What is the Biblical Metanarrative?
The biblical metanarrative is the overall story-line by which we can understand the Bible as a whole.
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The biblical metanarrative is the overall story-line by which we can understand the Bible as a whole.
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If you were to read Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace and someone asked you “What is it about?” what would you say?
Many find the book to be confusing, with its many stories about individuals. It's only after reading all the stories and thinking on a higher level that we begin seeing what Tolstoy was trying to tell us about life and war.
Similarly, at first 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 represents a "Big Story," or a comprehensive explanation of many little stories. The biblical metanarrative is its overall story-line by which we can understand the whole Bible. It tells us that we were created to know God, but we lost this knowledge when sin came. In mercy God then chose a people to walk with him and to experience him through the centuries until God completely restores our lost knowledge of him in the coming of a Redeemer.
Why is this Important?
This is important because many people today, especially postmodern people, feel that there 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.”
If this is correct — that there are no true metanarratives that you or I can construct — then the only true metanarrative would have to come from God, the ground of our being. This is why, when postmodernists realize that there is, indeed, a Big Story that God has been telling the world, it speaks to them. This is why explaining the biblical metanarrative is important in Christian communication.
The magazine Christianity Today once ran an article 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 Bible's Big Story in her life:
"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 “myriads of ways.” They would see no central interpretive principle at all in the Bible.
Yet, if the Bible is the record of the self-revelation of God to the world, we would expect there to be a 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 this central interpretive principle of the Bible.
The biblical scholar F. F. Bruce argues as much in The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? ... “… 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.”
Jesus himself also believed in a biblical metanarrative. In Mark 1:15 he announces, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” In saying this, he indicates that God had a plan through history. The Kingdom of God has finally arrived and Jesus sees himself as the fulfillment of this plan.
Metanarrative Frameworks
Postmodernism reminds us that we cannot know something perfectly or definitively. This means that all attempts to describe the biblical metanarrative will be somewhat imperfect.
It helps to think in terms of metanarrative frameworks. A metanarrative framework is an attempt to explain a metanarrative, although not exhaustively nor in exclusion of other frameworks. Here are twelve frameworks which have been used to describe the biblical metanarrative:
1. The Incarnation
God's self-revelation to us reaches its highest culmination in the Incarnation. The "Word became flesh" in the Messiah. Everything leads up to this in the Bible, or from it.
2. The Two Covenants
The early church divided the Bible into two parts: the “Old Covenant” and the “New Covenant” to reflect the coming of the Messiah. The Old looks forward to his coming, while the New looks back on it.
3. The 'Two-Age' View of History
Similarly, many Jewish people in the time of Christ divided history into two segments: the “present age” (‘olam hazeh), which was the time before the coming of the Messiah, and the "age to come" (‘olam haba), which is the Messianic age. This metanarrative thinking is found in the New Testament (examples: Mark 10:30, Luke 2:25, Acts 1:6-8).
4. The Christo-centric Approach
In Luke 24:27 it says of Jesus: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." The Christo-centric approach to the biblical metanarrative relates the entire Bible to Jesus.
5. Salvation History
The Bible is the story of God's self-revelation to the world through a chosen people. The history of this relationship between God and the "chosen people" becomes a way to understand the biblical metanarrative. The major events in the story-line of this history are: Creation, the Fall, Abraham, the Exodus, Israel as a Nation, Israel's exile, the Coming of the Messiah King, and the Final Restoration. This history is often summarized in the words: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.
6. The Four Worldview Questions
A worldview provides an interpretive framework for understanding the world. According to the biblical scholar N. T. Wright, every worldview answers four basic questions: (1) Who are we? (2) Where are we? (3) What is wrong? and (4) What is the solution? The metanarrative of Bible can be understood in terms of these four worldview questions.
7. The Bible as Drama
We can also understand God's Big Story as a drama. Every drama revolves around a problem that needs to be resolved. In the Bible we see the elements of this drama as: Paradise Enjoyed, Paradise Lost, a Promised Restoration Made and Kept, Paradise Restored.
