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Structural Analysis of Narrative. By Jean

Calloud. Semeia Supplements 4, Fortress
Press, Philadelphia/Scholars Press,
Missoula, 1976. Pp. xv + 108. \$3.95.

R. P. Carroll

Scottish Journal of Theology / Volume 31 / Issue 04 / August 1978, pp 389 - 390

DOI: 10.1017/S0036930600042472, Published online: 02 February 2009

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How to cite this article:

R. P. Carroll (1978). Scottish Journal of Theology, 31, pp 389-390
doi:10.1017/S0036930600042472

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 BOOK REVIEWS 389
the meaning that he gives to the verb from some examples of its
use by Josephus; curiously, despite extensive footnotes throughout
the whole book listing secondary material, he fails to provide us with
a list of the instances of the use of the verb with this meaning in
Josephus; in the few samples he does supply it is not linked with
'calling1 or any similar word. His failure to supply the evidence
means his exegesis cannot be checked. His assumption that Paul
has the pneumatikoi in mind in chapter 7 requires substantiation; when
preachers in a single sermon deal with a number of problems and
evils it is by no means true that the same group of people in the con-
gregation is being considered throughout. The congregation can
easily sort out in their own minds who is being criticised. Bartchy's
error here is methodological. However, none of this should be taken
to imply lack of admiration for the first part of the book and the full
and detailed way in which the author has discussed slavery; his
reading has been wide and deep and he has made an important
contribution to the pool of information about the social background
of Christianity in the first century.
ERNEST BEST (Glasgow)

Structural Analysis of Narrative. By JEAN CALLOUD. Semeia Supple-

ments 4, Fortress Press, Philadelphia/Scholars Press, Missoula,
1976. Pp. xv+108. $3-95.
ONE of the fashions in French culture since the decline of existentialist
thought has been semiology or structuralism. This structuralist
movement has recently begun to penetrate biblical interpretation
on the Continent. In this short book Jean Calloud, professor of
OT at Lyon and Grenoble, provides a brief introduction to the
structural analysis of narrative and demonstrates its application to
the temptation narrative of Mt. 4.1-11. The book was originally
published in French in 1973 and is translated by Daniel Patte, who
also provides a helpful preface (pp. ix-xv).
Part I (pp. 1-46) deals with the theoretical side of semiotics and
defines the aim of structural analysis of texts as a series of operations
performed on a text that bring a system or structure, previously
hidden, to light. Textual statements (lexies) are the end-products
of operations that produce the discourse. The analysis seeks to ex-
pose the network of relations present in and underlying the texts.
Calloud's exposition is based on the work of Propp, Barthes, and
especially Greimas, and in order to understand properly the closed
system or structured space that is a text it is necessary to go beyond
Calloud's brief analysis to the much fuller works of Greimas. This
390 SCOTTISH JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
section of the book is quite difficult and at times the jargon is too
abstruse to be helpful.
In part II Calloud applies his methodology to the temptation
narrative of Mt. 4 . I - I I (pp. 47-108) and it is here that the benefits
of the semiotic analyses of texts can really be seen. It is a very brief
analysis of the story based on the larger work of Louis Morin's
Semiotique de la Passion. Topiques etfigures(Paris, 1971). But at times
it is a brilliant handling of the network of relations, inversions, and
refractions present beneath the surface of the text. The goal of
this type of semiotic analysis of the text is 'to give back to the text
the possibility of speaking with its multifold voice' (p. 82). The
section on Satan, the anti-sender (pp. 79-89), is a particularly deft
handling of the text which displays some of the virtues of the
structuralist approach to biblical narratives. Some of the categories
used in the analysis belong to a metalinguistic level rather than to
the manifestation level (i.e. the text itself) but this factor is not
integrated into the exposition (merely stated on p. 84). The analysis
is an attempt to understand how the text functions rather than to
facilitate access to that to which the text refers and therefore con-
cerns itself with the reconstruction of the personages on the basis of
values not manifested but suggested by the general dynamics of the
text.
The structural analysis of literature is beginning to gain momen-
tum in biblical studies; therefore this introduction to its techniques is
to be welcomed as a guide. But the section on the theoretical aspects
of the method is an inadequate and, at times, unhelpful guide
because it does not clarify sufficiently for the reader who lacks any
prior knowledge of structuralism or the works of Greimas the com-
plex categories involved in the analysis. It is jargon-laden and very
abstruse jargon at that! A glossary of terms would have greatly im-
proved the book. But for the reader who is prepared for hard graft
and willing to read widely among numerous French studies, the book
could be a useful introduction to a movement that is going to con-
tribute significantly to biblical interpretation in the future.
R. P. CARROLL (Glasgow)

The Church before the Covenants: The Church of Scotland,

By WALTER ROLAND FOSTER. Edinburgh, Scottish Academic
Press, 1975. Pp. i-viii, 216. £5*00.
As soon as James VI began to take the reins of power into his own
hands he took one step after another to reinstate the bishops of
Scotland into something of their former state. They were restored