III. Classification. We may arrange the different kinds of literature found in the Old Testament under six classes, as follows:
1. The larger portion of the Old Testament belongs to the department of History. In its books we trace the early history of the world and the history through two thousand years of the Is´ra-el-ite people. This history may be classified as:
1.) Primitive history, in the book of Gen´e-sis.
2.) Constitutional history, or the record of laws and institutions, in Ex´o-dus, Le-vit´i-cus, Num´bers.
3.) National history, or historical events, in Josh´u-a, Judg´es, Sam´u-el, Kings, and Ez´ra. Although in some of these books are many narratives more biographical than historical, yet nearly all these stories have a bearing upon the national history.
4.) Ecclesiastical history, in the books of Chron´i-cles, which tell the story of the kingdom of Ju´dah from a priestly point of view.
2. Next to the history comes Personal Narrative as a literary form in the Bible; such stories as those of Jo´seph, Ba´laam, Ruth, Da´vid, E-li´jah, E-li´sha, Jo´nah, and Es´ther; not historical, as the story of the nations, but personal, as the record of individuals. These narratives belong to the class called by scholars "prose epics," an epic being a work of narration, generally in poetry, as the epics of Homer, Dante, and Milton. The epics in the Bible are poetic in their thought, but prose in their form.
Blackboard Outline
| I. | Imp. The Bible as Hist. Eth. Doc. Dev. Lit. [Illust.] |
| II. | Diff. 1. Div. chap. ver. 2. Lit. ming. |
| III. | Class. 1. Hist. 1.) Prim. 2.) Const. 3.) Nat. 4.) Eccl. 2. Per. narr. J. B. R. D. E. E. J. E. |
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