8. The Hebrew Prophetic Tradition
The longings of the Hebrew prophetic and sacramental systems find their fulfillment in Christ. The book of Hebrews, in particular, uses this metanarrative argument.
9. The Covenant Promises
The Bible records a series of covenant promises made to Eve, Abraham and David. It then describes how God honored these promises and worked through them to bring salvation to the world.
10. The Presence of God
The Presence of God had been given in Paradise, was lost in the Fall and is being restored in Christ. See Gordon D. Fee, Paul, the Spirit and the People of God (1996).
11. The Mission of God
The Bible describes the mission of God to redeem the world. Christopher J. H. Wright traces this theme in: The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative (2006).
12. The Kingdom of God
God's mission to the world results in the reign of God. See John Bright's Kingdom of God (1953).
_____________________________________
Many find the book to be confusing, with its many stories about individuals. It's only after reading all the stories and thinking on a higher level that we begin seeing what Tolstoy was trying to tell us about life and war.
Similarly, at first 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 represents a "Big Story," or a comprehensive explanation of many little stories. The biblical metanarrative is its overall story-line by which we can understand the whole Bible. It tells us that we were created to know God, but we lost this knowledge when sin came. In mercy God then chose a people to walk with him and to experience him through the centuries until God completely restores our lost knowledge of him in the coming of a Redeemer.
Why is this Important?
This is important because many people today, especially postmodern people, feel that there 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.”
If this is correct — that there are no true metanarratives that you or I can construct — then the only true metanarrative would have to come from God, the ground of our being. This is why, when postmodernists realize that there is, indeed, a Big Story that God has been telling the world, it speaks to them. This is why explaining the biblical metanarrative is important in Christian communication.
The magazine Christianity Today once ran an article 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 Bible's Big Story in her life:
"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 “myriads of ways.” They would see no central interpretive principle at all in the Bible.
Yet, if the Bible is the record of the self-revelation of God to the world, we would expect there to be a 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 this central interpretive principle of the Bible.
The biblical scholar F. F. Bruce argues as much in The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? ... “… 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.”
Jesus himself also believed in a biblical metanarrative. In Mark 1:15 he announces, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” In saying this, he indicates that God had a plan through history. The Kingdom of God has finally arrived and Jesus sees himself as the fulfillment of this plan.
Metanarrative Frameworks
Postmodernism reminds us that we cannot know something perfectly or definitively. This means that all attempts to describe the biblical metanarrative will be somewhat imperfect.
It helps to think in terms of metanarrative frameworks. A metanarrative framework is an attempt to explain a metanarrative, although not exhaustively nor in exclusion of other frameworks. Here are twelve frameworks which have been used to describe the biblical metanarrative:
1. The Incarnation
God's self-revelation to us reaches its highest culmination in the Incarnation. The "Word became flesh" in the Messiah. Everything leads up to this in the Bible, or from it.
2. The Two Covenants
The early church divided the Bible into two parts: the “Old Covenant” and the “New Covenant” to reflect the coming of the Messiah. The Old looks forward to his coming, while the New looks back on it.
3. The 'Two-Age' View of History
Similarly, many Jewish people in the time of Christ divided history into two segments: the “present age” (‘olam hazeh), which was the time before the coming of the Messiah, and the "age to come" (‘olam haba), which is the Messianic age. This metanarrative thinking is found in the New Testament (examples: Mark 10:30, Luke 2:25, Acts 1:6-8).
4. The Christo-centric Approach
In Luke 24:27 it says of Jesus: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." The Christo-centric approach to the biblical metanarrative relates the entire Bible to Jesus.
5. Salvation History
The Bible is the story of God's self-revelation to the world through a chosen people. The history of this relationship between God and the "chosen people" becomes a way to understand the biblical metanarrative. The major events in the story-line of this history are: Creation, the Fall, Abraham, the Exodus, Israel as a Nation, Israel's exile, the Coming of the Messiah King, and the Final Restoration. This history is often summarized in the words: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration.
6. The Four Worldview Questions
A worldview provides an interpretive framework for understanding the world. According to the biblical scholar N. T. Wright, every worldview answers four basic questions: (1) Who are we? (2) Where are we? (3) What is wrong? and (4) What is the solution? The metanarrative of Bible can be understood in terms of these four worldview questions.
