Poetry
Poetry
Poetry is hard to define, but its most recurrent characteristic is its use of compressed language. Poetry says a lot, using relatively few words. Poetry's terseness indicates that it is highly structured, self-conscious writing. Not only is the poet concerned to communicate a message, he or she also desires to express it in a memorable way. With poetry, how something is written is as important as what is written.
Hebrew poetry creates the compression of language in a variety of ways. The poet may omit many indicators of syntax such as conjunctions ("and," "but," "therefore") or direct object markers. These words are small, but they indicate how words and clauses relate to one another. Their less frequent use (compared with prose) raises the level of ambiguity of communication and requires the reader to work harder at understanding. Ellipsis also accounts for the brevity of the poetic line. Ellipsis describes the poet's tendency to omit a word or phrase from the second part of a parallel line (see below). Often it is the verb that is omitted, as in this example from Ps. 88:6:
These omissions explain why poetry is terse and intentionally ambiguous. Hebrew poetry communicates adequately - it is not totally ambiguous - but without the high level of precision typical of prose.
Why did the biblical writers use so much poetry as a vehicle of God's Word to humanity? The Old Testament in particular is filled with poetry. Genesis contains both shorter and longer poems (cf. Gen. 1:27 and ch. 49), as do the other books of the Pentateuch (most notably Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 33). The historical books present powerful poems, for instance judges 5, Deborah's celebration of victory over the Canaanites. Many of the prophets also delivered their divinely inspired oracles in poetic form. Some scholars consider the poetry of Isaiah, Micah, and Nahum among the best, and most prophets have long sections of poetry.
The term "poetical books;" however, is most closely associated with four of the five books in the following section of this Companion. The first three books were noted as poetic by the earliest scribes, since they used a special system to accent them in Hebrew. Most notable is the massive book of Psalms, the hymnbook of the Old Testament, containing not only hymns but also laments, thanksgivings, and songs of confidence and remembrance and wisdom. Job, too, is poetry except for the prose frame, which narrates the opening and closing of the plot. The poetry carries the dialogue, which signals that Job is a story with universal implications. Proverbs has a clear, poetic format, with the first nine chapters composed of extended discourses, while the remainder of the book is a collage of two-line statements (called bicola) with only an occasional more extended poetic structure (as in Prov. 31:10-31). Surprisingly, the clearly poetic Song of Songs was not accented in Hebrew as poetry but no doubt fits the modern recognition of the book as poetic.
But again, Why so much poetry in the Old Testament? We are led to speculate based on the nature of poetry itself. Besides poetry's lack of concern with precision of communication, in general it appeals to the whole person more than prose. Poetry does indeed inform the intellect, but it also arouses our emotions, stimulates our imagination, and appeals to our will. The presence of poetry in the Bible reminds us that God is interested in more than our minds; God is concerned to speak to us as whole people.
This point is underlined by consideration of another characteristic of Hebrew poetry - its use of imagery. To be sure, figures of speech may be found in prose as well as poetry, but the poets of Israel used imagery with an intensity and frequency not found in prose. Imagery, too, is a way to say much using few words. It also well illustrates the poet's ability to stimulate our imagination and arouse our emotions.
First, notice how an image captures our attention by telling us something that is literally false. In talking about God's past absence from Israel and his present appearance as a warrior on his people's behalf, Ps. 78:65 states:
It is simply not true that God sleeps (Psalm 121), especially a sleep deepened by heavy drinking. To unpack this image takes time and effort and illustrates that poetry in general must be read slowly and reflectively. The poet creates the association between God and a drunken person (the Hebrew word for "man" suggests a soldier) to emphasize only certain traits as illuminating the action of God. God does not literally drink or sleep, but the im age does suggest God's profound absence from Israel followed by his angry, even irritable, action against their enemies. In short, here God acts like a drunk when wakened from sleep.
This somewhat shocking image illustrates how poetry works, even with other wellknown images, such as God as a shepherd. We unpack the image by asking, How is God a shepherd? Even to begin to answer would require us to make many literal statements (God guides us, protects us, watches over us, provides for us ...). In its ancient setting the shepherd is a frequent image for a king. Furthermore, the image not only provides intellectual content but also arouses comfort and communicates God's love to us. At a certain point, however, we may ask whether we have taken the comparison too far. There is no formula for determining this. Though images communicate adequately, they are also ambiguous, not precise. Since many Old Testament images are images of God (king, father, mother, warrior, spouse), they intentionally preserve the mystery of God. Images both reveal and conceal.
