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 “This means that many
sentences and more repetition. They use direct speech more than storytellers' notion of
indirect speech. And they use their voice, facial expression,
verbatim allows for wiggle
gestures and movement to support the message. This means that
many storytellers' notion of verbatim allows for wiggle room to room to include these
include these characteristics. 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…
2
 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
 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 3
text so there is no mistaking what the actual Bible story is.

As always, I appreciate hearing your comments and learning from your experiences.