Leland RykenCritiques

Tedious. Repetitive. Inspiring.

The Legacy of the King James Bible honors the 400th anniversary of the KJB’s publication by telling its story—a drama that starts with the pioneering work of William Tyndale.

A good history of a Bible produced in 1611 which set the standards for translations for over 4 centuries. Attempting to maintain the balance between the zealotry of KJV supporters & zealotry of KJV haters, Mr. Leland manages to stay the course with the history & influence upon the English speaking world.

The author takes 40 hymn texts and studies them from a poetic standpoint. Each reading concludes with a scripture. I enjoyed this book but, although it’s formatted as a devotional, it’s too academic for me to think of it as a devotional. Still enjoyable to read and helpful to think through the richness of the older hymns which are at risk of dying out.

A wonderful resource to have on hand. This handbook is very in depth in it's presentation of the bible. Opening up the meaning and providing great insight for the scholar, student, or individual seeking to better understand and study the word of God. I will be adding this to our resource books and referring to it for homeschool work. I believe it will be an excellent resource for my children as they write history reports and such for their school work.
Thank you Tyndale House for providing this free review copy.

Summary: An invitation to artful reading, considering its decline, different kinds of literature and how we read them, and the art of reading well to discover goodness, truth, and beauty.

Much has been made over the supposed decline in reading, and contradictory statistics that show a rise in reading (especially during the pandemic). What is evident is that how and what we read has gone through changes. We read more on screens and audio and browse and scroll. There are questions about the loss of the ability to attend to longform writing.

The two authors of this book, one a literature professor, the other a professional writer, and both lovers of literature contend that what may be in decline is artful readers and have written this book to describe what it means to recover this art. They write:

“Reading a book immerses oneself into an extensive work. When this is done receptively and thoughtfully, it becomes artful reading. Some people call it “deep reading” and believe it is in deep trouble” (p. 23).

The authors believe that in our loss of artful or deep reading, we have lost leisure, self transcendence, contact with the past and with essential human experience, edification and an enlarged vision. The writers, drawing upon a Christian perspective, advocate for participation that both receives and responds to what the author has written, both actively listening (“obeying” in its original sense) and responding. It discerns both one’s own perspective and that of the author. In Dorothy Sayers words, there is the Book as Thought, the Book as Written, and the Book as Read.

Moving on from this introduction to artful reading, the authors consider what literature is in its different kinds. They note with sadness the shift from “literature” to “texts” in contemporary literary studies, but maintain the language of literature, distinguishing it from expository writing as concerned with the concrete rather than the abstract. The axiom of literature is to “show, not tell.” They further describe literature as experiential, concrete, universal, interpretive, and artistic. They defend the importance of literature as a portrayal of human experience, for seeing ideas rightly, and for the enjoyment of beauty. It transports us into imagined worlds, giving us renewed perspective on our own as well as refreshment.

They consider how we read different types of literature: story, poetry, novels, fantasy, children’s books, creative non-fiction and the Bible as a literary work. I so valued their simple instruction for poetry–slow down! In the reading of fantasy, they distinguish between escape and escapism, noting with C.S. Lewis that reading is always an escape, but one that ought give fresh perspective on the human condition. They address how to choose good books for children and the vital importance of reading and talking about books together.

The last part of the book returns to the recovery of the art of reading. Fundamentally, we recover by discovering good books and the good, the true, and the beautiful within them. We discern and assess the truth-claims in a book. We consider the moral perspective of the book–does it make the good or the evil attractive and who is valorized? We notice the use of language to point toward beauty, and the beautiful God. They describe excellence in beginnings, middles and ends.

All of this only makes sense in the context of our reading choices. They encourage us to embrace our freedom to read and observe in very practical terms the time thieves that rob us of precious hours. They consider how we choose good books and the role good literature plays in creativity and in one’s spiritual life.

I think one of the most valuable aspects of this book is the encouragement of leisurely, slow, and reflective engagement with good works, whatever their genre. They help us attend to plot, character, setting, and behind all this, the perspective of the author and the insights we gain into our common human condition. Their invitation to be participants in the work with the author while continuing to discern strikes a good balance.

