HIS SIGWORK, Principle 6 of 10 - Genres

Understanding Bible Genres
Principle 6 of 10 Principles of Responsible Scripture Interpretation

Genre is the literary type of a book. For example, some books of the Bible are written in the genre of a narrative with characters and plots that tell of real events in which we see God at work. Other portions contain law, poetry, wisdom, the cries of the prophets, and epistles of instruction and encouragement.

My document entitled Understanding Bible Genres is a printed learning tool and may be viewed or purchased here at Flower Girl Greetings.com. This tool measures 8.5 x 11 inches when closed; it can be folded to fit into your Bible.

This document explains why it is important to understand Bible genres. It includes examples of how this understanding helps us to rightly apply Scripture and a list of the descriptions of each Bible genre. On the back of the tool, it contains a list of every book of the Bible with its respective genres and themes.

For your convenience, here is some of the text inside of this Learning Tool:

Genre is the literary type of a book. For example, some books of the Old Testament are written in the genre of a narrative with characters and plots that tell of real events in which we see God at work.

The people in these narratives were not always models to emulate, but as we read their stories, we can see how God worked in their lives to speak to them about Himself and to accomplish His purposes.

Other portions of Scripture contain law, poetry, bits of profound wisdom, and the cries of the prophets as God spoke through them to the people.

The New Testament contains narratives of the life of Jesus called Gospels and narratives of the lives of people who received Him and were filled with the Holy Spirit. It also contains epistles of instruction and encouragement from Jesus’ disciples to the churches in various cities.

The detailed apocalyptic revelation of Jesus Christ communicated to the Apostle John by His angel in
a vision was recorded in the book of Revelation. This book mirrors the visions of Ezekiel, Daniel and other prophets recorded hundreds of years earlier.

Along with genre, the context of Bible passages is also important to understand. Each verse should be understood within the context of the paragraph, chapter and book surrounding it.

Context also includes the author’s original intent to the original audience, the book’s history and culture, and the events current to the time the book was written. God has always revealed truth to people by using aspects of their culture to teach eternal truths.

Here are Descriptions of Biblical Genres

Law
Law is God’s instruction to His people. It is the expression of His will and character. God gave over 600 laws that defined and guided His people’s proper relationship with Himself, to one another, to outsiders, and to the world around them. The Law is a mirror to our soul pointing to our inability to keep it and thus, pointing to our need for a Savior; the only way we can keep the Law is by receiving the Holy Spirit, not by exerting our own efforts.

Narrative
A narrative is a historical account or chronicle of events as they happened. The people in narratives were not always models to emulate, but as we read their stories, we can see how God worked in their lives to speak to them about Himself and to accomplish His purposes.

Records
Records include genealogies, documents, accounts, and other lists.

Wisdom 
Biblical wisdom contrasts our faulty human wisdom and God’s perfect wisdom, warning us of the destruction that results from living outside of God’s wisdom. Only God’s wisdom leads to life. Conventional (or proverbial) wisdom focuses on questions about the meaning of life, practical living, and common sense. It is understanding based on (Experience and observation) + (faith and reason). Critical (or speculative) wisdom addresses hard questions of life that are not answered by simple, if-then formulas.

Poetry
Poetry in the Hebrew Old Testament does not translate well into English. It is composed of stanzas and phrases that are repeated called parallelism. Synonymous parallelism conveys the same idea in different ways. Antithetic parallelism conveys contrasting ideas and is predominant in Proverbs. Prose is distinguished from poetry by its irregularity and variety of rhythm. 

Gospel
Gospel means good news – the good news of salvation we receive through Jesus the Messiah. The four Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They each record the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in distinct ways to different audiences. The Gospels contain a bit of all genres and are not necessarily in chronological order, except for Luke.

Parable
A parable is an instructional teaching of Jesus told as a short story or illustration with a central point. Jesus often taught parables using his surroundings, environment and culture, such as the lilies, grain fields, vines and people groups. Their meaning was not immediately apparent. They required further scrutiny, as well as a willing, humble heart to understand them.

Epistle
Epistles were personal, instructional letters written by the Apostles to specific churches. They begin with the name of the writer and recipient, a greeting, a purpose, the central message, and a closing. Their purpose was to: teach doctrine, expose false teaching, give correction, answer questions, clarify previous letters, challenge the church to focus on Jesus Christ, comfort, strengthen, and equip the church.

Prophecy
The prophets were mouthpieces of God.
Didactic prophecy challenges and warns people with truth, exposing sin and calling for repentance and obedience. 

Predictive prophecy foretells an event or predicts the future. There are over 2,000 specific predictions from the Old Testament that have already come to pass, hundreds of years after the authors’ deaths!

Apocalyptic prophecy is focused on the end times. It allows glimpses into future events while keeping the full meaning hidden for a time. It combines narrative accounts and prose, and recounts visions from God written in vivid imagery with poetic phrases and symbols that are exaggerated for a purpose.

To see the rest of the HIS SIGWORK Principles of Interpretation, please see the post on this website here.

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