Lesson 5: Introduction to Genre
Genre and Interpretation
How does genre impact interpretation?
This step establishes some guardrails that help us answer this question faithfully.
Guardrail #1: A Servant of the Author
Genre does not ultimately determine meaning. Genre is a servant of the author. Biblical authors used these literary forms to communicate their intended meaning, but they were not bound by these forms. Thus, genre helps us discover and enjoy what an author intended to communicate but does not ultimately define his meaning.
Most of what I have seen in Scripture (and preached) was seen not because I learned rules for reading each genre. It was owing to the more basic discipline of looking long and hard at what is really there— whatever the genre.
John Piper, Reading the Bible Supernaturally, 295.
Guardrail #2: Genre and Truth
Back in lesson one, we affirmed that God’s word is infallible (totally and always true) and inerrant (without error), historical, and theological. This truth applies across all biblical genres. Whether the Bible speaks in poetry or prose, narrative or proverb, it is totally true and without error.
This guardrail is especially important as we study poetry. Some effectively argue that poetry and other genres that use figurative language are somehow less true than genres like narrative or epistle. But metaphors and figures of speech are not false or untrue. They merely communicate truth and meaning in a different way. Consider the following example from Dr. Andy Naselli:
How should we interpret figures of speech? Short answer: not literally but according to what the author or speaker intended to communicate. In other words, if I walk into the room with a little backpack on and say “My bag weighs a ton,” you shouldn't interpret that literally. The bag obviously doesn't weigh two thousand pounds. You should interpret my words according to what I intended to communicate: my bag is really heavy. –Andrew David Naselli, How to Understand and Apply the New Testament, 17–18.
Figures of speech point to true realities. Poetry is not averse to fact. Dr. Jason DeRouchie explains how all this applies to the Bible’s various genres:
Narratives can express both history and fiction, and numerous other genres can supply the medium for history writing. Historical facts, for example, can appear both in narrative prose and in poetic song. While each genre has its own governing rules (e.g. poetry allows for more figurative language), the form itself has no bearing on the factuality of the account. —Jason DeRouchie, How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament, 29.
Our Aim: Genre and the Author’s Intent
With these guardrails in place, we can now ask: how should genre affect biblical interpretation?
As noted above, genre served the biblical authors by providing the forms and structures through which they communicated. So studying biblical genre helps us understand what the author intended to communicate by helping us see how he intended to communicate.
Consider an example. Whether we’re talking about musical genre, literary genre, or more specifically, biblical genres, structure is a defining element of genre. Jazz music not only incorporates a typical set of instruments (brass, saxophone, guitar, string bass, and piano) but also has a distinctive structure (rhythm, meter, shifting solos, improv, etc.). If the trumpet is the lead instrument in a jazz song, we expect a long solo from the trumpet. We might also expect other instruments to add minor solos as echoes of the primary voice. When all the instruments are at play, we listen for how the secondary voices support the trumpet. We would also notice if one or more of these structural elements is missing. If so, the composer probably intended to alert us to something in the composition. All these elements define the structure of a jazz piece.
This example helps us see that discerning the structure is of great significance when trying to understanding the message an author intends to communicate. Studying genre equips us to discern the structure so that we can understand the message.
Knowing the genre of a text helps us know what types of questions we should ask of the material.
Jason DeRouchie, How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament, 22.