s a price than
the effacement from the books of the Bible of their whole literary
structure. Where the literature is dramatic, there are (except in one
book) no names of speakers nor divisions of speeches; there are no
titles to essays or poems, nor anything to mark where one poem or
discourse ends and another begins; not only is there nothing to reflect
finer rhythmic distinctions in poetry, but (in King James's version)
there is not even a distinction made between poetry and prose. It is as
if the whole were printed 'solid,' like a newspaper without the
newspaper headings. The most familiar English literature treated in this
fashion would lose a great part of its literary interest; the writings
of the Hebrews suffer still more through our unfamiliarity with many of
the literary forms in which they are cast. Even this statement does not
fully represent the injury done to the literature of the Bible by the
traditional shape in which it is presented to us. Between the Biblical
writers and our own times have intervened ages in which all interest in
literary beauty was lost, and philosophic activity took the form of
protracted discussions of brief sayings or 'texts.' Accordingly this
solidified matter of Hebrew literature has been divided up into single
sentences or 'verses,' numbered mechanically one, two, three, etc., and
thus the original literary form has still further been obscured. It is
not surprising that to most readers the Bible has become, not a
literature, but simply a storehouse of pious 'texts.'

If the sacred Scriptures then are to be appreciated as literature, it is
necessary to restore their literary form and structure. To do this, with
all the assistance that the modern printed page gives to the reader, is
the aim of the 'Modern Reader's Bible.' The present volume is intended
as an introduction to the series, and, it is hoped, to the literary
study of the Bible in general, by Select Masterpieces, illustrating the
different types of literature represented in Scripture.

It is natural to enquire, What are the leading literary forms under
which the sacred writings may be classified?

A large proportion of the Bible is History: the History of the People of
Israel as presented by themselves. How Israel is chosen from all the
nations to be the special people of Jehovah; how the invisible Jehovah
is at first their only ruler; how gradually the spirit of assimilation
to surrounding nations leads to a demand for