Short Stories in the Hebrew Bible

First of all, I found this chapter a lot more interesting than the last two. Because this gives more direction for better interpretation of stories. I found it rather fruitful how Cosby gave helpful guidelines for interpreting short stories in the Bible. I like how he emphasizes approaching the text free of spiritual bias and take the stories as simply literary pieces. Additionally, what resonated with me from this chapter was how Cosby wrote satirically about the ramifications of taking literary pieces out of context. He gave an example of what it would be like if you took passages from the Lord of the Rings out of context and what that would do the story. Then, he used that as a parallel comparison to see what ramifications would happen if we did that to scripture. The funny thing is, people do this all the time and I myself am guilty of doing this. However, this is how I grew up, and adults before me did this as well. So, this is what I learned. Another interesting aspect I found about biblical storytelling that Cosby points out is how repetition means that a certain aspect of the text is the most significant. I’m excited to see what the story of Ruth will be like, and now that I have a greater understanding of how to go about interpreting said literature, I will certainly have an easier time doing so. I’ll just be reading carefully and treat it like any other piece of literature. I think it’d be interesting to discuss the importance of approaching Biblical texts without spiritual bias.