The Bible is not a single book, but a collection of sixty-six books bound together. Understanding biblical genre and giving kids opportunity to experience each type will help boys and girls on their journey of interacting with God through His Word.
Each genre of Scripture is unique, and helping kids discover why the books of the Bible are grouped the way they are will lead kids to a better understanding of why that particular book is even in the Bible.
The only thing in the format that gives us any clue is the poetic sections being offset as poetry and the books being divided by individual titles. But that's essentially all we get.
We are further confused by our historical and cultural dissonance. We're distant from the Bible. We're removed from even the most recent parts, by 2, years and by language the New Testament was composed in Greek, with first-century Greco-Roman genres in mind. But when we understand ancient genre, it transforms absolutely everything about our Bible study. It makes sense of confusing sections.
It helps us understand the difference between one biblical book and another. It bridges the cultural and historical dissonance. It brings us one step closer to what the ancient reader would have naturally understood. When it comes to the Bible, we're like a westerner in an eastern culture—we need a guide. Otherwise, we will completely miss the cultural cues the Bible presents. We will dishonor our host. Our guide would start by telling us that there are four big genre categories: Narrative , Poetry , Prophecy , and Apocalyptic.
We can roughly divide the 66 biblical books that are shared by all Christian denominations into these big categories, and then into various sub-genres and styles. For example, Revelation includes Poetry ; and Daniel also includes a Narrative section informed by Apocalyptic language and style. Just this basic understanding of the difference between the Gospel of Matthew and Revelation completely changes the way we interpret the books.
We will explore these genres throughout this series. Understanding genre drew me closer to God. By approaching the Bible as a series of genre-specific books, I came to understand the human authors involved in this divinely inspired text.
I also came to understand how God used these human genres to compose the greatest book of all time. I came to understand the Bible a little more like an ancient. And that made hearing God's voice through the Bible just that much easier.
To interpret poetry in the Bible well, look for structure and patterns within lines or groups of lines. Find symbolism in the imagery, and see poetry as the human need to express ourselves.
Weigh theology lightly, only within the framework of the rest of the Bible, because many times, poetic words are simply a cry of our heart, spoken or sung in angst or passion for that moment. Prophecy in the Bible is about God telling something to His people through human speakers. Though many think prophecy is only about predicting something happening in the distant future, only a small percentage of prophecies in the Bible is about that.
Most prophecies are to a particular audience for a particular time. It is usually about the present or the immediate future. For example, Jonah was a prophet bringing a message from God to Nineveh.
Some prophets and prophecies are clearer and easier to understand, while others are quite difficult. Many times, to read these sections well, understanding the major ideas, themes, and purposes are better than trying to understand all the specific symbolic details. The wisdom books seem straight-forward but can sometimes be easily misinterpreted.
Proverbs are practical, commonsense advice and suggestions for living. The problem we get into with proverbial wisdom is we sometimes take them as promises. Wisdom literature gives insights into living rightly, but many of its statements are more general rules, not exact statements of fact. We are to follow them, but not always expect the blessing or curse that comes along with it. A common New Testament genre is the Gospel genre, eyewitness accounts of the stories of Jesus as testimonials of the good news.
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