Biblical Literature

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Biblical Literature

• 1.What does it mean to read the Bible as
  literature?
• 2.What is the Bible about?
• 3. How are we going to study the
• Bible?

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1.What does it mean to read the Bible as
literature?

• Its a product of the human mind.
• --The book is a collection of writings
• produced by real people who lived in
• actual historical times.
• --These persons used the languages native
• to them and the literary forms then
• available for self-expression and creating
• material that can be read and appreciated.

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• --The Bible is the common heritage of us all,
  whatever our religious beliefs.
• --It contains various literary forms, such as
• poetry, short stories, novels, and essays, .

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Comments on the Bible

• Theodore Roosevelt
• A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more
  than a college education.
• Others
• --The Bible has provided the core values of
  western civilization for many hundreds of years.
• --This book answers questions and explains topics
  by telling stories you can look up on your own.
  Many read it to build a foundation for their
  future grounded in the wisdom of the past.

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2.What is the Bible about?

• The structure
• --The Bible as an anthology--a set of
• selections produced over a period of
• some one thousand years.
• The Old Testament (39 books)
• The New Testament (27 books)

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• The Old Testament (39 books)
• timeline creation of the universe and of
• mankind to the end of BC
• subject history of Israel
• original language Hebrew
• The New Testament (27 books)
• timeline AD to the end of the world
• subject life of Jesus
• original language Greek

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• the authors
• --God inspired them from different
• countries, walks of life and social
• positions such as kings, shepherds, a
• doctor, a tax collector, and fishermen, at
• different times.
• --persons who gives expression to a subject,
• not an object, through the medium of
• language

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• The contents
• --Its contents evolved and came together as
• a result of activity by real people living in
• actual places over a period of more than
• thousand years of human history.
• --It does not have the kind of unity that we
• normally expect in a book from our own
• period.

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• --It contains genealogies, laws, letters, royal
• decrees, instructions for building, prayers,
• proverbial wisdom, prophetic messages,
• historical narratives, tribal lists, archival
• data, ritual regulations,and information
• about personal problems--a fascinating
• human document of enormous importance
• to the culture and history of the modern
• world.

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Main Theme--It tells about the creation of the
world, and Gods plan for all of the human beings.
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3. How are we going to study the Bible?

• Dos
• -- to understand What was the author trying to
  accomplish? How was this done? (their
• purpose and effect through literary devices)
  What can we learn from watching this author at
  work?
• --considering the relation between the
  authorship, history, the physical setting, etc.

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3. How are we going to study the Bible?

• Dos
• --to study the major types of biblical literary
  text prophecies, wisdom writing,etc.

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3.How are we going to study the Bible?

• Donts
• --not to comment on the Bible
• --not to impose a particular interpretive scheme
  or point of view on the Bible
• (whether the content is true or not, reasonable
  or not, moral or not, etc.)