Biblical Narratives: Setting and Egypt

Study Notes

The setting is a crucial tool in the hands of biblical authors, used to prepare readers for what's coming in the story.
Authors can use settings to evoke memories and emotions, generating expectations about what could happen in the story.
A good author will get creative with settings, messing with readers' expectations to make a point.

In the Bible, Egypt is a place where people end up due to bad decisions, but it's also a place of God's rescue and deliverance.
The first biblical story set in Egypt is about Abraham, who leaves the Promised Land due to famine and ends up in Egypt, where he denies Sarah as his wife and Pharaoh tries to marry her.
God rescues them, striking Egypt with plagues, and Pharaoh relents, sending Abraham away with wealth.
The next main story in Egypt follows a similar pattern, with Abraham's great-grandsons making bad choices and ending up as slaves in Egypt.

Biblical settings carry with them memories of previous stories, creating expectations for the reader.
When future biblical characters go to Egypt, the reader is expected to cringe, knowing it's a place of trouble and oppression.

The biblical authors can build up readers' expectations and then creatively mess with them, like in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus' family flees to Egypt for safety.
This subverts the expectation of Egypt as a bad place, showing how Jerusalem has become like Egypt.

Other biblical settings, such as Babylon, Moab, the Wilderness, and Bethlehem, also carry meanings and evoke expectations.
Sometimes, the setting isn't just a physical place, but a type of situation, like moving towards the east, which is often associated with trouble.

Time periods, such as forty, are often associated with stories of testing people's faithfulness.
Examples include Noah in the boat, the Israelites waiting for Moses on Mount Sinai, and Jesus' testing in the desert.
The reuse of these settings in the New Testament shows how Jesus carries the world from the garden, out of Egypt, and the wilderness, and into the new creation.

Setting is a crucial tool used by biblical authors to prepare readers for the story and evoke emotions and memories.
A good author can creatively use settings to mess with readers' expectations and make a point.

In the Bible, Egypt is a place of bad decisions, but also of God's rescue and deliverance.
The first biblical story set in Egypt is about Abraham, who leaves the Promised Land due to famine and ends up in Egypt, where he denies Sarah as his wife.
God rescues them, striking Egypt with plagues, and Pharaoh relents, sending Abraham away with wealth.
The next main story in Egypt follows a similar pattern, with Abraham's great-grandsons making bad choices and ending up as slaves in Egypt.

Biblical settings carry memories of previous stories, creating expectations for the reader.
When future biblical characters go to Egypt, the reader is expected to cringe, knowing it's a place of trouble and oppression.

Biblical authors can build up readers' expectations and then creatively mess with them, like in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus' family flees to Egypt for safety.
This subverts the expectation of Egypt as a bad place, showing how Jerusalem has become like Egypt.

Babylon, Moab, the Wilderness, and Bethlehem are other biblical settings that carry meanings and evoke expectations.
Sometimes, the setting isn't just a physical place, but a type of situation, like moving towards the east, which is often associated with trouble.

Time periods, such as forty, are often associated with stories of testing people's faithfulness.
Examples include Noah in the boat, the Israelites waiting for Moses on Mount Sinai, and Jesus' testing in the desert.
The reuse of these settings in the New Testament shows how Jesus carries the world from the garden, out of Egypt, and the wilderness, and into the new creation.