Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: For the next few days, instead of studying a specific Bible passage, we are going to step back and think about how we read the Bible, and what we should know to ensure that we read it correctly. If this sounds boring, it isn't. Today's initial definitions might be a bit dry, but when we start putting it into practice it really gets fun — and controversial. A side benefit is that you can tell people you're studying “Biblical hermeneutics”! To describe what genre means, instead of doing a lot of work, let's just quote Wikipedia: A Biblical genre is a classification of Bible literature according to literary genre. The genre of a particular Bible passage is ordinarily identified by analysis of its general writing style, tone, form, structure, literary technique, content, design, and related linguistic factors; texts that exhibit a common set of literary features (very often in keeping with the writing styles of the times in which they were written) are together considered to be belonging to a genre. Dog writing on a scroll, from an illuminated Bible Okay, that's pretty dull. In layman's terms, genre means what type of writing the author intends. History is a genre. A history book is (or is supposed to be) an account of actual facts that happened in the past. Prophecy is a genre. We recognize that prophecy gives actual events that the writer believes will happen in the future; but unlike history, prophecy generally does not tell plain facts, but uses metaphor, overstatement (called hyperbole by grammaticians), and often uses a kind of language peculiar to itself. Poetry is a genre. Genres overlap and have sub-genres. There is prophetic poetry, for example (i.e. Psalm 22). Each book of the Bible is labelled with a single overall genre, for organizational purposes (see list below). But often one type of book will contain verses or chapters of a different type. Exodus, considered an historical book, contains poetry: a long psalm spoken by Moses. Exodus also is full of law. Double genres — where a reader can read a passage in two completely different ways — are usually rare, but occur frequently in the Bible. Think about Exodus' account of the ten commandments. It is historical, because it tells how and when the ten commandments were given to the Hebrews, as a past factual matter. But we also read it as a current legal text; we take the ten commandments completely out of their historical setting and read them as rules of conduct that apply directly to us today. The books of the Bible are ordered in sections, according not only to chronology but also according to genre. Job, the 18th book, is much earlier in time than Esther, the 17th. In fact, Job is actually the oldest book in the Bible and was written before Genesis (although the first chapters of Genesis deal with an earlier period). The traditional divisions are sometimes a bit inaccurate; but everyone who talks about genre and the Bible knows them, so it is a good starting point: The Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers. While these stand together as the fundamental holy books of Judaism (the Torah), they encompass several different literary genres: primarily history and law, with sections of prophecy and poetry. The first 11 chapters of Genesis are unique in the Bible, and might be called “primeval creation history”. History: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. These are aptly named, as they are the history of the Hebrew people from @ 1300 B.C. to @ 360 B.C. Wisdom: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon. This is a catch-all label for the five books that don't fit anywhere else. Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Like the Pentateuch, the Gospels are primarily historical but include a wide variety of literary genres. History: Acts. Epistles: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude. These are grouped by their basic literary form — they are all letters — and are often subdivided by author (especially “Epistles of Paul”) or the intended recipient, such as Church Epistles (e.g. Galatians, to the church in Galatia), General Epistles (written specifically to be passed around, e.g. 1 and 2 Peter), and Pastoral Epistles (written as advice to a specific missionary, e.g. Titus.). Apocalyptic: Revelation.