Bible as Literature: Exam 1

For Literary Analysis of the Bible. General terms and things to know for the old testament.

The books that are decisively poetic (81)

Proverbs, Job, Psalms and sections of prophetic books

Why it is difficult to distinguish biblical poetry and biblical prose (81-82)

Some scholars argue over certain texts belonging to either poetry or prose. There is no characteristic of poetry that cannot be found in prose.

The primary traits that define a text as poetic (82-84)

Terseness, the line, ellipsis, parallelism, and imagery.

Terseness

The overall shortness and or conciseness of a text

The fundamental unit for Hebrew poetry

The Line

2+ short clauses that form a line

cola

Anthology

A collection of books contained within a single book.

Tenak

An acronym in Hebrew representing the three major parts of the Old Testament - Te for Torah, Na for Nav (prophets), and K for Catavim (writings).

Torah

The first part of the Old Testament consisting of five books believed to be written by Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Catavim

The third part of the Old Testament, also known as the Writings, which can include both biblical poetry and prose.