Another major characteristic of poetry in the Bible is parallelism. This term describes the echoing effect evident in the Psalms. The poet seems to say the same thing twice, only using different words:
(Ps. 2:1-2)
Notice that the poet is not saying the same thing twice, but rather adds new ideas in the second colon (B, D, F). There is continuity and progression from one line to the next. The example above has three bicola (two-line parallelisms). Note how colon B adds the idea of the meaninglessness of the plot against God; colon D emphasizes the alliance between the rebellious rulers, and colon F says that the plot is not only against the Lord but also against his anointed one (the king).
Terseness, imagery, and parallelism are the three most pervasive traits of poetry in the Old Testament. Countless other poetical devices occur less frequently, but to understand these three helps us gain appreciation and understanding as we read the poetry of the Bible.
Wisdom Literature
Wisdom in the Old Testament is much more than intellectual knowledge; it is applied intelligence. Indeed, it is fair to compare the biblical word "wisdom" (Heb. hokmah) with the idea of a skill, an ability to navigate through the obstacles that life presents. The wise know how to control their emotions, responding appropriately to the situation. They know the right time to say the right word and do the right thing. In the Old Testament there is a close connection between wisdom and creation. To live wisely is to live in harmony with the way God made the world.
Three Old Testament books articulate this idea of wisdom. The first is Proverbs, which states clearly its intention to impart "wisdom and instruction," or "discipline" (NIV), to its readers (Prov. 1:2). In large part, Proverbs does this by making observations and giving advice in pithy, two-line statements. An example of an observation is:
An example of its advice is:
That these are not universally valid laws, but rather dependent on the situation, is well illustrated by the next proverb, which warns that the wise person should answer a fool to prevent that fool from thinking himself intelligent. The point is that the wise need to know what kind of fool they are dealing with!
Proverbs also confronts us with a less obvious but more fundamental teaching about wisdom. Wisdom is a skill to be sure, but at heart that skill is built on a relationship with God himself. It is possible to mimic the lifestyle of the wise person, but it is not possible truly to be wise without a relationship with God himself. Again, the book makes that clear right at the start:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.... (1:7a)
In fact, the first nine chapters present the reader with a climactic choice. Throughout these chapters God's wisdom is personified as a woman named Wisdom, while the way of false gods is presented as personified Folly. In Proverbs 9 the reader must decide with which woman he will dine, and it is on this basis that he shows himself a wise person or a fool.
Both Job and Ecclesiastes function in large part to keep us from being overly optimistic about human wisdom. Ecclesiastes warns that under the sun even wisdom is meaningless (Eccl. 2:12-16). Ultimately, the most important thing in life is to fear God and obey him (12:13-14). In job, only the Lord speaks with wisdom, silencing the pretensions of job and his friends, who claim knowledge on their own. Again, the message of the book is that wisdom is found only in relationship with God.
But it is also true that wisdom has an international setting. Even Solomon, the model wisdom figure of the Old Testament (1 Kgs. 4:29-34), is measured in the light of nonIsraelite wisdom. Indeed, the wisdom books of Mesopotamia, Canaan, and especially Egypt have many formal similarities with biblical wisdom, but these similarities nearly dissolve in the light of the Bible's distinctive teaching that the fountainhead of all wisdom is one's relationship with the Lord, the God of Israel.
The Apocrypha contains two important books of wisdom. The first is known variously as Ecclesiasticus, the Wisdom of Ben Sira, or Sirach. It was originally written ca.18o B.C. in Hebrew, though our present manuscripts are in Greek. It has clear relationships with the literary form and theology of Proverbs. The other book is the Wisdom of Solomon, written in Greek, sometime after the year 30. Along with Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, it personifies wisdom as a woman. One of the book's primary purposes is to show that the Hebrews have true wisdom compared to the sophisticated Greeks. Christians of different communions differ over whether these books have canonical authority or are simply books that encourage and edify. In either case, they are worth reading.
Wisdom is a characteristic of other books of the Old Testament not usually called wisdom books. For instance, some would include the Song of Songs among the wisdom books. A broad definition that understands wisdom as applied knowledge, in this case to sexuality, would generously include it. Psalms contains a number of songs that share themes with the three core wisdom books (e.g., Psalms 1, 45,119). The stories of Joseph (Genesis 37-50), Esther, and Daniel (1-6) recount the lives of wise men and women navigating the obstacles and threats of their times. They embody the principles of wisdom found in a book such as Proverbs.
The New Testament letter of James echoes the perspective of the wisdom tradition for a distinctly Christian context. Distinguishing between heavenly and earthly wisdom, James reflects the Christian's quest for understanding and insight for practical, ethical living.
It is important for Christian readers of the Old Testament to recognize that the New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the very embodiment of God's wisdom. He grew up in wisdom (Luke 2:40-51). Paul describes him as the one "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:2-3). To seek knowledge, then, for the Christian is to seek a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.
TREMPER LONGMAN III