A brief introduction to Poetry, Auto/biography and Holy Book (The Bible)

1. Miftahush Shalihah
136332046

3. Definition: categories used
to group different types of
literary work (like nonfiction, fiction and poetry).

4. Fiction
Non-Fiction
a made up story
has facts that can be
can tell about things
checked and proven
the author is an expert
on this information
it IS TRUE!
that could happen
is read for fun
characters may be like
real people or
imaginary

5. Fiction
Drama
Realistic
Fiction
Historical
Fiction
Nonfiction Folklore
Comedy
Tragedy
Informational
Writing
Persuasive
Writing
Poetry
Fairy Tale
Legend
Tall Tale
Science
Fiction
Biography
Fantasy
Autobiography
Myth
Fable

7. “Poetry is not a turning loose of
emotion, but an escape from
emotion; it is not the expression of
personality, but an escape from
personality. But, of course, only
those who have personality and
emotions know what it means to
want to escape from these things.”
- T. S. Eliot

8. Poem and poetry are derived from the
Greek poiein, “to create or make,” a structure
that is created from the human imagination
and that is expressed rhythmically in words.
The word poet originally referred to the
writer of any kind of literature, although it
now means someone who writes poetry
(642).

9. History of English Poetry
• Earliest poems in English date to the Old
English period (450-1100 CE)
• Many reflected the influence of
Christianity
• From the Middle Ages (1100-1500) poets
wrote about many subjects, including
religious themes

10. Rhyme – refers to the rhythmic pattern produced by
the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.
(iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee)
Meter – refers to the number of syllables per line
(monometer: one foot, dimeter: two feet, trimeter:
three feet, tetrameter: four feet, pentameter: five feet,
hexameter: six feet, heptameter: seven feet.)

11. Figures of Speech – refers to the figurative language
used. (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.)
Stanzas – refers to the number of lines in a poem.
Todays Poetry
- making poetry colorful, expressive, vivid, dramatic,
musical, and grandiose
- violating rules of grammar and sentence
arrangement.
- to make yourself unfamiliar to the conventions of
writing.

12. Word-play can occur at all levels of LANGUAGE:
sound, visual presentation, word, grammatical
structure, genre and context. It also occurs in all
areas of discourse: the media, education, law,
medicine, the family, etc.
Sound-play (using *phonology) arises whenever the
sounds of the language become a source of pleasure
in themselves, usually through repetition with
variation.
Visual play uses the letters, shapes, spaces and colors
on the page or screen to form patterns in their own
right/write.
Lexical (‘word’) play arises where single words or
lexical items are swapped around and even chopped
up so as to remind us that they are both perpetually
mobile and infinitely divisible.

18. A biography is a
true story about a
person’s life or
parts of his/her life
Written in 3rd
person point of
view (he or she)
Walsh Publishing Co. 2009

19. Autobiographie
s are books that
people write
about their own
life.
Written in 1st
person point of
view (I, me, my)
Walsh Publishing Co. 2009

20. We begin here at a unique literary form -- the most
personal branch of literature–
autobiography offers its close readers a complex set
of interpretive problems written in the first person
singular “I”, who is both subject and object of the
narrative.
 Autobiography articulates itself in a variety of
forms , not only in diaries, testimonies, journals,
letters, and memoirs but also in poetry, painting,
film, and more recently in the personal webpage,
chat rooms and emails.

21. Autobiography is a biography written by the
subject about himself or herself. It is to be
distinguished from the memoir, in which the
emphasis is not on the author’s developing self but
on the people and events that the author has known
or witnessed, and also from the private diary or
journal, which is a day-to-day record of the events
in one’s life, written for personal use and satisfaction,
with little or no thought of publication.

22. The first fully developed autobiography is also the
most influential: the Confessions of St. Augustine,
written in the fourth century. The design of this
profound and subtle spiritual autobiography
centers on what became the crucial experience in
Christian autobiography: the author’s anguished
mental crisis, and a recovery and conversion in
which he discovers his Christian identity and
religious vocation.

23. In recent years, the distinction between
autobiography and fiction has become more and more
blurred, as authors include themselves under their
own names in novels, or write autobiographies in the
asserted mode of fiction.

25.  The word Bible comes from
“Biblia” meaning “books” .
the Greek word
 The Greek word Biblia itself is derived from
Biblion, meaning paper, book or scroll and was a
diminutive of the word Byblos or papyrus.
 Hence, Byblos is the root word for Biblia. The name
comes from the Phoenician port Byblos from
whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece.
 The phrase “Ta Biblia”, “The books” was used by
Hellenistic Jews to referred to their sacred books,
the Septuagint, in particular. This was the Greek
version of the Hebrew scriptures.
 The Christian Scriptures was referred to in Greek as
Ta Biblia as early as 223 A.D. The Word Bible itself
is not found in any book of the Bible.

26.  The Bible is divided in two sections:
 A. Old Testament or O.T.
 B. New Testament or N.T.
 The word Testament means “Covenant”
or “Contract” and is derived from the
Hebrew word “Berit”.
 The Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures
comprises stories about an ancient
covenant between Yahweh and the
Hebrews, as revealed to Moses. It also
tells how this covenant worked out.
 The New Testament includes stories and
teachings about a new covenant between
God and humanity based on the life of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

27.  The Roman Catholic Canon
based on the Septuagint has 73
books divided this way:
Old Testament: 46 books
New Testament: 27 books.
 The Protestant Canon based
on the Palestinian Canon has
66 books divided this way:
Old Testament: 39
New Testament: 27

28.  Catholic Bibles
Torah or Pentateuch
Historical Books
Wisdom Books
The Prophets
Deutero-canonical books.*
* This section occurs only when they are not
intercalated with the rest of the Old
Testament books, and are grouped together as
a separate section.
 Hebrew Bibles
 The Law (Torah)
 The Prophets (Nebhim)
 The Writings (Kethubhim)*
*In the Hebrew Canon the Historical books are part of
the Prophets and Wisdom books are part of the
writings.

