Poetic books of the Bible

[Rahn]

I had a member of my youth group at the parish say to a group of 6th graders that both Genesis and Revelation are “poetic” books of the Bible, not historical (Genesis) or prophetic (Revelation). This does not seem right to me, but my biblical perspective isn’t exactly Catholic.

How does the Catholic Church regard these books, and do Catholics regard Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon as the poetic books?

 

[Kei]

There’s room for interpretation, but her views are not the “norm” in Catholic understanding, at least concerning Revelation.

 

[midori]

Psalms, Proverbs, and Songs of Solomon are the first three that I think of when thinking of “Poetic Books of the Bible.” Looking around, it looks like I forgot Ecclesiastes and Job. I always thought of Job as being allegorical, but then I realized that allegory was an interpretive method (not-literally), rather than a way of classifying something.

So perhaps that might be part of the problem-- maybe she was looking for the word “allegorical”, and the closest her brain could come up with on the spot was “poetic”.

So, I could see how someone would try to talk about how Revelation and Genesis have allegorical layers to them— ie, the six/seven days of creation weren’t necessarily six/seven periods of 24 hours each, or we don’t have to worry about there being light before there’s a physical sun, or there isn’t necessarily a leopard-monster with a mouth like a lion and feet like a bear’s feet running around.

So, my guess-- and I wasn’t there-- was that it was just a word blank, followed up with a bad substitute-word-choice.

 

[misstherese]

As far as Genesis, many have different thoughts as to if it is literal or metaphorical. We might not know until the next life. The position on Genesis is starting to take a turn toward the metaphorical stance, with the rise of the popularity of the theory of evolution. However, Genesis can still be interpreted as literal and has been considered mostly literal until the theory came to be.

As for Revelation, it is heavily clouded and shrouded in mysterious symbolism. It is believed that there is literal meaning behind it, kind of like a code. But it’s mostly beyond our understanding. I guess you could call it poetic.

 

[Spyridon]

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon as the poetic books?

The Church regards these 5 books, plus the books of Wisdom and Sirach as being the 7 books of “Wisdom-Poetry.” Traditionally in the Roman Church they are called the “seven Sapiential Books” - that is, seven Wisdom Books.

The Church regards the book of Genesis as being a sort of sacred epic/sacred history.

The Church regards the book of Revelation as an Apocalypse, which is a subgenre of Prophetic books.

 

[Seagull]

I think the King James Version is poetic !
It’s such a smooth flowing and elequent translation.

I’ve been reading the entire Bible, again, this year -
Not an easy task - but every five years - anyways -
These next two days - The Psalms !

I will say this, I wish there were more Catholic poets.
And I’m not talking Salesian Inspirational booklet poets either.