1. RELS 253 2008-10-22 Midterm report Review The Writings For next time:
Syncretism
The Secondary History
Chronicles
Ezra-Nehemiah
The Writings
For next time:
Chapter 13, “Psalms”
Read Psalms 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 18, 41, 47, 48, 67, 72, 88, 89, 105, 113, 116, 142
Prepare discussion #5: Laments

2. Review of last class Discussion #4: Syncretism
The Secondary History: Chronicles & Ezra-Nehemiah
Post-Exilic
Signs of Unity:
Why two tellings of this history?
What did the Chronicler omit, add, revise, repeat?
The key to success is proper worship at the Jerusalem Temple
Babylonian Exile
Consequences of the Exile
Exilic Expectations and Hope
The Return from the Babylonian Exile
Restoration under Ezra & Nehemiah
Community Focus
Temple Focus
Purpose: to Encourage the Jews who returned from exile

3. The place of the Writings in the TaNak
Torah
5 Books of Moses
Nevi’im
Former Prophets
Joshua-Kings
Latter Prophets
Major Prophets
The Twelve
Ketuvim
The five scrolls
Ekah
Ruth
Esther
Qohelet
Song of Songs
David (psalms)
Proverbs; Job
Late history (Ezra-Nehemiah; Chronicles)
Daniel

4. Hebrew Poetry Importance of Understanding Hebrew Poetry
Its Extent: About ½ of the OT and about 1/3 of the Bible is poetry
Job, Psalms, and Proverbs (have a unique accentual system in the MT)
Prophets
Old Poetic Pieces Embedded in Prose (Genesis 49; Exodus 15; Deuteronomy 32-33; Judges 5; etc.)
Hebrew Poetry
The importance of the subject:
"Nothing can be of greater avail to the proper understanding of any writer, than a previous understanding of his general character, and the peculiarities of his style and manner of writing" (C. E. Stowe, 1829,166). Half of the OT is in poetry, so it is very important that we know how to read Hebrew poetry, what it is like, what is its peculiarities, its structure so that we can exegete and bring to the surface what the writer was intending because the writer is working within certain structures that he assumes. And we need to be aware of these structures.
This is even more important in the Prophets as they are masters of rhetoric. Their language was not only meant to inform, but also persuade and move.
Extent of Poetry in OT
About 1/2 of the OT and about 1/3 of the Bible is poetry
(1) Job, Psalms, and Proverbs (have distinctive accents in the MT)
These books have distinctive accents in the received Hebrew text to accommodate their poetic form. They are sometimes designated by the acronym: t’m, (tau, aleph, mem) from the first letters of these three books as designated in the Hebrew canon: tehellim (= Psalms), ‘iyyob ( = Job) and mishle (Proverbs).
(2) Prophets
All of the prophets are essentially in poetry, with the exception of Jonah, but we should be aware that sometimes the line between poetry and prose becomes attenuated. That is, it becomes drawn out so that you are not exactly sure whether you are dealing with prose or poetry.
(3) Old Poetic Pieces Embedded in Prose
E.g., Gen 1:26, 2:? this is bone of…, Gn 49; Ex. 15; Dt ; Judg 5; etc.

5. What constitutes “poetry”?
In groups:
Define “poetry.”
How can you tell something is poetry and not prose? What are its characteristics?
What would happen if someone read a poem and didn’t realize it was poetry?

