THE BIBLE HAS 

DIFFERENT LITERARY FORMS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “The Bible Has Different Literary Forms.”

From time to time I think we need to be reminded of something very obvious: “The Bible Has Different Literary Forms.”

For those of you who come to Mass most every day - you hear all kinds of different readings from the Bible. I have discovered that one of the reasons people end up having problems and head scratching with the Bible at times -  is because they forget that there are different kinds of writing in the Bible. For example, they take something literally - when it would be more helpful -  if they took the same passage figuratively.  For example: do you take Genesis 5: 27 literally or figuratively, "In all, Methuselah lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years; then he died."

LITERARY FORMS

We know the difference between a children’s story - like Jack in the Beanstalk  - and an Obituary. We know the difference between a recipe and the Adam and Eve stories in the Book of Genesis.

And speaking of Adam and Eve,  I assume people love the story of God creating Adam out of the clay of the earth and then breathing the breath of life into him. Then we hear the story of all the animals being brought to Adam and he gives a thumbs down to every one of them as a suitable partner. Well, God then puts Adam into a deep sleep and pulls out one of his ribs and builds a woman with that missing rib. [Cf. Genesis 2] And then we can hear the rabbis down through history telling those who are getting married - you are to be one - you are to embrace each other - rib to rib in love - and to be suitable partners.[1]

I assume that people know that every library has different sections: fiction and non-fiction, a children's section and an adult section - history, poetry, art books and cookbooks, etc. etc. etc.

I assume that people know that the word Bible - comes from the plural of the word - and means books. The Bible is a portable library with all kinds of books and all kinds of literature of a people.

WHAT WE MIGHT NOT KNOW

What we might not know is that this idea of various literary forms was not always such an out-loud and agreed upon principle by everyone in the Catholic Church.

These 4 years now, the Catholic Church is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council: 1962-1965.

One of the key documents of the Second Vatican Council was The Constitution on Revelation - Dei Verbum.

The initial document met with big time criticism. 60 % wanted to send it back to be rewritten. 2/3 or 66 + was necessary for this - so John 23 intervened and said, “Recast the text.”

Chapter 3, # 12 of the finished constitution states loudly and clearly what I said above about “literary forms.” Those very words appear in the document.

I would recommend every person who comes to Mass - especially Daily Mass - that they read that document again - slowly and study it. If you have a computer you can find it on line for free - along with study guides etc.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

So we heard in today’s first reading one more story about David.

I hoped you noticed that it contained one of the world’s great literary forms: that of the 3 wishes.

I’m sure you heard that  literary form in various jokes and cute stories at different times in your life.  It always starts: “You have 3 wishes….”

Because of his sin of counting all the people - perhaps to line up more soldiers - and then depend less on God, David is given 3 wishes: you can have 3 years of famine, 3 months of being hunted down or 3 days of pestilence. David chooses # 3 and our text says, “The Lord then sent a pestilence over Israel from morning to the time appointed and 70,000 of the people died.”

Well, if we understand literary forms and what the Vatican II document on the Bible - Dei Verbum -   is saying, we wouldn’t get hot and bothered about God doing all this. Plagues and drought happen - and people blame God - just as some religious leaders said September 11 happened because of our sins. How many people still say to little kids or to each other, “God punished you!”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Now today’s gospel has a slightly different type of history than the type of history we are hearing in the Books of Samuel. Yet both have a similar principle. There were basic spoken stories that were told among the community. Then for local situations details were adapted - stressed - or what have you. At some point they are written down - and at times revised. The message is more important than the details. So at times we don't get exactly what Jesus said or did. And that’s the beauty of comparing the 4 gospels. We see this when we hear different preachers come up with different stresses on the text we hear at any specific Mass.

CONCLUSION

It’s my experience that when people first hear this idea about literary forms - they get nervous. However, it's not as much as 50 years ago.  

It's my experience that it's much easier to be a fundamentalist. If the Bible says it - I believe it.

However, in the long run, once you get literary forms, you can have a much richer appreciation of the stories, parables, psalms or songs, different types of history, wisdom literature, and what have you in the Bible.

Moreover, we can avoid arguments by those who have a scientific bent with those who have a fundamentalist bent in interpreting scriptures.

Let me close with a quick story that happened to me.

In 1967 I got my first assignment.  I’m talking at breakfast with this old Redemptorist priest. He mentioned what he was taught - that the world was created in 4004 B.C..  And I said to him: "Impossible! They have rocks that are scientifically shown to be 4 or 5 billions years old. 

His response to my response:  “God created them old.”  

Surprise! He was taught what a Bishop James Ussher  taught - that the world was created Sunday October 23, 4004 B.C. and Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden on November 10, 4004 B.C.

Sometimes silence is golden. 


OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Notes:

[1] Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Legends from the Talmud and Midrash, Chapter 2, pages 19-22; Bill Moyers, Genesis, A Living Conversation, Chapter 1, "In God's Image," pp. 3-37; "Temptation", pp. 40-69; Naomi Rosenblatt and Joshua Horwitz, What Genesis Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships, pp, 23-51.