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row in Greimas’s list focuses on reward or recompense relations. 周e sender gives
the object to the receiver, as a benefit, as a reward. But Greimas includes Propp’s
role of “dispatcher” under the category of “sender,” and “dispatcher” concerns a
role with more prophetic associations, namely, verbal commissioning. Finally, the
relation between subject and object is a relationship of desire that gives rise to
the main human intention and to a human project. 周at intention is what makes
the whole narrative go forward.
16
It is actually closely related to the sphere of
thought and plan, which has verbal and therefore “prophetic” associations.
We can perhaps a瑴empt to separate out a li瑴le more clearly various strands
in the total plot. First, a simple plot, uncomplicated by subplots, will generally
have a movement from purpose to action to result. 周e purpose is the purpose
of a “subject” to obtain a result, that is, an “object.” 周e subject may be a group
of people as well as an individual; and the object may be either a reward such as
a royal treasure, or a person such as the princess. 周e relation between purpose
and result structures the whole episode lying in between the endpoints.
Second, a plot may have phases that include planning, work, and reward. To
rephrase it, the phases are the challenge, in the “prophetic” sphere; the test, in
the sphere of kingly power; and the recompense, in the priestly sphere. Within
each of these phases we may anticipate interactions between characters, and in
these interactions the characters will characteristically play certain roles. If we
look carefully at these activities, we can make further distinctions beyond what
Propp or Greimas have done.
Let us start with the phase of the challenge. Here we may anticipate interactions
involving primarily verbal communication. Propp supplies the label “dispatcher”
for the person who issues the challenge. But there must also be someone who is
“dispatched,” who receives the challenge. Typically in Propp’s stories the person
dispatched is the hero. But we can see that there can be variations. To remind
ourselves that we are generalizing beyond what Propp did, we may introduce
some new labels, namely, “challenger” (for Propp’s “dispatcher”) and “challen-
gee.” A typical interaction may involve any or all of the moves in a three-move
sequence: (1) a situation or a formulation of desire impacts a challenger; (2) the
challenger issues a mandate to a challengee; (3) the challengee accepts or refuses
the challenger.
In the phase of the test, we may anticipate interactions involving primarily
power relations. One person sets up a test, and another is being tested. In Propp’s
stories, the person who initiates the test may be an opponent, namely, the villain,
or may be an aid, namely, a donor (the donor gives a gi晴 a晴er the testee proves
his worthiness). 周e person being tested is typically the hero. Once again we can
16. God the Father’s love, and Christ’s love for the church, are the final motivation for God’s
history of redemption.
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generalize, and speak about a “tester” (the person or the thing that is the problem)
and a “testee.” We can again anticipate a three-move sequence: (1) the tester
confronts the testee; (2) the testee struggles against the tester or the situation
formed by the tester; (3) the tester acknowledges victory or defeat, success or
failure, on the part of the testee.
In the phase of the recompense, we may anticipate interactions involving pri-
marily evaluation and the conveying of consequences. 周ere will be two parties
in the interaction—a “recompenser” and a “recompensee.” 周e “recompenser” is
a generalization from the role of the father in Propp’s analysis. We have a possible
three-move sequence: (1) the recompensee is evaluated by the recompenser;
(2) the recompenser issues a recompense; (3) the recompensee accepts or re-
pudiates the recompense.
Obviously we have anticipated the possibility of different roles than those that
Propp or Souriau or Greimas have listed. 周at is all right, because our categories are
general categories, “outsider” categories; they are not intended to match perfectly
with any one culture or any one set of stories. 周ey serve well if they clarify the
characteristic kinds of actions. 周ese kinds of actions are what they are because
human beings are what they are. Human beings have characteristic purposes and
characteristic desires and characteristic powers. And human beings are what they
are because they are made in the image of God. God is the archetypal speaker,
and therefore challenger; he is the archetypal controller, and therefore tester; he
is the archetypal source of blessing, and therefore recompenser. Human action
imitates divine action, even when it is twisted by the fall.
In many stories there are complexities. 周e categories that we have mentioned
so far do not eliminate the complexities, but rather offer only a very general
overview. Within a particular story, two or more different characters may play the
same role at different points in the story. At an early point, the donor becomes
a recompenser when he gives to the hero, that is, to the recompensee, a magical
object that will help him find his way or fight the dragon. At a later point, the
king is the recompenser when he gives his daughter in marriage. It should also be
clear that the same character can play two distinct roles at two different points in
the story: the king can be challenger when he tells the hero to go and rescue his
daughter. He can be recompenser when he gives his daughter in marriage. And
finally, a single character can play a combination role. 周e villain as tester may
confront the hero as testee, and in the confrontation verbally challenge the hero
to combat, thereby becoming a challenger.
