The BibleAs Literature

• “There is a…sense in which the Bible, since it is after all literature, cannot be properly read except as literature; and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are.”

• C. S. Lewis

What is Literature?

• “the types of writing that are ‘imaginative’ or ‘creative’”

• The subject of literature is human experience–Literature shows human experience

instead of telling about it• Literature presents stories of good and evil

characters in action

• Literature appeals to the imagination• Literature aims to recreate experience or

situation in sufficient detail and concreteness to enable the reader to relive it

• Literature presents truth as a “living through” of an experience

• Literature communicates human experience through concreteness (sights, sounds, vividness of real life)

• Literature recognizes world view consists of images, symbols, ideas, and propositions

• Literature can be true to reality and human experience as well as being the embodiment of a true proposition (“This is the way life is”)

• Literature is interpretive presentation of human experience

• Literature is art

Literary genres of The Bible

• Narrative (story)• Poetry (especially lyrics)• Proverbs• Visionary writing

Literary devices of The Bible

• metaphor• simile• allusion• pun• paradox• irony