The Art of Biblical Performance: Biblical Performance Criticism and the Old Testament Narratives

Abstract

For centuries, the Bible’s essential identity as a book has been taken for granted as a self-evident truth by scholars and lay people alike. But should it be? Is the Bible a book? Well, it is, and it is not - it is much more than a book. For significant portions of its history, the narrative contents of the Bible were not primarily encountered in written form, but rather through embodied recitation by a performer or a group of performers, who incarnated the story before a live audience. Biblical performance criticism (BPC) is an emerging, interdisciplinary approach to interpreting the Bible that takes seriously both the Bible’s oral history and its vitality as the Word of God. It provides a process whereby scholars, pastors, and lay people alike can come to deepen their understanding of a biblical text through embodied performance.BR In this article, I argue that the cultural realities of ancient Israel combined with a reassessment of the biblical narratives from the perspective of BPC suggest that the art practiced by the biblical composers was not of an essentially literary character, but rather of a dramatic character, which came to expression in performance. The narrative texts contained in the Hebrew Bible are more akin to dramatic scripts than a purely literary form of writing. The ancient crafts of drama and performance are evident in the texts we receive. Embodied reenactments of the biblical dramas - through body and voice in space and time before a gathered audience - demonstrates the “living and active” character of the word(s) of God (Heb 4:12). The art of biblical performance is to show, rather than tell.BR Thus, I will argue that a fuller understanding of Israel’s performance tradition will lead to a greater appreciation of Israel’s dramatic and theological achievement. I will demonstrate this by applying BPC to the brief story of Moses striking the rock in the wilderness, found in Exodus 17:1-7. Embodied engagement with this drama through performance clarifies the conflict that drives the story; attends to the critical role played by dialogue, gestures, spacing, and tone of voice in shaping the theological affirmation of the story. Further, I will demonstrate how the bodies of actors responding to the stage directions embedded in the “script” reveal a surprising act of love on the part of God, which stands at the heart of the drama’s climax and resonates with the heart of Christian theology - a climax that will be missed if it is not seen.