What am I reading?

So the last two posts, I have really talked about context, thought two different kinds. I have spoken of the literary context, which is basically trying to figure out the flow of thought, the author's main point. Then we looked at situational context: what was going on when and where the author wrote that helps this passage make sense? Today I want to spend some time writing about a controversial topic. Some of you will grasp this and some of you will fight it. What am I talking about? Genre.

Genre is a French word that means "kind" or "type." For instance, if you go to the video store, you have the new release section, you have the comedy section, the horror section, and the drama section. Those are each genres. They let you know what "kind" of film you are renting or buying. Another example of genre is the newspaper. You have the front page and the ensuing news, you have comics, sports, and classifieds. Each section presents a different "kind" of news.

The reason I am bringing up genre is that each genre of literature has certain guidelines or rules that help us know how to read that particular piece of literature. Deuteronomy is considered "law," Proverbs are "wisom poetry," Isaiah is "prophetic," Matthew and Mark are "narrative," and Revelation is a combination of genres. I would venture to say that we are all experts at genre, and we don't even realize it. Let me give you an example from Mark Moore. Let's say you read the words "downtown," "bucket," and "on fire" in a newspaper. What do you think it would mean if it was on the front page vs. the sports section? The front page may very well be talking about a building downtown that caught on fire and the bucket truck had to be used to help put it out. In the sports section, it is likely talking about a basketball game where someone was shooting really well and made a three-point shot. How do we know this? We have been trained that sports has its own verbiage and the front page has another verbiage. So we can interpret what is being said properly.

So let's think about Proverbs for a moment. We often read proverbs as if they are absolute fact, when they are actually meant to be pearls of wisdom that generally are how things go in life. So Proverbs 16:31 says that someone with gray hair has lived a righteous life. Is that necessarily true all the time? No. However, generally speaking if I live my life to please God, I have a better chance of seeing old age (or martyrdom in some cases). What about Proverbs 22:6? If I train a child a certain way, he will always stick to that training, right? How many of us have seen teenagers stray from the way they were trained? (On a side note, the Hebrew language here may suggest an entirely different translation and interpretation anyway.) A great book to grab if you want a better understanding of genre is How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.

Now genre is important because it helps us to know how to read a particular passage in the Bible. If we are going to learn to believe what Jesus believed, we need to really hone in on the literary context (what is really being said, what's the point?), the situational context (what about the situation can help me better understand what is being communicated?), and the genre (what type of literature is this?). Next week we will move on to talking about a transformed character (living the way Jesus lived). But for now, a couple of questions...

• How does genre conflict with what you have thought about the Bible before?
• How can we tell what genre a particular passage is?
• Who determines the rules associated with each genre?
• What other thoughts/questions come up?