Summary of words of delight (Reading The Bible as Literature)

By Kaleab Assefa

An assignment submitted to African institute for international studies (AIIS)

in cooperation with Faith Theological Seminary

In the course title of New Testament Literature

(Assignment 1)

Instructor: Ermisha Beyene

24/12/2021

Summary of words of delight by Leland Ryken

The selected texts from the book “Words of delight” which is authored by Leland Ryken deals with the
facts and necessities of assuming the bible as a literature. This way, it presents how the bible is
amazingly beautiful piece of literature that has all the necessary features to make it a literary book.
But its literary nature is combined with theological schemas and historical events. At the end of the
selected paper this conclusive idea was written as follows:
“It is a literary book, but the literature of the bible is intermingled with Theology and history.”
To elaborate the overall ideas of this whole concern the paper classified its main impressions in
subtopics. These subtopics discuss the following.

Feature of the bible

In the subtopic “what Kind of the book is the bible”, the three types of features of the bible are
explained. These three features are called by the author as “the types of writing” namely Theological;
which is concerned with texts with theological concepts, history; which is thoughtful of real characters
and actions; and literature; which is imaginatively experienced by the reader. These three types of
writing will be dealt by the Theological approach, historical approach and literary approach
respectively. According to Leland Ryken, these three writing types are found mixed in the bible and
one of the three concepts dominates the other in specific texts of the bible. As an example he quoted
Ephesians 2:4-8 in order to indicate theological concern dominating historical and literary; while
1kings 16:29-33 to show historical dominance and Gen 3:1-7 as a literary dominance over the rest
two. Although one of the three types of writing is dominant at a time, but the other two will stay
intact in it.

Features of literature as a genre

For the author, literature itself is a genre and it is a basis of literary approach for the bible. So as a
genre, the bible has its own attributes. The author explains these attributes as the following:
A) The first characteristic of literature as a genre is the fact that it imagines reality. This attribute
of a genre enquires the reader to create an image which is parallel to the abstract-natured
literature he is reading of. This kind of imaginative literature is usually used in poetic books of
the bible (the author picks Psalms 61:2-4 as an example), but story tellers also use the same
technique through different methodologies. In all these, literary genres are subjected to
human experience through image making nature within poetic and storytelling performances.
B) The other way of outlining literature is in terms of its categories. The author attributed it as
“Literary genres”. For the bible includes combination of different literary genres, it is
important to know that to which category we can put a specific piece of literature of the bible.
These genres (categories) mainly named as story, poetry, visionary, proverb, and expository.
The Poetic genre writing is mostly lyric poetry whereas together prophecy and apocalypse
type writings are regarded as visionary writing. Theological articles and historical journals are
to be included in expository genre. However there are other genres (types of writing) those

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 are less practical in the bible. These writings are satire. Epic, tragedy, wedding and funeral
poems, drama, and encomium writings.
C) Artistry is another standard of literature. This standard (criterion) makes a literature different
from any ordinary dialogs. Artistry essentially means a feature of literature which reveals itself
by skillful wordings and marbled compositions. With a literature includes artistry in it, one
observes how it is said rather than just what is said in a particular writing. Artistry primarily
has two purposes in a literature namely; (1) intensifying the impact of the message in the
literature and (2) making the writing pleasant. The author picks Jesus’ rhetoric on the sermon
of the mount (Matt 6:25-34) as an example of artistry. Ryken observed that the discourse of
Jesus on the sermon of the mount is beautifully constructed.
This construction contains the thesis (main addressable idea), applications to life, rhetorical
question to support the application, analogy of nature for not worrying about food, rhetorical
question to support the analogy, the second analogy of nature for not worrying about clothing
with additional analogy, summary statement for the above discourses, reasoning for not
worrying with a given solution to do so, a final warning against anxiety and finally, a closing
speech. This is what the author meant by artistry: a literature that come up with a feature of
pattern, design, theme, unity and variety, coherence, balance, contrast, symmetry, repetition,
and unified progression has an artistry in it.
D) The last criterion of literature, according to Ryken is called resources of language. These
resources can also be known as “word play”, which is ultimately found in literary writings.
Resources of language in a literature are to be found in terms of metaphor, simile, pun
(humorous use of words), allusion, paradox, and irony. For the bible uses resources of
language in its contents, we can say that it is a literary book.

A test case
Under this subtopic, the author raises one exemplary literary piece of the bible equipped with
narrative character. This story is the account of Peter’s denial of Jesus which is found in Luke 22:54-
62. The story attractively describes how peter denied Jesus in front of the Judaic society; and to do
this. The narrator elected artistic methods fitted out with “three main ingredients”. These ingredients
are shown as:
A Setting which enables the reader to imagine the whole scene such as the kindled fire in the middle
of courtyard and the gathering,
The characters those created the gathering. The main characters there were Peter and Jesus.
The plot which tells the main event occurred by the setting and the characters. In the plot we can
clearly see how the gathering interrogated Peter about the relationship between him and Jesus.
This story is well told by Luke with the above ingredients while they are not fictional settings and
characters but the historical ones.

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The story of Peter’s Denial is the perfect example for a good literature devised with the traits of a
literature namely: genre, artistry and resources of language. By quoting from the “poetics of
Aristotle”, the author tried to indicate that the above New Testament narration has a literary quality
even according to the secular world’s parameter.

