The Bible is a collection of books written in different literary styles like
narrative, poetry, and prose.
Most of us are familiar with these kinds of literature.
Yeah, we all know a narrative when we see one, like The Hunger
Games or The Great Gatsby.
Most people can recognize poetry, whether it's Walt Whitman
or the songs of Bob Dylan.
Every day we're surrounded by prose in news articles or essays.
Now, all of these examples are modern American literature in that they came
from this time period and this region of the world.
But there's also medieval English literature from another place in time or
ancient Greek writings from this place in time.
Each time period and culture produces its own unique kind of literature.
In order to read the Bible well, we need to keep in mind that it comes
from this part of the world and was produced in this basic period of time.
What's unique about ancient Jewish literature?
Well, a key feature is that it lacks a lot of the details that modern readers have
come to expect in stories and poems.
This makes it seem really simple.
But actually, it's very sophisticated literature.
Every detail that is given matters.
That's great.
But the lack of detail means that stories are often loaded with ambiguities.
I mean, take one of the first stories, Adam and Eve in the Garden.
Where did this talking snake come from?
Why did God allow him there?
Why didn't Adam and Eve die on the spot like God said they would?
Who's this offspring of the woman who will destroy the snake but is bitten by it?
Yeah, so many puzzles in this story.
Some of these are questions that we have and that are not important
to what the author is focusing on.
But some of these ambiguities are intentional.
Intentional?
Won't that lead to bad interpretations, people filling in the gaps
with their own answers?
Well, that's a risk the biblical authors took in writing this way.
We all tend to impose our own cultural assumptions onto the Bible, but they
apparently thought the risk was worth it.
These oddities are really invitations into an adventure of reading and discovery.
What do you mean?
Well, for example, the strange promise about the offspring
of the woman crushing and being bitten by the snake.
That word offspring is a clue to pay attention to genealogies, which,
lo and behold, run all through the biblical narrative.
They trace the lineage from Eve all the way to King David, and his offspring.
In the New Testament, Jesus is connected to the offspring of this royal line.
Now, when you read the prophets, Isaiah connected this king
to the suffering servant who would die on behalf of his people.
Then in the Book of Revelation, there's this symbolic vision.
Can you guess? It's about a woman and her offspring.
It's Jesus and his followers who conquer the dragon by giving up their lives.
Yeah, so each part of the story there is loaded with ambiguities,
but altogether, it makes sense.
This is the literary genius of the Bible.
It forces you to keep reading and then interpret each part
in light of the others. This is feeling complicated.
I don't know if I can do all that.
You're actually not expected to notice all of this by yourself or all at once.
This dense way of writing forces you to slow down and then read carefully,
embarking on this interactive discovery process through the whole biblical
narrative over a lifetime of reading and rereading.
Okay. Meditation literature.
Yeah.
In Psalm 1, we read about the ideal Bible reader.
It's someone who meditates on the Scriptures day and night.
In Hebrew, the word meditate means literally to mutter or speak quietly.
The idea is that every day for the rest of your life, you slowly,
quietly read the Bible out loud to yourself, and then go talk about it
with your friends, pondering the puzzles, making connections,
and discovering what it all means.
As you let the Bible interpret itself, something remarkable happens.
The Bible starts to read you, because ultimately,
the writers of the Bible want you to adopt this story as your story.
So this ancient Jewish writing style, it must create unique types
of narrative and poetry and discourse.
Yes, and we'll explore all of those literary styles starting
next with biblical narrative.
