John 11: 38-44: Essential Elements Of Narrative Genre

The purpose of this paper is to show that the biblical passage contained in John 11:38-44 is a narrative genre and how identifying it as such affects the way the passage is interpreted. A narrative genre is a literary work that tells a story. Narrative genre has structure, which helps readers to interpret the story. Brief examples of narrative genres found in the Bible are given. Next, John 11:38-44 is described. Reasons are given explaining why the passage is considered a narrative genre and how this consideration affects the passage’s interpretation.
Essential Elements of Narrative Genre
A narrative genre is a type of literary work that tells a complete story. Tate defines narrative genre as “a sequence of narrated events.” As a complete story, all narratives have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The way the action, speech, and commentary are arranged defines the structure of narrative genres.
The book of
Like all narrative genres, the passage has a beginning, middle, and end. The passage has a dramatic structure. The structure of the story begins by introducing the setting, then follows with the rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The introduction and rising action reveal what is happening. Jesus is at a tomb to raise the inhabitant from the dead, but does not do so until the tomb’s opening is unblocked. The rising action also shows why this is happening. The people are showing their unbelief in Jesus’ ability to do this by refusing to unblock the opening. They can see no one alive is inside the tomb once they move the stone. This further proves Jesus’ command to Lazarus caused him to come alive again. The story climaxes with Jesus’ commanding Lazarus to leave the tomb. The falling action reveals Lazarus leaves the tomb alive. Finally, the story concludes with Jesus telling people to remove Lazarus’ bandages and to let him