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The Bible contains several different types of literary genres, and employs many literary devices, such as euphemisms, allusion, imagery, and foreshadowing. So in order to be confident that you are fully grasping a passage, you need to understand these genres and devices.
First, what does it mean that the Bible is literature? Before I answer that question, let me quote a few literary passages from the Bible and encourage you to ponder how this material differs from expository or informational writing of the type we usually encounter in our daily routine.
May 5, 2010 · The Bible, as a unity in diversity, expresses its unique message in a rich variety of literary forms. The literature of the Bible is an aesthetically beautiful interpretation of human experience from a divine perspective.
- Narrative/ historical. The Bible contains narrative throughout most of its books. These report accounts or stories of events or people as they encounter God, sin against each other or live out their lives.
- Poetry. The Bible contains poetic literature, often found in the Old Testament in the form of Hebrew poetry. This isn’t purely poetry in the way we might understand it in modern literature today.
- Wisdom literature. This includes books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job. Proverbs comprises of many wise sayings that offer advice for different types of situations.
- Prophecy. Prophecy in the Bible often takes the form of oracles or visions. In these, the prophet reveals hidden knowledge of God and his plans. Prophecy appears in many books of the Old Testament.
The Bible has the highest claim to classification as great lit. It not only illustrates Thomas De Quincey’s distinction between “the literature of knowledge” (that which aims to teach) and “the literature of power” (that which aims to move); it also fuses these two elements into living unity.
Feb 10, 2017 · A literary approach to the Bible identifies and relives the human experiences that are portrayed and avoids reducing the Bible to a set of ideas. 7. Literature is an embodiment and incarnation of its subject matter.
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The Bible’s “genres” in the context of biblical hermeneutics mean the kinds of literature of a given book of the Bible. The Bible is rich with a variety of literary genres. Being familiar with the various genres helps us read the text more accurately.
