With 66 different books composed across literally thousands of years, it’s fair to say the Bible is a complex read. 

But it doesn’t have to be. 

The key to understanding the Bible is understanding the different literary genres. 

Meet our guest

Links

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A transcript of this episode is available here. Due to software not all exchanges between guests will be completely accurate.

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Check out these links to what we discussed on the show

To Read

• Head here to get yourself a copy of Andy’s wonderful book on genre!
• Andy also has a website where he published pieces of writing – check it out here
• He’s also written some great articles on some of scripture’s most challenging passages – including this one, published on Christianity Today
• John has also written about the importance of understanding genre – including this piece on Genesis, published on CPX
• Have you ever wondered what genre your fashion falls into? This article is here to help you
• If you want to give some of Agatha Christies romance novels a go – written under her pseudonym Mary Westmacott – this article is a good introduction to where to go

To Watch

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a landmark film for the horror genre. Here’s the iconic trailer that we featured in the episode (not for kids!)
• In addition to being a world-class theologian, Andy is also a distinguished preacher. Check him out in action here
• Getting our heads around genre helps make sense of some of the most disturbing parts of scripture – like, for example, the book of Judges. This video from BibleProject breaks down this tricky book
• They also have this great video that looks at the Biblical genres more generally
• …. in fact, they have lots of videos that are helpful when digging deeper into this topic – like this one, on design patterns throughout scripture

To Listen

• Here’s a link to episode 97 ‘The Apocalypse’, featuring the grab you heard of Scot McKnight
• While you’re at it, check out episode 102 ‘Ancient Letters’ – it’s an episode all about genre!
• …. so is episode 126 ‘Jesus’ Biography’
• Episode 72 ‘The Flood’ with John Walton is one of our best episodes on genre convention – specifically, “myth” and the Bible. Check it out here

… and finally

• Here’s Bob Dylan performing Like A Rolling Stone at his infamous ‘Dylan Goes Electric’ performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival – and here’s the Time Magazine retrospective