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The Biblical Metanarrative What is a Metanarrative? If you were to read Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace and someone asked you what it was about, there are several answers you could give. You could say it is a book about many individual people and their stories. Just being introduced to all the names in the beginning is a chore in itself. On another level you would say that it concerns the Napoleonic Wars. On still a higher level, you might give a reply about what the author was trying to say on a grand scale by writing his book. Similarly, the Bible may appear to be just a collection of random stories. On a higher level, though, a unity appears. What is God trying to say through all the individual stories and events recorded? This is where the word metanarrative comes into importance. At its simplest, the word means "Big Story." The metanarrative of the Bible is its story about God. Like Tolstoy’s War and Peace, with its many plots and subplots, the Bible contains many stories, all woven together by the one grand theme of God's self-revelation to the world. This Story of God does not come to us in the neat packaging of systematic theology. It comes to us in the stories of a chosen people who experienced God. So, if someone were to ask you, "What is the Bible all about?" you could answer, "the Bible is the story of God's self-revelation to the world through a chosen people." Why is this Important to Preaching? This is important for postmodern preaching because postmodernists do not believe in metanarratives. They feel that there are are no grand stories which give meaning to all of life and which define what is true. Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998), the postmodern philosopher, said: "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives."
When postmodernists come to realize that there is a biblical metanarrative, a Big Story that God has been telling the world, it has a powerful effect upon them. Christianity Today ran an article in November, 2002, titled “I Was a Witch.” It is the story of Kimberly Shumate and her long conversion to Christ. Concerning one particularly poignant moment in her journey, she writes of the power of the Big Story in her life: As Lisa drove me home, my mind ached as I replayed Scott’s words. All the Old Testament and New Testament verses had one oddly familiar voice — one tone, one heart. I wondered, How could a book written by so many different people over the course of hundreds of years fit together perfectly as if one amazing storyteller has written the whole thing? The Holy Spirit began melting my vanity and arrogance with a power stronger than any hex, incantation, or spell I’d ever used. Suddenly, the blindfold I’d worn for almost 30 years was stripped away, and instantly I knew what I’d been searching for: Jesus! Is There Really a Biblical Metanarrative? A postmodern person would view the Bible as just a collection of odd stories. Postmodern scholars might say that the biblical text is 'a multi-voiced tapestry' that can be interpreted in a 'myriad of ways'. They would see no central interpretive principle at all in the Bible.
But if the Bible is the record of the self-revelation of God to the world, then we would expect there to be some plot and direction to the Story. Christianity teaches that the self-revelation of God to the world reached a culmination in the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh. If so, then the Incarnation would have to be the central interpretive principle of the Bible.
As F. F. Bruce argues: “… the Christian gospel . . . tells how for the world’s redemption God entered into history, the eternal came into time, the kingdom of heaven invaded the realm of earth, in the great events of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. ” F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 5th ed. (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity, 1960), 7-8. Did Jesus and the early church believe in a metanarrative? In Mark 1:15 Jesus announces, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” In saying this, he indicates his belief in a plan of God that has been working itself out through history. The Kingdom of God has finally arrived, with himself as its fulfillment. A major purpose behind the writing of Matthew's Gospel is to show how Jesus saw his life as a fulfillment of this plan. The Apostle Paul believed in a metanarrative. After his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road, he understood the coming of Christ to be the integrative principle of biblical history. And from that point forward, he taught in terms of a metanarrative (for example, see Ephesians 1:9-10). The early church also believed in a metanarrative. With the coming of Christ, they began to understand the writings of the apostles as completing the Story of God, and therefore possessing authority. So, they began to refer to these writings as “scripture” (for example, 2 Peter 3:16). Walter Elwell writes: It was to be expected that if God’s people had found life and nurture through inspired writings pointing forward to the savior, they might also be given inspired writings to explain their savior to them