The Aesthetic Character of the Bible

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What is the factor that unites the diverse books of the Bible? What has the Pentateuch common with the Apocalypse, or the Song of Songs with the Pauline epistles? Martin Luther determined the justification of the sinner to be the doctrine that joins all the books of the Bible together, written on every page of it. As persuasive as this view is, it is hardly tenable. Indeed, there are many pages of the Scripture that do not mention the justification of the sinner. Justification is a good nominee for the uniting bond between the various texts of the Bible, but not an entirely satisfying one.

I argue that the thing that joins all the literary genres and individual books of the Bible is their aesthetic character. This is not a highly original statement, but rather something very obvious. The aesthetic character of the Bible can be perceived along the following traits:

Musicality. Many texts of the Bible are made for singing, Psalms in particular. There are many other songs, too: in the Prophetic books of the Old Testament, in the Apocalypse, and even in Paul, not to mention Song of Songs and Lamentations. Musicality of the text contains also use of meter and rhythm, a trait that does not limit to the poetical books of the Bible. It is apparent in the Gospels and the historical books of the Old Testament.

Imagery. The Bible uses often images, illustrations, or parables. Isaiah told a story about a vineyard or about the Lord's suffering servant. Paul uses an elaborate picture of Christ as a human body, and, finally, Jesus seldom taught otherwise. 

Narrative character. Pointedly, the Bible is not a collection of theological doctrines, a spiritual handbook or a compendium of moral edification. It is a story, a narrative, starting from the Creation and consummating in the heavenly Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. The decisive events are told in four different accounts of the Evangelists - a fact that should not be understood as merely four eyewitness testimonies to secure the historical reliability of the events, rather than indicating the abundance of vision: one story does not suffice to contain the mystery of Salvation.

Richness in detail. Perhaps the most tiresome characteristic of the Bible for a person who has decided to read it through, is its circumstantiality. There are endless tables of tribes and clans of Israel and their descendants, accounts on the equipment of the Tabernacle or the Temple of Jerusalem, minute instructions for the offerings etc. The most creative interpreters have seen symbolical and allegorical meanings hidden in these details. However, one could take an aesthetic stance to these lists. What if they were written to inspire human imagination and to afford aesthetic pleasure - that they are simply good to hear? The universe is full of seemingly meaningless details, apparently because God has pleased to create them. Perhaps the same holds to the Bible.

Affectivity. God of the Bible is not a remote philosophical idea. From the philosophical point of view, the passions ascribed to God may seem problematic indeed. God rejoices and feels pleasure about his Creation, he is angry for his people when they worship false gods, he mourns and longs for his own. Accordingly, the saints of the Bible are people of deep emotions and our Lord Jesus wept on his friend's tomb and was deeply distressed and troubled in Gethsemane. Christians are not Stoic philosophers, unaffected by the hardships of life, but persons from whose eyes "God will wipe every tear away" (Rev. 21,4)


Try to find a verse in the Bible that does not have at least one of the above mentioned characteristics! 

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