Lesson 8 | What about...? Dealing with special cases
Recognizing various biblical genres
What is Genre?
The Bible is not only one book made up of many books, it is also one grand story—the story of redemption—told through many different voices, that is, in many different styles of writing. We call these distinct styles “literary genre.” Recognizing the variety of biblical genre is an important tool in gaining a better understanding as we read Scripture.
Exploring the various biblical genre and the influence of genre in proper interpretation is massive study in and of itself. Once again, for the purposes of this course, my aim is to raise your awareness of the types of genre so that you may tune your ear to hear the variety of biblical voices as well as appropriately restate them in your own words.
"God displays his providential wisdom in providing us with a Bible made up of all these literary genres, and more. The diversity constitutes a great advantage, for each genre has a slightly different way of appealing to us, of making its impact on us. Together they do even more than instruct our minds: they fire our imaginations, prompt us to meditate, call up mental pictures, invite us to memorize, appeal to our emotions, shame us when our thoughts or actions are tawdry and unworthy, and make our spirits leap for joy. ...God in his perfect wisdom gave us the fundamental texts, the books of the Bible, in spectacularly diverse forms. Nothing about Bible study is boring or mechanical. Here we come into contact with the instructing, evocative, creative, incredibly rich mind of God."
Kathleen Nielson, author and contributor at The Gospel Coalition, offers the following descriptions for seven commonly recognized genres:
Genre
Description
OT Narrative (Genesis-Esther)
True stories of the history of God’s redemptive plan to create a people for himself through his Son.
OT Poetry (Psalms, Song of Solomon, Lamentations)
Cries from the hearts of God’s people living out those stories.
OT Wisdom (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes)
Godly insight into the experience of living out those stories.
OT Prophecy (Isaiah-Malachi)
God speaking through his prophets into those stories, calling to a rebellious people.
NT Gospels & Acts
A narrative of the climax of all the stories in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
NT Epistles (Romans - Jude)
Letters bringing apostolic teaching and shepherding to God’s people in Christ—now, the Church.
NT Apocalyptic (Revelation)
The prophetic narrative of God’s redemptive plan into eternity, with invisible heavenly mysteries unveiled.
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These brief descriptions alone can help shape your approach to reading any particular passage. That is, knowing the basic contours of each genre will set varying expectations for your reading. You should come to a passage of OT Narrative with very different expectations from those you would bring to reading one of Paul’s letters. One is no more or less instructive or valuable than the other. They just instruct in vastly different ways.
Genre and Paraphrasing
As you work to restate the meaning of a passage in your own words, you should be careful to appropriately reflect the tone and style of that particular genre. Consider these examples.
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. —Psalms 119:11 ESV
To paraphrase this verse as, “I use memorization as a tool to fight sin,” would be reasonably accurate but not at all faithful to the tone of OT Poetry, which aims not just to state a truth, but to help us feel the weight of that truth. The rhythm and cadence of the Psalms helps make the truth memorable and enduring, and so we should try to capture elements of that style.
Let’s look at another example.
The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores the insult. —Proverbs 12:16 ESV
As one of the goals of paraphrasing is to unpack the meaning of a text, some of the brief, pithy style of Proverbs may be lost. Nevertheless, we can still appropriately restate it so as to not dull its edge: “A fool wears his irritability on his shirt sleeve—and does not hold back, but the wise man knows the value of overlooking an offense.”
Simply put, use your paraphrase as a means to delighting in the diverse voices of Scripture.