OTB2 – Types of literature in the Old Testament books
© Jeff Stacey | Last updated: 11 May 2020
The OT books contain the following types of writings:-
- Historical narratives
- Speeches and dialogues
- Poetry
- Collections of laws, regulations and instructions, including actual copies of formal “legal” documents (eg law codes, Divine or king’s decrees, “covenant renewal witnesses”, official letters, etc)
- Lists (eg genealogies, land distributions, statistical data, etc)
- Prophetic “oracles” (mostly in poetic form), being God-given warnings and promises in particular historical situations, with exhortations to believe and obey Him
- Prayers and songs (usually in Hebrew forms of poetry)
- Collections of sayings (usually “proverbs”)
- Passages with ancient Hebrew traditional literary structures
These various types of writings are often also embedded within each other. For example, Genesis 1 – 5 is primarily in the form of a historical narrative. But:-
Gen 1:1 – 2:3 has a formal structuring
Gen 2:4, 5:1a are formal “section markers” (see also Gen 6:9, 10:1, etc]
Gen 2:23 and 4:23-24 are poems
Gen 3:1-13 is a series of dialogues
Gen 3:14-19 is three Divine decrees
Gen 5:1-32 is a statistical genealogy
The meaning of any OT passage can depend greatly on its type and form. So identifying these features is important for accurate interpretation.