God is the ultimate author. The most amazing thing about His authorship is that the story He designs is our reality. Unlike any human author, He is able to form His characters from clay and breathe life into them. He has made us people who love stories, and He prepared us to understand the greatest story ever told.
We should consider all the storytelling tools that we inherited from Him and that appear throughout His message to us. He first created the elements—the sun, stars, earth, trees—that He would then use as symbols and that would serve as the basis for so many symbols in our own storytelling. He designed these to serve their symbolic purpose well. So when He describes us as trees or sheep or soil, we can delve deeply into those metaphors, understanding that He first created sheep and trees and soil with a plan for them to be symbols that help us see a specific truth.
In addition to metaphor, He uses tools like dramatic irony in His own story to great effect. We see dramatic irony used in stories anytime when we, the readers, know something important that characters don’t know, and we watch as they act in ignorance or eventually learn the truth. As we read, we can notice how God uses this device to heighten the drama, suspense, and interest of a scene.
Here are some examples of dramatic irony in the Bible.
- Joseph’s brothers in Egypt (Genesis 42–45): We know what Joseph’s brothers do not as we watch them interact with him, and we wait as he tests them and eventually reveals himself. Seeing the story from Joseph’s point of view and knowing his identity long before the brothers realize it increases the suspense and the poignant emotion of the entire reunion. Imagine if the story had been told from the brothers’ perspective, moving in ignorance and discovering with them the truth about Joseph’s ascension to power in Egypt. So much of the tension and drama would be lost. The lessons of forgiveness vs retribution are more powerfully displayed because of the dramatic irony.
- Job’s Suffering: From the very beginning of the book, all the way until its stormy conclusion, we know the cause of Job’s suffering. We also know how God has already assessed Job: “a blameless and upright man” (1:8). This knowledge gives us a unique perspective on his suffering that no other person—not even Job himself—has to evaluate the situation. This perspective helps us to sympathize with his suffering without judgment (unlike his friends) and enhances our theology of suffering through every painful step of the book as we watch his response.
- Caiaphas’s Prophecy (John 11): Irony permeates the debate between the chief priests and the Pharisees concerning their plot to kill Jesus in John 11 as it appears directly after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. (Your plan is to kill the man who has the power of resurrection?) John also points out the dramatic irony in his commentary on the high priest’s words:
“But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.’ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation” (vv 49–51).
Even in an extremely brief passage like this, dramatic irony highlights the ignorance and foolishness of the religious elite while revealing the sovereign will of God to speak through even a wicked man through the office he holds.
In each of the above situations, dramatic irony enhances our understanding and emotional response to the history we are reading. Dramatic irony has several effects, and it deepens our understanding of scripture when we notice them.
- Dramatic irony heightens our interest in and awareness of the details. For example, because we know that the disguised Joseph can understand his brothers’ conversation, we are drawn into every detail, viewing them poignantly through the eyes of someone who has suffered extreme betrayal and has the power to carry out retribution. We become more deeply invested in each part of the story and are more likely to notice every detail that could affect the outcome.
- Dramatic irony often heightens our anticipation. As we watch the book of Job, for example, we wait eagerly to see what will happen to Job. Will he show himself to be the righteous man that God described to Satan? Will he learn the reason for his suffering? What will happen to his friends who grossly misjudged the situation? Our knowledge gives us a different frame of reference and allows us to ask different questions from those the characters are asking as they live through the events. We eagerly watch to see if they eventually learn the truth.
- Dramatic irony creates sympathy for both parties in a test. Situations with dramatic irony often involve a test. The person with knowledge may be testing the other people in some way. For example, when Jesus joins the disciples on the road to Emmaus, He questions them about His own death and identity. When they fail to answer him accurately, He teaches them the truth about the Christ, and we watch to see what they will do with this teaching. If Jesus had revealed himself immediately, there would be no test. Their faith would immediately be sight, and they would have directly reunited with Him rather than confronting the darker questions they had been pondering (“we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel…” Luke 24:21).
A particularly beautiful aspect of this type of storytelling is that it helps us to sympathize with characters more. If there is a test, our knowledge places us in the point of view of the one giving the test. We already know that the disciples are talking with Jesus, and we will tend to see things from His perspective. But at the same time, we often feel strong sympathy with the one who is walking in ignorance. We can understand their pain or suffering more deeply because we see not only the challenge they are dealing with but also the aspects of the situation they are still ignorant of. We can put ourselves in their place and wonder how we would have responded, and our additional knowledge aids us in correct judgment of that response.
As we study God’s word, the story that He reveals about our redemption and rescue, we can benefit from analyzing how literary devices enhance that story and give us new perspectives. God is the ultimate author, and He has given His word for us to know Him and better understand this journey that we are on.
In fact, He has shared a unique perspective on that journey in that He has revealed the end of the story to us already. In the book of Revelation, He tells us what is coming, and He has given us promises that offer hope. This insight enables us to have an eternal perspective on the day-to-day choices we face here and now.
John describes what God has revealed about our final home: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’” (Revelation 21:3–4).
Paul tells us the end in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Let’s not walk around in ignorance like characters in a play. God has given us the perspective of someone who knows how the story ends. As we make choices and face tests, let us do so with an eye for how this is all playing out. We may not know what God is doing in each moment, but we know the character of the One who is writing our story, and we know how it will end. We can move forward trusting His promises for our future.
Recommended Reading
“Because Scripture is a collection of writings that spans 1,500 years, many literary styles are represented and each must be taken into account for the fullest understanding of God’s Word. Kristie shows you the immense value of studying the Bible literarily—that is, according to the literary style presented in a particular book, chapter, or passage.” (Amazon description)
Kay Arthur’s book on using notes in inductive Bible study is a classic! Her method is what gave me the first ideas for using different colors to highlight themes in Scripture.
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