A BÍBLIA COMO LITERATURA: A PERSPECTIVA DE JOSÉ TOLENTINO MENDONÇA

Abstract

This article investigates the literary dimension of the Bible from the perspective of the exegete, poet, and cardinal José Tolentino Mendonça. Starting from the recognition that the Bible is, above all, an extraordinary library built as a drama where human voices interweave, the article examines the theoretical foundations that allow us to think of it as literature — its aesthetic value, the complexity of its narratives, the richness of its images and metaphors, the diversity of its genres, and the question of authorial intentionality. It draws on the studies of Erich Auerbach, Northrop Frye, Robert Alter, and George Steiner to contextualize the debate, with Tolentino Mendonça's work, especially A leitura infinita: A Bíblia e sua interpretação and the essay Bíblia e Literatura: a reconstrução da evidência, as its central axis. The article also highlights the influence of the Bible on Western literature, with examples of intertextuality and concludes that thinking of the Bible as literature does not negate its status as a sacred text, but broadens the horizons of its interpretation.