How to Read the Bible as Literature

Author: Leland Ryken
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
ISBN: 0310536332
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Why the Good Book Is a Great Read If you want to rightly understand the Bible, you must begin by recognizing what it is: a composite of literary styles. It is meant to be read, not just interpreted. The Bible’s truths are embedded like jewels in the rich strata of story and poetry, metaphor and proverb, parable and letter, satire and symbolism. Paying attention to the literary form of a passage will help you understand the meaning and truth of that passage. How to Read the Bible as Literature takes you through the various literary forms used by the biblical authors. This book will help you read the Bible with renewed appreciation and excitement and gain a more profound grasp of its truths. Designed for maximum clarity and usefulness, How to Read the Bible as Literature includes * sidebar captions to enhance organization * wide margins ideal for note taking * suggestions for further reading * appendix: "The Allegorical Nature of the Parables" * indexes of persons and subjects

Reading the Bible as Literature

Author: Jeanie C. Crain
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745635083
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
This book provides the ideal entry-point to the process of reading, understanding, and assessing what many recognize to be the important and powerful literature of the Bible. The book introduces the tools of literary analysis, including: language and style, the formal structures of genre, character study, and thematic analysis.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments

Author: Bruce Manning Metzger
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 2164

Book Description
Edited by Bruce Manning Metzger and Roland E. Murphy Detailed, updated annotations Extensive essays and book introductions Outlines Textual notes Footnotes Larger pages with wide margins 36 pages of full-color maps with Index Essay by Metzger on how to use Annotated Bible Imprintable Smyth-sewn 7 x 9 3/8 % Font size: 10

Symbols and Reality

Author: Leland Ryken
Publisher: Lexham Press
ISBN: 1683591631
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Book Description
This is the fifth of a six-volume series called Reading the Bible as Literature. In this volume, the author not only explores the intersection of the Bible and literature, but he also shows pastors, students, and teachers of the Bible how to appreciate the craftsmanship of visionary literature and prophetic oracles and how to interpret them correctly. Dr. Ryken goes one step further than merely explaining the genre by including exercises to help students master this rich literary treasure. Speaking of the entire series, Ryken says, "The niche that these volumes are designed to fill is the literary approach to the Bible. This has been my scholarly passion for nearly half a century. It is my belief that a literary approach to the Bible is the common reader's friend, in contract to the more specialized types of scholarship on the Bible."

The Bible as Literature

Author: Tom R. Henn
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780718830915
Category : Bible as literature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Dr. Henn looks critically at the epic, narrative, lyric, and dramatic qualities of the Bible. The Bible's immense variety, its capacity to speak to the heart and mind of the reader, its powerful readability, and above all, its sense of the eternal, are all brought into Henn's masterly work.

How to Read the Bible as Literature

Author: Leland Ryken
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310390214
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
A guide to the literary aspects of the Bible, this book surveys such biblical forms as narrative, poetry, proverb, gospel, parable, and epistle. It also discusses the literary unity of the Bible.

How to Read the Bible

Author: Steven L McKenzie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199840032
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
McKenzie argues that to comprehend the Bible we must grasp the intentions of the biblical authors themselves--what sort of texts they thought they were writing and how they would have been understood by their intended audience. In short, we must recognize the genres to which these texts belong. McKenzie examines several genres that are typically misunderstood, offering careful readings of specific texts to show how the confusion arises, and how knowing the genre produces a correct reading. The book of Jonah, for example, offers many clues that it is meant as a humorous satire, not a straight-faced historical account of a man who was swallowed by a fish. Likewise, McKenzie explains that the very names "Adam" and "Eve" tell us that these are not historical characters, but figures who symbolize human origins ("Adam" means man , "Eve" is related to the word for life ). Similarly, the authors of apocalyptic texts--including the Book of Revelation--were writing allegories of events that were happening in their own time. Not for a moment could they imagine that centuries afterwards, readers would be poring over their works for clues to the date of the Second Coming of Christ, or when and how the world would end. For anyone who takes reading the Bible seriously and who wants to get it right, this book will be both heartening and enlightening.

The Hidden Book in the Bible

Author: Richard Elliott Friedman
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061952753
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Book Description
Renowned biblical sleuth and scholar Richard Elliot Friedman reveals the first work of prose literature in the world-a 3000-year-old epic hidden within the books of the Hebrew Bible. Written by a single, masterful author but obscured by ancient editors and lost for millennia, this brilliant epic of love, deception, war, and redemption is a compelling account of humankind's complex relationship with God. Friedman boldly restores this prose masterpiece-the very heart of the Bible-to the extraordinary form in which it was originally written.

Enjoying the Bible

Author: Matthew Mullins
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493421956
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
Many Christians view the Bible as an instruction manual. While the Bible does provide instruction, it can also captivate, comfort, delight, shock, and inspire. In short, it elicits emotion--just like poetry. By learning to read and love poetry, says literature professor Matthew Mullins, readers can increase their understanding of the biblical text and learn to love God's Word more. Each chapter includes exercises and questions designed to help readers put the book's principles and practices into action.

The Hebrew Bible as Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Tod Linafelt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199910472
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Book Description
The Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, contains some of the finest literature that we have. This biblical literature has a place not only in the synagogue or the church but also among the classics of world literature. The stories of Jacob and David, for instance, present the earliest surviving examples of literary characters whose development the reader follows over the length of a lifetime. Elsewhere, as in the books of Esther or Ruth, readers find a snapshot of a particular, fraught moment that will define the character. The Hebrew Bible also provides quite a few high points of lyric poetry, from the praise and lament of the Psalms to the double entendres in the love of poetry of the Song of Songs. In short, the Bible can be celebrated not only as religious literature but, quite simply, as literature. This book offers a thorough and lively introduction to the Bible's two primary literary modes, narrative and poetry, foregrounding the nuances of plot, character, metaphor, structure and design, and intertextual allusions. Tod Linafelt thus gives readers the tools to fully experience and appreciate the Old Testament's literary achievement. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.