Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ John

[Waffle Winner]

Help, I can't find a good answer about the Bible's narrator.

This morning, I read John chapter 4. Tired from his journey to Galilee, Jesus rests by a well and speaks with a woman about living water.
It's just her . . . and him.

How is the author, John, able to accurately capture the conversation, verbatim? There are many other places in the bible where no one is around yet conversations or inner thoughts are revealed.

Like in Judges when Samson walks by the lion that he previously killed with his bare hands and scoops out honey from it's carcass. No one was there! In fact, he later turns this into a riddle for 30 men, knowing that only he can provide the answer. How did the author, Samuel, know what only Samson knew?

Do we just take it on faith that each author was God inspired? Was Samson so noteworthy that his deeds became widely known? Or is it understood that there was some level of story telling added by authors in order to teach from parables, like Jesus did?

Note: this is a serious question. I wonder if it's reasonable to look at stories like Samson's as a parable rather than a chronicle of hard facts.

[jimwalton]

In John 4, the disciples were curious about the conversation and its results. We don't assume that John records everything that was said; we know for a fact and by admission that he did not (Jn. 4.41; 21.25). It's not a far stretch to assume that Jesus may have mentioned the conversation with all of the townsfolk, or that the disciples asked Jesus about their conversation and that Jesus told them. They all stayed there for two more days and many words were shared.

> Like in Judges when Samson walks by the lion that he previously killed with his bare hands and scoops out honey from it's carcass. No one was there! In fact, he later turns this into a riddle for 30 men, knowing that only he can provide the answer. How did the author, Samuel, know what only Samson knew?

First of all, we don't know that the author of Judges was Samuel. Samuel never claims to be the author, and the book never identifies an author. As far as we know, Samuel was not alive during the time of the judges.

So how does anyone know what happened here? Samson was a national hero of sorts. It was a small country where the tribes were in communication with each other. It shouldn't surprise us that the news of the acts of heroes would spread through the countryside. It was part of their tradition to tell stories in the community (oral history). And since Samson was quite full of himself and had a big head, it's an easy walk from him doing something to him telling about it. That's how I assume we know.

[Dobby]

Good explanation!