|
by
Doug Ward |
John concludes his Gospel on a tantalizing note, implying that he has only
scratched the surface in reporting the deeds and words of Jesus. "Now
there are also many other things that Jesus did," he writes. "Were
every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not
contain the books that would be written" (Jn 21:25).
Here
John reminds us of something important about the Bible. Its narratives give
brief summaries of what was said and done, rather than exhaustive accounts of
events or detailed transcripts of conversations. Biblical narratives are what
scholars call "laconic," a word meaning brief or concise.
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Examples
from Genesis and Acts |
A number of passages give additional evidence that biblical narrative is
laconic. For example, Abraham in Genesis 20:13 confesses to Abimelech of Gerar that he has asked his wife Sarah to pose as his
sister "at every place to which we come." His statement suggests that
he had used this ruse not only in Egypt (Ge 12) and Gerar
(Ge 20), as already recorded in Genesis, but in additional locations as well.
A
second fascinating example appears in Genesis 26:5, where God tells Isaac that
"Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes,
and my laws." The terms for "charge," "commandments,"
and "statutes" also appear together in Deuteronomy 11:1, where Moses
uses them to describe the divine instruction that he expounds to Israel in the
book of Deuteronomy. This parallel language suggests that God gave more
teaching to Abraham than is mentioned explicitly in Genesis 12-22, perhaps
including commandments later recorded in Deuteronomy.
There
is a third example in Genesis 31:7, where Jacob reminds Rachel and Leah that
their father Laban "changed my wages ten times." His statement
implies that Laban continually practiced deception in his dealings with Jacob,
even beyond the examples already mentioned in Genesis 29-30.
These
three examples have a similar structure. In each case a laconic third-person
narrative is followed by a first-person statement adding new information to the
earlier narrative.1
This
special structure is not confined to the book of Genesis. In Acts 9:3-8, Luke
describes Paul's confrontation with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Then in Acts 22:6-11, Paul gives his own account of the event, adding details
to the original narrative about the time of day, the brightness of the light,
and what his companions saw and heard. Finally, in Acts 26:13-20 Paul recounts
the episode again, giving additional information about what Jesus said to him
during the encounter. Paul's retellings hint at how much was not mentioned in
Acts 9:3-8 and enhance that original narrative.
|
Comparing
Genesis 2:16-17 and Genesis 3:2-3 |
Keeping in mind the laconic nature of biblical narrative and the preceding
examples, consider one further example. In Genesis 2:16-17 God tells Adam,
"You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall surely die." Later, when the serpent questions Eve on what God
has said to them, she replies, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in
the garden, but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is
in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die' "
(Ge 3:2-3).
When
we compare these two passages, one difference stands out. Eve says that God had
told them not even to touch the fruit of the forbidden tree, a detail not
mentioned in Genesis 2:16-17. Usually it is assumed that Eve in Genesis 3:2-3
has added something to what God told Adam.2
Commentators
who make this assumption try to imagine why Eve would attribute to God a
stricter prohibition than he had given. Does her remark, for instance, betray a
feeling that God was being overly restrictive in withholding one tree from
them?
In
considering this possibility, we should remember that the Bible cautions
against making additions to, or deletions from, a commandment of God (Dt 4:2;
12:32; Pr 30:6; Rev 22:18-19). Doing so indicates a
disagreement with God, implying that one does not have complete faith in him.
The Bible says that "whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Ro
14:23).
One
can argue, then, that if Eve added to the prohibition that she and Adam
received from God, then she was sinning already, even before she was deceived
by the serpent. However, we read in 1 Timothy 2:14 that Eve "was deceived
and became a transgressor." In other words, her sin came when she was
deceived and ate the forbidden fruit, not beforehand.
There
are therefore problems with assuming that Eve in Genesis 3:2-3 added to God's
original prohibition. It is also quite possible that God told Adam not to even
touch the fruit, but Gen 2:16-17 does not happen to mention it. If this is the
case, we have another instance of the structure described above, with the narrator
using Eve's first-person remarks to convey new information about what God
previously told Adam.
This
example suggests that since the biblical narrative is laconic, we should be
wary of drawing conclusions based on what the Bible does not say. When the text
is silent on a matter, it is wise to consider all possibilities in light of the
entire witness of Scripture, keeping in mind the Bible's literary patterns and
structures.
1Jeffrey J. Niehaus
identifies and discusses this structure in When Did Eve Sin? The Fall and
Biblical Historiography, Lexham Press, 2020.
2Niehaus
surveys the history of interpretation of these passages in When Did Eve Sin?, chapters 2
and 3.
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