Two Charts on the Literature of the Bible

Excellent charts. Do you know if the Genre Pie Chart is based on # of chapters? # of Verses?

Thanks,
jch

I would put Daniel in both prophecy and apocalyptic. Or make Daniel two colors and put it at an edge of both prophecy and apocalyptic.

I based it on the number of words in the KJV. I am sure that all other versions would be close to identical here. I had to add them all up on my iPhone calculator and then plug in the percentatges in Excel and generate the chart. Messy and time consuming, but it worked.

I was somewhat surprised about how little the Psalms make up. It is very interesting to see it in this way. History/Narrative is God’s primary means of communication. How much more should we be dilegent in our understanding of how to interpret history? How much more can it be abused!

Quite interesting…thanks.

Try doing an identical post for the Septuagint! 🙂

Do the colors of the books in the ‘bookshelf’ graphic mean anything? (i.e. the gospels and acts are all ‘history’, but acts is red and the other 4 are yellow.)

Very cool graphic though, good work.

Would it be helpful to label the books on the 2nd shelf “Pauline Epistles” instead of just “Epistles”?

@C Michael Patton
So, these are charts YOU have made and not stumbled upon. Good job! Your artistic endeavors out-do mine.

And thank you for using the ole’ King Jimmy! That blesses my soul.

I have wondered where, exactly, Lamentations belongs. I know it was written by Jeremiah, a prophet, yet it reads like poetry, depressing poetry, but poetry, nonetheless. Still, you did a commendable job on this.

Thanks, Michael. Very help-ful.

I think that, typically, the poetic and wisdom books would be combined together into one group. Song of Solomon is usually considered of wisdom genre because of its relationship to Solomon, though he might not have been the specific author. And the Psalm have wisdom psalms. Not to mention that Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are poetic (and so are most of the writings of the prophets).

Also, there is more than just Revelation as apocalyptic. Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and large portions of Isaiah are apocalyptic.

CMP –

History/Narrative is God’s primary means of communication. How much more should we be dilegent in our understanding of how to interpret history?

Hmm. Maybe the historical parts of Scripture can be used much more in doctrine formation than many give them credit for.

This is pretty broad brush stroke stuff. For example, prophesy is woven through the Psalms, songs and poems are woven into historical narratives, Apocalypse shows up in several books of prophesy. Stories are a major part of the Gospels. And then there are works like Job, which may be historical or may be an epic play (or both, but the style is and speech reads like literature, not like everyday people-speak.) Then there is Genesis 1-3 (?)

May I ask why Revelation is placed within the genre entitled “Apocalyptic.” Should it not be entitled NT Prophetic. Revelation is self acclaimed to be a prophecy, not apocalyptic literature (Rev. 1.3; 22.18-19).

Apocalyptic is a subset or type of prophecy.

Isn’t Daniel usually considered a major prophet? Are the light blue prophecy books the minor prophets?

Great Website and a real gift with graphics!

I’m interested in your “Exodous” however.

It’s not LXX or Vulgate or KJV … ??

Even so, I’ve copied it for my classes.

Thank you, and God bless us all.

[…] блоге “Parchment and Pen” Майкл Паттон опубликовал отличную картинку, […]

[…] manner, they subdivide the Bible into literary genres. (Timothy Ha referred to a beautiful picture to illustrate this). The genres include narrative history, poetry, wisdom literature, letters, […]

Under OT History, is there a reason Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther are in different font?
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