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How to Read the Bible as Literature … and Get More Out of It is unavailable, but you can change that!

Why the Good Book Is a Great Read If you want to rightly understand the Bible, you must begin by recognizing what it is: a composite of literary styles. It is meant to be read, not just interpreted. The Bible’s truths are embedded like jewels in the rich strata of story and poetry, metaphor and proverb, parable and letter, satire and symbolism. Paying attention to the literary form of a...

reader to take sides for or against the characters in a story. By confronting the audience with an obvious contrast, a parable by Jesus “tends to polarize the hearers.… The lines along which polarization takes place must be signaled by an unambiguous code in the narrative; like highway markers along the interstate, they must be legible at a glance. So we have pairs like Levite, priest/ Samaritan, laborers hired fìrst/last, invited/uninvited, etc.”[4] The parables make conspicuous use of
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