Under a title named as a literary approach of the bible, Leland Ryken presents problems
associated with literary methods and appropriate qualities of approaching the bible as a
literary piece. Theological and historical approaches are available in order to view the bible as
a set of abstractions and analyze it to historical events accordingly. So a literary approach
differs from these two in terms of its agenda of interest and set of presuppositions. As the
author suggests, the following are the issues kept in check by literary approach.
1) Meaning through form, which deals with focusing on what the text said through a specific way
of description. In a literary approach, we are also concerned with how something was
described through characteristics and forms of the text in addition to what is said by it. That’s
where we use different ways of approach when we deal with stories, poetic nature writings
and other genres. Dealing with forms and characteristics of a text helps us to get the exact
meaning of a particular passage.
2) Unity and literary wholes, is another characteristic of a literary approach in order to discover
the fact of unified arrangement in different texts. So a literary approach to the bible takes
responsibility to show unity in the texts of the scriptures as well.
3) “Reading with the right side of the brain”. The author used this metaphoric expression in order
to tell us the fact that a literary approach is characterized by sensitivity to imagination while
reading a piece of literature. Psychology says that such tasks take place by the function of our
brain’s right side. When we read scriptures, we realize and communicate truths of the bible
with imaginations created in our mind.
4) Universality; The bible lets us read the events occurred by God and people in a distant time.
Though this claim is firmly correct, we still learn and grasp God’s moral from the texts. The
author puts it this way: “One of the most consistent claims made for literature through the ages
is that it captures the experiences that are true for all people in all times…. A literary approach is
thus concerned with build bridges between a biblical text and the life of the reader.”
5) The enjoyment of artistic beauty: the literary approach gives a credit to artistry in a literature
rather than ignoring it. Through this claim we can understand that the bible is not an ordinary
book but the artistic one.
6) Sensitivity to language: the language in which the bible is written with is known by its diverse
kinds and ways of expression. It is composed of figurative language, irony and many more. A
literary approach deals with this feature.
After the above concerns of a literary approach, the author picks an account of Ehud which is found in
Judges 3:15-26 as a sample of showing a literary approach to the bible. By doing this he beautifully
elaborated how such stories can be treated with this subject. The setting, the characters and the plots
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are well organized in the story, which makes it realistic narrative. Eglons’ physical hugeness, Ehuds’
left-handed nature and his creativity, and the setting of the king’s slaves are the main characters of
the narrative. This enables a reader of the story to imagine the whole events occurred there. The
way the languages used in the story also has its own beauty and role in delivering messages. We can
understand this when we know Benjamin means “child of my right hand” while the descendant of this
man is left handed. The scene painted in the text is rich of literary perfections which enables us
approach it with the above concerns of literary manner. The author, Leland Ryken made a meritorious
analysis with the above text.

Master images and archetypes

Master images and archetypes are known to be occurred throughout the bible as they are real in life.
Because of their recurrent nature, they made the bible a universal book. The author stated that by
saying: “the archetypes of the bible are one of the things that allow us to see our own experience in the
bible”. We can communicate with the truth of scriptures by means of the so called master images
because they are also familiar to us although the bible was written in distant time away from us. In his
book, the author delivers exhaustive list of archetypes in which the bible composed of. He does this
by classifying them in to two categories namely, ideal experience and unideal experience.
These listed archetypes commonly are: the supernatural world, nature, plants, water, animals,
sounds, direction of motion, relationships, clothing, food, human body, buildings, and the inorganic
world.
The above list of archetypes are common for the two categories, ideal experience and unideal
experience. When the archetypes are expressed under the category of ideal experience, they will take
positive imageries and action descriptions whereas they are under unideal experience they reveal
themselves as bad and evil imageries.
For instance, let’s take the supernatural world. It expresses God, angels, and the heavenly society in
the Ideal experience; but it can also express Satan and evil spirits with unideal experience. Likewise, if
we take animals within ideal experience, they can give us the imagination of flock of sheep or any
human-friendly animal in the world. But unideal experience with animals in the bible may include
monsters, beasts and unclean ones.
Therefore, according to the author, if we are well aware and familiar with archetypes in terms of ideal
and unideal experiences, we can approach the bible according to its literary quality.

The literary unity of the bible

In our experience, most of the Christian people feels exhausted when it tries to interact with the bible
due to its vast contents and pages. Leland Ryken presents a cure for this via prescription of grasping a
sight of the bible’s complete unity. To catch this view, he grants some concerns found in the bible
those help us get its literary unity.

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1) Literary anthology: it’s important to know the fact that the bible is a collection of various
literature works of individuals. Through their works, those different individuals give us an
image of a specific topic. But when we look different works of that specific topic at one, we will
be able to grasp a clearer image and lesson about it. This is what the author meant by “literary
anthology”. He also raises an example of the image of God portrayed by different writers of the
bible that managed to give the final image of the subject. That’s how we can learn about
different terms such as Law and grace, sin and mercy in the gospel. Likewise that’s how the
bible’s central agenda is called to be “promise and fulfillment” while it is composed of different
works of various individuals.
2) The bible as a story: though the bible tells different kinds, angles and genres of literature, it
also tells us a single and unique story. This story is told about unceasing struggle between good
and evil, about God and forces of evil, and the human choice between the two. Like any
excellent story, this story of the bible also has a beginning a middle and an end. Furthermore
the protagonist (main actor) of the story in the bible is God himself and the history of the world
told in the bible tells about acts of God among the human life.
The author finalizes this claim by categorizing the chapters of the bible in terms of literary form
namely: Genesis as the beginning of history, Exodus the law, Wisdom literatures as kingdom of
Israel, Prophecy for exile and return, Gospel as depicting the life of Christ followed by human
salvation, Acts and epistles as formation of the Christian church, and Apocalypse to tell about
consummation of history based on the second coming of Christ.
This way, we can treat the bible, equipped with many works of various individuals as a single story
that has a protagonist, setting, character and a plot; with perfect literary piece having a beginning,
a middle and an ending.
So the selected texts from the book “Words of delight” which is authored by Leland Ryken informs
the fact that the bible is a literary work that worth an appropriate literary approach while reading.