Thank you for the question on the nature of the Hebrew Bible, “Why do you think the Hebrew Bible is considered both history and literature?”
As one respondent observed that all written material or verbally expressed materials are literature. The classification of a literature may be divided into poetry, prose, fiction, and non-fiction. Depending on one’s interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and one’s classification of the various content as being poetry and proses, fiction and non-fiction.
As one reads the “poetry” section of the Hebrew Bible especially Song of Solomon, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, the style of writing fits proses and poetry. It is Hebrew poetry, if I may use that term, and not necessarily English poetry. For example Psalm 119 uses the Hebrew alphabet at the beginning of each section. There are reoccurring themes in Psalm 119 that rephrases, builds or expands an idea.
As one reads the “historical” section of the Hebrew Bible, one may classify them as fictional or non-fictional. Modern scholars prescribes most if not all of the Torah to be fictional while portions of Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah as being historical. The classification of whether a content is “historical” as being verifiable by archaeological facts, confirmation by other writings, or scientifically reasoning. The account of Job being swallowed by a large fish is viewed as fictional since there are no known sea creature that we know of that can swallow a man and whereby that man survives for three days. The Solomonic Temple is highly questioned by archaeologically since there are no or few evidence of a King David or Solomon. Today, that is being challenged by current archaeological digging finding some evidence of the historicity of the Hebrew Bible. May I suggest the website as Recent Discoveries in Israel for one’s readings. The discoveries does not prove their historicity at this moment of time, but are providing clues of a previous era.
Is the Hebrew Bible fully historical, partially historical or all fable? It depends on the interpretation of discoveries and its dating, and one’s view presupposition in the existence of God or his non-existence.
Personally, I believe the Bible is historical and not a fable. The whole premise of the Jewish faith is the truthfulness of God. God commanded his people not to bear false witness. It would be incongruent and deceitful that God would lie to his people while asking his people to be truthful at all time. There are difficulties in reconciling our present understanding of dating and the Biblical record. For example when God said let there be light in Genesis 1, God enable the light to travel to earth and beyond not in light years but in a moment of time. From our perspective based on the speed of limit but God is not bound to the speed of light.
You may read a recent article that physicist may think it may be possible to travel faster than the speed of light. It’s not proven. IF it can be proven, then how will that affect our understanding of our universe and space travel including worm holes and black holes. Will there be another measurement other than the speed of limit forthcoming? No one knows, but who knows what may be discovered in the coming decades. For those who hold to a differing viewpoint that the Jewish Bible is historical, I respect those individuals varying and different viewpoint than my own.
SUMMARY: The Jewish Bible is both historical and literature.
For more perspectives:
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-you-think-the-Hebrew-Bible-is-considered-both-history-and-literature