[1] The genre of a particular Bible passage is ordinarily identified by analysis of its general writing style, tone, form, structure, literary technique, content, design, and related linguistic factors; texts that exhibit a common set of literary features (very often in keeping with the writing styles of the times in which they were written) are together considered to be belonging to a genre.
Within the discipline of literary analysis, the existence and subjectivity of genres are a matter of some debate.
This is reflected in academic discussion of Biblical genres.
Furthermore, some detect subgenres—more narrowly defined compositional categories within a genre—in surrounding historical literature, and speculate that certain books and passages of the Bible may be better denominated by subgenre (e.g., it may be claimed that the book of Philemon is not simply a generic letter, but a personal letter).
Despite such differences of opinion within the community of Bible scholars, the majority acknowledges that the concept of genre and subgenre can be useful in the study of the Bible as a guide to the tone and interpretation of the text.