29. Books of The Old Testament -Catholic Canon
Pentateuch
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5.Deuteronomy
Historical Books
Wisdom Books
1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Ruth
4. I Samuel
5. II Samuel
6. I Kings
7. II Kings
8. I Chronicles
9. II Chronicles
10. Ezra
11. Nehemiah
12. Esther
1. Job
2. Psalms
3. Proverbs
4. Ecclesiastes
5. Song of Songs
Deuterocanonical
1. Tobit
2. Judith
3. Wisdom
4. Eclessiasticus or Sirach
5. Baruch
6. 1 Maccabees
7. 2 Maccabees
Also fragments of
Esther and Daniel
found in the Greek
Version..
.
Prophets
1. Isaiah
2. Jeremiah
3.Lamentations
4. Ezekiel
5. Daniel
6. Hosea
7. Joel
8. Amos
9. Obadiah
10. Jonah
11. Micah
12. Nahum
13. Habakkuk
14. Zephaniah
15. Haggai
16. Zechariah
17. Malachi

30. Books of the Old Testament – Palestinian Canon

31.  The Old Testament like the rest of the Bible is a document of faith. Its purpose is to elicit
faith in those who ponder upon its divine content. The O.T. is not meant to be read as
document of science, archeology, astronomy or history.
 The Term Old Testament does not mean outdated. The message of the Hebrew Scriptures
remains as new as ever. God’ faithfulness, love, redemptive work, covenant, are themes that
never go out style in God’s language.
 When reading the O.T. one must take into consideration the time, culture, language in which
it was written. One cannot apply to the O.T. the assumptions and presuppositions of our
modern era.
 The Old Testament is a sacred document of great importance in our Catholic liturgy, one
must approach the text of the O.T. with a prayerful attitude of reverence and awe, for it is the
word of God.

32.  St. Jerome once said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
St.
Jerome was a biblical scholar, Doctor, mystic and Father of the Church. His given
name was Eusebius Hieronymous Sophronius. He was born in the year 342 at
Stridonius.
 St. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus in the year 382 to translate the
Bible from the original Hebrew, in order to create an official Latin text for the
liturgy. The Pope’s desire was to create a superior translation of the Bible than the
ones circulating at the time. Many of the Bibles at that time were written in Greek
and were full of errors due to poor translation.
 In order to accomplish this great task St. Jerome took upon himself to study many
of the ancient languages in which the Bible was written such as: Hebrew, Aramaic,
Chaldaic among others. Jerome spent years as a hermit working diligently of his
translation. St. Jerome’s final work was the Latin version of the Scriptures known
as the Vulgate, this translation of the Bible became the official Latin text of the
Scriptures for the Catholic Church.
 St. Jerome settled in Bethlehem where he lived as an anchorite in a cave that was
believed to have been the birthplace of Christ. St. Jerome died in Bethlehem in the
year 420. Holy Mother Church celebrates his feast on September 30, the actual
date on his death.

33.  The New Testament or Christian Scriptures are the inspired
testimony about Jesus Christ the Son of God and the New
Covenant (relationship) he came to establish between humanity
and God. Luke 22:20
 The New Testament is centered in the Person of Jesus of
Nazareth, his life, death, resurrection also known as Paschal
Mystery.
 The New Testament present to us Jesus’ ministry and teachings,
and the Church’s post-resurrection understanding (theology) of
who Jesus really was.
 The New Testament is for Christians the living word of God as
fully revealed in the person of Christ and his preaching about the
Kingdom of God.

34. The New Testament is divided in four main sections:
A. Gospels
B. Acts
C. Letter or Epistles
A. Apocalyptic
Pauline Letters
Hebrews
Catholic Epistles

35. Gospel
Date
Author
Audience
Matthew
75- 90 A.D
Unknown, maybe a
Jewish
Disciple of Matthew
Presents Jesus as the
Mark
65-75 A.D
Mark
Fulfillment of the messianic
prophecies and as a great
teacher
Gentiles
(according to Papias bishop
of Hierapolis 130 A.D)
Presents Jesus as Messiah
and Son of God
Luke
80-95 A.D
According to Tradition
Greek and Roman readers.
Luke, the physician
companion of St. Paul
Presents Jesus as a universal
savior
John
90 A.D
Unknown, according to
Clement of Alexandria the
Gospel was written by John
the beloved disciple
Written for the instruction of
the early Christian Church.
Presents Jesus as the eternal
word of God who became
flesh.

36.  The Gospels are four intimate portraits of the person of Jesus, as he was
understood, interpreted, venerated, and remembered by the Christian
communities that were touched by the experience of his paschal mystery:
life, death, and resurrection.
 These sacred accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry are not biographical
accounts of Jesus in the modern sense of the word. They are first and
foremost theological documents of the Church’s faith, a deep faith in Jesus
as savior of the world and his message about the Kingdom of God that he
inaugurates among men
 The Gospels are the soul of the New Testament, they are the primary source
for the words, sayings, teachings, sermons, parables, deeds, actions, miracles,
preaching in the life of Jesus and his ministry among the men and women of
his time.
 The Good News of Jesus Christ attested by the Gospels, through the
centuries, continue to transform and to enrich the lives of those who come in
contact with the living Son of God through the Gospel and its message of
salvation. The life of the Church today also continues to be nourished in its
liturgy, sacramentality, and mission by the richness and power of the Good
News.