An Invitation to Biblical Poetry

An Invitation to Biblical Poetry is an accessibly written introduction to biblical poetry that emphasizes the aesthetic dimensions of poems and their openness to varieties of context. It demonstrates the irreducible complexity of poetry as a verbal art and considers the intellectual work poems accomplish as they offer aesthetic experiences to people who read or hear them. Chapters walk the reader through some of the diverse ways biblical poems are organized through techniques of voicing, lineation, and form, and describe how the poems’ figures are both culturally and historically bound and dependent on later reception. The discussions consider examples from different texts of the Bible, including poems inset in prose narratives, prophecies, psalms, and wisdom literature. Each chapter ends with a reading of a psalm that offers an acute example of the dimension under discussion. Students and general readers are invited to richer and deeper readings of ancient poems and the subjects, problems, and convictions that occupy their imagination.

Lines

Chapter 2 considers how the arrangement of poems into lines creates a sense of rhythm and affects the experience of time for the reader or listener. It introduces the concept of parallelism as a form of repetition that is prevalent in the biblical corpus and emphasizes the different ways parallelism can be put to use. It also considers the presence of enjambment in biblical poetry and the variety of relationships that are possible between the syntax of individual sentences and the lines of a poem. It ends with a reading of Psalm 19 that shows how lineation is one of the primary formal techniques that contribute to the aesthetics of the poem.

Conclusion

The conclusion argues that the aesthetic dimensions of biblical poetry require active engagement with the poem that does not merely uncover a meaning that already exists, but rather enacts a moment of human encounter. In doing so, it re-emphasizes the importance of formal analysis even while resisting New Criticism’s tendency to suppress historical, social, and political dimensions of the text and its interpretation. It follows John Dewey in arguing that reading is always an act of re-creation, and that even reading old material brings a new poem into existence. Ultimately, it suggests that biblical poetry now and again acknowledges its unfinished business: the way it leans toward the future and its readers, and thereby resists the nothingness of destruction.

Forms

Chapter 3 examines how biblical poems participate in different literary patterns, or “forms,” both in terms of their familiar thematic movements and their structural dimensions. First it considers the language that the Hebrew Bible uses to talk about poetry and notes how its terms to do not refer to fixed conventions but denote somewhat fluid perceptions of its nature—poetry’s relationship to music, figurative aphoristic speech, lament, and prayer. The chapter emphasizes the highly conventional character of biblical poetry, which seems to prize tradition over more radical types of innovation, but it also traces evidence of places where poems are creative in working with and even against received forms. It ends with a consideration of the acrostic in biblical poetry and a reading of Psalm 119 as both using and radically extending the acrostic’s conventions.

Robert Lowth, Parallelism, and Biblical Poetry

This essay offers a fresh look at Robert Lowth’s theory of parallelism in biblical poetry, situated in light of the study of this phenomenon since Lowth’s originary conceptualizations. The discussion divides into three parts, treating Lowth’s general description of parallelism, his (in)famous threefold classification schema, and aspects of orality and rhythm as they bear on an understanding of parallelism in biblical poetry. A chief end in view is to suggest what remains vital in Lowth’s thought.

The Doctrine of Justification in the Neo-Latin Biblical Poetry of Silesian Reformation Poets and their Interpretation of the Biblical Theme of the Fall of the First Parents

The aim of this article is to analyze a selection of works by Silesian Protestants who, in poetic form, explained the biblical theme of the fall of the first parents in the context of the Reformation teaching on justification. The article consists of three parts. The first gives a short presentation of the literary phenomenon of neo-Latin poetic alterations of various books, fragments, and biblical themes by Silesian poets who were active in this literary field from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. The scale, area and time frame of the mass distribution of this literature are presented here, and it is noted that it was created as a result of the cultural and educational influence of the leading teacher of the Lutheran Reformation, viz. Philip Melanchthon. The second part of the article provides a theological explanation of the biblical story of the fall of the first parents, or original sin, in the context of the doctrine of justification as interpreted by Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin. The third part discusses how some Silesian poets like Thomas Mawer (1536–1575), Laurentius Fabricius (1539–1577), Melchior Ostius (1569–1637) and Fridericus Wolbertus (active at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) presented the doctrine of justification in poems describing the fall of Adam and Eve. The conclusions emphasize the importance of this type of work for the spread of the Reformation doctrine of justification, which opened the peaceful path to ideological and religious discussions in Central and Eastern Europe at that time.