I would have liked to see some book recommendations for those wanting to recover the art. Certainly, the authors mention books throughout, and the ones mentioned are worthwhile, but some bibliographies might have helped. Also while the authors discuss goodness and evil in literature, they don’t discuss beauty and ugliness, only beauty. The ugliness of the post-nuclear world in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a crucial offset to the beauty of the love of father and son. Sometimes, Christian literature seems too beautiful, in ways trite and artificial. The beauty and the healing comfort of Lothlorien gains its power from the horrors of Moria and the loss of Gandalf.

Those who practice any art always have a sense they could be better at their art. Reading is also an art. This book reminded me of ways I may be ever-improving at that art. I can work to remove the distractions to attentive reading. I may slow down, especially to savor a poem. I may re-read great works. I may attend to the story and the questions it opens up about the universal human condition. I may allow the book to enlarge my perspective if I give myself to it both attentively and discerningly, both open and observant. Ryken and Mathes invite us, whether the neophyte or the seasoned reader, to an ever-growing practice of the art of reading. After all, it is not how much, but how well we read.

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

A book about reading is an intriguing idea to me so I jumped at the chance to read and review Recovering the Lost Art of Reading. This work was a bit of an eye opener for me as I normally read for informational purposes. Authors Leland Ryken and Glenda Faye Mathes enlighten the reader to the benefits and indeed the necessity of reading literary works, including the Bible, for the beauty and enjoyment of reading.

As each chapter unfolds the authors take the reader deeper into the beauty, wonder, necessity, and appreciation of literary books and they return to their theme, found in the title, Recovering the Lost art of Reading often. As the volume suggests, and where I would agree, reading is an art and it is dying art. As can be seen from the table of contents below, Recovering the Lost art of Reading is comprehensive.

Introduction: Welcome to the Conversation

Part 1 Reading Is a Lost Art  

1 Is Reading Lost?  

2 What Have We Lost?  

3 Why Consider Reading an Art?

Part 2 Reading Literature  

4 What Is Literature?  

5 Why Does Literature Matter?  

6 What Does Literature Offer?

7 Reading Stories: Tell Me a Story  

8 Reading Poems: Songs of the Soul  

9 Reading Novels: Come Away with Me

10 Reading Fantasy: A Far Journey

11 Reading Children’s Books: Once Upon a Time

12 Reading Creative Nonfiction: To Tell the Truth

13 Reading the Bible as Literature: Words of Delight

Part 3 Recovering the Art of Reading

14 Recovery through Discovery

15 Truth in Literature

16 The Moral Vision in Literature 17

Beauty in Literature

18 Discovering Literary Excellence

19 Freedom to Read

20 Reading Good Books

21 Calling and Creativity

22 Literature and the Spiritual Life: Over and Above

(Leland Ryken; Glenda Faye Mathes. Recovering the Lost Art of Reading (Kindle Location 86). Crossway.)

I benefited most from the authors take on reading the Bible as literature (chapter 13). Something where I am often amiss. I didn't agree with everything but found it most helpful.

I found this book enlightening and useful as I'm primarily an informational reader and usually leave my fiction intake to quality movies and TV programs. Nevertheless, I found this a quality read and recommend to all, especially those oriented to fiction.

Crossway has provided a complimentary copy of this book through Beyond the Page. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

A balanced review, or a balanced book, should tell both good and bad. So:

The Good: This book gives well-deserved praise to one of the noblest feats of English literature.
The Bad: It doesn't do its job of balancing things.

Let's say straight out that the King James Version is a great piece of prose, and well worth reading and knowing; it has deeply influenced our language and idiom. And this book gives a mostly accurate, if much too brief, overview of its history, and gives genuine reasons why, as a piece of writing, it is superior to all that came after or since.

The problem is, the King James Version isn't just some random piece of prose. It's a Bible translation. And that places certain requirements upon it: A proper translation needs to accurately reflect the nature of what it is translating.

Even here, there is good and bad. As author Leland Ryken notes, the King James Version is in many ways a better representation of its underlying Greek and Hebrew texts than the versions that have come since (Revised Version, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, and all the various idiosyncratic and personal translations). Of major modern translations, only the New American Standard Bible could be called more literal, and the NASB has other problems that make it unreliable (in addition to being frequently incomprehensible due to its very literalness).

