Two Different Genres from the Old Testament - Assignment Example

dear client, this is not yet complete, but almost done. just 2 hours more so I can finalize the foot s and references. thanks! sincerely, Comparative essay that focuses on two different genres from the Old Testament (the medium is the message McLuhan) Introduction Poetry is seen largely in the Old Testament and is the same as contemporary poetry. Because it is a distinctive Hebrew language, the poetry of the Bible can be quite different for it cannot be interpreted or decoded into English in an exact manner. Poetry that most people are familiar with is generally founded on parallelisms, regularity, or different kinds of sound combinations. Hebrew poetry is rooted in a pace of phrases and verses recited in a different way referred to as ‘synonymous parallelism’, expressing similar messages and knowledge in the same or different ways. Several books of the Bible are entirely poetry—Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Psalms), and several books simply have some stanzas like in Luke. Song of Songs is a perfect illustration of Hebrew poetry. It was initially penned as a love verse to depict the bliss and huge delight of two individuals infatuated with each other. However, it has also been interpreted in certain Christian institutions as a portrayal of Jesus Christ’s adoration for the Church, and in certain Jewish institutions as a depiction of God’s love for Israel. On the other hand, the Wisdom books are Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Job. Every Wisdom text is poetry, yet not every poetic literature belongs to the Wisdom genre. Two forms of Wisdom prose are found in such books. One is reflective. This includes a description of life’s ambiguities and mysteries, such as in Ecclesiastes and Job. The second is proverbial prose, found in Proverbs. The axioms or proverbs are universal truths rooted in general observation and experience. These are guiding principles which are usually true generally. They are guiding principles, not assurances; principles, not pledges. For instance, although it is largely true that an individual who is indolent will suffer from hardships; some exemptions to that universal axiom could be seen or experienced in life. In addition, divinity usually leads to an individual having a long life, as several maxims explain, yet several exemptions to this have been experienced or seen. Historical Context Much poetry was written in Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt way prior to the emergence of the biblical book of poetry. The melodic poem, which is composed of poems in Psalms, resembles the wide-ranging melodic poem of Babylon, Sumer, and Egypt. The earliest Near Eastern texts originate from the first inhabitants of the Mesopotamian Valley, the Sumerians, whose literature is comprised of numerous psalms or songs of prayers and praise in poetry. The art of composing psalms in Sumer was quite advanced prior to 2000 B.C. Poets of ancient Sumeria classified their compositions based on technique and theme of performance. Egyptian poetry is of different lengths and composed of praise and prayer. There were expanded lamentations found in Egyptian and Sumerian writings that were traced back to pre-2000 B.C. The aesthetic form of biblical poetry bears strong resemblance to Babylonian and Ugaritic poetry, particularly in terms of imagery and themes. Taking such information into consideration, experts made a conclusion that the Old Testament’s poetry was composed quite early. In terms of form, it was halfway between Ugaritic and Mesopotamian poetry. The imagery, language, and structure of the poetry all over the Bible have incredible similarities to Ugaritic poetry. Despite such resemblances, biblical poetry is differentiated by its religious and moral ideas, artistic style, and greater sophistication. On the other hand, the Wisdom genre has its origins in short, no-nonsense, and common adages that are widespread reflections about life which offer guidelines for healthy, prosperous living. According to scholars the shift from oral proverbs to literary wisdom occurred in Egypt roughly 2500 BC. All over the Near East, a group of wise individuals or scholars emerged who were greatly revered for making and/or gathering and perfecting wise maxims. This was typically carried out under the temple head’s or the court’s support. These maxims could originally have come from wise proverb popular among the upper class, lectures in schools, or tribal wisdom. Two of the kings of Israel are recognised with absolutely vital roles in this domain—Hezekiah and Solomon. The wise people had acquired high importance in Judah by the 7th century BC to achieve a class reputation equivalent to priest or prophet, even though there is certain uncertainty with regard to whether they were yet seen as a scholar or simply exceptionally wise individuals. Once the miracle of prophecy started to vanish during the Greek and Persia eras, the wise people gained higher reputation, as described by the major apocryphal texts, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, and the Sayings of the Fathers. This useful, real-world art of life, this divine understanding, is largely embedded in parables and proverbs which are all in line with God’s laws and thoughts, and designed to direct people to a moral existence and pull them away from sins. Scholars of ancient history have explained that the Wisdom