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The Trick of Observing Genre

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Fee Read BibleGordon Fee and Douglas Stuart wrote, “There is a real difference between a psalm, on the one hand, and an epistle on the other. Our concern is to help the reader to read and study the psalms as poems, and the epistles as letters…These differences are vital and should affect both the way one reads them and how one is to understand their message for today.”[1] Since genre influences our entire approach to a text, Fee and Stuart’s bestselling book on Bible interpretation focuses there. Make sure to observe genre.

Genre is normally simple in its identification. The two primary genres are poetry and prose; every text fits in one of those two categories. Within prose, we find narrative, law, letters, and apocalyptic literature (symbolic visions). Within poetry, we find psalms, songs, and proverbs. Some genres, like prophecies and wisdom literature, are written in either poetry or prose (for example, see Ecclesiastes and Ezekiel, which frequently alternate). In addition, the Bible has many sub-genres like speeches, genealogies, parables, dialogue, fables, diatribes, instructions, and epics.

Genre is also complex in its ramifications. Once we identify the genre, the real trick is to read it accurately. For example, consider the moment of Jesus’ birth. Luke says it occurred outside of hospital or inn and that it captured the attention of only a few shepherds (Luke 2:6-16), but Revelation says there were great signs in the heavens and a cosmic conflict with a devouring dragon (Rev 12:1-6). The differing genres of these two books help us to make sense of the differing accounts.

Since I can’t cover all the ramifications of genre in this short post, I commend Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth for further study. I’ll simply illustrate observation of genre with Genesis 1:1-2:3 (which I’ll call simply “Genesis 1”).

The primary observation is straightforward: This text, like most of Genesis, presents itself as historical narrative. The author reports events through the use of characters, setting, plot, climax, and resolution. He tells a story with a setting and a matter-of-fact style (“God said…God created…It was so.”). Thus Genesis 1, like all biblical narratives, tells a story of true events.

Now many interpretations of Genesis 1 hinge on the observation of genre. Some interpreters use Genesis 1 to explain Christianity’s compatibility with scientific evidence of origins. Others observe that Genesis 1 isn’t a science textbook. Either way, the argument is basically centered on the text’s genre.

Because Genesis 1 was written in the genre of historical narrative, we can conclude the narrator believed the act of creation really happened. Though Genesis 1 speaks of seemingly implausible things like light (Gen 1:3) without a sun (Gen 1:14-15), plants (Gen 1:11) without pollinating insects (Gen 1:24), a good-but-initially-unfinished earth (Gen 1:2), and an eternal, almighty God whose words held it together (Gen 1:1, 3, 6, etc.), the author presents them all as neither fable nor fairy tale.

However, we must not read historical narratives too strictly. Sometimes the chronology is all mixed up (for example, compare the order of events in the four Gospels). Biblical narratives are beautifully written and intentionally structured because every narrator has an agenda, and that agenda is more important than anything.

But that agenda doesn’t contradict the narrative’s factuality.

Many biblical witnesses confirm the factuality of Genesis 1. Moses thought this act of creation really happened (Ex 20:11). So did Isaiah (Is 42:5, 45:18). So did Jonah (Jonah 1:9), Nehemiah (Neh 9:6), Paul (2 Cor 4:6), and Peter (2 Pet 3:5). So did Jesus (Mark 10:6).

Thus, as we read Genesis 1, we must avoid either pushing the details too far or ignoring their historicity altogether. Observing the narrative genre prepares us for this task.

[1] How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Zondervan, 2009 (Kindle Locations 204-206). Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, so if you click it and buy stuff you’ll support the site at no extra cost to yourself.

 

What to Observe: Genre

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Professor and Poet Marilyn Hacker once said, “Poetry seems to have been eliminated as a literary genre, and installed instead, as a kind of spiritual aerobic exercise – nobody need read it, but anybody can do it.”  She lamented the loss of poetry’s unique place and rigorous standards in popular writing.  The implications of her perspective impact our Bible study, because sometimes it can be easy to miss the significance of a text’s genre.

In answer to the question “how do I observe a Bible passage?” or “where do I begin when I sit down to study the Bible?” we’ve discussed numerous items to consider: words, grammar, and structure.  Today we come to a fourth item: genre.

Genre is easy to miss because it’s not something that is likely to change substantially from verse to verse.  Once you observe a book’s genre, you’re likely to come across only minor deviations from time to time.  The important thing is that we remain on the lookout.

Let’s use our study of Luke 2:1-24 as an example.

The main observation to make is straigtforward: the genre of this text, as with most of Luke, is historical narrative.  The author reports on events that actually happened (see Luke 1:1-4 for his intentions), but he does so by telling a story.  He doesn’t issue a medical report or a media sound byte.  He’s done his research, interviewing witnesses and collecting relevant documents, but he presents the facts in the shape of a narrative of the key events that verify the truthfulness of what has been taught about Jesus.

What are the implications of this observation?

