Deuteronomy is hortatory within a narrative framework. Joshua has a large section about dividing the land into tribal portions. Judges has the repeated cycle of deliverance and bondage summarized in Judg — Ruth is a smaller book, and involves only a few main characters and a limited amount of time.
Jonah is similar, and to some extent also Esther. First Chronicles has an elaborate genealogical record in chapters 1—9. The second half of Daniel is dominated by visionary experiences and communications. Yet all these are still recognizably prose narratives. Job has an outer framework of narrative, but inside this framework we find almost nothing except speeches. As a prose narrative, Genesis shows some general similarities with these other narrative books.
But it is also distinct in its form, because of the way it is organized into a genealogical history. And here, I propose, is one reason why there is less discussion of the genre of Genesis than there might otherwise be.
The reason is that there is, in one sense, nothing much to discuss. Genesis is unlike any other document. The lesson I draw is that we must, accordingly, to a large extent treat it on its own terms and not be enamored by appeals to formal parallels. Though Genesis is unique in the details of its internal structure, it does still belong to the broad genre composed of prose narratives in ancient Hebrew. The closest parallels, as we observed, are to be found in other narrative books in the OT canon.
Though the terms nonfiction and fiction are modern English terms, the reality is culturally more extensive. At a principial level, this distinction is culturally universal, because all human cultures have creativity, and one aspect of the creativity is the ability to make up stories.
We need to be clear about our terminology at this point. Among biblical scholars, the word fiction is sometimes used to describe literary artistry. This use seems to me to be unfortunate in its potential to confuse. A human author may want to claim that some event happened in the real world when it did not. Fiction and nonfiction , as labels for genres, are more suited to describing the claims made by an author by means of his discourse.
That is, a nonfictional narrative is a narrative that claims to be about the real world, whether or not the author is lying. We must not oversimplify by assuming that there can be no mixture of fiction and nonfiction, or a discourse that temporarily pretends to be nonfiction but is later revealed to be fiction.
Nor do the broad categories of fiction and nonfiction settle the question of the detailed choices people make in different kinds of nonfictional narrative and different kinds of fictional narrative. We can also see occasions where the effectiveness of a parable depends partly on temporarily concealing the fact that it is fictional.
Ahab the king of Israel renders a judgment based on the assumption that the man is telling a nonfictional story. Then the man reveals that it is actually a parable about Ahab himself verse 41— We also have cases of out-and-out deceit, where a story offers itself in the genre of nonfiction, but where some of the events described did not actually happen.
These instances confirm that people in ancient Israel knew the difference between reality and make-believe. The instances also confirm that sometimes it makes a big difference in human responses.
In 1 Kings , the man of God from Judah clearly would not have stayed for a meal if he had not believed that the old prophet was telling the truth. In the cases involving Nathan, the woman from Tekoa, and one of the sons of the prophets, the plan from the beginning was that at a crucial point the fictional nature of the story would be revealed. In all three cases, the communication as a whole depends for its effectiveness on a principial distinction between fiction and nonfiction.
This distinction is recognized and familiar not only to Nathan, the woman, and the son of the prophets, but to the people whom they address. In other words, the distinction is emic to Israelite culture of the time. We can also see that fictional prose can use more than one style.
On the other hand, according to their plans, the parables uttered by Nathan, by the woman of Tekoa, and by the son of the prophets have realistic settings within the time and culture of the addressees, because they are deliberately intended to sound like nonfiction.
These examples also show that ancient people understood the possibility of deception when the narrative setting was realistic. A story teller could deceive, either temporarily, as a parabolic stratagem, or permanently, if he lied about the events.
Still another option is that a story teller could think he was telling the truth, and yet be mistaken. Consider, for example, 2 Sam — The Amalekite tells David an account according to which he killed Saul. In terms of genre, the account has the marks of nonfiction. It includes a dialog between two nonfictional characters, namely the Amalekite and King Saul.
It has a realistic setting, and realistic events within the setting. It coheres with the fact, which David will later be able to confirm from other sources, that Saul has died in the battle. But it does not easily cohere with 1 Sam —5. It looks as though, in 2 Sam —9, the Amalekite invented a dialog between two nonfictional persons, himself and King Saul. He lied, in hopes of ingratiating himself with David. According to our terminology, the narrative from the Amalekite belongs to the genre of nonfictional narrative.
It needs to, precisely in order to accomplish its deception. This incident illustrates a broader principle. If a story teller wants to deceive, he has to pay attention to making his story plausible. It has to sound like nonfiction. In terms of genre , it has to be a nonfictional narrative.