and to the world after he had appeared. And this is exactly what happened. (Walter A. Elwell and Robert W. Yarborough, Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 26.) Metanarrative Frameworks Postmodernist scholars do not believe the Bible has a metanarrative. They warn against imposing an artificial system of interpretation onto the Bible. For those of us who believe in the presence of a biblical metanarrative, the temptation is to think that we can exhaustively or definitively explain it, or to equate our systemic understanding of the metanarrative with the metanarrative itself. That's why it is perhaps best to think in terms of metanarrative frameworks. A metanarrative framework is an attempt to explain the biblical metanarrative, although not exhaustively or in exclusion of other frameworks. There are many ways we can understand the biblical metanarrative. Here are eleven frameworks, each of which contribute to our understanding of the whole biblical metanarrative:
Let's use these frameworks to trace the biblical metanarrative in more detail. Tracing the Metanarrative in Genesis God is love (1 John 4:16). An attribute of love is the desire to know and be known. We are made to be in fellowship with our loving God, as the opening scenes of the Bible in the book of Genesis indicates. But the early chapters Genesis also describe us as having broken our relationship with God. Since the time of our alienation, the mission of God has been to restore us to himself. In many ways, the early chapters of Genesis are some of the most important in the Bible. They establish the themes found in the rest of the Bible. In particular, they especially addresses Wright’s four questions that define any worldview: Who are we? Where are we? What is wrong? What is the solution? Genesis begins by answering the first two of these questions. In affirming that God is the creator of everything that exists, Genesis 1 tells us who we are and where we are: — we belong to God and we live in God’s creation — We get a further clue about who we are, and where we are, from Genesis 1. There, it describes God's creation as being a kind of chaos-in-reverse. "The earth was formless and empty," Genesis 1:2 tells us, but then God gets to work and conquers chaos by reversing the formlessness and emptiness. Creation is the establishment of the reign of God over chaos. This suggests how to interpret Genesis 1: the literary structure of the chapter is based on the words in Genesis 1:2, "formless" (Hebrew: tohu) and "empty" (Heb.: bohu). The Seven Days of Creation in Genesis 1 portray God conquering chaos by first creating forms (or realms) and then filling those realms:
The seventh day, then, is when the forces of chaos are totally banished and God reigns in fullness. We were created to live in the Seventh Day, a state of never-ending fellowship with God and under God's reign. But then the events of Genesis 3 take place. Genesis 3 answers the worldview question, “What’s the problem?” The problem is that evil has entered into our midst. Once evil entered the world, we lost the Seventh Day. We are no longer living in the realm God intended for us. We have lost the presence of God. Moreover, sin sets the gears in motion to reverse creation and bring chaos back. This brings us to the fourth worldview question, "What's the solution?" We see this solution first promised in Genesis 3:15. It tells us there that Eve's offspring would crush the head of the serpent, the originator of the evil:
Traditionally, Christian scholars have called this passage the protevangelium ("first gospel"). It is the first mention of the hope for a "solution." It hints that the mission of God is to destroy evil and thereby restore the reign of God to the world and fellowship with his servants. The rest of the Bible is the story of how God fulfills this mission. As we look closer at the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, we see that it talks about the "descendants" of the serpent and those of Eve. There would be two generational lines: a line which bears the promise of a redeemer, and another line which would be opposed to the promise-bearers. One day, a cataclysmic confrontation will happen in which a son of Eve will strike a mortal blow against the serpent, but at a price. This interpretation of the two lines is supported by Genesis 4, where we immediately find the confrontation between the two lines vividly portrayed. Cain rises up to kill Abel, his brother. Abel is humble and of the line of the promise-bearers, but he is persecuted by Cain, who is proud, arrogant and self-sufficient. The line of Abel does not die there. His brother, Seth, takes the place of the murdered Abel (Gen 4:25). Genesis deliberately contrasts the line of Seth in Genesis 5 with that of Cain in 4:17-18. There are three marked differences in the genealogies. First, many of the names in the two lists are similar, yet differ slightly. Second, the seventh name in each list contrasts evil with godliness. The seventh in Cain's line is Lamech, a man of pride and violence. In contrast, the seventh in Seth’s line is Enoch, a man who “walked with God.” Third, Seth's descendants are portrayed as living to vast ages while the ages of Cain's descendants are