Orality Newsletter 9

Orality Newsletter #9: Telling a story verbatim or not? by Janet Stahl As we get more and more involved in the Bible storytelling, some questions frequently pop up. The debate over whether to tell a Bible story exactly as it is written in the Bible or to allow for changes is a good discussion point. In this newsletter, I have tried to address many of the issues involved in answering this question and most of these issues relate to the audience of a storytelling event. With written communication we pay some attention to the audience and so books are given certain layouts to appeal to the intended audience or insider words are not used if the majority of the target audience is not Christian. Bible background information is added to help those who have little exposure to the Ancient Near East information. The texts in children’s Bibles are greatly modified from the standard Bible. With oral storytelling, we have to pay closer attention to engaging the audience. We have to evaluate what will capture and hold their attention, what will appeal to them and aid in their understanding of the story and what will challenge them. Good storytellers research their audience and practice ahead of time and then constantly monitor the audience during the telling to make sure they are at least listening and hopefully engaged in the story. They are aware that a listener cannot go back and reread a section that he did not understand or that he is particularly interested in and wishes to reflect on like a reader of a story can. Storytellers hope that the audience is pulled into experiencing the story and will continue reflecting on the story after the experience. There are some general characteristics of a well-told story that contrast with a well-written story. Tellers tend to use shorter sentences and more repetition. They use direct speech more than indirect speech. And they use their voice, facial expression, gestures and movement to support the message. This means that many storytellers' notion of verbatim allows for wiggle room to include these characteristics.

“This means that many storytellers' notion of verbatim allows for wiggle room to include these characteristics.”

We have to remember that the listener is thinking in images and not focusing on individual words unless they are part of repeated phrase or crucial punch lines or response or command. So unless somebody is sitting with the text and comparing what the teller is saying with the written words or has memorized the story from a particular text, he will not notice these kinds of divergences from the written text. There are several other aspects of communication that a storyteller needs to consider that Bible translators don't (though writers of shorter sections of the Bible do). If the story they are telling is part of the larger story, they need an introduction that fills in the needed information. So for example, here are several options for an introduction of the Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath story: (the underlines show what I added for introduction purposes.)

Orality Newsletter #9 by Janet Stahl 

God spoke to Elijah, his prophet, and said…



God sent Elijah his prophet to warn King Ahab that He was causing a drought in the land. After giving the warning Elijah had to flee from King Ahab, who wanted to have the prophet killed. After some time, God spoke to Elijah again and said…



The King of the northern nation Israel and all the people no longer worshipped the God of Abraham and so God sent a drought to warn them. Elijah, one of God’s prophets, continued to worship the God of Abraham. One day God spoke to him and said…



Remember I told you the story of how the kingdom of David was divided after his son King Solomon died? Well this is a story that took place in the northern kingdom during the time of King Ahab, who did not worship the God of his ancestors and so God sent a drought to warn him.

A good storyteller will decide the purpose for telling the story and will construct an introduction based on the main point he has chosen for telling the story and also based on the background knowledge of the audience. Any number of points may strike or inspire the audience of a story; however a good rule of thumb among storytellers is that a storyteller can keep one main point in focus when telling the story. Of course, this main point can change from one telling to the next depending on what is happening the teller’s life and/or who the audience is. Another aspect of telling a story as opposed to writing a story is that the listening audience can process fewer proper names, unless they are well-acquainted with the people or places. Here is another rule of thumb for storytelling; a teller can keep only three people on ‘stage’ at one time. So a good storyteller might talk about Samuel meeting Jessie and his sons (a bunch of seven as a single unit) and not name each son. Along the same lines, a storyteller may pick and choose which place names to use depending on the audiences familiarity of the place. So for example the teller might choose to name only the land of Canaan when telling the story of Abraham following God’s call and not tell the village name, Shechem and the Oaks of Moreh. A good storyteller will consider the audience and whether or not the names will add validity to the story or will cause confusion. If the teller is hoping that the listeners will feel confident enough to retell the story to others, then the teller has to decide if the names will be too foreign and intimidating and if the listener is likely to remember the names. There are a range of opinions on this topic. Some tellers do not deviate at all from the written text and use their extra-linguistic tools to support the text. The challenges for the tellers using this style is to make sure the story is not so densely packed it is difficult for the audience to understand and that the presentation is not so stiff and wooden that the audience becomes bored and does not enter into the story. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those who add embellishments and explanations and contextualized interpretations to the story presentation. The biggest challenge for the tellers using this style is the possibility of miscommunicating the Scripture message. And of course there is a broad spectrum of tellers in between these two extremes. We have been urging our colleagues to follow the Bible text closely and yet to use the techniques that make a story engaging. We urge them to take the time to know the story well before they tell it publicly. To do this, a teller needs to not only understand the story in its context but also to practice, practice and practice with family, close friends or storytelling coaches, who also know the audience and who can give them well informed feedback. The feedback should help them make many of the decisions described in this message. I believe there is an appropriate time and place for offering a contextualized or embellished version of the

2

Orality Newsletter #9 by Janet Stahl Bible story that can bridge some knowledge gaps or especially challenge the listeners. I have seen this done best, when the embellished version is told juxtaposed to the telling of the story that closely follows the Bible text so there is no mistaking what the actual Bible story is. As always, I appreciate hearing your comments and learning from your experiences.

3