5 minute Bible » Genre

E100 Week 9: Psalms and Proverbs

tim — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:10:55 +0000

This week’s 5 is a somewhat artificial collection, putting together two different things. Yet both Psalms and Proverbs work differently from the narrative/history and prophecy that comprise the bulk of the Old Testament, and both are used a lot by Christians along with Genesis and Isaiah (while most of the Old Testament lies unread the Two-Thirds Bible).

In this podcast we’ll look at how different genres (see the posts here, especially: Genre matters: 1- Why genre matters) work. This will help understanding and applying the week’s readings. In doing this we’ll learn for example why so often proverbs contradict each other!

Incidentally in the Bible the commonest genre of psalm are complaints, but there are no complaints among the three readings chosen, to lpearn more about them see the podcasts here.

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Arguing with God: Jer 12:1-4

tim — Sat, 19 May 2007 09:20:00 +0000

In What is the Bible (Part 1) I talked of the Bible as witness, and mentioned stories where Abraham and Amos haggle with God, and ended with a reference to arguing with God in the Bible. Here I’ll begin to explore Jeremiah’s side of the conversation from Jer 12:1-4 (we’ll get to God’s reply later!)

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Jonah: Thoroughly fishy!

tim — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:12:00 +0000

Spotting the exaggerations and humour in the book can help us understand, but it also acts as a warning!

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Jonah pt.2: Jon 1:3 – What's going on?

tim — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:05:00 +0000

So, here’s the second part of the Jonah series. This time we focus on 1:3. Again we end with a question – but at least the right question is better than the wrong answer!

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Genre matters: 1- Why genre matters

tim — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:00 +0000

For some reason one of the difficult stumbling blocks at the start of a Bible intro course is “genre” and why it matters. So, here’s a < 5 minute Bible attempt to explain!

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Jonah 1:1 – How should I begin?

tim — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:14:00 +0000

This post deals with Jonah 1:1, I excuse this by reference to the new commentary series announced on the first of this month by Eisenbrauns ;-) This ‘cast deals with beginnings, and with whether the clues in this verse suggest Jonah is of the genre prophecy or narrative (if you don’t understand why this question matters, keep coming back as I’ll have a post on “Why genre matters” soon!

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PS: Thank you Tyler for reminding me of your blog post commentary on Jonah, you began it so long ago ;-) that I’d forgotten – but it should get a link here!
I should also link to my Notes on Jonah, less detailed than these talks, but dealing with the whole book.