Literary Forms and Truths

A traditional story focusing on the deeds of gods and heros, often in explanation of some natural phenomenon

Unauthenticated story from earlier time preserved by tradition and popularly thought to be historical

A brief tale embodying a moral and usings persons, animals, or inanimate things or characters

Itemized series of names, words, etc. usually recorded in a set order

Poetry expressing the poet's personal and inner feelings, often meant to be sung

Poetry expressing the poet's personal and inner feelings on love

Prediction made under divine influence and direction

Rule of conduct, moral, principal, etc. derived from generally recognized concept of universal justice

Speech of serious or solemn kind, often based on a passage from the bible

A record or account, usually written in chronological order, of past events, especially those concerning a particular nation or people

A written or printed message, usually of a personal nature or concerning a specific subject

A story about people's lives, including dialouge and interaction

The bible is primarily religious truth. Religion is concerned with a man’s relationship with God, and the bible is the record of the relationship between God and his chosen people, the Hebrews. It tells how God treated him and how they did/did not respond.

This tells us what is right and wrong, what we must do and how we must live if we want to be good people and close to God. However, the Old Testament reflects the morality of the Hebrew people, and their standards were very different from ours. For instance, according to Hebrew mortality, if a person poked out your eye, you were permitted to poke out one of his, if he knocked out your tooth, you could knock out one of his. The New Testament tells us that Jesus expressly raised the moral standards.

Much of the truth in scripture is told in symbols, parables, myths and allegories. We have to read between the lines to discover the truth being presented. The story of the tree of good and evil is an example of such a symbol. There is truth there, but it is religious truth, not factual truth about apples and snakes.