Literary forms in the Bible
We have just looked at a
problem of language. We should also notice that in the Bible there are
different literary forms. Written language needs to be organized in ways which
can be clearly understood by the reader. There is poetry in the Bible,
following the traditional Hebrew pattern of parallelism or repetition in
different words of a thought. The following example comes from Psalm 20. 'May
the Lord answer you when you are in trouble! May the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from his Temple and give you aid from Mount Zion! May he
accept all your offerings and be pleased with all your sacrifices.' In this
example, each thought is repeated in a different way.
Many passages in the Bible
are written in prose, which can be extended into historical narrative, telling
of the exploits of leaders and rulers. In a book such as Leviticus, there are
long prose passages concerning detailed observance of the Jewish Law.
Many proverbs are found in
the Bible. In the New Testament there are letters and the unique form of the
Gospel.
These are some of the most
important literary forms found in the Bible. The form in which the language is
presented can affect our understanding of the passage or the book we are
considering.