  1. It really happened.  Luke 2:1-24 speaks of governors, shepherds, and angels.  A baby is born to a virgin.  These things are neither fable nor fairy tale.  They were researched, verified, and presented as historical fact.
  2. The story has an agenda.  Although factually trustworthy, it would be naive to conclude that the text was written in a coldly objective way.  The author still has an agenda.  He includes certain details, and excludes others, for a reason.  The purpose of the story is to tell a story, not to report on every little thing that might forestall potential questions.  How many shepherds were there?  Did the angels have wings?  Were they floating in the sky?  Was Jesus born in a stable or a cave?  We don’t know.  Such specifics were not part of Luke’s agenda.

One more thing: observe that the genre changes briefly in Luke 2:14, where we get a brief switch to poetry.

We know Luke 2:14 is poetry because:

  • the angels were praising God (likely singing)
  • the quote consists of two parallel lines (the chief component of Jewish poetry)

Why is this observation significant?  Because we ought to change our expectations.  “Glory to God in the highest” does not mean that God exists physically at a higher altitude than everyone else.  Something more poetic, more figurative, is intended.

Five Things to Observe

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You sit down with your Bible, and you’re ready to study it. You pray and open the page to the right spot. Then…what? You see lots of ink and paper. You’ve heard these verses before.

You’d like to go deeper, and you don’t want to let familiarity get in the way. But what exactly can you do? What should you begin to observe?

Derek Bridges (2006), Creative Commons

Derek Bridges (2006), Creative Commons

Here are some ideas to get you started:

  1. WORDS: Pay attention to the words. Count up how many times different words are repeated. Notice how different things are described or labeled.
  2. GRAMMAR: Identify the subject, verb, and object of a sentence. What are the main verbs? Who is doing what, and where and how are they doing it?
  3. STRUCTURE: How does the passage fit together? Break it into paragraphs. Pay attention to transitions.
  4. GENRE: Is this poetry or prose? A letter or a narrative? Who is the author? Who is the original audience?
  5. MOOD: What tone of “voice” is the author writing with? Does the passage inspire action, invoke emotion, or challenge assumptions?

Here’s an exercise for you to consider. Let’s just take one verse: John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV).

Use the five categories above to help you get started, and try to write 50 observations on that one verse.

Mention one of your observations in the comments below, and let’s see how many we can come up with!

How’d You Do That? (7/16/12)

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In yesterday’s post, we fleshed out Solomon’s first purpose for writing Proverbs.  In so doing, we examined an important component of biblical poetry: parallelism.

We saw the importance of observing Genre here and here.  Now that we’ve noticed that we’re dealing with poetry, we can appreciate the implications.

English poetry and Hebrew poetry have some similarities and some differences.  Knowing them up front enables us to read the Bible rightly.

Similarities
  1. Uses lots of imagery
  2. Attempts to evoke feelings
Differences
  1. English poetry is (often) driven by meter and rhyme
  2. Hebrew poetry is primarily driven by parallelism

English poetry sounds…poetic.  It has a bounce, a rhythm.  For example:

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, II.2.30)

Hebrew poetry generally doesn’t have the “bounce.”

To know wisdom and instruction,
To understand words of insight (Prov 1:2, ESV).

Bible translators often format the text differently to signal poetry (lots of white space, parallel lines indented together, etc.).  Because of the lack of meter and rhyme, however, translators often disagree whether certain Bible passages are prose or poetry.  Just look at the book of Ecclesiastes in a few different versions, and you’ll see that there is little consensus on whether some sections are prose or poetry.

What’s the point?

When you read poetry in the Bible, remember not to isolate individual lines.  Instead, we ought to read parallel lines together, for it’s in their parallelism that we get the poet’s intentions.  Also, expect lots of figurative and emotive language.  The poet wants to communicate a point, but he wants to do so beautifully.

How’d You Do That? (6/8/12)

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In our last Proverbs post, I looked at what sort of genre proverbs are.  Let me give those comments a context.

When we come to learning how to study the Bible, one of the first steps is to observe the text carefully.  But what should we observe?  I generally consider five categories:

  1. Words
  2. Grammar
  3. Structure
  4. Mood
  5. Genre

You can observe the words themselves, considering repetition, tenses, number (singular or plural), etc.

You can observe the grammar, considering issues such as sentence structure (subjects, verbs, objects, etc.), pronouns, or prepositional phrases.

You can observe the structure, considering things like comparison, contrast, section divisions, or the shape of the text.

You can observe mood, identifying how the author communicated: excited, angry, patient, personal, etc.

Finally, you can observe the genre.  Primarily, you’ll want to notice whether you’re reading prose or poetry.  If I write of red roses, it’s important that you understand the genre.  On the one hand you might find just what you need in a pinch.  On the other hand, you could create too many giggles.  Don’t mix up genres!

In the case of Proverbs, I discussed the wisdom genre of proverbs.  We should not read proverbs like laws, or even like prophecies.  Proverbs are intended to address many fine details of life.  As we go through the text, we’ll see how this fact plays out.  But by way of introduction, I wanted to draw attention to the significance of genre.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I observed Proverbs’ genre,

Now you can, too!