The Bible as Literature:

1. http://ordinand.wordpress.com/ The Bible as Literature: 'Grammatical content cannot be separated from the form through which it is communicated.... this means that consideration of genre is an absolute must for hermeneutics.' Tate Biblical Interpretation 69

2. The Bible as Literature: 'As readers study a particular text, their expectations are increasingly defined as they narrow the possibilities to identify the proper genre to which the text belongs...By applying to the text the potential extrinsic genre-types the interpreter eventually determines the intrinsic, origonally intended genre and thereby able to utilize the correct 'rules' for understanding the text. For one studying an ancient text this process cannot take place automatically. The reader needs help in understanding how those ancient genres functioned.' Osborne The Hermeneutical Spiral 182

3. The Gospels as Literature The genre, or literary character and form, of a document is vitally related to the purposes of its author. How can the Gospel of Matthew be described so as to account for its unique emphases and its peculiar formal elements? Several possible answers must be considered. • Gospel • Midrash • Lectionary • Catachesis • Church Corrective • Missionary Propaganda • Polemic Against the Rabbis Hagner, Donald A.: Word Biblical Commentary : Matthew 1-13. Dallas : This variety of options concerning the genre of Matthew indicates something of its multifaceted character. Several of these explanations may well be equally true. The evangelist could have had several purposes.

4. The Gospels as Literature Hellenistic Biography: 'Thus it was the purpose of these biographies to present the principals of philosophical doctrines, conduct of life, and formation of character in the form of a bios.' Tate 119 'These biographies included anecdotes, legends, pangyric (extravagant praise), artology (miracle stories), thematic approach, amplification and comparison'. How would we interpret Matthew 2:1-12 as biographical literature?

5. The Gospels as Literature Romance Adventure tale, usually with a quasi-historical setting, in which a virtuous heroine and her valiant lover are separated by innumerable obstacles of human wickedness and natural catastrophe but are finally reunited. A precursor of the modern novel, the Hellenistic romance is the source for classic love stories, such as those of Hero and Leander, Pyramus and Thisbe, Sappho and Phaon, and Daphnis and Chloë. Introduced in the 1st century BC, the form reached its height in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD in the works of writers such as Chariton, Xenophon, Longus, and Heliodorus. It combined elements of the imaginative rhetorical exercise, popular Alexandrian poems and tales of love and adventure, the erotic Milesian adventure tale, Utopian stories, and travel narratives. www.britannica.com How would we interpret Matthew 2:1-12 as a hellenistic Romance?

6. The Gospels as Literature Greek Tragedy. Taken from http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/tragedy.htm a literary composition written to be performed by actors in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero's actions. Tragedy stresses the vulnerability of human beings whose suffering is brought on by a combination of human and divine actions, but is generally undeserved with regard to its harshness. This genre, however, is not totally pessimistic in its outlook. Although many tragedies end in misery for the characters, there are also tragedies in which a satisfactory solution of the tragic situation is attained. How would we interpret Matthew 2:1-12 as a Greek Tragedy?