The literary aspect of interpretation plays a crucial role in shaping the biblical narrative, but it is overlooked and almost nonexistent.
• Conventional biblical scholarship is limited. o Example: the story of Judah and Tamar. At first glance, this story seems to be rudely inserted in the middle of the drama of Joseph. Upon further inspection, the use of a single word (“recognize” in this case) ties chapters 37 and 38 of Genesis together – something that is missed without considering literary elements of the text.
• More attention needs to be given to aspects of the text such as: tone, syntax, rhythm in poetic works, use of imagery, etc.
• Reasons for not utilizing the literary approach have been stated as follows: o There is a level of …show more content…
Alter is of the belief that history of all types and prose fiction are more closely intertwined than most people realize.
• He points out that the Bible’s sense of history is much different than the modern sense of the word. o The modern history is tied to documented events and facts. The events of the Bible are different.
Alter suggests that the stories from the Bible are the result of the Hebrew writers making use of their imaginations when facing the task of writing Scripture with their scanty historical resources being limited.
• He uses three different stories from the Bible to illustrate his point. o Firstly, he refers to the story of David in 2 Sam 24 when he has the opportunity to kill Saul who is pursuing him, but he spares him instead.
The writer(s) have no clue what kind of dialogue took place between David and Saul.
The writer(s) are free to use their imagination and end up creating a beautiful dialogue that contains at least one parallel to another story from the Bible. In this case, it is Saul’s response that mirrors Isaac’s question, “is that you, my son?” from Genesis (42). o Secondly, he references Ehud’s assassination of the Moabite King …show more content…
Again, the writer(s) would have had very little historical background to use in their writing, so one has more freedom to imagine what events took place that resulted in two rivaling nations.
Alter concludes the chapter by boldly saying that we could miss out on deeper meanings of the Bible if one does not utilize a fictional medium when reading the text (54).
• Conventional biblical scholarship is limited. o Example: the story of Judah and Tamar. At first glance, this story seems to be rudely inserted in the middle of the drama of Joseph. Upon further inspection, the use of a single word (“recognize” in this case) ties chapters 37 and 38 of Genesis together – something that is missed without considering literary elements of the text.
• More attention needs to be given to aspects of the text such as: tone, syntax, rhythm in poetic works, use of imagery, etc.
• Reasons for not utilizing the literary approach have been stated as follows: o There is a level of …show more content…
Alter is of the belief that history of all types and prose fiction are more closely intertwined than most people realize.
• He points out that the Bible’s sense of history is much different than the modern sense of the word. o The modern history is tied to documented events and facts. The events of the Bible are different.
Alter suggests that the stories from the Bible are the result of the Hebrew writers making use of their imaginations when facing the task of writing Scripture with their scanty historical resources being limited.
• He uses three different stories from the Bible to illustrate his point. o Firstly, he refers to the story of David in 2 Sam 24 when he has the opportunity to kill Saul who is pursuing him, but he spares him instead.
The writer(s) have no clue what kind of dialogue took place between David and Saul.
The writer(s) are free to use their imagination and end up creating a beautiful dialogue that contains at least one parallel to another story from the Bible. In this case, it is Saul’s response that mirrors Isaac’s question, “is that you, my son?” from Genesis (42). o Secondly, he references Ehud’s assassination of the Moabite King …show more content…
Again, the writer(s) would have had very little historical background to use in their writing, so one has more freedom to imagine what events took place that resulted in two rivaling nations.
Alter concludes the chapter by boldly saying that we could miss out on deeper meanings of the Bible if one does not utilize a fictional medium when reading the text (54).