Biblical Storytelling and recognizing rhetorical devices in Mt 20

I recently participated and presented at the Network of Biblical Storytellers International Conference, August 2025. If you are interested in the study and art of biblical storytelling, this is a great conference to attend. It is held annually (recently) at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, MD. I've been attending since 2007 along with my wife who is also a biblical storyteller and scholar. (see nbsint.org)

This year I presented on recognizing rhetorical devices and oral features in biblical storytelling. I could say recognizing rhetorical features in the text, but that is only part of the task. When we add the layers of storytelling as a live performance we must include multimodal communication and the five modes: spatial, linguistic, visual, gestural, and aural. Usually when scholars look at the text for identifying rhetorical devices they are only looking at the linguistic mode of communication. 

In this workshop, I told the parable from Matthew 20:1-16 of the kingdom of heaven being like a landowner who hires laborers. Matthew's Gospel is the only account of this parable, and some scholars are not sure what Matthew's intent was for including it in this Gospel. Not knowing the author's intent makes telling the story tricky. Yet, there are rhetorical clues in the story that suggest what it might be.

For instance, the landowner goes out early, at nine, at noon, at three, and at five in the afternoon to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. You could say the landowner was eager to have enough laborers to get the work done. Who would look for laborers with an hour to go? (I guess that's a rhetorical question.)

Repetition is a rhetorical device, that unfortunately gets hidden in written texts because it can seem redundant. But repetition is important to the audience to know what is important to the speaker and writer. While not in the text, the storyteller can add their own repetition, such as I dd, marking the landowner going out, hiring the laborers, sending them out, and where the foreman pays them. Repetitive gestures can also show contrast, which can also be a rhetorical device. 

When I told the part where the foreman paid the laborers hired last, who only worked an hour, I gestured as if I were handing out wages to each one (about 3 recipients) and them being excited to receive a day's wage for an hour's work. I did the same hand gestures when the laborers who were hired fist came forward. However, their expressions showed disappointment. So, repetition can also show contrast. 

There are several other rhetorical devices in this parable, but the last line is loaded. It is an epigram, but somewhat illogical (hypallage), and it is a chiasmus. When I gave that line, I move forward as to separate it from the parable and make it stand out as a takeaway. Then one of the audience suggested I use a hand gesture, starting with my right hand lower to represent the last hired, and my left hand higher to represent the first hired. And having my hands come to a level place. This suggests in the end that the first hired laborers were right, the landowner had made both groups of laborers equal. 

Perhaps Matthew included this parable to highlight the tension between what seems unfair and what seems generous. Life can often seem that way. Or, it could point to that side of us that doesn't celebrate someone else, or them getting a bit extra help. Does it matter if the last are first? Both are still getting paid. It's not fair for sure, but I don't think that's what this parable is about. 

There are other rhetorical devices to be found in this parable like aphoria (raising doubt), simile, and a parable is also a type of rhetorical device. 

Art by Eugène Burnand