Literary Structure and Unity of the Song of Deborah - Book Report/Review Example

Literary Structure and Unity of the Song of Deborah Outline: A) Doubts about the unity of the Song of Deborah and three aspects of analysis. B) Content of the poem analysis. Unifying motifs of the poem C) The strophic pattern analysis D) Stylistic devices analysis The Song of Deborah is a long great poem, one of the most complex texts of the Hebrew Bible. It can also contend for the title of the oldest text in the Old Testament. The doubts about the unity of Judges 5 are felt by several scholars who claim that the poem consists of several poems composed at different times. The doubts raised are based on the assumption that the poem contains two different styles- ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ which suggests that different authors composed the poem at different times. Those scholars who doubt literary unity of the Song also claim that 'liturgical additions' (vv. 2-5 and 9-11) have been added to 'original war ballad' and they are common targets for removal. (Vincent, 2000) Globe (1974) does not support position about the poem written by different authors. Instead he offers proofs about the unity of the Song of Deborah. The unity of the poem can be viewed from three aspects – content, form and context. Relying on the content of the poem, Globe (1974) suggests that for ‘a thanksgiving hymn for a military victory’ the poem is too complicated which is not characteristic for battle poems of the period which were relatively short and simple. The poem includes a variety of topics which ‘gives little impression of poetic vitality of the text.’ The poems of this type are born from a long established tradition. However, the Song of Deborah is “a sole Hebrew survivor of the type.” However, the poetic background of the poem resembles Assyrian and Egyptian pieces of the time as well as Ugaritic poetry for the use of “highly repetitive form of parallelism.” Hauser (1980) also points to the similarity of Ugaritic poetry and ancient Israelite poetry both of which employed repetitive parallelism. So the content of Judges 5 fully reflects traditions of writing during eleventh and twelfth century B.C. The content of victory odes produced by Assyrian or Egyptian poets is close in its expression to that of the Song of Deborah. Contemporary descriptions of the battle are similar in many military odes of the time including the Song of Deborah. Vincent (2000) highlights other unifying characteristics of the poem based on the content along with stylistic devices: 1) repeated references to Deborah or less to Barak and abrupt use of first person pronouns; 2) contrasting of both heroines with Sisera's mother; 3) contrasting of the Lord's marching out in vv. 4-5 with with Sisera's not marching back at the end of the poem. There are also two more or less clear motifs in the poem: the first is womanhood and the other is reference to water. Water motif is not so clear but it appears in several parts of the poem – in vv. 4-5, when the heavens spew forth water, rain in connection with the battle in ch. 4; battle is celebrated by the watering places (v. 11); God controlling water in v. 21; water as excuse and a substance which contributed to army's downfall. (Vincent, 2000) Hauser (1980) agrees that Judges 5 is unified through a number of motifs: the cosmic power of Yahweh; the watery chaos, the hammering hooves; the desperate flight of Sisera and focus on women. Although these motifs are not overtly linked, the poet expressed his message subtly, relying more on literary devices – repetition, vowel and consonant patterns, abrupt transition, anticipation, etc. Concerning the style of the poem where ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ traditions are mixed, one cannot separate a ‘hymn’ in Judg 5:2-11 from supposed older epic based on the style as comparative analysis of other text of the time shows that such ‘mixture’ in ancient Near Eastern practice was a tradition but not an exception. So the Song of Deborah falls within the traditional lines of Middle Eastern victory ode suggesting that it was written by one author who used recognized tradition freely. (Globe, 1974) Internal formal evidence of the poem integrity is difficult to find as there was no established poetic form to be used for victory odes. The Song of Deborah uses no larger Hebrew forms to suggest of its integrity and literary unity. However, Judges 5 includes units of form which in western poetic tradition are called ‘stanzas’ or ‘strophes’ which appear with ‘great formal regularity’ and are ‘canonized by centuries of use.’ The stanzas or strophes of the poem have five distinctive characteristics and “each of three part of the poem has its own kind of strophic form and standard of strophic length.” (Globe, 1974 ) In the respect of the form as well of content Judges 5 resemble Ugaritic poetry. That’s why it is “unsound to attribute such variety in the Bible to the blending of different poems” (Gordon 1965 in Globe, 1974) Formal devices, used in the Song of Deborah suggesting of the unity of the poem, are (Globe, 1974): 1) structural and thematic development of the second part of a strophe after the model of the first (for example vs.19-22) 2) Grammar helping in structural development of the strophe. (verbs modified by adverbial phrases repeated along the strophe vs.4-5, use of the traditional vocabulary of hymn,vs2-3) 3) Modeling of one strophe entirely or partly on the pattern of earlier one. (tetracola in vss 3and 5 and tricola in vss.27 and 30, vss.9-11d based on 2-3, gathering together the themes of the first part of the poem, etc) 4) The use of such strophic device as framework or inclusio (vss.15-16 where entire bicolon is repeated verbatim with little variation - prefixed preposition and one word; vss.4-5 where the frame highlights theological significance of the event described in vs.4de; vs.11e, vs12 and vs.13) The strophic pattern analysis is important clue to understanding of the structure of Judges 5 as whole. Many the same literary devices are found in all three part of the poem but predominating literary form changes as the content of three parts differs. Formal characteristics which unite variety of stylistic devices and underlie unity of the poem are: 1) the first part of the poem is divided into strophes of roughly uniform length, subject matter falls into the same four units; 2) the first three strophes begin with two parallel cola with the same preposition (vs.2ab, 4a, 4b, 6ab); 3) language and thought of vs.9 echoes with vs.2; 4) four stanzas end emphatically with the same word ‘Israel’ which may initially facilitate oral composition and listeners’ understanding, in the poem it takes on theological dimension 5) in the second part both strophes begin with inclusio and continue with parallel bicola; 6) in the third part of the poem the stanzas begin with two parallel bicola followed by contrasting subject matter ending with a tricolon. (Globe, 1974) Lexical choice is characterized by abundant use of lexical repetition which takes place on two levels – in different parts of the whole poem and within one or two verses, for example climatic parallelism in v.5 and vv. 6, 7; the repetition of Sisera in vv. 26, 28, 30. Another characteristic feature is the use of synonyms within the limits of a particular stanza- for example, different terms for 'road/path' in vv. 6 and 7, and the synonyms for 'dwell' in v. 17. (Vincent, 2000) Each part of the poem exhibits ‘distinctive stylistic traits’ with slight variations in each case. There are also stylistic detailed characteristic for each of three parts like concentration of conventional vocabulary in the first part or repetitious parallelism in the third part. (Globe, 1974) Stylistic differences of three parts can be explained by the subject matter of the poem rather than ‘the sign of three authors’ hands.’ Besides, certain devices dominating in one part of the poem are not completely excluded in other parts of the Song. All three parts of the poem include similar forms of stanzas. (Globe, 1974) Vincent (2000) talks about the atomistic and jumpy style of the Song which is characteristic for the entire piece and makes the reader believe that certain parts are not in place due to stylistic variations. However, despite such ‘literary bumpiness’ the poem has unifying literary techniques used throughout the composition. Hauser (1980) also talks about damaged and non-poetic nature of the Song referring it to the lack of understanding of ancient Hebrew poetry. Each of three parts has certain strophic form matched to the content. The assumption that the poem was composed by different authors is futile as it is difficult to imagine how the poem can be so skillfully transformed without upsetting its balance. It’s just impossible to add several different stylistic devices to various parts of the poem without disrupting structural coherence of the poem. Judges 5 is stylistically coherent poem with varying techniques used throughout of its body but with repetition of devices. It’s a ‘single poetic intelligence’ composed by one author. (Globe, 1974) Vincent (2000) also marks artful patterning of individual verses or stanzas which are independent of each other. Poetic technique seems to work on two levels: formal devices bind the poem together through theme or motif, giving it structural shape and on another level, independently of the first, “poetic devices are used in the constituent verses/stanzas of the poem, with apparent disregard for what is going on around.” So the surrounding verses/stanzas have different internal structures, that gives the author freedom to display his art but at the same time preserve the structural unity of the text. The text of the song of Deborah suffered from attempts of modern scholars to push the poetry into the rigid limits of Hebrew poetry model. The analysis of a number of scholars (Globe, 1974; Vincent, 2000, Hauser, 1980) shows that the ode is artfully composed and is a single literary unity which with an “amazing ability to capture the imagination of the audience.” References Globe, Alexander Literary structure and unity of the Song of Deborah. Journal of Biblical Literature. Vol. 93 no. 4 (1974): 493-512 Hauser, Alan J. Judges 5: Parataxis in Hebrew Poetry. Journal of Biblical Literature. vol. 99 issue 1 (1980): 23 Vincent, Mark. "The Song of Deborah : A Structural and Literary Consideration." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, no. 91 (2000) Read More