A handful of books in the Bible show some evidence of literary shaping. Please understand: I absolutely do not mean that they are in any way other than the inspired Word of God. At the same time, because of how inspiration works, even the literary shaping of the parts of the Bible that show this evidence is done by inspiration.
Which books show this shaping? I submit that at least the books of Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (a/k/a Song of Solomon), and Jonah.
Other books, the letters of the New Testament, the historical books of the Old Testament, the prophets, show other signs of shaping, but here I am thinking about the shaping of the books as literature, not, for instance, by subject grouping (as in, e.g., Isaiah). The Psalms are a special case, as are (probably) the Proverbs. There we have a kind of internal logic that doesn’t amount to literary shaping in the same way.
What about the Gospels? Each was written with a distinct first-century audience in mind, but they flow more like histories than like something you would study in a literature class.
What do you think?
Which books show this shaping? I submit that at least the books of Ruth, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (a/k/a Song of Solomon), and Jonah.
Other books, the letters of the New Testament, the historical books of the Old Testament, the prophets, show other signs of shaping, but here I am thinking about the shaping of the books as literature, not, for instance, by subject grouping (as in, e.g., Isaiah). The Psalms are a special case, as are (probably) the Proverbs. There we have a kind of internal logic that doesn’t amount to literary shaping in the same way.
What about the Gospels? Each was written with a distinct first-century audience in mind, but they flow more like histories than like something you would study in a literature class.
What do you think?
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