6. Hebrew Poetry What is Hebrew Poetry? Restrictions include:
“A more restricted form of speech”
The writer is working within greater constraints and restrictions
Restrictions include:
Parallelism
This is the KEY to Hebrew Poetry (More on this later)
Terse Expression
E.g., the omission of certain Hebrew particles and gapping or ellipsis of words
Heightened Style
Full of figures of speech (metaphors), schemes of varying word order, etc.
What is Hebrew Poetry?
“A more restricted form of speech”
In contrast to prose, poetry is, more broadly speaking,. “A more restricted form of speech” The writer is working within greater restraints. “A sustained rhythm in a continuously operating principle of organization” (Barbara Hernstein Smith). Restrictions include:
Parallelism (***THE KEY***)
The resemblance in sense between two versets. This is primary operating principle of organization in Hebrew poetry, which also gives it a sustained rhythm, is parallelism. It aims to give complex information in a unified way; one hears the message “stereophonically” (von Rad). It says it and then it says it again. You hear it in your left ear, and you hear it in your right ear. In that way you get a very unified message with complex information at the same time.
E.g., Ps 2, you can hear the parallelism. “Why do the nations; and the people…, etc.”
N.B. Sometimes the line between prose and poetry becomes attentuated. Yet Kugel, who revolutionzed this field with his Idea of Biblical Poetry, (1981, 59-95) is too extreme when he says the difference between prose and poetry is quantitative, not qualitative.
Terse Expression
The omission of particles (definite articles, definite object marker, relative asr, etc.) and gapping (verbs, prepositions are omitted in the second verset, so you read “The lord is coming down from heaven, the sovereign lord from X”); the focus is on parallelism.
Alter calls it the telegraph style: See 3:12; 6:8
Heightened Style
It is full of figures of speech, involved schemes of varying word order as well as trophes, giving words other signification. It is full of metaphor, metonymies.
The prophets’ lofty ethical oracles are elegant and sublime, forcible and ornamented, imaginative and arresting, attractive and alluring; they combine punch with clarity; energy with copiousness, and dignity with variety. In sentiments one feels uncommon elevation and majesty; in imagery uncommon taste and diversity; in language uncommon beauty and energy. It is very powerful speech.

7. Illustration of Contrasts: Judges 4 & 5
17Now Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. 18Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. 20He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anybody comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’ ” 21But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground—he was lying fast asleep from weariness—and he died (Judges 4:17-21)
24“Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.
25He asked water and she gave him milk,
she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.
26She put her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera a blow,
she crushed his head,
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27He sank, he fell,
he lay still at her feet;
at her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell dead (Judges 5:24-27).
An Illustration of Contrasts: Judges 4 & 5
N.B. As a result of these three factors (parallelism, terse, heightened style) the verses in poetry tend to close with a ‘click,’ whereas in prose they tend to run into one another. The verses in poetry are more like the slides of a slide projector, whereas prose is more like watching a movie where one scene moves into the other. For instance, contrast this prose expression with a poetic expression of the same event:
“And he [Sisera] said to her [Jael], ‘Please give me a little water to drink because I am thirsty.’ And she opened a milk skin and gave him some to drink and she covered him” (Judges 4:19)
with the poetic:
“Water,” he asked,
Milk she gave;
In a princely bowl she offered curds (Judges 5:25).
You can sense the elevation in the poetic passage. In the poetic passage you can tell that she is setting him up, giving him milk instead of water so that he would fall asleep.

8. Hebrew Poetry: Some Definitions
1Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
2The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed,
saying,
3“Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us….”
8Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9You shall break them with a rod of iron,
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:1-3, 8-9).
Line (A single line of poetry; also called a colon or stich) A B C
Bicolon (two related lines of poetry; also called a couplet or distich)
What Hebrew Poetry is Not
No Regular Metre
Many scholars have tryed to figure out a systems of meter for Hebrew poetry, but none of them have been totally sucessful. This leads to the conclusion that Hebrew poetry does not have meter.
• Count accented syllables in each verset, that is, you read the accented forms and you should end up with a 3:3 or 3:2 pattern. While there is smething to this method, it doesn’t work as well as we would like. So Freedman
• Count syllables in each verset: So Cross
• Syntactic constraints: So O’Connor has a very complex system of syntactic constraints.
Undefined and Occasional Rhythm
In contrast ... to parallelism, the occurrence and basic nature of which are recognized by all, there is little consensus regarding meter. Its very existence is denied...; among those who affirm it there is only limited agreement as to its nature (P. B. Yoder, Biblical Hebrew (1972).
It is especially troubling when people suggest textual emmendations based on meter, considering that no one is agreed upon whether bibical Hebrew even has meter.
While biblical Hebrew poetry may have rhyme or assonance, but it is not a necessity. A B
Tricolon (three related lines of poetry; also called a triplet or tristich)

