Literary Tools to Understand Deborah

Kathleen Nielson delivered a breakout message at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference titled “Judging Deborah: Letting the Narrative and Poetry Speak.” In her message, she laid out six basic questions to ask when studying Old Testament narrative utilizing Judges 4-5 as an example text. Narrative and poetic texts can be easily misunderstood, so Nielson encouraged the audience to relish Deborah’s story and allow her to speak from the text. 

Kathleen pointed out that, like all of Scripture, the text is meant to point others to the greatness of the Lord through both Deborah’s story and her song. The six questions offered a framework for understanding a narrative text and mining it for every ounce of God-glorifying truth that may possibly be uncovered.

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