1. The Bible as Literature

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

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

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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. 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!

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

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

13. 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”

14. 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";

15. 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.

16. 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.