9. What Hebrew Poetry is NOT
No Regular Metre
“In contrast ... to parallelism, the occurrence and basic nature of which are recognized by all, there is little consensus regarding meter. Its very existence is denied...; among those who affirm it there is only limited agreement as to its nature” (P. B. Yoder, Biblical Hebrew (1972).
But a basic balance between the parallel lines in terms of syllables or word units
Also an Undefined and Occasional Rhythm
What Hebrew Poetry is Not
No Regular Metre
Many scholars have tryed to figure out a systems of meter for Hebrew poetry, but none of them have been totally sucessful. This leads to the conclusion that Hebrew poetry does not have meter.
• Count accented syllables in each verset, that is, you read the accented forms and you should end up with a 3:3 or 3:2 pattern. While there is smething to this method, it doesn’t work as well as we would like. So Freedman
• Count syllables in each verset: So Cross
• Syntactic constraints: So O’Connor has a very complex system of syntactic constraints.
Undefined and Occasional Rhythm
In contrast ... to parallelism, the occurrence and basic nature of which are recognized by all, there is little consensus regarding meter. Its very existence is denied...; among those who affirm it there is only limited agreement as to its nature (P. B. Yoder, Biblical Hebrew (1972).
It is especially troubling when people suggest textual emmendations based on meter, considering that no one is agreed upon whether bibical Hebrew even has meter.
While biblical Hebrew poetry may have rhyme or assonance, but it is not a necessity.

10. The Essence of Hebrew Poetry: Parallelism
“The correspondence of one verse, or line, with another, I call parallelism. When a proposition is delivered, and a second is subjoined to it, or drawn under it, equivalent, or contrasted with it, in sense; or similar to it in the form of grammatical construction; these I call parallel lines, and the words or phrases, answering one to another in the corresponding lines, parallel terms”
- Robert Lowth (1732)
What Hebrew Poetry is Not
No Regular Metre
Many scholars have tryed to figure out a systems of meter for Hebrew poetry, but none of them have been totally sucessful. This leads to the conclusion that Hebrew poetry does not have meter.
• Count accented syllables in each verset, that is, you read the accented forms and you should end up with a 3:3 or 3:2 pattern. While there is smething to this method, it doesn’t work as well as we would like. So Freedman
• Count syllables in each verset: So Cross
• Syntactic constraints: So O’Connor has a very complex system of syntactic constraints.
Undefined and Occasional Rhythm
In contrast ... to parallelism, the occurrence and basic nature of which are recognized by all, there is little consensus regarding meter. Its very existence is denied...; among those who affirm it there is only limited agreement as to its nature (P. B. Yoder, Biblical Hebrew (1972).
It is especially troubling when people suggest textual emmendations based on meter, considering that no one is agreed upon whether bibical Hebrew even has meter.
While biblical Hebrew poetry may have rhyme or assonance, but it is not a necessity.

11. Parallelism Lowth’s Three Categories of Parallelism:
Synonymous (A=B): The parallel line repeats or restates the idea of the first line.
Antithetic B (A≠B): The parallel line states the opposite of or contrasts with the first line (usually indicates contrast with “but”)
Synthetic/Formal (AB): The parallel line adds or continues the thought of the first line (the bicolon contains only one complete sentence, not two coordinated lines)
Lowth’s Three Categories:
Synonymous
the parallel verset repeats the first.
Hear, O peoples, all of you,
listen, O earth and all who are in it (Mic 1:2a)
Note the parallels: Hear/listen; O peoples/O earth; all of you/all who are in it.
Antithetic
The parallel verset contrasts with the first, usually indicated with a “but.” The two versets are juxtaposed against one another as in Mic 3:4:
Then they will cry out to the LORD,
but he will not answer them (Mic 3:4)
Synthetic
The parallel verset adds on to the first. If the first two categories are sort of like a teter toter balancing one another, this thrid category is more like a telescope where you pull out the tube and expand one verset with the other verset.
that the Sovereign Lord may witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple (Mic 1:2b)
“May witness against you” is gapped in the B verset, while Soverign Lord is paralleled by Lord, but “from his holy temple” is added in the B verset.
N.B. The swan upon Saint Mary’s Lake floats double,
swan and shadow.