not even mentioned. Age was considered a sign of blessing In the ancient Middle Eastern world. The great ages of the descendants of Seth suggests that they were the bearers of the promise of Eve. We need to keep in mind that ancient genealogies in the Middle East did not simply present birth records; they were stylized to communicate a message. Genesis seems to be telling us that the families were similar, yet not the same. Something was wrong with the line of Cain. We return to the narrative. In Genesis 6-8, the wickedness of the human race increases and as it does, all creation comes apart. Remember, that creation is the reverse of chaos, so when sin overwhelms the human race, the waters of chaos return to cover the earth, just as if creation never happened (see Genesis 1:2). Yet, despite the return of chaos, a remnant remains. Noah and his family are in the Ark. The line of promise continues in Seth's descendant, Noah. By Genesis 9 -10, the line of Cain has been wiped out, but it is “reborn” as the line of the similar-sounding “Canaan.” As for the promise-bearers, they now continue in the line of Noah's son, Shem (the Semites). Genesis 11 traces the promise-bearers from Shem to Abraham. Once again, a genealogy appears and it depicts the great ages lived in the promise-bearing family. Again, this affirms that it is through Shem's line, the line of blessing, that one day the promise of Genesis 3:15 will be completed. When it is Abraham's turn to be the promise-bearer, God gives him an additional promise. Genesis 12:2-3 records it:
In this promise, God indicates that the promise of Genesis 3:15 would be fulfilled through the family of Abraham. The mission of God would be completed through a chosen people. This promise to Abraham is one of the most important verses in the entire Bible, and essential to understanding what the Bible is talking about. The rest of Genesis portrays how the promise lives on in the descendants of Abraham, but not all his descendants. Isaac is chosen, but not Ishmael. Jacob (also called Israel) is chosen, but not Esau. The promise of redemption will come through the family of Abraham, but not through the entire family. The Redeemer-to-Come will have a specific genealogy. And then we find the long story of Joseph at the end of Genesis. His story is there because he is a true symbol of what the Redeemer-to-Come will be like. He suffers unjustly at the hands of his own brothers, yet redeems their lives by his own forgiveness. Notice how these descendants of Abraham continued to be aware of the promise given to Abraham through the years (Genesis 17:2, 6, 8; 22:16 ff.; 26:3 ff.; 26:24; 28:3; 35:11 ff.; 47:27; 48:3ff.). Tracing the Metanarrative in the Rest of the Old Testament Exodus is the second book in the Old Testament. It describes how the Presence of God, which had been lost in the Garden of Eden, is restored to the descendants of Israel. It takes place in this way. The descendants of Israel entered Egypt where they eventually became slaves. The book of Exodus describes how God rescues them from slavery and calls them to enter into a covenant with him in which they would live under God's reign. In this context, God then instructs them to build a Tabernacle where they will experience the Presence of God dwelling among them. The chosen people are now a covenant people who live in God's presence. Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, in particular, describe their covenant relationship with God. In even more particular, the terms of the covenant are stated in Deuteronomy 28-30. There we read: if the nation follows God’s ways, it would experience blessing as God’s covenant people. But if the people refused to follow God’s way, they would experience curses and be driven from God's Presence. God raised up special servants who would be advocates for the covenant. These were the prophets. They were sent to warn the people what would happen if they rebelled against God. The prophets based their words on the warnings and blessings in Deuteronomy 28-30. The people tried to live under the reign of God. We say, "tried." Much of the Old Testament describes how blessing came when they trusted and followed God. But they often drifted away. One major turning point came when the people rejected the idea of living directly under God as their king. Instead, they asked for a human king, like the nations around them. So, God gave them a king, David, said to be a man after God's own heart. The idea was that God would continue to rule over the people, but this time through a godly king. This sets the stage for a third major promise that God makes in the Old Testament — one that builds on the promises given to Eve and Abraham. Now, God promises that David and his descendants would be the promise-bearers. The future Redeemer would be a son of Eve, a son of Abraham, and a son of David. This promise is initially given in 2 Samuel 7:11-13 ff. Within the context of this promise given to David, the prophets began to speak of a Messiah-King who would be born from David and who would bring the rule of God to the world (for example, Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Isaiah 7 – 9:7, Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2 and Jeremiah 