Five major phases of interrelation between the Bible and literature may be distinguished in German literary history. During the Middle Ages, when the Church and Christian faith played the dominant role, the Bible was treated in literary circles as a work in itself. Authors of the abundant biblical epic poetry, affirmatively paraphrasing Scripture texts, initiated the emergence and development of national literature. The works of that period had a propagandist character and served Christianization as well as the deepening of the faith. The original sense and meaning of the Bible was challenged - in the name of science and the social idea - during the period of the Enlightenment. The Bible seen as poetry endowed with wonderful rhythm, having powerful imaginative impact, and containing elements of Eastern folklore became popular and enjoyed its renaissance in the 19th century, mainly on Herder's account. Contemporary literature employs the language of the Bible not as ornamentation but as key element of poetic expression, and biblical characters serve either auto-reflection or the presentation of archaeological archetypes. 20th century German literature tends to have critical and negating biblical stylization. Such sty- lization results when the author's intentions and value system do not agree with what the biblical text contains, and when the word of God is used for the purpose of alienation and parody. Affirmative biblical stylization occurs sporadically in contemporary literature. The most common kind of biblical stylization, typical of modernist and postmodernist lyric poetry, is partial stylization, serving polemic purposes or alternative solutions.

The paper concerns biblical heritage in Polish medieval and early modern literature. In it's first section the author presents the first Polish psalters and their influence upon religious poetry of the time. The second part focuses on the development of biblical scholarship in medieval and Renaissance Poland, presents the most important old translations of the Bible and shortly discusses their impact on Polish literary culture. The last part of the study shows how various types of biblical plots and characters were present in old Polish drama and theatre, in religious hymns and epics, how biblical patterns inspired certain literary genres; it also stresses cer- tain significant differences between Protestant and Catholic authors of the time. The conclusion of the paper points out serious need for more systematic researches and studies in the subject of biblical tradition in old Polish literature.