The Bible as Literature

Literary Forms in the Bible Mythic lit Legends Short stories Drama Poetry Allegory parable

Subject of all books: Man’s relationship with God Old Testament: vengeful god New Testament: merciful god

Mythic literature Mythic lit exposes a truth beyond history Truth rests on whether events make visible knowledge on a deeper level

First five books: Law In Hebrew: the Torah In Greek: the Pentateuch

Genesis: the creation and fall of mankind Mankind and world created by a Supreme Being Mankind is less than perfect and it’s our own darn fault! What happens in the world concerns God but man is a free agent

Exodus, etc. Exodus through Deuteronomy: Our tribal ancestors and the Patriarchs Attributed to Moses, but actually there were probably many authors Part of oral tradition “theophany” - a “showing forth” of God; revealing the power and “otherness” of God

Histories: Legends/Legendary figures Historicized fiction: these accounts use history but before the Bible was recorded, the oral tradition “shaped” these accounts, like legend. Fictionalized history: takes liberties with historical fact in order to express and preserve a culture

Writings Esther through Song of Songs: short stories; drama; poetry Wisdom literature: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs, Psalms

The Psalms: Poems and songs which praise God and commemorate events in the history of Israel 70 out of 150 credited to David Express the range of human emotion: joy, love, compassion, perplexity, sacrifice, anger, sadness… you name it, the Psalms express it. Some of them are really good at vengeance!

Themes in the Psalms: Penance and contrition Elegy Lamentation Praise Awe Despair

Poetic techniques used in the Psalms Iteration (listing) Personification Hyperbole Simile Parallelism metaphor

Parallelism: 3 types Synonymous parallelism: A parallel segment repeats an idea found in the previous segment. With this technique a kind of paraphrase is involved; line two restates the same thought found in line one, by using equivalent expressions. “Wash me from my iniquity/and cleanse me from my sin”

Antithetic parallelism Antithetic parallelism: By means of this poetic construction, the thought of the first line is made clearer by contrast - by the opposition expressed in the second line. Examples of antithetic parallelism may be found in Psalm 1:6: "The LORD knows the way of the righteous, / But the way of the ungodly shall perish";

Climactic Parallelism Climactic: the thought in the first line builds to the climax over several verses The first idea is slowly built up and developed. A good example of this is: Psalm 29:1,2 Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name.

Terms to know: Covenant – promise, contract, invioable Revelation – inspiration, “breath of God” Canon – accepted books Parable – a simple story meant to illustrate religious or moral principles. Apocrypha – books not included in Protestant bibles, but included in Catholic bibles.