Biblical Type-Scenes And The Uses Of Convention

For a thousand years the Western world has looked toward the Bible as a work of sacred history and the foundational account of the development of the Jewish people. While Alter does not completely reject the historicity of the Bible, he sees it as secondary; rather, in Alter 's view, the authors of the Bible developed a form of “prose fiction in order to tell the revolutionary tale of monotheistic revelation contained within its pages.” Chapter by chapter Alter makes clear the various literary methods and techniques employed by the Biblical authors, including narration, repetition, parallelism, analogy and direct dialogue. By learning to uncover the inherently literary nature of the Bible, Alter hopes to reach a greater understanding of Biblical narrative, and, in

In the sixth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster examines the Bible and its importance throughout stories, poetry and film. The Bible is one of the most commonly known pieces of literature and is even “nonsectarian” in Foster’s eyes (44). Because stories from the Bible are so well known, the Bible is a tremendously easy for authors to reference when constructing a new composition. Especially “prior to sometime in the middle of the twentieth century” writers were “solidly instructed in religion” and could count on the public being very well acquainted with Biblical stories (47). This widespread knowledge of the Bible lead to greater understandings throughout literature, and the recognized allusions helped

Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.

When carefully developed, biblical allusions can have a crucial impact on a story. O’Conner quickely establishes biblical allusions to set up a cynical undertone to develope her story. Shiftlet is given the option to choose between good and

Good vs. evil, light vs. dark, constructive vs. destructive. All of these are common themes in literature, where there is a struggle for power between two sides. An example of this is William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. Within the text, the power struggle between being a constructive leader and a destructive leader is illustrated in various ways, like diction and syntax. These are standard literary elements that help authors interpret their ideas. Authors are able to explain the power struggle between constructive and destructive powers by using different literary elements.

In this chapter, Ehrman introduces the gospels. He talks about how the oral tradition of early Christianity changed into the written culture we see today. Ehrman also talks about how the gospels are an ancient biography of Jesus. As they were originated based upon oral sources, they were more concerned with focusing on the message rather than recording the historical facts.

Oswalt builds upon his previous chapters, that some modern scholars can’t get or have no contextual understanding when reading the Bible as a literature. In this chapter the intent is to go into a deeper discussion emphasizing more into the similarities that in essence superficial facts, but with the purpose of highlighting the differences that are essential facts. While many will disagree with the concept that the Bible is different from mythology, this analysis will influence the worldview of the Bible.

Sandy, D. Brent, and Ronald L. Giese Jr. Cracking Old Testament Codes: A Guided to Interpreting the Literary Genres of the Old Testament is structure to make the authors debates available for those who are inspire teachers and preachers. This paper will summarize the literary fundamentals of the Bible that have parts of scripture that are in literary form. Sandy and Giese traces the scriptures of the context to be the creativity of the bible for the reader’s enjoyment. Sandy who taught at Grace Theological Seminary describes the implications of the basic biblical genres in a whole different light of the Old Testament. Ronald L. Giese Jr reveals that authors have a way of expressing scriptures to help readers not to misinterpret.

Blomberg, Craig L., Jennifer Foutz Markley. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

Vivid images, from visions, to detailed explanation and accounts of places and events, to symbolic imagery used to explain parables, or teach and encourage the first century churches are driving forces within the Biblical text. Metaphorical language, by virtue of the fact that it preserves the literal meaning of the symbol, while intending an analogical secondary meaning, is able to communicate profound truths about reality, mainly by creating an alternative, symbolic way of seeing and understanding the world. (Liubinskas, Susann. 404) Throughout the New Testament of the Bible the most commonly used images are the: body of Christ, and vine imagery. These images work together to create a powerful example of the necessity for unity among individual believers, and that unity tying them Christ.

Then it goes on to tell His complete life without the sin, articulates the discontent of the vicious demise and the celebrated reappearance that many know of through the Scripture. The chapters of the book also highlight the stories and events of Jesus’ time on Earth. It can be seen as a retelling of the Bible in a sense, but it tells the stories in an inviting way for someone who may not be familiar or who may not be able to interpret the Scripture by just reading it word for word. The wording is creative and inviting which makes it helpful when reading for the first time or for a

Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to

The author's main concern in this chapter is to guide the reader toward a good understanding of how Hebrew narrative "works," so that we may read our bibles with more knowledge and with a greater appreciation for God's story. This chapter is all about narratives, a narrative is a story retelling the historical events of the past that are intended to give meaning and direction for a given people in the present. All narratives have three basic parts; characters, plot, and plot resolution. In the bible, God is protagonist, Satan is the antagonist, and God's people are the agonists. (agnostic?) The basic plot of the biblical story is that the creator God has created a people for his name (in his own image), who as his image bearers were to be his

In the Childhood of Jesus, the “Third Brother Story” serves a function in the novel: David strongly identifies with the third brother and wishes to become a life saver, which points out his correlation with Jesus more directly. Also at this point, we come across the component of story-telling, which has been a common theme among our novels and shows the importance of it in Literature.

This piece is styled after the Syriac Dialogue Poems. Syriac authors to transform a dispute or just a dialogue between two people used this style. Most commonly used characters were between Biblical individuals. These poems originated from the Syrians in the fifth and sixth centuries. However, the Mesopotamians used them in the latter third and second century BC this is where the roots originated. The Mesopotamian poems were written in Sumerian and Akkadian These poems are generally portrayed as a conversation, usually imaginative, between two people to relay an idea or an opinion. The purpose of such works is believed to be making a point. By adding or deleting aspects of a story and/or conversation, therefore enticing questions or dialogues between people. Consequently, this seemed to be the perfect instrument for my purpose. This remix is simply an imagination run wild, using the voices of actual characters of the Bible. The facts are authentic nonetheless; the words are this author’s only.