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Handout

Biblical Genres

Poetic
Historical
Prophetic
Wisdom Literature
Eye Witness Accounts of Jesus
Apocalyptic
Figurative language involves the use of words or phrases in a non-literal way to create a particular effect or imagery.
Literal language is straightforward and represents words or phrases exactly as they are typically understood.

Bible Categories

Old Testament contains 39 books (Before Jesus)
Torah or Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
History of Israel (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1,2 Samuel, 1,2 Kings, 1,2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester)
Poetry and Wisdom (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon)
Major Prophets (Isiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel)
Minor Prophets (Hosea-Malachi)
New Testament contains 27 books (During and after Jesus)
Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
History/Acts (Acts)
Paul's Letters aka the Epistles of Paul (Romans-Philemon)
General Epistles (Hebrews-Jude)
Revelation (Revelation)

Bible Translations

Easier to read translations - Just because they are easier to read, doesn't make them any less valuable to read.
New King James (NKJV)
The New International Version (NIV)
The English Standard Version (ESV) - The translation that this church uses.
The New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Harder to Read
King James Version (KJV) - the most common, the one you would find in the a drawer in a hotel.


Individual/Group Time

Either on your own, or in a group complete the following exercises.
Exercise 1: Read the following passages on how we should approach the Bible/God and mark up anything that stands out to you (with either a pencil, pen, or highlighter).
With Humility:
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you," 1 Peter 5:6
"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
With Reverence:
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105
"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:28-29
"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few." Ecclesiastes 5:1-2
With Diligence:
"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15
"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:5-8
With the Holy Spirit’s Guidance:
"Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:6-14
Exercise 2: Pick one thing from your marked up passages above and write down why it stood out to you.







Exercise 3: Read one of the following passages and identify what category of the Bible it is in.
Genesis 1:1
Revelation 22:16
Psalm 6:2-4
John 1:1
Jude 24-25
Isaiah 40:31
New Testament Categories
History/Acts
Gospels
General Epistles
Revelation
Paul’s Letters or Paul’s Epistles
Old Testament Categories
History of Israel
Minor Prophets
Poetry and Wisdom
Torah or Pentateuch (Creation, God’s Law)
Major Prophets


Exercise 4: From the verse you picked above...
A. Was this verse from before, during, or after Jesus’s time here on earth?

B. Circle the Biblical Genre you believe the passage belongs to
Poetic
Historical
Prophetic
Wisdom Literature
Eye Witness Accounts of Jesus
Apocalyptic
B. Do you think this language is figurative or literal? And why?
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