Today’s post brings the series on understanding biblical genres to a close. In the vein of ending it well, there are three major takeaways that I’d like to discuss today. 1. First, the Bible is not a book, but a library. (Fun fact, our word ‘Bible’ comes from the Greek, ta biblia, ‘the books’ - … Continue reading Understanding Biblical Genres: Concluding Thoughts
Today we're bringing this survey of common biblical genres to a close with Epistles, which probably represent the least likely type of literature to find its way into a canon of Sacred Scripture. Epistles are nothing more nor less than letters written from a person to another, or to a group of people. They are … Continue reading Understanding Biblical Genres: Epistle
It’s time for our look at different biblical genres to switch over to genres we see primarily in the New Testament, and specifically today we’ll look at the Parables of Jesus, which nicely bridge the gap between Old Testament Wisdom Literature and the explicitly Christian writings of the New Testament. While there are some parables … Continue reading Understanding Biblical Genres: Parables
Back at the start of this series, we looked at two different types of story, myths and legends. We saw that myths are the foundational stories around which cultures understand themselves, and legends are traditional stories that reinforce those identities, while often explaining the origins of specific place names, customs, or beliefs. Today I’d like … Continue reading Understanding Biblical Genres: Folk Tales
Today, as we continue to work through this mini-series on genres of Wisdom literature in the bigger series on understanding biblical genres, I’m going to talk about proverbs, and specifically those found in the book of that name in the Bible: What they are, what they aren’t, and how we should approach them. Proverbs are … Continue reading Understanding Biblical Genres: Proverbs
Matthew Root 