Topic 5 (Week 8): Literary Forms within the Synoptic Gospels

Topic 5 Hand-Out, click here.

Some Examples:
Genealogy
my homily on  Genealogies

Parable
Links to Fr. Randy's commentaries on Parables.1) Parable of "Lost and Found" (Luke)
2) Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
3) Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15)
4) Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16)
5) Parable of the Wily Steward (Luke 16)
6) Parable of the Fig Tree (Luke 13)

Allegory


Aphorism

Healing Miracles

Pronouncement Story

Chreia 

Pericope

NT Scholars

Rudolf Bultmann
Joachim Jeremias
John P. Meier

Dei Verbum no. 12

12. However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion,  the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words.

To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to "literary forms." For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. The interpreter must investigate what meaning the sacred writer intended to express and actually expressed in particular circumstances by using contemporary literary forms in accordance with the situation of his own time and culture. For the correct understanding of what the sacred author wanted to assert, due attention must be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns men normally employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one another.