distinctive about their mode of storytelling. “Scriptural” narrative is not necessarily better narrative—its characters purer or more highly developed, its complex levels of interaction with the life and mind of the reader somehow more sanctified. The stories of the Bible are “Scripture” (rather than just narrative literature) because their pages reveal God and thus carry authority. Through the narratives (as well as the other genres) we receive an utterly true picture of God, the primary actor in