genre embodies the principles of civilizations and cultures that depend on actual human existence and experience to deal with the insecurities, unpredictability, and mysteries of life. When the number of Bible’s prophets was reduced and became less articulate and influential after the downfall of Babylon, the mentors of wisdom started to endorse their point of view as the embodiments of biblical tradition. In numerous aspects the mentors of biblical wisdom corresponded with the growth of philosophy in Greece as it surpassed the mythological ideas of life and creation made by Hesiod and Homer. The 5th-4th centuries BCE was the time period for Greek philosophy and biblical wisdom. Elements that are Particular to Poetry and Wisdom Literature Possibly one of the most distinctive elements of poetry in the Old Testament is the use of figurative language. Several figures are quite straightforward and easy to interpret. Another element of poetry in the Old Testament is parallelism, something that is distinctive to poetry in the early Near East. Parallelism is defined as “an analogy drawn from geometry that assumes that two (or sometimes more) lines are paired in such a fashion that the meaning of one line relates to the meaning of the other line(s) in one of several predictable ways”. Even though word pairs are parallelism’s element, the foundation is the poetic line. Generally biblical poetry makes use of couplets, or pairs of lines. Old Testament poetry seldom uses strophes, or a stanza having uneven lines. The perspective of the couplet contributes to the interpretation of the ‘glory of God’ as essentially the same as ‘work of his hands’. In the absence of such perspective the audience could not come up with this association, yet the poet directs the audience to this idea with an adept use of parallelism. A unique characteristic of biblical poetry is that at least two lines are given in parallel style. At times rhyme transpires in several poetic verses, yet this is unusual. Poetry is largely found in Psalms. Several forms of psalms are commonly known: descriptive praise, declarative praise of the individual, declarative praise of the people, lament of the individual, and lament of the people. In analysing and interpreting the psalms it is vital to look for the core message or consolidating idea in the psalm; examine the psalms’ historical context; consider the forms of parallelisms in the verses; acknowledge that numerous figures of speech are involved; and, try to find these groups of psalms and the components within every group. The Wisdom literature is comprised of various types of literary forms, yet these can be classified into two core groups. The first are proverbs or terse precepts. These are generally comprised of two lines and provide ideas or guidance about life, human relationships, and underlying forces in the world. They are rooted in experience and observation; they can be scriptural, theological, or spiritual in nature but are not automatically so; they include a broad array of issues like laziness, diligence, poverty, wealth, marriage, etc. The other fundamental category in Wisdom literature is comprised of broader ideas on themes associated with the roots of hardships, the purpose of life, and so on. These ideas could be dialogues, poems, narratives or a variety of other literary forms. There are four major thematic groups of Wisdom, namely: natural, theological, experiential, and juridical. Natural wisdom is composed mainly of encyclopaedic details of occurrences and objects seen in the natural world; ‘fear of God’ is the main tenet of theological wisdom; experiential wisdom emerged from actual daily experiences and can be seen in most biblical aphorisms or proverbs; and, juridical wisdom is the use of well-informed, sensible decision in a legal situation (e.g. Solomon’s judgment on the conflict between two mothers over one baby). Theological Significance of Poetry and Wisdom Literature Because Hebrew poetry is composed quite differently from the Western poetry style, a large number of people do not identify the poetry which can bring about issues when interpreting or analysing these passages. Poetry is widely used in the Hebrew Bible, not just in the Psalms, but all over the prophets. Poetry is utilised to influence the audience both in the mind and in the heart. Poetry is employed because it is more easily remembered than prose. It is the core aspect of poetry that makes it powerful, striking, and unforgettable. The psalmist is making an attempt to influence the hearts of his/her audiences and communicate his/her idea through feelings or emotions than reason. Thus, when analysing Hebrew poetry, one does not separate each line and attempt to identify the indirect dissimilarities in every word. A great deal of prophetic discourse is in the structure of poetry. Prophetic poetry is generally distinguished, specifically, by the workings of discourse from the divine realm to the human realm, and it often caters to a historical audience with articulate language. The book of Amos, for instance, which starts by mentioning a specific place and time for the prophet’s dialogue—Amos 1:1—comprises a chain of prophecies that recognise the audience in God’s voice, like in Amos 3: 1-2: Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Through its language of actual recognition and vibrant images, prophetic poetry works to affect the audiences’ behaviour, emotions, and beliefs. Read More