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The Word of God: Prose and Poetry - Page 2

© alberto esmeralda

1. What the sacred writers meant is discernible through the literary forms he employed[2]. (T)ruth -- Revealed Truth -- is "set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse." Grammar and syntax is not enough then; one must also have a literary sensibility.
2. The literary forms employed -- and this is confirmed by contemporary biblical scholarship -- were sometimes borrowed from the surrounding cultures. Hence, it is important that the intelligent reader of Scriptures be aware of HOW these were used. It is not enough to know, for instance, that the myth of the Flood is present in Sumerian mythologies as well as in the Bible; one must also see how the story is used to illustrate the deeply nourished conviction that God is merciful, that He does not delight in the death of anyone, and that the hope of the present lies in those who have emerged from the cleansing of the waters[3].
3. The literary forms employed by the sacred writer must also be understood against the background of the history and culture that produced them. The "spirit" of the text derives from the "spirit" of the times and of the men and women that produced it. Hence, attention must also be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns men normally employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one another. The poetry of the psalms is not like the poetry of Joyce, and therefore, even the experienced reader should be ready to rethink his/her idea of poetry when trying to understand one of David's psalms.

The intelligent reader of Scriptures must be at least aware of the literary nature of the Inspired Scriptures. Our modern translations try to create this sensibility in the way they present biblical texts. Pick up a Jerusalem Bible, an NAB, or even the NIV, and one sees that certain texts are presented one way, while others are presented in another way. Let the reader compare the way his/her translation presents the Psalms on the one hand, and the book of Chronicles on the other. If he/she is using a good translation, those books will be presented in two different ways. Or one can also compare Leviticus and Proverbs, for that matter. All that our modern translations are doing is to make the reader aware that there are certain parts in our Bibles that are to be read differently from others.

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