We can see also the potential for embedding small narratives within larger
ones. 周e confrontation between the villain and the hero can be an extended
confrontation, which becomes a small story of its own. It may show the whole
story pa瑴ern of commission, work, and reward. Each of the Gospels has smaller
historical accounts within it: accounts of Jesus’ healings, his casting out demons,
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C# HTML5 Viewer: Deployment on ASP.NET MVC under Views according to config in picture above. RasterEdge.XDoc.PDF.HTML5Editor. dll. Open RasterEdge_MVC3 DemoProject, copy following content to your project:
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Chapter 24: Storytelling
and his feeding the 5,000. Each particular incident of healing has its own small
“plot.” At the same time, each incident fits into the larger account of the whole
Gospel.
We can make further distinctions if we like. If a challenger intends morally
to aid the challengee, we may call him a dispatcher (Propp’s term). If he intends
morally to hinder the challengee, we may call him a tempter or deceiver. Satan
appears in the role of tempter when he tempts Jesus in the wilderness (Ma瑴.
4:1–11). But Satan and Satan’s agents also appear in the role of tester, as when
Pharaoh pursues the Israelites at the Red Sea. A challenger may use mediating
objects or persons in his relation to the challengee. 周e mediating object can be
either a guarantee or a threat. Satan says, “All these I will give you, if you will fall
down and worship me” (Ma瑴. 4:9).
Testers may also be morally for or against the testee. 周e tester who is on the
side of the testee is typically a donor, who intends to bless the testee at the end
of the test. 周e opposite of this is the villain, who intends to destroy the testee.
Villains may enlist mediating objects or persons, who will be opponents. 周e bar-
rel thrown at the testee, or the lighted stick of dynamite, or the villain’s sidekick,
is an opponent. Donors may enlist helpers, either tools or persons (for example,
the person who becomes sidekick to the hero). In the Old Testament God acted
as a donor by providing helpers, o晴en human heroes like David, when Israel
was in distress.
Recompensers may recompense in two directions, reward or punishment.
周e recompense itself is a mediating object or person. (周e princess given in
marriage is the reward from the king, who is the rewarder.)
Using the Categories
Any particular story has details that will not be captured by these very general
categories. A story may have subplots, or distinct episodes, which show some of
the features in miniature. A story may have an inconclusive ending, or no end-
ing at all (see Luke 13:6–9). 周e categories serve their purpose if they alert us
to some commonalities that belong to many stories, commonalities both in plot
and in the functions of the characters. I have chosen the categories in a way that
also helps to underline the relation of human action to divine action.
17
17. For further indication as to how these roles fit into a larger linguistic framework, see Vern
S. Poythress, “A Framework for Discourse Analysis: 周e Components of a Discourse, from a
Tagmemic Viewpoint,” Semiotica 38/3–4 (1982): 277–298; Poythress, “Hierarchy in Discourse
Analysis: A Revision of Tagmemics,” Semiotica 40/1–2: (1982): 107–137.
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周e Story of Redemption
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
—1 Corinthians 15:3–4
r
edemption by Christ is a story. It is a story of something that really hap-
pened in history, in space and time. Because it is at the heart of God’s
purposes for the world, it is the one central story. So, in the end, all the other
stories about working out human purposes derive their meaning from being
related to this central story. We should not be surprised that the categories for
stories in general analogically reflect the character of redemption, that is, the one
central story. Let us consider the story of redemption in terms of the typical three
phases in a story: challenge, test, and recompense.
Challenge: 周e Opening of the Story
First, Christ is the challengee who receives from God the Father the commission
to save the world. A commission is implied when the Bible speaks of the Father
sending the Son: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son,
born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). “. . . the Father has sent
his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
According to Galatians 4:4, God sent his Son to be born, implying that the
“sending” takes place even before birth. 周e sending is a preincarnate exchange
between the Father and the Son. But the sending is also confirmed in time,
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Chapter 25: 周e Story of Redemption
particularly when Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist. 周e voice from heaven,
the voice of God the Father, says, “周is is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased” (Ma瑴. 3:17). 周at pronouncement might on the surface appear to involve
only a confirmation of the identity of the Son. But it alludes to Psalm 2:7 and
Isaiah 42:1, Old Testament passages that, taken in their larger context, anticipate
the coming of the messianic Son and servant of the Lord who will accomplish
the climactic salvation and deliverance of God’s people. So the “challenge” for
the Son’s work on earth is implicitly contained in the Father’s voice.
