Biblical poetry does not follow the forms many people now associate with poetry. Rhyming of sounds, lines of equal length, strictly structured beat patterns, and many other modern conventions are not in evidence, especially in Hebrew poetry. The poetic nature of the text is often not immediately evident in modern translations. Instead, you find pairings of similar ideas (synonymous couplets), opposite ideas (antithetical couplets), and couplets where the second line adds to and completes the first (climactic); acrostics, atbash, songs, alliteration, metaphors, and what can be described as "tongue twisters." (Amos 5:5, הַגִּלְגָּל֙ גָּלֹ֣ה יִגְלֶ֔ה "hagilgal galoh yigleh," which translates as "for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity."
There is an excellent detailed discussion of Biblical poetry on this web page.
Showing posts with label Hebrew poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hebrew poetry. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Acrostic in Psalm 119
Ancient Hebrew poetry has many conventions which are not immediately apparent to the reader, especially when it is read in translation as most of us, including me, must do. I took several semesters of Hebrew in seminary but I have to admit that I barely understood what I was "learning" and today still understand it only in very patchy form. (Greek to me was much easier as it is Indo-European and is much more similar to English than the Semitic Hebrew.)
The rhythm of Hebrew poetry is irregular and is based on the accented or toned syllables rather than on meter as in English. Rhymed word sounds are rare. Refrains, repeated lines, sometimes occur. The "rhyming" in ancient Hebrew poetry is based on parallelism of ideas in three forms: synonymous (the meanings of the lines are similar); antithetical (the meanings of the lines are opposites of one another; and synthetic (nouns correspond to nouns, verbs correspond to verbs, etc)
One convention of ancient Hebrew poetry which has received much modern attention is the acrostic, in which the first letter of each line spells out a word or makes a pattern. Psalm 119 is such an acrostic. Verses 1-8 begin with the letter aleph, verses 9-16 begin with the letter beth, verses 17-24 begin with the letter gimel, then daleth, he, waw, zayin, etc. Acrostic patterns also occur in Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34,37, 111, 112, and 145.
All of these poetic conventions are human in origin and have nothing to do with the supposed Bible Codes which some believe that God has embedded into the Torah.
The rhythm of Hebrew poetry is irregular and is based on the accented or toned syllables rather than on meter as in English. Rhymed word sounds are rare. Refrains, repeated lines, sometimes occur. The "rhyming" in ancient Hebrew poetry is based on parallelism of ideas in three forms: synonymous (the meanings of the lines are similar); antithetical (the meanings of the lines are opposites of one another; and synthetic (nouns correspond to nouns, verbs correspond to verbs, etc)
One convention of ancient Hebrew poetry which has received much modern attention is the acrostic, in which the first letter of each line spells out a word or makes a pattern. Psalm 119 is such an acrostic. Verses 1-8 begin with the letter aleph, verses 9-16 begin with the letter beth, verses 17-24 begin with the letter gimel, then daleth, he, waw, zayin, etc. Acrostic patterns also occur in Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34,37, 111, 112, and 145.
All of these poetic conventions are human in origin and have nothing to do with the supposed Bible Codes which some believe that God has embedded into the Torah.
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