But, as author Ryken does not note, the Greek New Testament in particular is in koine Greek -- the everyday Greek of New Testament times. It isn't even particularly grammatical, especially in the Gospel of Mark and the Apocalypse, both clearly written by people who were native Aramaic speakers and who struggled with Greek. Should a translation of this Greek text be brilliant, grammatical, and archaic? (And, yes, the KJV was archaic even when it was published, since it so often repeated the wording of previous Bibles such as Tyndale's, and English had evolved a lot in the century between Tyndale and James VI and I.) The KJV correctly translates the words of the Received Text of the Greek Bible -- but it doesn't at all translate the style.

And did you note those words "Received Text" in that last sentence? You should have -- because that's an even more important reason why the King James Bible fails as a Bible translation. The King James Bible is based on the printed Greek Bibles of Stephanus and Beza, both in turn based on the very first printed Greek Bible, Erasmus's. Which was based on a handful of late, bad manuscripts; it is simply not a good reflection of what the original authors wrote.

The Hebrew has a different set of textual problems, where the King James translators are less at fault -- but they make more errors in the Hebrew Bible, simply because knowledge of Hebrew and cognate languages in Europe was very limited in the seventeenth century.

Ryken mentions briefly that we now have better texts of the Bible -- but he doesn't stress it, and it seems as if he doesn't understand it. Case in point: On page 53, he quotes (nineteenth century Anglican) Bishop B. F. Westcott as saying, "From the middle of the seventeenth century, the King's Bible has been the acknowledged Bible of the English-speaking nations throughout the world simply because it is the best."

Ryken does not mention that Westcott was one of the editors of the Westcott and Hort Greek Testament that finally and firmly showed that the Received Text was not an acceptable basis for a translation (since Westcott and Hort, only the New King James version has been so benighted as to translate the Received Text; even the theologically very conservative New International Version frequently includes the readings of the older, better manuscripts). Nor does Ryken mention that Westcott was one of the translators of the Revised Version, the translation the English church intended to replace the King James Version -- by quoting Westcott out of context as he does, he functionally ignores Westcott's life's work. I don't know what other sources are so abused, but I know that there are at least some.

To top it all off, this is an irritating book to read, because it's full of fact-boxes and lists that interrupt the flow and misdirect the attention. I bought this book knowing that I don't approve of the King James Version -- but I do consider it important. The way this volume is presented makes the KJV feel like a cheap high school crib, even though the overall thread is to praise the KJV excessively.

The King James Bible deserves to be preserved and praised. It does not deserve to be used as a Bible translation. And that is a point that this book fails to make. By all means, read this book for its praise of the KJV. But only after you've read a book that tells you its "down side."

This was underwhelming. It felt polemic, with an author who either didn't understand the complexity of what he was talking about or one who wasn't willing to reveal that, lest it weaken his argument.

To pick on one example, on page 16 he says 'the NIV does not preserve what the original says with the phrase "the Lord of hosts".' Naturally, the original is Hebrew, so it does not say that; in fact, it seems that the Hebrew צְבָאוֹת would be better translated "armies", giving us "the Lord of armies" and I would argue whatever the Hebrew said, "the Lord of hosts" would be a bad translation into modern English. (This seems part of a pattern; page 28-29, sections 8 and 9, are all about preserving the often obscure KJV language, not because it is a more faithful translation, but because it is perceived as more literary or beautiful. It never seems to be considered that those goals might be in conflict.)

Likewise, on page 20 he mentions '"the obedience of faith" as it appears in the original text'; even though he mentions Greek, he doesn't touch at all on the actual original text. From his examples, it strikes me as blindly regurgitating the Greek as English without understanding it well enough to actually form it as good English. Is the correct preposition "of"? I don't know Greek, but I know enough of enough languages to know that prepositions are a serious bane of language learners, and one preposition in a foreign language can be best translated by any number of prepositions in English, depending on context. Instead of wrestling with how to process the Greek into English without fixing one interpretation or producing word salad, he proclaims "the obedience of faith" as the original and goes on. (Likewise, on page 28, he says that "The goal is to know what the original authors said. If they passed difficulties on to their readers, translators need to do the same." Does he fail to understand that what might be difficult to a translator now might not have been difficult to a reader then?)

On page 19, he complains that 'Dynamic equivalent translators ... change words that are considered either difficult or "not how we would say it";', which leaves me questioning if he understands what translation means!