The “Spirit of Yhwh” and Samson’s Martial Rage: A Leitmotif of the Biblical Warrior Tradition

In Judg 14–15, the source of Samson’s strength is not his uncut hair, but the רוח־יהוה. A Leitmotif of the biblical warrior tradition, the רוח־יהוה is a corporealized metaphor of fiery anger that envelops Samson and grants him great power. This motif was adapted from early biblical poetry, in which Yhwh’s wrath erupted as a fiery breath (רוח) against his cosmic foes. This study explores how the historical context of Judg 14–15 informs the use of this motif, comparing the רוח־יהוה with similar concepts of martial anger in Near Eastern and Greek warrior traditions. Like Mesopotamian melammu and Greek μηνις, the רוח־יהוה was part of a corporeal code that enabled ancient minds to think about the relations between mortals and divine beings in the context of battle.

Translating Biblical Poetry as Poetry

After an introduction into translating biblical poetry as a new communication event in the target culture (and not as a documentation of a source culture event), an analysis is made of a Dutch poetic translation of Psalms 23 and 121 and a Frisian poetic translation of Psalm 23. Of the poetic features and means of expression in these translations, Dutch and Frisian patterns ofmeter are the most important. When a poetic translation of biblical poetry follows genre conventions of the target language and culture (rather than attempting but failing to reproduce the poetic features of the source text), such a translation is able to generate a new, direct communication event that reduces the distance between the hearer/receiver of the target culture and the text of the source culture. Such a translation engages the hearer more effectively in responding to the text, because the poetic features of the target language facilitate the expressive, appellative and phatic functions of the communication. This should be an encouragement to translators to render different types of biblical poetry into different genres and poetic patterns of the target language that will actually fit the subject matter of the text into the context of the target culture.

Translating psalms for Africa today: Involving the community and transmitting through performance

Psalms, being poems, need to be translated as poems using the poetic features of the receptor language. Official translators are not always poetically sensitive, but many community members are highly skilled word-artists, keen to participate in the translation process. Further, poems are always performed before an audience, and thus translated psalms need to include performance features as part of the translation. These two aspects of translating psalms offer advantageous possibilities for those translating biblical poetry. The notion of community involvement challenges the idea of ‘authority resting with the trained translators or consultant’, but the Skopos Theory reminds us that there can be many translations of a psalm, serving different purposes. This article describes the results of an empirical study including Zulu youth (interested in poetry and music) in the translation of some praise psalms. The idea of interpreting and communicating psalms as oral performances was also tested by presenting the translations as performances before an audience. Four Zulu youth groups participated in the study, each spending five days learning the principles of translation, poetic devices (in Hebrew and isiZulu), features of local music and oral communication style. They studied, translated and presented through oral performance three praise psalms before an audience of adults and peers. The isiZulu translations were evaluated primarily using Wendland’s criteria for a literary-rhetorical translation (viz. artistry, aurality and acceptability), but attention was also given to the traditional criteria of faithfulness to the Hebrew, naturalness and clarity. Many of the translations showed creativity balanced with accuracy and gave insights into the exegesis of the psalms. They also used traditional rhythm and features of local poetry and music, and engaged the audience using aspects of performance art. The study highlighted the opportunity available to a translator of psalms to engage local oral artists to participate in the process, either in a parallel project which can feed into the official project, or as a valuable means of Scripture Engagement. Being able to experience the translation process and present psalms in a way meaningful to the local culture has many advantages which need to be explored.Contribution: Engaging the local community in a significant way is key to the success of a translation project. Beyond simply being ‘reviewers’, this methodology offers opportunity for greater involvement in the translation of poetry. Further, using oral performance to present psalms actively, engages the community, resulting in far higher acceptability, memorability and perceived relevance.