When I think of literature, I think of my days studying English at college. I think of context, genre, point of view, narrative, characterisation, theme, tone and how information is ordered. Applying these ideas to scripture can be an exciting way to understand what the author really wants to communicate to his audience and attempt to discover what the story actually says.

This type of discussion doesn’t need to touch on the truth-claims of the Bible. I’m not stipulating that they are fictional or historical. The point is that they are written communication. Somebody formed them for a purpose and they used sophisticated literary tools to convey the information.

Ancient writers used different techniques from us to convince their audience. These are some of the things that have been pointed out to me:

A general lack of physical description

Information given often relates (somehow) to the current story rather than setting up a future story

Often details serve to subtly emphasis a point, rather than embellish the story

Emphasis is created by repeating phrases/ideas at the beginning and end of passages

The inter-relatedness of stories — in terms of genre (form) and information

Grouping similar stories/concepts in order to aid memory retention as well as for style

Movement between poetry and prose (although the difference is often hard to spot

Chiasm, where an idea is repeated or contrasted in parallel language blocks

Like modern authors, Bible writers used the following techniques (in addition to many others), although there are some differences in how they are used.

Lags and advances in time

Parallel editing

Tone; like irony and humour

Using euphemism, jargon and slang