Part 19 (1/2)

II. =Difficulties.= In the study of the Bible as literature two difficulties arise and must be overcome:

1. _The division into chapters and verses_, and the printing of the Bible throughout in the form of prose, forms an obstacle to the student of the Bible as literature. Suppose that every history of England, the poetry of Milton, the dramas of Shakespeare, and the romances of Scott were printed in the form of our Bibles--broken up into short paragraphs--what a hindrance that would prove to the understanding and the enjoyment of these works! Except in the Revised Version of England and America, that is the condition in which we read our Bibles. Only in the Revised Version can the Bible be read as literature.

2. Another obstacle is in the fact that in the Bible all the different _forms of literature are mingled together_. The prose has poetry here and there; history, personal narrative, drama, and lyric are all united in the same writings. We have Scott's prose and his poetry separate, Matthew Arnold's poems and his essays in separate volumes; but in the Old Testament all these forms of literature are found together, and generally more than one form in the same book. There are few books in the Old Testament that are either all prose or all poetry.

III. =Cla.s.sification.= We may arrange the different kinds of literature found in the Old Testament under six cla.s.ses, as follows:

1. The larger portion of the Old Testament belongs to the department of _History_. In its books we trace the early history of the world and the history through two thousand years of the Is'ra-el-ite people. This history may be cla.s.sified as:

1.) _Primitive_ history, in the book of Gen'e-sis.

2.) _Const.i.tutional_ history, or the record of laws and inst.i.tutions, in Ex'o-dus, Le-vit'i-cus, Num'bers.

3.) _National_ history, or historical events, in Josh'u-a, Judg'es, Sam'u-el, Kings, and Ez'ra. Although in some of these books are many narratives more biographical than historical, yet nearly all these stories have a bearing upon the national history.

4.) _Ecclesiastical_ history, in the books of Chron'i-cles, which tell the story of the kingdom of Ju'dah from a priestly point of view.

2. Next to the history comes _Personal Narrative_ as a literary form in the Bible; such stories as those of Jo'seph, Ba'laam, Ruth, Da'vid, E-li'jah, E-li'sha, Jo'nah, and Es'ther; not historical, as the story of the nations, but personal, as the record of individuals. These narratives belong to the cla.s.s called by scholars ”prose epics,” an epic being a work of narration, generally in poetry, as the epics of Homer, Dante, and Milton. The epics in the Bible are poetic in their thought, but prose in their form.

Blackboard Outline

I. =Imp.= The Bible as Hist. Eth. Doc. Dev. Lit. [Ill.u.s.t.]

II. =Diff.= 1. Div. chap. ver. 2. Lit. ming.

III. =Cla.s.s.= 1. Hist. 1.) Prim. 2.) Const. 3.) Nat. 4.) Eccl.

2. Per. narr. J. B. R. D. E. E. J. E.

Review Questions

With what various purposes may the Bible be studied?

What is meant by the study of the Bible as literature?

Give an instance showing that this study is important for the right interpretation of the Bible. How does the form in which our Bibles are printed hinder in the study of it as literature? What other difficulty is met in the literary study of the Bible? How many cla.s.ses of literature are found in the Bible? What is the department of literature most prominent in the Bible? Name four kinds of history in the Bible, define each kind, and give an example of it. To what cla.s.s of literature do the stories of the Bible belong? What are the subjects of some of these stories? What is an epic? Name some great epics in literature? Wherein do these differ from the epics in the Bible?

PART TWO

Review I, II, and parts 1 and 2 of III.

3. Far more of the Old Testament belongs to the department of _Poetry_ than appears in the Authorized Version, the Bible in common use. The He'brew mind was poetic rather than prosaic, and the thought of this people naturally fell into the form of poetry. But there is a great difference between our poetry or verse and that of the He'brews. With us there is apt to be rhyme, never sought by the Bible poet; or else a certain measure in length of line or emphasis on certain vowel sounds, the ”feet” or ”meter,” in the verse, equally unknown in the Bible.

He'brew verse consists in a peculiar symmetry and balance of clauses, which is called ”parallelism,” for instance:

”He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Is'ra-el Shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psa. 121. 3, 4).

Poetry is to be found in nearly all parts of the Old Testament. There are:

1.) _Odes_, as the song of Mir'i-am (Exod. 15), of Deb'o-rah (Judg. 5), and the book of Lam-en-ta'tions. In the latter book there is an acrostical arrangement, each stanza beginning in the original text with a letter of the He'brew alphabet, and arranged in their order.

2.) _Lyric poems_, songs of emotion or feeling, as most of the Psalms.

3.) _Dramatic poems_, ill.u.s.trative of action, as Job and the Song of Sol'o-mon.

4. _Oratory_ figures extensively in the Old Testament, as we should expect to find in the literature of any Oriental people, among whom the public speaker exercises a mighty influence. The orations or discourses of the Bible are sometimes in prose, sometimes in poetry, sometimes in both forms of expression. The speeches in the book of Job, Sol'o-mon's dedicatory prayer (2 Chron. 6), almost the entire book of Deu-ter-on'o-my, the opening chapters of Prov'erbs, and many of the discourses of the prophets belong to this department. Note how readily the pa.s.sage in Deut. 8. 7-9 falls into verse: