Happy Monday!!
Yesterday, I (Pastor Todd), started our new series on “Understanding Your Bible.” This series is dedicated to giving you some easy tools to better understand concepts in the Bible and how the books and chapters fit into those concepts. In yesterday’s message we covered the 8 literary genres of the Bible. In this blog, I want to list each one, give a brief definition, and which books fall into each category. You can listen to the sermon here.
Mythos:
First off, though it sounds similar, Mythos is not mythology. When referring to how ancient civilizations understood the world around them, their cultural norms, their language, and their understanding of where they originated, we use the term mythos. Were we to describe people groups today regarding the same elements, we would call it a “Worldview.” So, when we read books in the Bible that deal with the origins of Israel and its relationship to God, we are looking at Israel’s Mythos.
Books of Mythos: Genesis, Exodus, Parts of Deuteronomy
Religio-Legal
Legal Code and Instructions for Ritual Observances in a theocratic government. I spend some time in this genre because it is absolutely foundational if we want to really understand what the End Times is about. The law code with its sacrifices in Israel is a microcosm of the laws of our universe.
Books of Religio-Legal: Part of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus
Historical
Recorded accounts of events, particularly of the nation of Israel and its relationship to the covenants. It tells the actions, consequences, and more regarding 700 years of God’s people living in obedience, disobedience, and more. Note: Historical books do not have a “Go and do ye likewise” element to them. They simply describe what happened.
Books of History: Joshua Thru Esther, Acts
Poetic/Wisdom
Poetic/Wisdom Literature is a genre that uses poetic devices to help people remember culture norms, wisdom, and life lessons. Wisdom is more than making good moral decisions. Were that the only component to wisdom, Solomon would definitely not be the wisest man that ever lived. Ancient Israelite wisdom does contain an element of sage advice. However, it also considers technical skill, problem solving ability, a ruler’s savvy, and merchant’s shrewdness, and other things wisdom. Solomon made terribly unwise moral decisions, but he excelled in some of the other elements of Israelite wisdom and is thus considered the wisest. Israel reached a peak in their cultural and literary flourishing as well as their greatest economic success under Solomon’s rule.
Books of Wisdom/Poetry: Job Thru Song of Songs
Prophetic
Literature that comes to a divinely selected person to proclaim the words of God. Samuel was the first major prophet to come after Moses. From Samuel on, prophets were called because the priests weren’t doing their jobs in teaching the people about the Torah and Covenants. We can see that with the sons of the High Priest, Eli, who raised Samuel through adoption.
Books of Prophecy: Major Prophets: Isaiah thru Daniel/ Minor Prophets: Hosea thru Malachi
Gospels
Unique literature that focuses on defining aspects of Jesus’ ministry on earth. The Gospels are not biographies, as they focus on Jesus’ mission, not his life. There are only four gospels. Other popular titles that claim to be gospels do not fit the criteria and come from the New Age movement of their day called “Gnosticism.”
Gospel Books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
Epistles
Epistles are letters written to a person or people group. In the Bible, epistles reveal real people trying to work out how to live in light of the Gospel when their only framework for belief is paganism with Roman and Greek cultural values based on false gods. Each letter is written to a person or group of people addressing current issues of their day where they were tempted to compromise the Gospel either into a pagan syncretism or revert it back to Judaism.
Epistolary Books: Romans thru Jude , 1st part of Revelation
Apocalyptic
A literary style that uses a series of images that describe divine judgement & reward along with worldwide destruction. It is usually given to the author through a vision or an angelic visitation.
Apocalyptic Books: Revelation (non-biblical books include: 1 Enoch, Testaments of Abraham & Noah, Ascension of Abraham, Apocalypse of Peter, Apocalypse of Baruch, etc)
By the end of this series, I hope you will be more empowered to get the most out of the Bible and to understand what is written in a deeper way. The better we can understand the Bible, the better we can know this God who loves us enough to send his Son to save us. It also empowers us to recognize false claims about God and Jesus.
As always, it is my hope and prayer that these posts help you experience God’s