The write style - Biblically speaking

If you enjoy reading (like I do) you read everything that certain authors write because you like their writing style.  You may enjoy the way a fiction writer tell a story and how they develop characters.  You may enjoy how a non-fiction writer presents information.  An author's writing style reflects their personality and their knowledge of a subject or their passion for a story. 

The Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, but God dictated His words to humans to transcribe.  (I am a legal assistant, so I do a lot of transcribing.) Each transcriber of God's Word had his own writing style that revealed his personality.  If you read the books of the Bible carefully, you will be able to see the personality traits of each transcriber. Let's take a look at a few of these transcribers. 

My favorite Bible transcriber would have to be the apostle John.  John 1:1-18 reads like prose and is beautifully written. 1 John 4 is all about love, the love of Jesus for us and our love for one another.  John also wrote the book of Revelation, with its vivid descriptions of the end times.  Since I like to write as well as read, I look forward to meeting John in Heaven to swap notes, so to speak. 

Reading Paul's epistles reveals a very different personality than John.  Paul was very authoritative. He often used athletic metaphors such as "running so that I complete the race" or "fighting the good fight" to get his point across.  When a fellowship or a person was in the wrong, Paul didn't mince words - he told it like it was.  He often comes across as harsh, yet he had a passion for people to be saved, especially his Jewish brethren. 

Luke is another transcriber with a different personality.  Luke was a historian.  He was very detail oriented, due no doubt to his training as a physician.  Luke is the only one who reported that while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, his sweat appeared like large drops of blood.  He vividly described the Holy Spirit descending on the people in the Upper Room and the founding of the early church.  Luke also described in great detail how Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and his conversion to a follower of Christ.

Moses was one of the greatest transcribers of God's words in the Old Testament.  The first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, were written by Moses.  Although he was not an eyewitness to the events that happened before he was born, he his descriptive words make these events come to life.  He is a huge part of the Exodus story, yet he describes himself as a humble man who loved God.

I invite you to take another look at the books of the Bible to discover who their transcribers were and try to figure out their writing styles and their personality.  It just might just add new life to your study of the Bible! 

Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane