THE BIBLE: A Literary Overview

 

The Bible is an anthology – a collection of sixty-six books. It was written by no fewer than forty authors over a 1,500-year period. It is the best-selling book of all time with more than fifty billion copies sold and distributed. In its entirety, the Bible has been translated into at least 683 languages.

 The writers of the Bible drew their information from a variety of sources. Some of these sources include personal experiences, historical accounts, oral sources and revelation/divine inspiration (direct disclosure from a non-human source). Hence, it would be correct to say that the Bible is a collection of texts composed over centuries by different authors, from diverse backgrounds, cultures and time periods.

The uniqueness of the Bible extends beyond its wide distribution. In many ways, the Bible is more than just another book. It is unique in its authorship in that the forty different writers came from different time periods, backgrounds, occupations and geographical locations. The writers include kings, prophets, fishermen, shepherds, servants, priests and a medical doctor. This broad authorship explains the variety of writing styles.

There is also a plethora of genres in the Bible, including poetry, prose, narrative, prophecy, apocalyptic and letter-style writing. Viewing the Bible as literature involves analysing its literary elements, themes and storytelling techniques.

Interestingly, to view the Bible as an anthology, results in a remarkable range of forms and styles. In his volume, Words of Delight – A Literary Introduction to the Bible, Leland Ryken contends that “the Bible has a style for every temperament. Every aspect of human experience is covered in some form within the pages of the Bible”. As literature, the Bible preserves the complexities of human experience to an unusual degree. According to Ryken, “the paradoxes of human life are held in tension in what can be called the most balanced book ever written”.

Although a collection of diverse works, the Bible must also be regarded as a unified whole. There is unity of national authorship, with only two books (Luke and Acts) not having been written by Jews. There is unity of subject matter, consisting most broadly of God’s dealings with people and the relationships of people to God and fellow humans. The unifying purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to people so they might know how to order their lives. There is also a unity of literary texture in that various biblical writers alluded to earlier works without contradiction. Dr Ryken says it best, “No other anthology of literature possesses the unified texture of allusions that biblical literature displays.”

The Bible as Literature assumes two levels of reality – the physical world, perceived through the senses, and the supernatural world, invisible to the senses. Within the physical world, reality is measured empirically (utilizing the senses). Within the supernatural world, reality is usually accepted by faith or trust in a reliable source. The constant appeal made by biblical writers is for people to order their lives by the unseen realities, even though doing so usually contradicts natural or human standards.

It is natural to expect a role of unseen realities in analysing the Bible as literature. How else can one account for unity in material written over a 1,500-year span? Or, who was responsible for coordinating such a wide variety of writers and styles from such varied backgrounds? In addition, how does one account for the preservation of the content from oral to written sources? Then, after converting to written form, how could the written word be so accurately preserved  and transmitted through the centuries, without having access to original documents?

In other words, considering the numerous paths through which the original message travelled, it would not be unreasonable to conclude, that the Bible, with its divinely inspired content, was supernaturally collated and transmitted through the centuries. That understanding enables us to fully appreciate Paul’s words to young Timothy – “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16 [New Living Translation]).