Bible -- historical or not? Genres in Bible literature

Genres of scripture

Christians often think that the Bible is a lot like a history book -- it tells things as they happened, in order, giving just the facts. Some parts of the Bible are like that, but some aren't. They are still part of God's communication with us.

Genre: "A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content" - The Free Dictionary. (Pronunciation -- John-er).

The Wikipedia has an extensive list of genres found in the Bible. They include:

historical narrative

law

wisdom literature

psalms Many parts of the Psalms don't seem to be meant to be taken literally. 

From Psalm 23: are we really going to enter green pastures, and walk by still waters? Will we really sit at a table in the presence of our enemies? What is the valley of the shadow of death?

From Psalm 114: When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language, 2 Judah became his sanctuary Israel his dominion. 3 The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan as driven back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. 5 What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back? 6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs? (All scripture from the World English Bible, public domain, unless specified otherwise. Long quotations are in this color.)

apocalyptic literature (Revelation, much of Daniel)

the gospels: The Wikipedia list does not classify these as historical narrative. Other Bible scholars treat the gospels as mostly or entirely historical, although some parts of the gospels are prophecy, and some (Such as Mary's song in Luke 1:46-55) are poetry, or psalm-like. There is quite a bit of  non-historical material in the gospels. For instance, Nicodemus didn't understand the concept of new birth. Jesus, according to John's gospel, was (spiritually, not literally) the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the Door, the Good Shepherd, and the Way.

Some parts of the Bible are clearly some sort of fiction. See verses 8-15 in the story below (Jerubbaal is another name for Gideon):

Judges 9:1 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, 2 “Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”

3 His mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words. Their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and reckless fellows who followed him. 5 He went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone; but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together with all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. 7 When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice, cried out, and said to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees set out to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’

9 “But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I stop producing my oil, with which they honor God and man by me, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’

10 “The trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and reign over us.’

11 “But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’

12 “The trees said to the vine, ‘Come and reign over us.’

13 “The vine said to them, ‘Should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?’

14 “Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘Come and reign over us.’

15 “The bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’

16 “Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands 17 (for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian; 18 and you have risen up against my father’s house today and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother); 19 if you then have dealt truly and righteously with Jerubbaal and with his house today, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you; 20 but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from the house of Millo and devour Abimelech.”

21 Jotham ran away and fled, and went to Beer and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

Other parts of the Bible, including parts of the gospels, may have been either historical, or fictional. Was there a real prodigal son, or did Jesus just tell this story to show God's love? Was there a real Good Samaritan, or did Jesus just tell a story to point out that giving help to those who need, even if not from our ethnic group, is important? The parables make their point as well if they are narratives of something that really happened, or were told as fictional stories with an important meaning. Some parts of the gospels are clearly meant as non-historical. Nicodemus asked if a person could be physically born again. He missed the point. Jesus said that He was the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd, and the Bread of Life, in John's gospel. He said that the Holy Spirit was living water. These descriptions were not meant to be taken as history.

Not all Bible scholars would agree with the Wikipedia's list of genres, or would agree with which Bible parts are of which genre.

In a later post, I hope to discuss the interpretation of Genesis 1-2.

Thanks for reading! Please comment, if you can figure out how to do so.

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 48

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

‘Because of his importunity;’ Or, The Boldness of God’s Friends.
‘And He said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’ and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not:  the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.  I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.’—Luke xi.5-8.

THE first teaching to His disciples was given by our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. It was near a year later that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.  In answer He gave them a second time the Lord’s Prayer, so teaching them what to pray. He then speaks of how they ought to pray, and repeats what he formerly said of God’s Fatherliness and the certainty of an answer.  But in between He adds the beautiful parable of the friend at midnight, to teach them the two fold lesson, that God does not only want us to pray for ourselves, but for the perishing around us, and that in such intercession great boldness of entreaty is often needful, and always lawful, yea, pleasing to God.

The parable is a perfect storehouse of instruction in regard to true intercession.  There is, first, the love which seeks to help the needy around us: ‘my friend is come to me.’ Then the need which urges to the cry ‘I have nothing to set before him.’ Then follows the confidence that help is to be had:  ‘which of you shall have a friend, and say, Friend, lend me three loaves.’ Then comes the unexpected refusal: ‘I cannot rise and give thee.’ Then again the perseverance that takes no refusal: ‘because of his importunity.’ And lastly, the reward of such prayer:  ‘he will give him as many as he needeth.’  A wonderful setting forth of the way of prayer and faith in which the blessing of God has so often been sought and found.

Sunspots 685

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: (Or Philosophy, or something) David Brooks, of the New York Times, tells us that there has been a cultural contest between Athens and Jerusalem, or myths versus parables, for a long time. He describes the characteristics of each, and the virtues that they celebrate. One amazing statistic: three times as many people watched a video gaming event than watched the recent Super Bowl. I thank one of my brothers for pointing me to this article.

Christianity: Christianity Today reports on a study that indicates that people are more likely to change churches because of changes in doctrine in the church than because of pastoral change, or music change.

(and politics) A number of Christian leaders, including the President of the National Association of Evangelicals, an official of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a spokeswoman for The Wesleyan Church, and others, issued a statement on immigration on July 3. "America can be great only if we are good." And, being "good" includes treating immigrants in a Christ-like manner. 
Food: ListVerse tells us how 10 popular foods, including potato chips and ice cream cones, were invented by accident.

Health: Gizmodo suggests that we not use spray sunscreen.

Gizmodo also reports that a government study says most of us don't wash our hands properly.

Humor: (And Food) NPR reports on a mostly friendly Twitter war between the Departments of Agriculture of South Carolina and Georgia over which state grows the most, and best, peaches.


Politics: National Public Radio and many other sources report that Scott Pruitt has resigned as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency. His acting replacement is an energy lobbyist. Sigh. Pruitt did several questionable things, and seemed determined to tear down environmental protections. See also Gizmodo. FiveThirtyEight says that President Trump's cabinet has had more changes than any President's in 40 years. Scientific American reports on Andrew Wheeler, the acting head of the EPA, who must be approved by the Senate to take that office.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the politics of abortion. Not all Republicans are anti-abortion, and not all Democrats are pro-abortion.

Science: NPR reports on how some farmers are creating places for bees, other than honeybees, to live. They pollinate alfalfa, an important food for cows. There are signs up, in certain areas of Washington State, requiring drivers to slow to 20 mph, so as not to kill bees crossing roads.

Sports: Steve Hartman, of CBS News, reports on a high school athlete who was put on the swimming team, even though he couldn't swim, and how the young man fared, and what he thinks of failure.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 377

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science:  Wired reports on giant fossilized sperm -- from water fleas.

Sports: Wired on the massive anti-drug use efforts at the Olympics.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware tells us that you can use Skype to let someone in another location see your computer's desktop. This may help in solving computer problems.

Christianity: Ken Schenck has been posting on interpreting the Bible. In a recent post in his series, he wrote: "For example, we have no reason to believe that the Parable of the Prodigal Son or the Parable of the Good Samaritan ever actually happened.  They are parables, not historical stories. Yet they are as true as any history book."

Image source (public domain)

Fantastic Literature - E. Stephen Burnett points out how the Bible supports it, part 2

In a previous post, I briefly described the Biblical arguments of E. Stephen Burnett, who claims that, first, Christians can produce fiction, and, second, that that fiction can be fantastic, even have elements of paganism in it. (If you wish to skip my post, and go directly to Burnett, go here and here. But I did more than just point to Burnett.)

Burnett has now gone further, claiming that, first, story-telling was a critical part of the ministry of Jesus, and, second, that at least some of the parables of Jesus were fictional. Burnett's claims are based on what the Bible says about the parables.

Thanks for reading. Read Burnett.