Why Bible Translations Differ: a Guide for the PerplexedĮpisode 45: Genre in the Bible with Ben Spackman Upcoming Presentation: “Truth, Scripture, and Interpretation: Some Precursors to Understanding Genesis Join Amanda Brown as she interviews biblical scholar Ben Spackman about the different genres of literature found in the Bible. If some of the historical details were fudged, then that was regarded as acceptable if done to make a point. Biblical writers often fashioned history to teach a higher purpose. Historical accuracy is actually a modern concept. Readers should also keep in mind that ancient Israelites approached the use of history in scripture differently than modern authors. For instance, Americans can tell a book is a fairy tale if it begins with “Once upon a time.” Genre markers in the Bible can be identified similarly by biblical scholars familiar with the culture.
The type of “thing” or genre of a given book is indicated by genre markers. The Bible contains books of satire, law codes, poetry, parables, myth, conquest narratives, and prophetic revelation among other things. Likewise, all scripture should not be labeled as history. No Christian would presume to label all scripture as a parable. It would be more helpful to approach the Bible as if it were a library that contained books of many different genres instead of being all the Amanda Brown, Guest Podcaster Often times when reading scripture, the assumption is made that the text is either literal or figurative, but these two categories are insufficient to describe the different genres of scriptures.
This thinking, Ben points out, causes many readers to jettison common sense and plain readings of the scriptural text. Biblical scholar Ben Spackman points out that this hesitancy is inherited from Enlightenment thinking, which regarded revelation as truth and truth as scientific or historical fact. Although the characters and events may not be historical, few Christians question the truth in the messages.ĭespite comfort with parables, some Christians become unsettled thinking about elements of the Bible as being non-historical. From the New Testament, we learn that Jesus’s favorite mode of teaching was through fiction he taught parables.
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