ORALIZING Bible Stories for Telling

Back in the late 1980s when I was introduced to Chronological Bible Storying, it was to use Bible stories that someone else had already prepared and written out. The stories were for the most part paraphrased. The original stories had been prepared in a Filipino language and later back translated into English. I soon found that I not only needed other stories than those in the lessons, but also that I preferred stories that were closer to the original Bible wording. I have used the term “Crafting Bible Stories” for many years. This seems to raise problems for some who are new to Bible Storying. In recent times I have begun using the term “Oralizing Bible Stories for Telling” as it is perhaps a bit less threatening and more descriptive of what I do and why I do it.

In order to preserve biblical accuracy, verbatim wording of stories would be best. But this posed several immediate problems and more as I began to prepare and tell the stories through interpreters. I soon found that I was making some intuitive changes in story wording as I told the stories and learned from the experience of working through my interpreters and interacting with those I was training. In time I was able to adapt the Bible stories for fairly good understandability, first for my interpreters, and then for the listeners. Since I was working among oral communicators I had to learn the stories myself and then shared them from memory. Then missionary colleagues began asking about the stories I was using and where they could get a set of the stories. This meant sharing the list of stories that I had already chosen and sharing written copies of the stories that I had already adapted (oralized) for telling. At this point I was most interested in first communicating the stories in an understandable manner to my interpreters and through them to the listeners, and second in sharing the stories in a form that most of my listeners could remember and reproduce.

Verbatim stories would in one sense be best, but many stories were too long to easily remember to tell without memorizing the stories or having to refer to notes. There were some stories I needed that were not written in one scripture location, but consisted of story fragments that were in several locations, that could be related as an assembled or compiled narrative. What is the Bible, Creation of the Spirit World, and the Prophets’ Story of the Coming Messiah are examples of these. The easiest stories to tell verbatim were the parables and ministry stories of Jesus that were pretty much good to go as is. There are also many Old Testament stories that are very simple and easy to learn and tell in an interesting and understandable manner. An example is the time when Esau returned hungry from hunting and asked Jacob for some of his stew. Jacob asked for Esau to give him his birthright in return. The Cain and Abel story is a bit longer but fairly straightforward and relatively easy to remember and tell with good understanding (though it does often raise the question of why God rejected Cain’s offering)

Some of the stories contained many details like numbers and geographical place names that were difficult for listeners to understand and relate to the story. (1 Samuel 13 is an example) Literacy workers had suggested that we limit proper names to around three unless others were already well known from earlier stories. And there were exceptions like the list of Jacob’s children or the calling of the twelve disciples. So this was a general rule of thumb or guideline.

You will find concrete expressions used like: “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.” (Genesis 22:17) Large numbers are often meaningless to listeners unless compared or represented as some natural entity that expresses size or quantity. I know that I’ve heard Bible storyers telling how important and impressive numbers like the dimensions of the ark were to their listeners. This is fine if this is understandable or if it is explained before or after telling the story. But don’t be surprised if in the listeners’ retelling of stories that they leave out numbers that they have difficulty conceptualizing or feel is not important to the story.

And regarding character dialog I found it helpful always to include who was speaking to whom by using proper names and not pronouns. This was especially true in the four Gospels where the translators used pronouns in passages such as this from the Bartimaeus Story:

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him…. (Mark 10:47-50)

Replacing some of the pronouns with proper nouns:

When the blind man heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, the blind man began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call the man.” So the people called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! Jesus is calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, the blind man jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked the blind man….

I know this sounds redundant and wearisome, but after sharing the stories with people in oral communities, I found this to be really helpful. It became such a practice with me that I find that even now when I read aloud passages like this I find myself replacing the pronouns with proper names or nouns that describe who the people are. In those passages where there is dialog exchange between Jesus and his disciples, this is still helpful to clearly demonstrate who is speaking to whom. This substitution seems to be more a need in the Gospels than elsewhere.

A related helpful thing is to eliminate broken quotations where the dialog begins, then is interrupted to say who is speaking, then the dialog continues. In the story of the Rich Young Ruler we find these words:

“Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” … “Teacher, “ he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” (Mark 10:18, 20)

Reword to say:

The man asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” … “The man declared to Jesus, “All these I have kept since I was a boy.”

These suggested changes will make it much easier for the interpreter, if one is used, and for the listeners to follow the telling of the story by knowing who is speaking to whom.

While simplifying a story for telling, be careful not to remove the threads that help to hold the story together, that develop themes, and otherwise link parts of the story. In the Flood Story three times the story says that Noah did everything that God commanded him: Genesis 6:22; 7:5, 16. Obedience is an important theme in this story. You will find similar things in stories like the Visit of the Angels after the birth of Jesus: “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12) and “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in a manger.” (2:16) You’ll find similar threads in other stories like the Resurrection Story when the women were going to the tomb.

Another potential wording that it is good to consider oralizing is the name or appellation used for God. There are places where the story may switch between “God” and “the LORD.” This may or may not be a problem but could be confusing. In that 1 Samuel 13 passage the Israelites are also called “Hebrews.” Are these two different groups of people or different names for the same people? We know it refers to the same. But would someone hearing the story and not knowing this be confused?

Consider the need to telescope or shorten long stories. The Flood Story takes four chapters (Genesis 6-7-8-9) but can be told in somewhat shorter length. The Ruth and Naomi Story can easily be compressed and still preserve the full story accurately. One way to decide how to do this is to study the story by reading it aloud many times to learn it and then tell it only from memory. What did you keep and what did you summarize or drop out? These may be clues to what you should consider in oralizing the story for telling.

These have been suggestions gleaned from over 20 years of telling the Bible stories among many different kinds of mostly oral communicator audiences. I deeply admire those who can memorize stories verbatim and tell them well. Is this reproducible by listeners? It may be as there are peoples who have the uncanny ability to learn even long stories verbatim. I heard a tribal man in Thailand reciting the book of Genesis in a kind of chant. If you as a storyer have any scruples about rewording God’s Word then do what you are comfortable doing. But consider that even in the four Gospels wording of the same stories varies as told by different people. I would rather have someone in the oral world to understand an oralized story and be able to remember it and retell it than to have someone be able to recite a story that they do not understand.

I have more description of possible story formats and their advantages and disadvantages in the book Basic Bible Storying. This covers verbatim stories, crafted or oralized stories that can be story clusters (groups of related stories or that deal with a common theme), extended stories that have either or both pre-stories and post-stories added to provide a fuller account, enhanced Bible stories where details from several different accounts or locations are harmonized into one fuller account, compiled stories like The Spirit World Story that has many contributing passages harmonized into a coherent account, paraphrased stories, and recast stories. All of these have value and are useful to preparing and telling the stories from God’s Word.

Last thought, before you alter a story in any way, study it carefully so that you know it well, then pray for wisdom and anointing to prepare it for your listeners to preserve the intent and accuracy of thought from God’s Word and follow the Spirit’s leading. Test your stories with listeners, even test the verbatim versus the oralized accounts if in doubt.

J.O.Terry, Bible Storying Consultant & Trainer