Literary Analysis of Acts 12 By David Buck

The reading assignment for this first module has taught me a whole lot about the different literary genres. Prior to this assignment I knew almost nothing about literary genres and how to identify them. Now, after this weeks reading assignment, I am reading the Bible in a whole new way. I am looking out for the literary genres and trying to identify them while I am reading. I can already see that Hermeneutics II is going to pick up right where Hermeneutics I left off by teaching me new methods of study and interpretation each week.

With that said, in Acts chapter 12 I find two literary genres that are both narratives. The first literary genre is an epiphany report. I found it easy to classify Acts 12 as an epiphany report after reading the definition of this genre in the book “Introduction to Biblical Interpretation”. The book defines an epiphany report as a writing that “reports an experience in which God or the angel of the Lord appears to someone often to convey a message”. In Acts 12:7-10 an angel of the Lord was with Peter and aided him in his escape of the prison.

The second literary genre here is a story. I made this classification after reading a bit ahead to chapter two of Leland Ryken’s book “How to Read the Bible as Literature… and get more out of it”. In this chapter, Ryken goes into detail explaining what makes up a story. He even uses the twelfth chapter of Acts as one of his examples of a story. Ryken describes a story as a writing built of “three basic ingredients: setting, characters, and plot (action).” Acts 12 has all three. The setting is in a prison, the characters are Peter, Herod’s guards, and an angel of the Lord, and the plot is Peter’s escape after being held by Herod to bring him out before the people at Passover.

In closing, I have tried to pick out the genres from within this text, but I am sure that there may be more. I look forward to reading what genres the rest of the class might have found.