The more I study the Scriptures, the more I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the Scriptures…and by the God who has inspired writers in their own day and culture to write with beauty. The deeper I dig, the more treasures I discover. It never ceases to amaze me what depths of literary fashioning the Scriptures have been formed by. Thankfully others have helped along the way (for a very concise introduction to literary reading, see 5 Strategies for Reading the Bible as Literature; better yet, pick up a copy of Leland Ryken’s brief “How to Read the Bible as Literature” [Zondervan, 1984]).
One of my assignments I’ve given my Former Prophets class is to write a brief “Literary” research paper. I was surprised to read some of their topics: mirroring, poetic analysis, characterization, irony, wordplay, inclusios, and chiasms (among others). Even their papers remind me of the depths of the creativity which pertains to God’s creation (of these students, the writers of Scripture, and the Scripture itself). God is creative beyond comprehension…it should not therefore surprise us that God’s word to us is so creative as well.
Related articles
- When the Bible Comes Alive (rickwadholmjr.wordpress.com)
- Tweeting Bonhoeffer and the Bible (iheartbarth.wordpress.com)
- Biblical Hebrew Poetry Resources (rickwadholmjr.wordpress.com)
I read this with pleasure a few years back. I too recommend it.
Pingback: Book Review: Devote Yourself to the Public Reading of Scripture (Jeffrey D. Arthurs) » Dave Enjoys