31:31ff). After David died, the people eventually turned their backs on God and went into exile. This was in complete accord with the terms of the covenant in Deuteronomy 28-30. The Temple of God was utterly destroyed, the nation was driven away and the Presence of God was lost once again. It was like Adam and Eve being driven from the Garden all over again. Yet, when the nation went into exile, the prophets began to prophesy in earnest that there would be a restoration. The Presence would come back (this is the meaning behind Ezekiel's vision of a restored Temple in Ezekiel 40-48). But the Presence would come back in a way that no one ever could imagine. Many of the prophecies that we find about the Messiah in the Bible occur in these passages dealing with the restoration of the nation from exile. A restoration would happen, but it would exceed a national restoration. It would be a fulfillment of the promise to Eve and Abraham that the entire world would be blessed. Of particular importance are the prophecies about the Servant of the Lord in the "Servant Songs" of Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, 52:13 - 53:12). These prophecies concern how God would restore the nation of Israel through a Servant who would suffer and atone for sin (Isaiah 53). In the prophecies of Isaiah, the Servant at times appears to be the nation of Israel itself. At other times he appears to be an individual distinct from the nation. Yet, it is clear from the promise given to David that the Messiah-King is to be a son of David. The entire nation was not descended from David. Isaiah's Servant, then, must be a particular individual — someone distinct from the nation, yet one in whom the nation will find its identity. In terms of later developments in the New Testament, there is one more scripture from the Old Testament about the promised Messiah-King that is very important and should be mentioned. It is Daniel 7:9-14, where "one like a son of man" is described as approaching the throne of the "Ancient of Days": "He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and people of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed" (Dan 7:13-14). Some scholars say that this passage, again, refers to the nation of Israel. But New Testament scholars are generally agreed that Jesus, in calling himself the "son of man," had this passage in mind. Tracing the Metanarrative in the New Testament Matthew's Gospel begins by linking Jesus with the promises given to Abraham and David. In Matthew 1 we find a genealogy that traces the promised line from Abraham to David and then, after David's time, through the time of the exile to Jesus. It is telling us, "Jesus is the fulfillment of the long-awaited Messiah." The genealogy begins, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (NIV). But the word used for "record," geneseos, has a particular flavor in the Greek. It occurs in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, in Genesis 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 37:2, where it is used in place of the Hebrew word toledoth, which means “continuing history.” By using this nuanced word, geneseos, here, Matthew's Gospel is implying, “God’s plan is now continuing in Jesus and all that will follow from him.” Matthew roots the life of Christ in the promises given in the past, but then he also suggests that God's plan is still being worked out through those who will become Christ's followers. This is why Matthew ends with the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. These verses are integral to Matthew's concept of the "continuing history" of the story of Christ. The Great Commission is telling us that the "continuing history" of Christ is still going on in those of us who are his followers: Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." This really is just a re-statement of the promise originally given to Abraham in Genesis 12 — that the entire world will be blessed. It is fascinating how the language of the Great Commission, in Greek, also directly parallels the Septuagint Greek language of Daniel 7:13-14, about the "son of man" figure. The Great Commission is telling us, as we live under the reign of God in Christ, we participate in the line of promise ourselves. We become part of the biblical metanarrative, God’s Big Story. When we turn to Mark's Gospel, we find that it also presents the metanarrative, but in much a different way than we see in Matthew's Gospel. Here's how. Many Jews in the time of Jesus divided history into two distinct ages. The "Present Age" was understood to be the time before the Messiah came. It would be a time when the world was understood as being under Satan’s power. Sin, sickness and demonic power would be manifest. In contrast, the "Age to Come" would be the time of the Messiah, when the power of God would be evident and miracles, healing, exorcism and righteousness would prevail. The expectation was that there would be a sudden break from one age to the other. When Mark’s Gospel opens, it dramatically portrays this sudden break between the two Ages. There is a bold announcement that the kingdom of God has come, followed by a series of healings and exorcisms - displays of the power of the Age to Come. Mark is considered to