7. The Bible as Drama
We can also understand God's Big Story as a drama. Every drama revolves around a problem that needs to be resolved. In the Bible we see the elements of this drama as: Paradise Enjoyed, Paradise Lost, a Promised Restoration Made and Kept, Paradise Restored.
8. The Hebrew Prophetic Tradition
The longings of the Hebrew prophetic and sacramental systems find their fulfillment in Christ. The book of Hebrews, in particular, uses this metanarrative argument.
9. The Covenant Promises
The Bible records a series of covenant promises made to Eve, Abraham and David. It then describes how God honored these promises and worked through them to bring salvation to the world.
10. The Presence of God
The Presence of God had been given in Paradise, was lost in the Fall and is being restored in Christ. See Gordon D. Fee, Paul, the Spirit and the People of God (1996).
11. The Mission of God
The Bible describes the mission of God to redeem the world. Christopher J. H. Wright traces this theme in: The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative (2006).
12. The Kingdom of God
God's mission to the world results in the reign of God. See John Bright's Kingdom of God (1953).
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THE BIBLICAL METANARRATIVE IN MORE DETAIL
Below, we combine these various metanarrative frameworks mentioned above to describe the biblical metanarrative in more detail.
Below, we combine these various metanarrative frameworks mentioned above to describe the biblical metanarrative in more detail.
CREATION
The Bible is written with the belief that God loves the world (John 3:16, 1 John 4:16). It regards Creation as an act of love, with God desiring to know and to be known.
Genesis 1 begins by describing Creation in terms of seven days. The structure of the chapter is based on two words in Genesis 1:2 — "formless" (Hebrew: tohu) and "empty" (bohu). Before Creation, everything is "formless and empty" — a chaos of nothingness. God conquers this chaos by first creating forms in Days 1-3 and then filling these forms in Days 4-6:
The Bible is written with the belief that God loves the world (John 3:16, 1 John 4:16). It regards Creation as an act of love, with God desiring to know and to be known.
Genesis 1 begins by describing Creation in terms of seven days. The structure of the chapter is based on two words in Genesis 1:2 — "formless" (Hebrew: tohu) and "empty" (bohu). Before Creation, everything is "formless and empty" — a chaos of nothingness. God conquers this chaos by first creating forms in Days 1-3 and then filling these forms in Days 4-6:
DAY 7: The chaos of nothingness is totally banished and God fully reigns.
The early chapters of Genesis concerning Creation are very important because they define the entire biblical worldview. In particular, they answer the four questions which define any worldview:
Who are we?
Where are we?
What is wrong?
What is the solution?
Genesis 1 answers the first two of these worldview questions in this way:
“Who are we?”
We come from and belong to God.
“Where are we?”
We are meant to know and to enjoy God in God’s Paradise. This tells us what is the ultimate meaning of life. We were created to live in the "Seventh Day" in a state of never-ending fellowship with God and under God's reign.
THE FALL
Genesis 3, which describes the Fall, answers the third worldview question, “What is wrong?” The problem is that evil entered into our midst and we lost the Seventh Day. We are no longer living under God's rule and have lost the presence of God. Adam and Eve, our archetypal parents, sinned and were banished from Paradise.
This brings us to the fourth worldview question, "What's the solution?" Genesis 3:15 provides the answer. The serpent, the originator of the evil, will be crushed by one of Eve's descendants:
(Spoken to the serpent)
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (NIV)
Traditionally, Christian scholars have called this passage the proto-evangelium (the "First Gospel"). It is the first mention of the hope for a "solution." It tells us that God's mission is to destroy evil and restore our relationship with God. One day, a cataclysmic confrontation would take place in which a child of Eve will strike a mortal blow against the serpent, but at a price. 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 from which the promised redeemer would come, and another line, influenced by the serpent, which would oppose the promise-bearers.
This interpretation is supported by the next chapter, Genesis 4, where we immediately find the two generational lines in confrontation. Cain rises up to kill Abel, his brother. Abel is humble and belongs to the line of the promise-bearers, but he is persecuted by Cain, who is proud, arrogant and self-sufficient and who is influenced by the evil one. Abel dies, but the line of the promise-bearers continues in his brother, Seth (Gen 4:25).
Genesis then deliberately contrasts the genealogy of Cain (Genesis 4:17-18) with that of Seth (Genesis 5). Ancient genealogies in the Middle East did not simply record births and deaths; they were stylized to communicate a message. Notice the marked differences in the two genealogies:
In Genesis 6-8, the wickedness of the human race increases and the "forms" and "fillings" of Creation begin to come undone. The nothingness of chaos returns as a flood which covers the earth (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 we read that the line of Cain has been wiped out, but it is now “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).
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM
In Genesis 11, we find another genealogy of the promise-bearers. Once again, their great ages, a sign of blessedness, are listed as it traces the promise-bearers from Shem to Abraham. The story then stops to focus on Abraham. God gives him a solemn promise, recorded in Genesis 12:2-3:
I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you. (NIV)
This promise to Abraham is essential to understanding the biblical metanarrative. Here, God indicates that the promise to Eve in Genesis 3:15 — the "First Gospel" — would be fulfilled through a chosen people, the family of Abraham. Living in a world that had lost its knowledge of the True God, Abraham and his descendants were chosen to know God, to preserve that knowledge, and to spread it to all the peoples on earth.
Continuing in Genesis, we read how the Promised Redeemer would descend from part of Abraham's family, but not from every part. Isaac is chosen, but not Ishmael. Jacob (Israel) is chosen, but not Esau. Each chosen generation had a sense that they were the promise bearers to the exclusion of others (Genesis 17:2, 6, 8; 22:16 ff.; 26:3 ff.; 26:24; 28:3; 35:11 ff.; 47:27; 48:3 ff.). The Redeemer-to-Come has a very specific lineage from Abraham through his descendants, Isaac and Israel, and then through Israel's descendant, Judah. Genesis 49:10 describes the promise to Judah in this way:
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Genesis 49:10
Finally, at the end of Genesis, we find the long story of Joseph. His story is there not because the Redeemer-to-Come would descend from Joseph but because Joseph portrays his character. Joseph suffered unjustly at the hands of his brothers, yet he also redeemed their lives by sustaining them and forgiving them. While the promise to Judah in Genesis 49:10 focuses on the power and the lineage of the Redeemer, the story of Joseph displays the Redeemer's character as a Suffering Servant. Indeed, this is why a Jewish tradition states that the Messiah would be both the son of Judah (Hebrew: bene Yehuda) and the son of Joseph (Hebrew: bene Yuseph).
THE EXODUS DELIVERANCE
The chosen family of Abraham became a nation, Israel. We may ask, "Why was it necessary, in God's redemptive plan, for the Promise Bearers to become a nation?" One answer is so that God could become known to the world as a king. Israel was meant to, "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples" (1 Chronicles 16:24). Israel was to display the reign of God by being a "kingdom of priests" and a "holy nation" - a different people having no king but God. But first they needed to experience God as their Redeemer and Deliverer.
Exodus, the second book in the Old Testament, describes how God delivered Israel, the promise-bearing family, from slavery in Egypt in a powerful act of redemption and judgment (ancient Egypt was at the height of its dominance). For this reason, the Exodus became singularly important in the historical memory of the people of Israel.
ISRAEL AS A NATION
Following the Exodus, the people of Israel met God at Sinai and received a covenant to live by under God as their sovereign king. They were also instructed to build a Tabernacle where they would experience the Presence of God. Adam and Eve, banished from the Garden, had lost this Presence. Now, God allowed his chosen people to experience his Presence once more.
The chosen people were now a covenant people living in God's presence. Leviticus, Numbers and especially Deuteronomy 28-30 describe the terms of this covenant. If the chosen people followed God’s ways, they would experience the blessings of the covenant. But if they refused to follow God’s way, they would experience the curses of the covenant and be driven from God's Presence.
The prophets of the Old Testament were God's advocates of the covenant — they were sent from God and reminded the people of the terms of the covenant. The prophets based their words of prophecy on the warnings and blessings found in Deuteronomy 28-30.
