Literary genres in the Old Testament: poetry, narrative, and law

Bible is made up of variety of writing styles because over more than 40 authors wrote the Bible. The Bible is generally being regarded as a model for literary genre, and the literary genre describes the type of literature having similar content, structure and tone. The literary genre assists readers to understand the texts better. (Brent and Giese).

Objective of this essay is to provide the genre analysis of the Old Testament, which consists of:

Poetry,

Narrative,

historiography,

Prophecy.

POETRY

Poetry in the Old Testament is found in Psalm, Job, Proverbs, Lamentations, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. The poetry is written in sung and it is intensely emotional, worshipful and appeals to the imagination. Generally provide the rhetorical devices to communicate feelings and thoughts.

Poetry exists in many forms and marked by the rhythm generally find in prose. Psalms and Proverbs consist of largely of poetry, and the psalms are the Biblical poetry noted for their accent and parallelism.

Major characteristics of poetry in the Old Testament are as follows:

Characteristics:

The poetry generally illustrates Israeli's spiritual life;

Approximately 40% of Old Testament are poetic;

Three kinds of poetry are used in the Old Testament:

1. Lyric poetry is accompanied by music and found in the Psalms;

2. Didactic poetry, using maxims, was designed to communicate and illustrate the basic principles of life and generally found in Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes;

3. Dramatic poetry used dialog to communicate message in the Song of Solomon and Job.

The Book of Job illustrates Blessing through Suffering;

Poetry in the Old Testament generally lacks traditional tone found in English poetry;

Hebrew poetry is essentially and generally parallelism;

Much of the Old Testament poetry do not have subtleties through translation thereby cannot be appreciated;

The Hebrew poetry is characterized in Old Testament and is revealed in the Book of Job, Proverbs Psalms, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes;

Unlike English poetry, that emphasizes rhyme and meter, poetry in the Old Testament relies on its impact and Parallelism, which are the chief characteristics of poetry in the Old Testament.

The parallelism in the Old Testament is rich in the rhythm, figures of speech and imagery.

There are several types of parallelism in the Old Testament: Synonymous, Antithetical, Synthetic, Climactic, and Emblematic.

Similar to English poetry, the poetry in the Old Testament also uses similes, metaphors, and vivid images.

Law is a biding practice and custom within a community and the law prescribes the rule of conducts enforced by a controlling authority. Examples of laws in the Old Testament are generally presented in Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

Major characteristics of laws in the Old Testament are as follows:

Characteristics:

The beginning of law in the Old Testament is expressed in the Ten Commandment in Exodus 20;

Moreover, Exodus 20:22-23:19 contains absolute, moral, conditional, ritual and religious laws;

The materials that are presented from Exodus 35 to Number 10 have to do with laws;

The Old Testament assumes human behavior under Yahweh's authority;

Dillard and Tremper argue that the most significant occurrence in Exodus is giving of the law by God to emphasize the important truth;

The significant of the law in the Old Testament is that God made His powerful presence to Israel through law where He revealed His will through law;

The law in the Old Testament is divided into two parts: The Book of the Covenant and Ten Commandment:

1. The Ten Commandment is given in the Exodus 20: 3-17;

2. The first four of the Ten Commandment covers the Divine-Human relationships;

3. while the last six covers Human -- Human relationships.

However, the various laws in the Book of the Covenant is divided into four parts:

1. Exodus 21:2-2:16 that related to criminal and civil matters;

2. The Exodus 22:17-23:19 encompasses the varieties of topics on humanitarians considerations that are not generally enforced in the court of law;

3. More importantly, Exodus 23:20-33 affirms Divine promises to His people;

4. Finally, the Exodus 24:1-18 reveals the ritual ratification of covenants. Meanwhile, the Book of the Covenant ends with the call of Moses to mountain summit to receive the covenant treaty document.

The law represents a treaty, which God establishes with Israel, and Israel must fulfill the law before entering the Promised Land;

The law illustrates Israel moral life;

The treaty also reveals the agreement of the blessings for loyal to God and punishments for disloyal behavior;

There are over 600 laws and the three categories of law in the Old Testament that God instructs Moses are: civil, moral and ceremonial;

While the Old Testament Law is categorized as Word of God, however, not all laws are command to Christians;

Jesus repeated some laws in Old Testaments making the laws to be renewed and is respected by Christians.

NARRATIVE

Narrative is a recounting events that are chronological or containing a plot. Narratives are history of how God dealt with Israel and His Covenant. Through these dealings, we could learn how God intends to deal with us.

An example of narrative in the Old Testament is the story of Abraham in the Genesis 12.15. In the Old Testament, the narrative is generally found in the Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, and Judges. 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles etc.

Major characteristics of narrative in the Old Testament are as follows:

Characteristics:

Majority of Old Testament composes of prose narrative;

Narrative is the most literary genre commonly found in the Old Testament;

The narratives are the stories purposefully to retell the historical events of the past, which are intended to give direction and meaning for a target people in the present;

Prophecy is a narrative are stories of what God did through people;

The stories generally have direct and moral teaching because they record history;

The stories emphasize God's revelation and nature and teach in a way that no other literary genre could teach;

Narrative reveals that God is Heroic protagonist;

Some narrative stories are difficult to understand. For example, the narrative stories are not always revealing why and how God did things.

HISTORIOGRAPHY

Historiography is the term often applied to Old Testaments books and is based on the critical examination of the texts. The historiography also refers to the selection and synthesis Old Testament materials. The most complete list include Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ruth, Judges, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Chronicles, Esther and Ezra-Nehemiah.

Major characteristics of historiography in the Old Testament are as follows:

Historiography is a general term for Old Testament historical texts;

It illustrates Israeli's national development and life;

The Old Testament literature is ethological because it seeks to render account of the past and provide explanation of circumstance of the past;

Old Testament relates the past explanation or causes that actually took place;

The historiography in the Old Testament provides the past for the prime elements of self understanding of Israel;

Key to that understanding reveals Israelis relationship with God;

Israelite found Yahweh to be the ultimate explanation for their origin and present state;

History of Bible is written in ideological and theological purpose;

Biblical historiographers use the same style. (Williamson).