The thesis statement, as summarized by myself, is that we should translate words, not meaning. To this effect, near the end of the work (page 21), he quotes "someone" as saying "if the words are taken from us, the exact meaning is of itself lost"*. To which I raise a glass and say "traduttore, traditore." We take from the original its languages and its words and force upon it our language and our words, and hope to preserve what cannot possibly survive. One can not translate words; one must translate meaning, if the output is to be understandable English. There's points struck home about overly paraphrasing translations, but the argument is lost when he declares his side correct without wrestling with the depths of the issue.

* In a endnote, he offers as source From Eternity to Eternity by Erich Sauer as translated by G. H. Land. I do not know the context of the original, but I have to wonder if G. H. Land was more in touch with the irony than Ryken was.

To truly understand God’s Word, we must know both what it says (content) and how it says it (form). This accessible guide features over 250 alphabetically arranged entries explaining common literary forms found in the Bible. Each entry contains a succinct definition, helpful illustrations, and a representative list of passages where that particular literary form is present.

More than merely a dictionary, this indispensable resource will help Bible readers better understand the underlying structure of Scripture—giving a clearer shape and deeper meaning to each and every page of God’s Word.

I really, really wish that I could give this study Bible a better rating. Really. Because I believe with all my heart that a "literary" (synchronic) approach to Scripture is the ultimately proper and most fruitful way to interpret this sacred Book and avoids many of the pitfalls of the typical scholarly "historical" (diachronic) approach.

However, I must be honest: I found most of the study notes in this Bible pretty unhelpful overall. First, they were too broadly "literary"; I felt very often like most of these notes could have been placed in an edition of Shakespeare's plays without many modifications. It seems the "Bible" was missing in their overall "Bible as literature" approach. Furthermore, the notes were annoyingly repetitive. Finally, and this probably can't be helped, but the study notes showed definite theological bias. I suppose if I were more Reformed in my theology, this might be a strength rather than a weakness, but since I am NOT Reformed, there were a few remarks that made me grind my teeth.

Most enraging: The assertion that the book of Romans is the most systematized theological statement in all of Scripture and is, therefore, perhaps the greatest biblical book (if the authors must choose one). First, that comment completely ignores the "occasional" nature of Romans (a feature of epistolary writing they constantly emphasize with every OTHER epistle). Second, and much more important, this really seems to "betray" the literary approach to Scripture. Basically, the gist of the claim is this: "This book is the most important/best book in the Bible because it fits best with our Western rationalist assumptions." Unfortunately (or fortunately), systematic theology has never been and never will be "great literature." That books like Job or Genesis or Psalms or the Gospels got "passed over" for the "best book in the Bible" designation in a book dedicated to a LITERARY appreciation of the Bible is absolutely inexcusable.

Read for a class on Inductive Bible Study. Very helpful in seeing the Bible according to it's appropriate genres and understanding the rules associated with each.

I was disappointed by this book. I found it to say a little about a lot - it seemed to me, to quote Howard Hendricks' words regarding the modern church in general, "100 miles wide and an eighth of an inch deep." Already I have sought out insights into several examples of Biblical imagery and found either nothing, or nothing of substance. It tries, valiantly even, but to my mind it fails in the attempt.

Really good and very helpful for those of us not too familiar with reading literature critically. Added alot to my understanding of Bunyan's work and made me want to read it again!

I had trouble deciding how to review this book, since it's not necessarily meant to be read cover-to-cover, but used alongside the Bible as a study guide. Flipping through the pages, it's apparent that nearly every aspect that I can think of regarding the Bible is addressed in the text, such as format, author, audience, theme, writing style, timeline, purpose, cast of characters, both general and specific topics highlighted in the Bible, flow, places, definitions, historical references, and even tips for reading and studying the Bible. Each book is addressed separately, quotes from other sources are scattered across the pages, and interesting factoids are made mention of in the margins. A One Year Bible Reading Plan is also found at the end of the handbook, followed by multiple maps and charts that correspond to information addressed in the handbook.
It is important to note that the Bible version that the writers use when quoting scripture is the English Standard Version (ESV), which I think is poor form. Bible versions now adays are a dime-a-dozen, and everyone thinks that their version is the best and easiest to understand. If a person is going to put out something of this nature, that claims a certain authority in the interpretation of Biblical scripture, they should either be willing to use a wide variety of Bible versions or stick with the version that servived centuries before this modern era of multiple Bible versions - the King James Version (KJV). Bible versions is a hot topic, so I'm not going to dwell on this.
I have been studying the Bible for most of my life, so anything that puts a fresh perspective on the text, I appreciate. I especially like the quotes and fact tidbits, since these are things that I won't get from the Bible alone. I will definitely be using this handbook alongside my Bible reading and study, as well as taking advantage of the One Year Bible Reading Plan, though I won't consider this my only source of Bible reference.

