1. The larger portion of the Old Testament belongs to the department of _History_. In its books we trace the early history of the world and the history through two thousand years of the Is'ra-el-ite people. This history may be classified as: 1.) _Primitive_ history, in the book of Gen'e-sis. 2.) _Constitutional_ history, or the record of laws and institutions, in Ex'o-dus, Le-vit'i-cus, Num'bers. 3.) _National_ history, or historical events, in Josh'u-a, Judg'es, Sam'u-el, Kings, and Ez'ra. Although in some of these books are many narratives more biographical than historical, yet nearly all these stories have a bearing upon the national history. 4.) _Ecclesiastical_ history, in the books of Chron'i-cles, which tell the story of the kingdom of Ju'dah from a priestly point of view. 2. Next to the history comes _Personal Narrative_ as a literary form in the Bible; such stories as those of Jo'seph, Ba'laam, Ruth, Da'vid, E-li'jah, E-li'sha, Jo'nah, and Es'ther; not historical, as the story of the nations, but personal, as the record of individuals. These narratives belong to the class called by scholars "prose epics," an epic being a work of narration, generally in poetry, as the epics of Homer, Dante, and Milton. The epics in the Bible are poetic in their thought, but prose in their form. Blackboard Outline I. =Imp.= The Bible as Hist. Eth. Doc. Dev. Lit. [Illust.] II. =Diff.= 1. Div. chap. ver. 2. Lit. ming. III. =Class.= 1. Hist. 1.) Prim. 2.) Const. 3.) Nat. 4.) Eccl. 2. Per. narr. J. B. R. D. E. E. J. E. Review Questions With what various purposes may the Bible be studied? What is meant by the study of the Bible as literature? Give an instance showing that this study is important for the right interpretation of the Bible. How does the form in which our Bibles are printed hinder in the study of it as literature? What other difficulty is met in the literary study of the Bible? How many classes of literature are found in the Bible? What is the department of literature most prominent in the Bible? Name four kinds of history in the Bible, define each kind, and give an example of it. To what class of literature do the stories of the Bible belong? What are the subjects of some of these stories? What is an epic? Name some great epics in literature? Wherein do these differ from the epics in the Bible? PART TWO Review I, II, and parts 1 and 2 of III.