The biblical narratives were read as factual and also as fictional texts during their history of reception. The biblical texts permit that insofar, as they are poetic in a specific sense: Mainly their purpose is not to describe facts of history, but to make clear the meaning of the past for the presence. In this way the events leave their historical contexts and become exemplary and universal. By formulating textual worlds, which are in contrast to everyday life, the narratives of the bible are getting media of ...