How much I wish I had been able to read this book in high school before reading The Scarlet Letter!

Hawthorne was a fine writing, and one I still enjoy, but his understanding of Puritans was either very lacking or intentionally misleading. But then, that's the way we've all viewed them, including me! "Puritanical" has become an insult, meaning overly rigid and legalistic.

But the real Puritans were a remarkable group of people. They were not stodgy old men who hated when people had fun. They didn't hate sex, music, or nice clothing. What they did, though, is to seek to live lives constant with their faith, something we could all use a little bit more of today.

Ryken sets out to show us the way these people lived, and he does a good job of it. He doesn't find obscure and ambiguous quotes to twist into something he wants to prove -- he has clearly gone through hundreds of primary documents to see what these people were like. The result is really wonderful, and really should be required reading for any of us who think we know something of Puritans because we've read Hawthorne.

I read less than half of this book (chapters 4, 7-12, 19, 21-24, 32-35). It is a collection of chapters written by different authors, and some writers are better than others. I didn't appreciate the modern textual criticism, but some chapters offered an interesting perspective on the Bible as literature.½

This wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. Thomas Nelson's Chronological Study Bible is actually more satisfying to my curiosity about literary genres and styles (at least through Joshua, which is as far as I have gotten). The commentary in the Literary ESV seemed kind of dry and obvious.

This short, little booklet is a polemic against the dynamic equivalence method of biblical translation. He paints all such Bible translations with a broad brush, but there are definitely better and worse translations. Most of his examples don't even demonstrate much difference between the literal and dynamic equivalence approaches. The entire essay is only on the one, narrow aspect of translation. Other points of contention aren't even broached, e.g. which source manuscripts are used. Although he has a few good points, he overstates his case on nearly every claim.

good reference book

I am sure that many a pastor or author wished that someone had taken the time to look into all the novels, plays, morality tales, and poetry where pastors played a prominent role and provide "a road map to literary masterpieces in which the pastor's experience is a major part of the story" (p.11). The authors are amazingly explicit in their aims and goals: "first to facilitate the reading of some great works of literature", show "ways in which the works portray and clarify issues in the minister's life and vocation", finally to place "the minister's life within the broader Christian context" (p.12). These are in essence the differences between telling and showing what to do and not do in ministry.

There are four uses that the authors foresee for this collection: to enhance a reader's enjoyment and understanding of the works that are discussed, group discussion, improve the ability to make right moral choices and finally to be a readers' guide to the works that they cover (p.13). Two of these are excellently achieved, one is weak and another is woefully inadequate. Pastor's in the Classics will help with the enjoyment and understanding the work covered. I would have preferred Ryken to have more input on the moral choice objective by providing more of a biblical framework. Finally, the group questions are so brief, that any group would really need to take extensive notes of the primary sources to discuss the themes. The four "Portraits of Ministers" questions (p.14) really need to be kept in mind in examining any of the works in question.

From the author's description, part 1 is a reader's guide to twelve important classics written over four centuries and covering seven different nationalities. Each chapter not only describes and interprets the work in question, it also highlights a specific feature of pastoral ministry explored in the work. One of the most helpful features are the scriptural passages that begin each chapter. I would have appreciated an index of these texts that would have enabled an expositor to refer to the work in question as a sermon/lesson illustration. The topics vary from sexual sin, to slander, love, and suffering. Although the reviews are of classic sources, they read like everyday issues: challenges of ministry, complaints about church meetings, how hard it is to love the sheep, the relentless approach of next week's sermon, opportunities for personal ministry, candid revelations from the congregation and asking the lord to help moment by moment (p.106). Like the scriptural references, a thematic index would be helpful for future reference. Most of the topic headings are clear, but a few (eg. Witch Wood) can be a bit cryptic at times.

