form as a tried and true method. After all, if you are awesome at baking cupcakes, why change to a cake that might end up as a disaster? I know many people who are terrified of baking layered cakes but will whip out a dozen loaf-style cakes for an event without batting an eye.
When reacting to the people disobeying God, prophets chose all sorts of forms from lengthy poetic laments to riddles. They often like to speak in templates—if you watch the press interviewing police, they speak in a lot of set phrases. Prophets liked to do that as well so if you notice things like, “thus says the Lord” coming up a lot that is why. People would be comfortable with the familiar phrase and understand what the prophet was saying, even if the rest of his message seemed pretty out there. In between, prophets would use all sorts of ways to get people’s attention like drastic actions, weird props, and cryptic riddles. One of my personal favourite prophetic forms is that of questions—you’ll get prophets shouting out impressive rhetorical questions in a rapid-fire sequence at their audience. It is easy to see the reactions in the audience to such a display. Other prophets don’t use that form at all, rather like avoiding a particular type of baking. I rarely make pan-style things like brownies. Overall they sure like to talk in excited dramatic ways. If you were in a theatre and the guy was up there doing the “turn off all mobile devices please” and added in “exits are marked by signs in the rear” it is naturally a different atmosphere than if a lobby security guard came rushing into the theatre shouting “Run! The building’s on fire, get to the exits! They’re in the back!”—prophets in the Bible tend toward the latter style of language.
You can easily see a form in play with the call of various people in the Bible. I’m not saying it didn’t happen like is written down, I am only saying that using form criticism you can see they wrote it in a particular manner which calls to mind other prophetic calls. Thus Gideon, Samuel, Jonah, Moses, Zachariah, and Mary all come to mind in a rush when thinking of a special call from God. We recognize not only the content but the form. Giving Mary’s call in a traditional prophetic call gave even more credence to the event, not less. It also shows us the sort of person that seems to be called—someone who is reluctant. When reading through the psalms, think about what type it is. For example, if it is a lament, is it personal or communal? Is the psalmist bemoaning the entire nation’s lot or just their own? Does it end on an up note or not? Why did the psalmist choose a poetic lament instead of going on a rant or going out and doing something outrageous to get people’s attention? Next time you hear the words “form criticism” don’t wince, it isn’t the bad guy. Do people use it to make really horrible tasting recipes because they pushed it too far? They sure do, but that doesn’t mean you should completely give up baking or be terrified of trying.
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