be the first Gospel. The contrast in how it begins with the Old Testament is remarkable. Most of the Old Testament hardly mentions a case of healing and never mentions an exorcism. But then, Mark erupts with power. Mark is clearly saying that a fundamental shift in history has occurred. By reciting his stories of power, Mark is indicating that the Messiah has definitely come. His presentation is a metanarrative presentation. Luke also reflects the metanarrative. Again, he does so differently than is found in Matthew and Mark. In fact, Luke does the job in two distinct ways. First, he connects incidents in the life of Christ with the past history of the nation of Israel. So, Luke 4:16-21 is linked with Isaiah 61. Pentecost is linked with Joel 2. The early preaching of the apostles quotes from Psalm 2, 16 and 110. Stephen’s defense in Acts 7 recounts the whole redemptive history of the Old Testament in terms of Christ. And in Acts 15, the decision of the church is made with Amos 9 in mind. Secondly, and most interestingly, Luke (in his Gospel and the book of Acts) associates the personal experiences that his readers had with the Holy Spirit as a sign that they were participating in the Age to Come. Remember, these were largely Gentile believers who did not share in the national history of Israel. But they did experience the Holy Spirit in their lives. Luke’s point is that they experienced the Spirit because they were really sharing in the blessings of the Age to Come. They were participants of Eternal Life. In doing this, Luke connected Gentile Christians to the metanarrative. We can do something similar today for postmodern believers. John’s Gospel also presents the metanarrative, in a most remarkable way. He explains the coming of Christ in cosmic terms. He associates Christ, not just with Abraham and David, but with Creation itself (John 1:1-18). He presents a metanarrative framework that is truly broad in its perspective and that still speak to us as we try to understand the place of Christ in relation to the entire cosmos. Just do a good study of the "Logos" in John 1. In another significant way, John's Gospel also describes the full return of the Presence of God to the covenant people through the coming of Christ (see John 1:14). Christ is the Living Temple. From Christ flows the fullness of the Spirit of God without measure (John 3:34, 7:37-39). The Apostle Paul was a strong metanarrative thinker. We see this especially in his letter to the Ephesians. In Ephesians 3:3, Paul calls the metanarrative in Greek, "oikonomia." This is often poorly translated as "dispensation" or “administration.” Properly, it means "a master plan." Paul's point in Ephesians is this: God’s master plan of redemption is not for a single ethnic group, but is for all races and nations in Christ (Eph 3:8-9, cf. Eph 1). Together, they are the bearers of the line of blessing that we first met in Genesis. Paul calls this a mystery revealed, the final chapter disclosed in God’s Big Story (cf. Ephesians 1:9, 3:3-4, 3:9, 6:19, Romans 16:25-26, Colossians 1:25-27). He prays for the Ephesians to be able to grasp this Grand Plan of God (Ephesians 3:14-21). And he interprets his own apostleship as important in its fulfillment (Ephesians 3:1-13). Toward the end of the New Testament, several other examples of metanarrative thinking can be pointed out. The author of Hebrews, who is unknown, links the metanarrative to the Hebrew prophetic tradition. He does this throughout his book, but the way he opens his book is particularly beautiful: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (Heb 1:1-2). Finally, the book of Revelation completes the metanarrative of the Bible by showing the triumph of God over evil in the world. It provides full of glimpses of the blessings of the age to come. The final few chapters hearken back to the earliest words of Genesis. The tree of life and the presence of God indicate that the Seventh Day of Creation has returned and redeemed humanity has come to live in final peace and fullness in God's presence. God reigns. Chaos and evil is banished. So, the Big Story of the Bible draws to a close, with a final resolution to the Drama which sin caused. Thus, we have simply attempted to understand the biblical metanarrative by using metanarrative frameworks. Although all attempts at trying to describe the biblical metanarrative will have their weaknesses, the evidence seems to be there that the Bible, indeed, does convey a Grand Story. For Further Reading on the Biblical Metanarrative
I especially recommend Christopher J. H. Wright's book, The Mission of
God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative. The New Tribes Mission provides a practical example of how the biblical metanarrative applies to Christian work. Their video Ee-Taow! illustrates the power of the metanarrative in evangelism. Their "Firm Foundations" material adapts their metanarrative approach for postmodern societies. See their website at www.ntmbooks.com.
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Vaughn Roberts' book, God's
Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible is a simpler attempt. D.
A. Carson in his book The Gagging of God outlines the biblical metanarrative
in chapters 4-8.