The authors describe Part 2 as a handbook on fifty-eight entries on works of literature that include significant discussion of ministry and illuminate issues in ministry (p.113). They see these of works that define the canon of literary masterpieces that deal with the pastor's experience, offering reading suggestions for both ministers and lovers of literature. From the familiar (The Canterbury Tales; Cry, the Beloved Country; and The Scarlet Letter) to the lesser-known (Silence, Witch Wood) to the surprising (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man). They describe this as a collection that uncovers the good, the bad, and the ugly ways in which pastors have been presented to the reading public for the past half millennium. They are much briefer than the first section and are presented in a helpful alphabetical order.

Pastors in the Classics is a very useful resource to summarizing this and it's almost amazing that this work has not been written earlier. With few explicit biblical references and with some scriptural quotations at the beginning of the chapters more applicable than others, I hope a second edition will expand to include more contemporary works and add the most needed scriptural and thematic indexes. The most disappointing lack is of a conclusion on how literature had tended to portray pastoral ministry or how this had changed over time. It could include some helpful tips for future authors or perhaps how literary portrayals of pastors tend to be more accurate than the more common portrayal in other media forms.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

How does a gory tale of crafty assassination fit into God's Word. Assume that every story is an example of some aspect of human experience. To get the point of the story, we need to ask what it is an example of.

i received this book free at a conference in which Leland Ryken was a speaker. It sat on my shelf for about a year before finally getting around to it. I'm glad I did.

It was interesting reading. Dr. Ryken sows the benefits of studying from an essentially literal translation of the Bible and to show the drawbacks of dynamic equivalent translations. Some of the early chapters were a bit overwhelming, but I learned a lot. It's one of those books I'll be returning to in the future because I have a feeling I'll learn even more on subsequent readings.

NO OF PAGES: 996 SUB CAT I: Reference SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: This unique reference offers an encyclopedic exploration of topics not found in ordinary Bible dictionaries-like the images, symbols, motifs, metaphors, and literary patterns of the Bible. With its right-brain(rather than left-brain) approach, this warm and creative study resource examines the artistic expressions that fascinate and puzzle Christians. Features and Benefits: hundreds of articles on images, metaphors and motifs of scripture encyclopedic scope-covers many topics not found in ordinary Bible dictionaries accessible! fascinating! helps readers understand the significance of the Bible's imagery great resource for Bible study, teaching and preaching 1999 Christianity Today Book of the Year.NOTES: Purchased from CBD. SUBTITLE: An encyclopedic exploration of the images, symbols, motifs, metaphors, figures of speech and literary patterns of the Bible

31 okt Nationale Bijbelzondag
daarom kort overzicht van hfdst 8: The Bible

Motto: 'There is not a condition into which a child of God can fall but there is a direction and rule in the Word, in some measure suitable thereunto' - Thomas Gouge

-toegang van de leek tot de Bijbel
-natuur en scopus vd Bijbel: autoriteit boven traditie (in navolging Reformatie)
-principles of Bible interpretation: verlichting door HG, niet-allegorisch
-de Bijbel als literatuur: is de Bijbel dan geen heilig boek?, alsof alleen niet-gelovigen de Bijbel als literatuur lezen en gelovigen als Woord van God. Die tegenstelling bestaat niet. De Bijbel is literatuur zeiden Puriteinen omdat het over concreet menselijke ervaringen gaat en daarin wordt de stijl en de techniek perfect gehanteerd.Het gaat zoals Sibbes schrijft om: 'After God hath revealed spiritual truths, and faith had apprehended them, then imagination hath use wile the soul is joined with the body.'
-The Affective Power of the Bible: voor de puriteinen was de Bijbel een boek met informatie, maar meer dan dat. Het was een affectief boek. Een boek met meer-dan-gewoonlijke mogelijkheid om mensen te bewegen en te beinvloeden. Contact met de Bijbel werd door P gezien als dynamisch: 'Though men were hard as rocks, the Word is a hammer which can break them: though as sharp as thorns and briers, the Word is a fire which cab devour and torment them'. Het Woord van God leeft dus.