God ruled over Israel directly through these prophets, but one day the people asked God for a king to rule over them instead, to be like the other nations. So, God gave them David to be their king, but he was not to be like other kings. The kings of Israel and Judah were meant to rule in God's stead as God's vice-regents.
In this context, God promised David that the long-awaited Redeemer would come from his royal line and would be the perfect vice-regent. This promise is first mentioned in 2 Samuel 7:11-13 and was often repeated (Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Isaiah 7– 9:7, Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2 and Jeremiah 31:31 ff). So, the biblical metanarrative is based on three major promises: the future Redeemer would descend from Eve, from Abraham and from David.
THE EXILE
After David, we read of the histories of the kings of Israel and Judah. And, eventually, we read how the covenant people rejected God and went into exile, according to the terms of the covenant in Deuteronomy 28-30. The Exile was a re-enactment of the original Fall from Paradise. The Temple, which had been built to represent the Garden of Eden, even with pomegranates carved on its walls, was destroyed. The shekinah glory cloud, the Presence of God, which had come to the Temple, was taken away. The people were banished from God's Paradise just as Adam and Eve once had been exiled from the Garden.
THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH KING
When the nation went into exile, the prophets began to prophesy in earnest that there would be a restoration of the nation. Many of the prophecies about the Messiah in the Bible occur in these passages dealing with the restoration of the nation from exile.
Among the prophecies, Ezekiel foretold that the Presence of God would surely come back (for 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. A restoration would happen, but it would exceed a national restoration. It would be the final fulfillment of the promise to Eve and Abraham that the entire world would be blessed.
Of particular importance among the prophecies about the coming Messiah are the prophesies concerning 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 indicate how God would restore the nation of Israel through a Servant who would suffer and atone for sin (Isaiah 53).
Another messianic prophecy of importance is Daniel 7:9-14. It describes "one like a son of man" 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)
Many New Testament scholars agree that Jesus had this passage in mind when he called himself the "son of man." Daniel 7:9-14 also closely parallels the words of Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth after his resurrection.
After the covenant people returned from exile, their national restoration was only partially fulfilled. They were in the land again, but they remained politically weak and subject to other nations. They had no king, and certainly no king who was a son of David. They rebuilt the Temple, but the Presence of God (the Shekinah cloud of glory) did not return to it. It is during this time of disappointment and longing for the fulfillment of the promised restoration that the Christ came. The Gospels in the New Testament record this fulfillment in Christ.
Mark, considered to be the first Gospel, begins with a torrent of healings and exorcisms. This contrasts remarkably with the Old Testament, which rarely mentions any healings or exorcisms. Opening as it does, Mark's Gospel is clearly announcing that the age of the Messiah has come.
Matthew's Gospel describes the biblical metanarrative differently, in terms of fulfillment. Matthew 1 traces Jesus' genealogy all the way back to David and Abraham. In doing this, it is telling us, "Jesus is the fulfillment of the ancient promise of a Redeemer King." Matthew also mentions twelve times how Christ fulfills the Old Testament (1:22, 2:15, 2:23, 3:15, 4:14, 5:17, 8:17, 12:17, 13:14, 13:35, 21:4, 27:9).
Luke and Acts, both written by Luke, reflect the biblical metanarrative in yet another way. Luke follows a Christo-centric approach in interpreting the Old Testament. For instance, the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Luke 4:16-21 is linked to Isaiah 61. In Acts 2, Luke associates the coming of the Spirit with Joel 2. And Stephen defends himself in Acts 7 by recounting the whole redemptive history of the Old Testament in terms of Christ.
John’s Gospel begins by tracing the biblical metanarrative all the way back to Creation itself (John 1:1-18). Also, in another significant development, John's Gospel describes how the Presence of God, the shekinah glory cloud, finally was restored to the chosen people in the person of Christ. Christ is the Living Temple, who "tabernacled" among them, full of glory (see John 1:14).