So it has to cohere within itself and with the situation. If, on the other hand, a story teller is speaking in good faith, he should give some signal when he is giving out fiction, or when he is giving out a combination as with a fictional story set in a realistic cultural setting of the time, or a made-up dialog between identifiably nonfictional persons. Now let us apply this emic distinction between fiction and nonfiction to the books of narrative prose.
What we may conclude? The mention of earlier written records underlines the fact that, at face value, 1—2 Kings and 1—2 Chronicles are asking readers to regard the narratives as describing real events in the past, not fiction.
The events are such as could be recorded by observers and record keepers at the time. The records in 1—2 Kings and 1—2 Chronicles are selective and have theological and literary interests. But that does not destroy the fact that they are claiming to refer to events in the real world, and that they expect the hearers to regard the events as happening in the real world rather than an imaginary world.
Genesis belongs to the same broad genre of narrative prose as does 1—2 Samuel and 1—2 Kings. Is it factual history, fictional fable, or somewhere in between? And how does its overall genre effect our interpretation of individual passages? In the last century we've come to appreciate how much genre governs our interaction with the Bible. Yet what is genre, why is it important, and how does it impact Genesis 1—11? The act of reading involves attempting to understand the relationship of words to one another and the author.
Halton explains many factors go into this answer, chief among them is identifying the type of text one is reading:. That one, little phrase conveys an amazing amount of information.
It also indicates the way in which the text should be interpreted. Genre governs how a given text is to be interpreted, and is accompanied by a number of expectations and rules. This observation must be given some weight. While on literary grounds one cannot say that the world was not created in six days, one can safely conclude that the concerns of Genesis 1 lie elsewhere than providing a cosmic chronology.
The genre of our text suggests that the author intended to convey his meaning through subtle and sophisticated means, not through the surface plot of the narrative i. A full account of all of the literary devices in Genesis would be inappropriate here and they are well described in numerous technical studies and commentaries.
This provides a compelling example of the unusual nature of the text and of the way the author seeks to convey his message through means other than the surface-level plot. A well-known example is the seven-candle lamp stand, or Menorah , which has long been a symbol of the Jewish faith and is the emblem of the modern State of Israel. In Genesis 1, multiples of seven appear in extraordinary ways. For ancient readers, who were accustomed to taking notice of such things, these multiples of seven conveyed a powerful message.
Seven was the divine number, the number of goodness and perfection. Its omnipresence in the opening chapter of the Bible makes an unmistakable point about the origin and nature of the universe itself. Consider the following:. The artistry of the chapter is stunning and, to ancient readers, unmistakable.
It casts the creation as a work of art, sharing in the perfection of God and deriving from him. My point is obvious: short of including a prescript for the benefit of modern readers the original author could hardly have made it clearer that his message is being conveyed through literary rather than prosaic means.
What we find in Genesis 1 is not exactly poetry of the type we find in the biblical book of Psalms but nor is it recognizable as simple prose. It is a rhythmic, symbolically-charged inventory of divine commands.
None of this should trouble modern Christians, or skeptics for that matter. It is not as if truths expressed by literary device are somehow less true than those expressed in simple prose. We have already raised the examples of parable and apocalyptic. Outside of the Bible, we also recognise the capacity of images to convey truth.
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! He might have. But this is probably not the point of Genesis Again, the example of the book of Revelation comes to mind. Being a multiple of 12 the number of the tribes of Israel the , figure conveys the idea of a complete number of Israelites. Likewise, the literary nature of Genesis 1 suggests to me and to many other biblical historians that the original author of the text, whatever his thoughts of the mechanics of creation, did not intend to convey them in this text.
Many will disagree with this conclusion on theological and perhaps scientific grounds. I respect their right to differ and remain open to learning more about this supremely important passage of Jewish and Christian Scripture.
Login Sign In. John Dickson. So … there is a school of thought that says these are two contradictory depictions of creation. They are only contradictory if you think it is trying to give you some sort of literal description of how creation actually took place. To me, that is a signal that we are not to read it as a literal depiction.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. January 20, What Genre is Genesis ? Tremper Longman Westmont College. Topics Jesus Science. So here are a few things that persuade me in that direction: 1. Discussion Questions: How does your impression of the genre of a text influence the way you read it?
Is an anthropomorphic presentation of God an indication that the text should be interpreted figuratively? What lessons can we still glean from a figurative account? Is it helpful to compare the Genesis account of creation with Babylonian accounts?
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