The Bible As Lit: Pericopes and Literary Types

Epic: The Bible is, in fact, epic in its account of human and national origins. The first eleven chapters of Genesis establish the creation of the world as a divine action then survey the primeval history of humanity. History is viewed as the inevitable outworking of divine purpose.
narrative--a recounting of events; chronological or containing a plot. An example of biblical narrative is the story of Abraham in Genesis. Genesis 12-25.
epic--a long narrative poem, elevated style, characters in high position, heroic, depict a development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.
short story-- a relatively brief fictional narrative in prose; contains a unity of effect, theme, character, tone, mood, and style; contains plot. Biblical examples are Ruth, Jonah, Esther.
folk tales--short narratives handed down through oral tradition but eventually getting written down; cumulatively written. Samson in the book of Judges 13-16 captures the popularity of the folk hero).
apocalypses--literature depicting an ultimate destiny (usually destructive) of the world; character of catastrophe is grandiose, imminent, unrestrained, wild; suggests final judgment. (Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New Testament are examples of this kind of literature.)
poetry--exists in many forms; marked by regularity of rhythm surpassing that found in prose, basic pattern evidencing variety but returning to basic rhythm; concrete; inversions frequent;simple, sensuous, impassioned language; pleases by appealing to emotions and intellect; highly imaginative. Psalms and Proverbs both consist largely of poetry. The Psalms are devotional lyrics. Biblical poetry is noted for accent and parallelism rather than meter.
love lyric--a type of poetry, subjective, marked by imagination, melody, emotion, single impression . The Song of Solomon is a good example.

epigram--a pithy saying, often antithetical, compressed; shows balance and polish. These exist in abundance in Proverbs.
epiphanies--a showing forth of divine being; an event in which the essential nature of something-- a person, situation, or object--is suddenly perceived; a grasp of reality achieved in a quick flash of recognition; sudden insight or new light.
gospels--found solely in the New Testament; form was invented by author of Mark and imitated by the later Gospel writers; record the story of Jesus as it was known by his contemporaries; not simple histories of the life of Jesus but further exemplifying the view that history is an arena in which the divine makes itself known; actually speak of things beyond history, addressing meaning; intention of writers is to produce faith (White 144).
biography-- a written account of a person's life, a life history.
epistles -- notes and letters, correspondence Paul's letters were immediate and direct,
addressing the needs of particular Christian communities, giving spiritual direction; they continue to have a universal dimension, a timelessness, in that what was true for the people of these communities continues to be true for people of contemporary times (White 129). Paul's letters to the Galatians, I and II Corinthians, and Romans are excellent examples of the epistle.
law--a binding custom or practice of a community; a prescribed rule of conduct or action which is enforced by a controlling authority. The Old Testament, in particular, assumes human behavior is under Yahweh's authority as well as one's relationship with neighbors. The beginning of law for the Hebrew people is expressed in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Exodus 20:22- 23:19 contains absolute, conditional, ritual, moral, and religious laws. The materials from Exodus 35 to Numbers 10 (including all of Leviticus) have to do with laws. Israel's religious tradition is deeply embedded with the notion that Yahweh rewards obedience and punishes disobedience. A special relationship exists between the law of the Old Testament and the New Law or covenant of the New Testament. One must understand the human situation in the Old and New Testaments is that of alienation from God. This alienation is caused by sinned or willful rebellion or disobedience to divine law. Both the Jews and the Gentiles are alienated by their measures, whether Law or heart; the New Testament emphasizes faith rather than obedience as the means whereby the individual is to be reconciled with God. As seen in the New Testament, the Law defines sin; it is not the cause of sin.
sermons--a religious discourse delivered as part of a service. Paul's sermon at Antioch is a good example (Acts 13: 15-41); another example is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

codes--a system of principles or rules. Leviticus, a book of worship, is filled with codes detailing how the Levitical priests were to minister in the sanctuary; it contains codes for dealing with sacrifices, setting forth the distinction between clean and unclean foods, describing the ritual for the ceremony of the atonement, and laws governing Israel's life as a holy people.
puns--plays on words based on the similarity of sound between two words and divergent meaning. Matthew 23:24 contains an example: galma for gnat and gamla for camel.
liturgy--performed as part of a worship service. Leviticus provides several examples.
parables--short, illustrative stories teaching a lesson. A true parable parallels, detail for detail, the situation that calls forth the parable for illustration. Christ told many parables--Luke 15:11-32 provides an example in the prodigal son.
hymns--poems expressing religious emotion and intended to be sung by a chorus; many of the psalms fit this definition.
songs--from the beginning, there was not the written but the spoken word; there was not literature but singing and reciting. The Old Testament contains many songs, often older than the text surrounding them. These were often quite short and were sung, during dancing, to the accompaniment of musical instruments. They would often be sung in chorus (Ex. 15. 20-1; Num. 21. 17; 1 Sam. 18. 6-7). People sang at their work: at the completion of a well (Nu. 21.17-18), while harvesting and treading the grapes (Jer. 25.30, 48.33), at social gatherings and feasts (Amos 6.4 ff.; Isa. 5.11 ff.); men rejoiced and forgot their cares (Isa. 22.13), not always with moderation (Is. 28.8); they told riddles (Gen. 31.27); they mocked physical imperfections in song (bald head, 2 Kings 2. 23; faded beauty, Isa. 23. 15-16; they inflamed the tribes to fight with song (Jg. 5.12 Song of Deborah); they sung deriding the enemy (Num. 21.27), lamented an only son (2 Kings 2. 12, 13.14).
proverbs--briefly and memorably express some recognized truth about life; these are found in abundance in proverbs.
laments--poetry expressing grief. The book of Lamentations is a small psalter of communal laments over Jerusalem, following its destruction by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.

acrostics--compositions usually in verse which are arranged in such a way as to spell words,phrases or sentences. Lamentations contains an example: the first four chapters contain stanzas for each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the fifth has the same numbers of verses as the alphabet.
oracles--hidden or divine knowledge revealed through utterance, usually poetic; a wise, ;) authoritative decision or opinion. Isaiah 6-9 consists of oracles set in their own historic context. Oracles contain Yahweh's answer to questioners seeking advice and help.