The Apostle Paul wrote extensively about the biblical metanarrative. In Ephesians 3:9 he calls it "oikonomia" in Greek — a "plan." Paul is telling us that God’s master plan of redemption is for all races and nations to be included in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-12, 3:8-9). Paul calls this a "mystery revealed," that is, the hidden plan of God has now become fully known ... the final chapter in God’s Big Story has been reached (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, the book of Hebrews links the metanarrative to the Hebrew prophetic tradition, as seen in the words: "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" (Hebrews 1:1-2).
THE FINAL RESTORATION
Finally, the Revelation of John completes the metanarrative of the Bible by providing glimpses of the blessings of the "age to come" and showing the final triumph of God over Satan. The final few chapters hearken back to the earliest words of Genesis. The Seventh Day of Creation has returned. God reigns. Chaos and evil are totally banished. The head of the serpent has been crushed. And redeemed humanity has come to live in final peace and fullness in God's presence.
So, the Big Story of the Bible draws to a close, with a final resolution to the Drama which sin had caused.
The material above is but a quick overview of the biblical metanarrative. The book goes into much more detail. Click here for more information. GO TO TOP
The early chapters of Genesis concerning Creation are very important because they define the entire biblical worldview. In particular, they answer the four questions which define any worldview:
Who are we?
Where are we?
What is wrong?
What is the solution?
Genesis 1 answers the first two of these worldview questions in this way:
“Who are we?”
We come from and belong to God.
“Where are we?”
We are meant to know and to enjoy God in God’s Paradise. This tells us what is the ultimate meaning of life. We were created to live in the "Seventh Day" in a state of never-ending fellowship with God and under God's reign.
THE FALL
Genesis 3, which describes the Fall, answers the third worldview question, “What is wrong?” The problem is that evil entered into our midst and we lost the Seventh Day. We are no longer living under God's rule and have lost the presence of God. Adam and Eve, our archetypal parents, sinned and were banished from Paradise.
This brings us to the fourth worldview question, "What's the solution?" Genesis 3:15 provides the answer. The serpent, the originator of the evil, will be crushed by one of Eve's descendants:
(Spoken to the serpent)
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (NIV)
Traditionally, Christian scholars have called this passage the proto-evangelium (the "First Gospel"). It is the first mention of the hope for a "solution." It tells us that God's mission is to destroy evil and restore our relationship with God. One day, a cataclysmic confrontation would take place in which a child of Eve will strike a mortal blow against the serpent, but at a price. 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 from which the promised redeemer would come, and another line, influenced by the serpent, which would oppose the promise-bearers.
This interpretation is supported by the next chapter, Genesis 4, where we immediately find the two generational lines in confrontation. Cain rises up to kill Abel, his brother. Abel is humble and belongs to the line of the promise-bearers, but he is persecuted by Cain, who is proud, arrogant and self-sufficient and who is influenced by the evil one. Abel dies, but the line of the promise-bearers continues in his brother, Seth (Gen 4:25).
Genesis then deliberately contrasts the genealogy of Cain (Genesis 4:17-18) with that of Seth (Genesis 5). Ancient genealogies in the Middle East did not simply record births and deaths; they were stylized to communicate a message. Notice the marked differences in the two genealogies:
- The two lists share many similar, yet slightly different names. This suggests that the families were similar, yet different in character.
- The seventh in Cain's line is Lamech, a man of pride and violence. The seventh in Seth’s line is Enoch, a man who “walked with God.” This seems to be a deliberate contrast.
- Seth's descendants are portrayed as living to vast ages while the ages of Cain's descendants are not even mentioned. Since age was considered a sign of blessing In the ancient Middle Eastern world, the great ages of the descendants of Seth suggests they were the bearers of the blessed promise given to Eve.
In Genesis 6-8, the wickedness of the human race increases and the "forms" and "fillings" of Creation begin to come undone. The nothingness of chaos returns as a flood which covers the earth (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 we read that the line of Cain has been wiped out, but it is now “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).