12. Parallelism Examples Synonymous Parallelism (A=B or A=B=C)
1Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
2The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed,
saying,
3“Let us burst their bonds asunder,
and cast their cords from us….”
8Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9You shall break them with a rod of iron,
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:1-3, 8-9).
Synonymous Parallelism
(A=B or A=B=C) A B C A B

13. Parallelism Examples Antithetic Parallelism (A≠B)
“The LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish
(Ps 1:6)
“O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous” (Ps 7:9)
Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way
(Ps 25:8)
Antithetic Parallelism
(A≠B)
Synthetic or Formal Parallelism
(AB)

14. Parallelism Examples Climatic Parallelism Emblematic Parallelism
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in holy splendor (Ps 29:1-2)
They [the righteous] are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper (Ps 1:8)
Climatic Parallelism
Emblematic Parallelism

15. What characterizes Hebrew poetry?
Parallelism.
Synonymous:
Song 1:10 Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, // your neck with strings of jewels.
Antithetic:
Song 4:7 You are altogether beautiful, my love; // there is no flaw in you.
synthetic / formal:
Song 6:13 Why should you look upon the Shulammite, // as upon a dance before two armies.

16. What characterizes Hebrew poetry?
Connotative, figurative, highly metaphorical language.
Standard metaphors: Body parts (“heart”=mind & being; “eyes”=opinion, view) Paths=conduct (ways).
Terseness.
juxtaposition Proverbs 1:7 Fear of Yahweh, beginning of knowledge.
Distinctive Forms:
Acrostic (Lamentations; Psalm 119; Proverbs 31:10–31)
Numerical proverbs (Proverbs 30:29)

17. A few more examples of poetic devices
Complete parallelism:
Isaiah 1:10 ABCDE/ABCDE
Incomplete parallelism:
Psalm 24:1 ABC/BC
Antithetic parallelism:
Proverbs 10:1
Alliteration Isaiah 22:5 in Hebrew (cf. NIV)
Ki yom mehuma umvusah umvukah

18. Why is it important that poetry be recognized as such?
Parallelism: we can interpret one line in light of the other.
Figurative language
poetry isn't meant literally, but tries to create associations/connections in one’s mind. (Ps 51:5)
Poetic units: we must consider the message of each poem as a whole.

19. The Significance of Hebrew Poetry
Addresses the Heart
One must ponder, to find the truth in poetry.
The intended meaning is not immediately apparent.
Conversely, we must not make up “meaning” that the author did not intend).
Describes the Indescribable
Often describes God concretely via analogy, not abstractly via negation (kataphatic/affirming, not apophatic/denying).
Addresses the Heart
It is emotive and metaphorical
Describes the Indescribable
Comparative language is used so that what is unknown may be understood in terms of what is known (Cottrell & Turner, 299ff).
Because it is metaphorical, you have to look at the intent of the metaphor; what was it supposed to convey to the reader?
• Hyperbole: purposeful exaggeration; cf. Ps 51:5 “in sin did my Mother conceive me” ≠ a doctrine of original sin or that conception is sinful. It is poetry!!
Analogy not Negation
There are two ways to speak of God: negation and analogy (LaSor 242). By negation God is described as “infinite” (not finite); immaterial (not matter); invisible (not subject to human sight); unchangeable (not changing). This method comes from western rationalism as shaped by Greek philosophy.
By and large, this is not what the Bible does. It describes God by analogy, by metaphor and simile so that we can have a sense of what God is like. This of course is ultimately realized in the person of Jesus, who is the very image of the unseen God.

20. Next Time Psalms Discussion Session #5: Lament
Read Psalms 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 18, 41, 47, 48, 67, 72, 88, 89, 105, 113, 116, 142
Read Chapter 13 and write its quiz, CH13-B
Discussion Session #5: Lament