Chapter XXIII: Part ONE

1. =Importance.= In order rightly to understand the Bible we must not only study it as a book of history, as a book of morals or ethics, as a book of doctrine, and as a book of devotion; we must also examine it as _literature_, and ascertain the different types of forms of literature shown in its pages. The literary study of the Bible is often of the highest importance. For example, the incident narrated in Josh. 10. 12-14, printed as prose in most of our Bibles, is shown as poetry in the Revised Version; and we all know that poetry is to be interpreted upon principles different from prose.

II. =Difficulties.= In the study of the Bible as literature two difficulties arise and must be overcome:

1. _The division into chapters and verses_, and the printing of the Bible throughout in the form of prose, forms an obstacle to the student of the Bible as literature. Suppose that every history of England, the poetry of Milton, the dramas of Shakespeare, and the romances of Scott were printed in the form of our Bibles--broken up into short paragraphs--what a hindrance that would prove to the understanding and the enjoyment of these works! Except in the Revised Version of England and America, that is the condition in which we read our Bibles. Only in the Revised Version can the Bible be read as literature.

2. Another obstacle is in the fact that in the Bible all the different _forms of literature are mingled together_. The prose has poetry here and there; history, personal narrative, drama, and lyric are all united in the same writings. We have Scott's prose and his poetry separate, Matthew Arnold's poems and his essays in separate volumes; but in the Old Testament all these forms of literature are found together, and generally more than one form in the same book. There are few books in the Old Testament that are either all prose or all poetry.

III. =Classification.= We may arrange the different kinds of literature found in the Old Testament under six classes, as follows:

1. The larger portion of the Old Testament belongs to the department of _History_. In its books we trace the early history of the world and the history through two thousand years of the Is'ra-el-ite people. This history may be classified as:

1.) _Primitive_ history, in the book of Gen'e-sis.

2.) _Constitutional_ history, or the record of laws and institutions, in Ex'o-dus, Le-vit'i-cus, Num'bers.

3.) _National_ history, or historical events, in Josh'u-a, Judg'es, Sam'u-el, Kings, and Ez'ra. Although in some of these books are many narratives more biographical than historical, yet nearly all these stories have a bearing upon the national history.

4.) _Ecclesiastical_ history, in the books of Chron'i-cles, which tell the story of the kingdom of Ju'dah from a priestly point of view.

2. Next to the history comes _Personal Narrative_ as a literary form in the Bible; such stories as those of Jo'seph, Ba'laam, Ruth, Da'vid, E-li'jah, E-li'sha, Jo'nah, and Es'ther; not historical, as the story of the nations, but personal, as the record of individuals. These narratives belong to the class called by scholars "prose epics," an epic being a work of narration, generally in poetry, as the epics of Homer, Dante, and Milton. The epics in the Bible are poetic in their thought, but prose in their form.

Blackboard Outline

I. =Imp.= The Bible as Hist. Eth. Doc. Dev. Lit. [Illust.]
II. =Diff.= 1. Div. chap. ver. 2. Lit. ming.
III. =Class.= 1. Hist. 1.) Prim. 2.) Const. 3.) Nat. 4.) Eccl.
2. Per. narr. J. B. R. D. E. E. J. E.

Review Questions

With what various purposes may the Bible be studied?
What is meant by the study of the Bible as literature?
Give an instance showing that this study is important
for the right interpretation of the Bible. How does
the form in which our Bibles are printed hinder in
the study of it as literature? What other difficulty
is met in the literary study of the Bible? How many
classes of literature are found in the Bible? What is
the department of literature most prominent in the
Bible? Name four kinds of history in the Bible, define
each kind, and give an example of it. To what class of
literature do the stories of the Bible belong? What
are the subjects of some of these stories? What is an
epic? Name some great epics in literature? Wherein do
these differ from the epics in the Bible?