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM
In Genesis 11, we find another genealogy of the promise-bearers. Once again, their great ages, a sign of blessedness, are listed as it traces the promise-bearers from Shem to Abraham. The story then stops to focus on Abraham. God gives him a solemn promise, recorded in Genesis 12:2-3:
I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you. (NIV)
This promise to Abraham is essential to understanding the biblical metanarrative. Here, God indicates that the promise to Eve in Genesis 3:15 — the "First Gospel" — would be fulfilled through a chosen people, the family of Abraham. Living in a world that had lost its knowledge of the True God, Abraham and his descendants were chosen to know God, to preserve that knowledge, and to spread it to all the peoples on earth.
Continuing in Genesis, we read how the Promised Redeemer would descend from part of Abraham's family, but not from every part. Isaac is chosen, but not Ishmael. Jacob (Israel) is chosen, but not Esau. Each chosen generation had a sense that they were the promise bearers to the exclusion of others (Genesis 17:2, 6, 8; 22:16 ff.; 26:3 ff.; 26:24; 28:3; 35:11 ff.; 47:27; 48:3 ff.). The Redeemer-to-Come has a very specific lineage from Abraham through his descendants, Isaac and Israel, and then through Israel's descendant, Judah. Genesis 49:10 describes the promise to Judah in this way:
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Genesis 49:10
Finally, at the end of Genesis, we find the long story of Joseph. His story is there not because the Redeemer-to-Come would descend from Joseph but because Joseph portrays his character. Joseph suffered unjustly at the hands of his brothers, yet he also redeemed their lives by sustaining them and forgiving them. While the promise to Judah in Genesis 49:10 focuses on the power and the lineage of the Redeemer, the story of Joseph displays the Redeemer's character as a Suffering Servant. Indeed, this is why a Jewish tradition states that the Messiah would be both the son of Judah (Hebrew: bene Yehuda) and the son of Joseph (Hebrew: bene Yuseph).
THE EXODUS DELIVERANCE
The chosen family of Abraham became a nation, Israel. We may ask, "Why was it necessary, in God's redemptive plan, for the Promise Bearers to become a nation?" One answer is so that God could become known to the world as a king. Israel was meant to, "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples" (1 Chronicles 16:24). Israel was to display the reign of God by being a "kingdom of priests" and a "holy nation" - a different people having no king but God. But first they needed to experience God as their Redeemer and Deliverer.
Exodus, the second book in the Old Testament, describes how God delivered Israel, the promise-bearing family, from slavery in Egypt in a powerful act of redemption and judgment (ancient Egypt was at the height of its dominance). For this reason, the Exodus became singularly important in the historical memory of the people of Israel.
ISRAEL AS A NATION
Following the Exodus, the people of Israel met God at Sinai and received a covenant to live by under God as their sovereign king. They were also instructed to build a Tabernacle where they would experience the Presence of God. Adam and Eve, banished from the Garden, had lost this Presence. Now, God allowed his chosen people to experience his Presence once more.
The chosen people were now a covenant people living in God's presence. Leviticus, Numbers and especially Deuteronomy 28-30 describe the terms of this covenant. If the chosen people followed God’s ways, they would experience the blessings of the covenant. But if they refused to follow God’s way, they would experience the curses of the covenant and be driven from God's Presence.
The prophets of the Old Testament were God's advocates of the covenant — they were sent from God and reminded the people of the terms of the covenant. The prophets based their words of prophecy on the warnings and blessings found in Deuteronomy 28-30.
God ruled over Israel directly through these prophets, but one day the people asked God for a king to rule over them instead, to be like the other nations. So, God gave them David to be their king, but he was not to be like other kings. The kings of Israel and Judah were meant to rule in God's stead as God's vice-regents.
In this context, God promised David that the long-awaited Redeemer would come from his royal line and would be the perfect vice-regent. This promise is first mentioned in 2 Samuel 7:11-13 and was often repeated (Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Isaiah 7– 9:7, Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2 and Jeremiah 31:31 ff). So, the biblical metanarrative is based on three major promises: the future Redeemer would descend from Eve, from Abraham and from David.
THE EXILE
After David, we read of the histories of the kings of Israel and Judah. And, eventually, we read how the covenant people rejected God and went into exile, according to the terms of the covenant in Deuteronomy 28-30. The Exile was a re-enactment of the original Fall from Paradise. The Temple, which had been built to represent the Garden of Eden, even with pomegranates carved on its walls, was destroyed. The shekinah glory cloud, the Presence of God, which had come to the Temple, was taken away. The people were banished from God's Paradise just as Adam and Eve once had been exiled from the Garden.
THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH KING
When the nation went into exile, the prophets began to prophesy in earnest that there would be a restoration of the nation. Many of the prophecies about the Messiah in the Bible occur in these passages dealing with the restoration of the nation from exile.
Among the prophecies, Ezekiel foretold that the Presence of God would surely come back (for 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. A restoration would happen, but it would exceed a national restoration. It would be the final fulfillment of the promise to Eve and Abraham that the entire world would be blessed.
Of particular importance among the prophecies about the coming Messiah are the prophesies concerning 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 indicate how God would restore the nation of Israel through a Servant who would suffer and atone for sin (Isaiah 53).
Another messianic prophecy of importance is Daniel 7:9-14. It describes "one like a son of man" 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)
Many New Testament scholars agree that Jesus had this passage in mind when he called himself the "son of man." Daniel 7:9-14 also closely parallels the words of Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth after his resurrection.
After the covenant people returned from exile, their national restoration was only partially fulfilled. They were in the land again, but they remained politically weak and subject to other nations. They had no king, and certainly no king who was a son of David. They rebuilt the Temple, but the Presence of God (the Shekinah cloud of glory) did not return to it. It is during this time of disappointment and longing for the fulfillment of the promised restoration that the Christ came. The Gospels in the New Testament record this fulfillment in Christ.
Mark, considered to be the first Gospel, begins with a torrent of healings and exorcisms. This contrasts remarkably with the Old Testament, which rarely mentions any healings or exorcisms. Opening as it does, Mark's Gospel is clearly announcing that the age of the Messiah has come.
Matthew's Gospel describes the biblical metanarrative differently, in terms of fulfillment. Matthew 1 traces Jesus' genealogy all the way back to David and Abraham. In doing this, it is telling us, "Jesus is the fulfillment of the ancient promise of a Redeemer King." Matthew also mentions twelve times how Christ fulfills the Old Testament (1:22, 2:15, 2:23, 3:15, 4:14, 5:17, 8:17, 12:17, 13:14, 13:35, 21:4, 27:9).
Luke and Acts, both written by Luke, reflect the biblical metanarrative in yet another way. Luke follows a Christo-centric approach in interpreting the Old Testament. For instance, the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Luke 4:16-21 is linked to Isaiah 61. In Acts 2, Luke associates the coming of the Spirit with Joel 2. And Stephen defends himself in Acts 7 by recounting the whole redemptive history of the Old Testament in terms of Christ.
John’s Gospel begins by tracing the biblical metanarrative all the way back to Creation itself (John 1:1-18). Also, in another significant development, John's Gospel describes how the Presence of God, the shekinah glory cloud, finally was restored to the chosen people in the person of Christ. Christ is the Living Temple, who "tabernacled" among them, full of glory (see John 1:14).
The Apostle Paul wrote extensively about the biblical metanarrative. In Ephesians 3:9 he calls it "oikonomia" in Greek — a "plan." Paul is telling us that God’s master plan of redemption is for all races and nations to be included in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-12, 3:8-9). Paul calls this a "mystery revealed," that is, the hidden plan of God has now become fully known ... the final chapter in God’s Big Story has been reached (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, the book of Hebrews links the metanarrative to the Hebrew prophetic tradition, as seen in the words: "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" (Hebrews 1:1-2).
THE FINAL RESTORATION
Finally, the Revelation of John completes the metanarrative of the Bible by providing glimpses of the blessings of the "age to come" and showing the final triumph of God over Satan. The final few chapters hearken back to the earliest words of Genesis. The Seventh Day of Creation has returned. God reigns. Chaos and evil are totally banished. The head of the serpent has been crushed. And redeemed humanity has come to live in final peace and fullness in God's presence.
So, the Big Story of the Bible draws to a close, with a final resolution to the Drama which sin had caused.
The material above is but a quick overview of the biblical metanarrative. The book goes into much more detail. Click here for more information. GO TO TOP
