Reading the Bible as Literature? A more modern approach

by frankiespeakin 8 Replies latest watchtower bible

frankiespeakin

Reading the Bible as Literature, is something that scholars have been doing for quite some time. Below is a link, to 13 introductory pages, to the book " How to read the Bible as literature"
The 13 introductory pages, make some valid points. Of course this information is probably considered heresy by the fundamentalist and their literal interpretation of the Bible.
One point that I appreciated, in this introduction to the book is his showing the practical value of the Bible being written as literature and being read as literature is his quote of Jesus words to the young lawyer in explaining who really is his neighbor. As we know Jesus told the story about a man who is robbed and beaten, and about the three people that passed his way, and which one of these was really a neighbor.
This is an excerpt page five:
Everything in this passage makes it a piece of literature we should note first that Jesus never give an abstract or propositional definition of "neighbor." instead he tells a story that embodies what it means to be a "neighbor." This suggests at once, the most important thing about literature: its subject matter is human experience, not abstract ideas. Literature incarnates its meaning as concretely as possible. The knowledge that literature gives of a subject is the kind of knowledge that is obtained by (vicariously) living through experience. Jesus could have defined "neighbor" abstractly as a dictionary does, but he chose a literary approach to the truth instead.
.... because literature presents an experience instead of telling us about that experience,, it constantly appeals to our imagination (the image making and image-perceiving capacity within us). Literature images forth some aspects of reality...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310390214/ref=lib_dp_TFCV/102-4956814-7756939?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader#reader-link
onacruse

Interesting timing The other day Kate and I were shopping at a GoodWill store, and I got the complete set of Alexander Scourby's reading of the KJV (cost $4). I'm rather excited (he has a great voice!) and, for the first time, I'll be listening as a "literary" hearer instead of as a "true believer" (no offense intended to those who feel differently about the Bible).
Craig
Odrade

Interesting stuff, thank you. I'll have to look for this book at Powells or library.
Odrade
Narkissos

I'm really enthusiastic about the idea (in fact it is my only possible connection with the Bible right now), but this definition of "literature" looks a bit narrow to me ...
frankiespeakin

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310230780/ref=lib_rd_ss_TT02/102-4956814-7756939?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader&img=5#reader-link
The link above has 13 pages from the book "A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible"
Here is a partial quote page 6:
Literature enacts rather than states, shows rather then tells. Instead of giving abstract propositions about virtue or vice, for example, literature presents stories of good or evil characters in action. The command that you shall not murder is propositional and direct, while the story of Cain and Able embodies the same truth in the distinct literary form of narrative,, a narrative we should note,, that does not even use the word murder. When we read a literary text we do not feel primarily that we have been given new information but rather that we have undergone an experience....
The chapters that follow have a lot to say about the form in which the Bible comes to us and the relation of that form to ideology, but they will say relatively little about ideas per se. They will have more to say about the human experience presented in the Bible than about theological ideas. A noted theologian has said that "we are far more image-making and image-using creatures than we usually think ourselves to be and ... are guided and formed by images in our minds" adding that "the human race grasps and shapes reality with the aid of great images, metaphors, and analogies." The essays in this volume share this literary bias and believed that the Bible confirms it.
frankiespeakin

Here's an interesting essay link and partial quote:
http://crain.english.mwsc.edu/bible_as_literature/biblethemes.htm
Should I Read the Bible as Literature?
Absolutely! In fact, the Bible reader must be a reader of literature. Why? First of all, the Bible as an anthology of literature, tells the story of humankind; it is a story of tradition revealing the present. Genesis chronicles the beginning of humankind. From the beginning, humans are described as finite creatures who must learn their limitations yet yearn for release from them. Eve is mother of humankind; Adam is formed from the earth itself, although made in the image of God, having the divine inbreathed; he asks for and is given a clone of himself to discover, ironically, that human will seeks in its own choices to pronounce "good" solely of itself, to deny its own nakedness and ignorance, to usurp divine right to autonomy, and to enter into a conflict with God, nature, and humankind. Apart from arguments of the existence or inexistence of this God, our literary inheritance provides us with a rich repository of perspectives on this experienced conflict.
The issues of "literal" or "symbolic" create an unfortunate tension for many beginning readers of the Bible. To begin to read, though, is to be drawn immediately into the middle of symbolism: the alphabet itself is a symbol system; words themselves form from an active combining of symbols, both in the creation of text and in the reading and interpretation of text. Not to read symbolically is not to read at all. The Oxford Companion to the Bible rightly cautions the reader about any stance taken toward symbolism.....
Reading the Bible as literature, one recognizes several familiar themes repeated: one is the theme of creation/new beginnings. We see this in reiterative story chains: Moses leads people through the sea onto dry land to begin a new life (Ex. 14-15); Joshua crosses the Jordan River (3.7-17); Jacob crosses the Jabbok in Gen. 32.22. In this, one discovers a reiteration of the original division of waters at creation, separating chaos from new order.
Yet another familiar theme is God's war against the godless. Destruction stories abound: Babylon (Jeremiah 50-51), Samaria and Jerusalem (2 Kings 17 and 25); prophecies of destructions against God's enemies (Jeremiah 46-49); Great flood (Gen 6-9); Soddom and Gomorrah (Gen 19); Noah and Lot fill the role of surviving remnant. The metaphor of cosmic war is a much repeated motif; look at
Psalms 2, 8, 89, 110. This cosmic war is picked up in the New Testament in the book of Revelation. Moreover, the reiterations continue the theme that God will preserve His own chosen remnant, both the literal Jerusalem and the spiritual New Jerusalem. Consider Zechariah: : Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2: For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3: Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4: And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5: And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8: And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9: And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
IronGland

I suppose if one was a masochist, the bible could be read as literature. However if you're going to commit to reading a massive volume of literature., read Tolstoy or Proust. They actually tell good stories and write well too. If you choose to read the bible keep some toothpicks available to prop your eyes open. Especially those endless pages of Jewish rules and the son of son of son of son of son of blah blah blah :yawn:
Panda

We had a class at UT titled The Bible as Literature. The translation of choice was the American Standard and clas content mainly dealt with the "Oriental tradition" of Job and the poetic books. The history was just the history (similar to reading tolstoy). Job has long been a subject for study in Classic Literature.
stillajwexelder

I have started to read the bible as literature -- and it is quite good --may I suugest that you all read The Koran as literature as well (English Translation of course) and IMHO vene the book of Mormon is nice work of literature -- fiction of course but worth a read

Reading the Bible as Literature? A more modern approach

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