The Bible as Literature

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Albert Labriola (Duquesne University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence -400-400

Places

Genres and Modes

Religion and Spirituality (any)
- Religious writing

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE

The Bible in the West includes the Hebraic and Christian scriptures, respectively the Old and New Testaments. Whereas Jews accept the Old Testament as biblical, Christians broaden that outlook to include both the Old and New Testaments. Accepting the scriptures as the revealed word of the Lord is a matter of faith, and systematic analysis of the scriptures is theological interpretation, which results in a code of beliefs called religion. Adherents to a particular religion generally assemble in a place of worship and participate in liturgies. Although religious readers perceive the scriptures as the revealed word of the Lord, many others view the Bible solely as literature and as a wellspring of myths and fables. But religious readers often examine the literary

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3853 words

Citation: Labriola, Albert. "The Bible as Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1283, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here