Test: 周e Middle of the Story
Second, Christ accomplishes his work. 周is work includes his entire earthly life.
God the Father is the ultimate “tester,” who sets out the situations in which the
Son works. Christ is the “testee.” 周e test concerns not only whether he will bless
the people around him but whether he will remain faithful to the work to which
God the Father has called him. 周e alternative, for Christ to seek his purposes in
an illegitimate way, is set forth by Satan in the temptation just before the begin-
ning of Christ’s public ministry (Ma瑴. 4:1–11).
周e test climaxes with Christ’s crucifixion and death. Here he is supremely obedi-
ent to the Father in the midst of supreme testing; he says, “My Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Ma瑴. 26:39).
“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more
than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that
it must be so?” (Ma瑴. 26:53). And a tempting voice continues, “If you are the Son
of God, come down from the cross” (Ma瑴. 27:40). 周e supreme paradox of the
Christian gospel is that victory comes through apparent defeat: “but we preach Christ
crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23).
周e villain in the whole story is Satan. But Satan has his helpers, namely, Herod,
Pontius Pilate, the soldiers, the religious leaders, and the crowd that shouts to
have Jesus crucified (Ma瑴. 27:21–23).
Recompense: 周e End of the Story
Both the crucifixion and the resurrection are recompense, but in two distinct
ways. 周e crucifixion and death of Christ are God’s recompense for sins; Christ
bore the penalty of sins:
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
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All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:5–6).
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live
to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Pet. 2:24).
周e resurrection and the ascension are God’s recompense to Christ for his
obedience:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, . . . (1 Tim. 3:16).
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross. 周erefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father
(Phil. 2:8–11).
It [faith] will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus
our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification
(Rom. 4:24–25).
For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
Christ is the last Adam. He accomplished what Adam failed to accomplish. And
Adam represented in himself the whole of humanity. Christ represents all those
who belong to him. So Christ’s work accomplished redemption with worldwide
implications.
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Many Mini-redemptions
周en the Lord raised up judges,
who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
—Judges 2:16
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble.
—Psalm 107:2
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
—Luke 7:50
I
n the Bible there are many small stories of small-scale “redemptions.” Yet
Christ’s work needed to be done only once:
But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and a晴er
that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly
waiting for him (Heb. 9:26–28).
Christ’s work is effective not only for those who believed in him while he was
on earth, but for all who are joined to him by faith, throughout the ages. 周us
he is the one mediator:
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For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given
at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle . . . (1 Tim.
2:5–7).
Mini-redemptions in the Gospels
What relation does Christ’s one accomplishment of redemption have to the small
stories of redemption in the Bible? When we read through the Gospels we find
many small acts of “mini-redemption.” Christ heals the sick, casts out demons,
and pronounces forgiveness of sins. All of these actions result in reversing some
effect of the fall. In that respect they are small pictures of the great redemption
that reverses the fall comprehensively.
Consider the healing of the leper in Luke 5:12–16:
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he
saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be
clean.” And immediately the leprosy le晴 him. And he charged him to tell no one,
but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing,
as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But now even more the report about
him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their
infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
All human diseases are to be seen as part of the suffering that comes as a
direct or indirect result of the fall. Healing of disease is therefore a small step in
the direction of redemption from the fall. Any healing anticipates the great and
permanent healing promised in the new heaven and the new earth: “He will wipe
away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there
be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed
away” (Rev. 21:4).
Leprosy as a disease is not an exception. In fact, it is an especially appropriate
example of disease, because in the Old Testament it makes a person ceremonially
unclean. Uncleanness is an outward symbol for the contamination of sin (Leviticus
13–14).
1
Healing of leprosy therefore stands symbolically for healing from sin.
周e extra directions about doing “as Moses commanded” (Luke 5:14) serve not
only to assure that there is an official religious record of the results (“for a proof
to them”) but also to remind readers of the symbolic associations of leprosy that
are built into the Mosaic law.
1. 周e laws concerning uncleanness had several functions within their context in Israel. I am
picking out one function that becomes particularly evident as we look back on the Old Testament
in the light of its fulfillment.
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