I suspect that the Bible, like nonreligious literature, was written to have literary merit according to the tastes of its original audience(s), but that the criteria by which literary merit is judged have shifted so dramatically in the intervening millenia that it now requires scholarly explanation.
Shakespeare, strange as it sounds, is essentially modern literature from that standpoint. (Although enough time has passed that vowel shifts have managed to obscure many of the rhymes in Shakespeare.)
I suspect that the Bible, like nonreligious literature, was written to have literary merit according to the tastes of its original audience(s),...
The more accurate way to describe the New Testament is not to say that “it was written”, but that “it was compiled as a selection from multiple works on a similar topic, for a religious purpose”. If anything “was meant” by that selection process, I’d consider literary merit far below religious and political purpose.
Whatever process you use to make your decisions is what determines your effectiveness.
I suspect that the Bible, like nonreligious literature, was written to have literary merit according to the tastes of its original audience(s), but that the criteria by which literary merit is judged have shifted so dramatically in the intervening millenia that it now requires scholarly explanation.
Shakespeare, strange as it sounds, is essentially modern literature from that standpoint. (Although enough time has passed that vowel shifts have managed to obscure many of the rhymes in Shakespeare.)
The more accurate way to describe the New Testament is not to say that “it was written”, but that “it was compiled as a selection from multiple works on a similar topic, for a religious purpose”. If anything “was meant” by that selection process, I’d consider literary merit far below religious and political purpose.
And your purpose.