Bob Hartman 
Telling Bible Stories [EPUB ebook] 
Tales to Tell Aloud

Part One – The Art of Storytelling
1. A Storyteller’s Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. How Stories “Work”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3. Retelling the Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4. Storytelling Tips and Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Part Two – Stories
The Old Testament
1. The Whole Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2. The Fourth Vulture (Genesis 21:8–21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3. A Wife for Isaac (Genesis 24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4. I Hear Them Crying (Exodus 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5. A Thousand Bricks a Day (Exodus 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6. But Pharaoh Would Not Listen (Exodus 7–14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7. The Tyrant’s Tale (Exodus 7–14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8. I Will Be Your God (Exodus 16–20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9. The Donkey and the Sword (Numbers 22–24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
10. The Walls Fall Down (Joshua 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
11. Ehud and Eglon (Judges 13:12–30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
12. Chariot Wheels (Judges 4–5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
13. The Fleece on the Floor (Judges 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
14. A Tale of Two Families (Samuel 1–2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
15. Goliath (1 Samuel 17:1–15a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
16. Good Idea. God Idea. (2 Samuel 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
17. Angel Food (1 Kings 19:1–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
18. Ahab and Jezebel – The Rotten Ruler’s Tale
(1 Kings 21; 2 Kings 9:30–37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
19. Water and Fire and Sky (2 Kings 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
20. Jars (2 Kings 4:1–7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
21. See! (2 Kings 6:8–23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
22. Athalia – The Wicked Granny’s Tale (2 Chronicles 22–23) . . . . 122
23. Everything but You (Ecclesiastes 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
24. The Passion (Isaiah 53:5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

25. Some Things I Just Don’t Understand (Jeremiah 1:5) . . . . . . . . . 131
26. King Nebuchadnezzar’s First Dream (Daniel 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
27. The Men Who Liked to Say “NO!” (Daniel 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
28. Dinner in the Lion’s Den (Daniel 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
29. The Runaway’s Tale (Jonah) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
The New Testament
1. Lights and Bells (Matthew 1–2, Luke 1–2:1–21) . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
2. Foxes, Fish Food, and Flying Things (Matthew 8:19–27) . . . . . . 153
3. A Table Story (Matthew 9:9–13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
4. Peter Walks on Water (Matthew 14:22–33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5. Two Answers (Matthew 16:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6. One Out of a Hundred (Matthew 18:12–14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
7. The Apostle Paul and Sir Isaac Newton
(Matthew 28, Luke 24, John 20, 1 Corinthians 15) . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8. So Sow! (Mark 4:1–20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
9. A Little Shining, A Little Sowing (Mark 4:21–32) . . . . . . . . . . . 169
10. Angel Surprise (Luke 1:26–38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
11. “Magnificent” – Mary’s Song (Luke 1:46–55) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
12. A Christmas Eve Service for Those Who Don’t Feel Like
Celebrating (Luke 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
13. Midnight – A Meditation for Christmas or Good Friday
(Luke 2:1–20, John 3:1–21, Luke 22) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
14. Old Shepherd (Luke 2:8–20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
15. A Night the Stars Danced for Joy (Luke 2:8–20) . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
16. Mary Went Looking for Jesus (Luke 2:41–50; John 19:25) . . . . 188
17. Hometown Boy (Luke 4:14–30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
18. Poor, Hungry, Sad, and Unpopular (Luke 6:20–26) . . . . . . . . . . .193
19. Having His Way (Luke 7:1–10, Matthew 8:5–13) . . . . . . . . . . . 195
20. Sowers and Soil and Seeds (Luke 8:1–14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
21. Glow, Moses, Glow! (Luke 9:28–36) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
22. Foxes, Funerals, and Furrows (Luke 9:57–62) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
23. Not a Story about Loving (Luke 10:25–37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
24. Buzz-y (Luke 10:38–42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
25. Thinkin’ ’bout Ravens (Luke 12:22–34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
26. Thinkin’ ’bout Mustard (Luke 13:18–21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
27. Thinkin’ ’bout Foxes and Chickens (Luke 13:31–35) . . . . . . . . . . 213
28. A Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1–7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
29. A Maths Problem (Luke 15:1–2, 8–10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

30. Just Waiting (Luke 15:11–32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
31. There Was an Old Woman Who Pestered a Judge
(Luke 18:1–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
32. Kids, Camels and the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:15–30) . . . . . . 224
33. He Was a Rich Man (Luke 18:18–25, 19:1–10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
34. The Anatomy of Faith (Luke 18:35–43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
35. The Ballad of a Little Man (Luke 19:1–10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
36. Three (Luke 22:54–62) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
37. Travail (Luke 23:26–49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
38. Women! (Luke 24:1–12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
39. Angel of Death and Life (Luke 24:1–12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
40. The Tree of Life, or The Tale of Three More Trees
(Genesis 3, Matthew 27:11–66) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
41. Three Men and a Fig Tree (John 1:43–51) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
42. The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1–11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
43. I Am the Bread (John 6:1–15, 25-29, Luke 24:13–35) . . . . . . . . 254
44. I Am the Good Shepherd – Three Sheep Stories (John 10:1–21) .257
45. His Towel (John 13:1–17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
46. I Am the Vine: A Communion Meditation (John 15:1–17) . . . . 262
47. Jesus Looks Down (John 19:1–37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
48. Make the Wind Blow (Acts 2:1–41) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
49. A Joke at Midnight (Acts 2:6–17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
50. A Visit to Lystra (Acts 14:8–18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
51. The Angel in the Storm (Acts 27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
52. Clouds and Crowds and Witnesses (Hebrews 11, 12) . . . . . . . . . 279
53. A Choosy People (1 Peter 2:9–10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282
54. Let’s Hear it for the Church! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Bob Hartman is a professional storyteller and award-winning children’s author of over seventy books. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but now lives in Wiltshire. He has been entertaining audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for over 30years with his books and performances, which bring together retellings of Bible stories and traditional tales from around the world with his own imaginative stories. His books are full of humour and insight, whilst his storytelling sessions are exciting, engaging, dynamic – and above all, interactive! The Lion Storyteller Bible is used in schools across the United Kingdom as part of a Bible project called Open the Book, and is regularly performed for over 800, 000 children in more than 3, 000 primary schools. He is well known for his hugely popular The Lion Storyteller collection, the Telling the Bible series, and the highly acclaimed picture books: The Wolf Who Cried Boy, Dinner in the Lions’ Den and The Three Billy Goats’ Stuff.