AND A PART OF ITS PROSE. Bishop Lowth was the first to use the
probability this also accounts for the use of the Hebrew imperfect with a vav conversive in continued narratives that begin with a perfect. The Oriental preferred to represent actions, not as completed in the past but as in the process of being completed, and therefore as continuing in the present. In the New Testament, something similar is found in the extensive use of the present.
d. Certain redundant expressions also add to the liveliness of the style of Scripture, as for instance: "he opened his mouth and spoke"; "he lifted up his eyes and saw"; "she lifted up her voice and wept"; "incline thine ear and hear."
3. THE EXTENSIVE USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. This finds its explanation partly in the inability to describe spiritual and heavenly things in literal language, partly in the Oriental's perference for plastic and pictorial representation, and partly in a desire for variety and literary beauty. Since it will be necessary to discuss the figurative language of the Bible and its interpretation separately, we pass it by for the present.
4. THE PECULIAR PARALLELISM OF SENTENCES THAT CHARACTERIZES A GREAT DEAL OF THE BIBLICAL POETRY AND A PART OF ITS PROSE. Bishop Lowth was the first to use the term parallelismus membrorum to describe the peculiar feature that "in two lines or members of the same period, things for the most part answer to things, and words to words." It is found particularly in the Psalms and in the other poetical books of the Bible, but also in some of its prose writings. Bishop Lowth distinguished three kinds of parallelism, to which Jebb added a fourth. They are the following:
a. Synonymous parallelism, in which the same idea is repeated in different words. There may be mere similarity (Ps. 24:2; Job 6:5); or identity (Prov. 6:2; Ps. 93:3).
b. Antithetic parallelism, in which the second member of a line or verse gives the obverse side of the same thought. This is found