BIB LIT 110 HON (19, 20A, 21-22)

Poetical Books

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.

Meter

accented rhythmic lines.

used to convey mood or feelings=

Rhyme

not as common

similar ending sounds

Parallelism

most important feature of poetry

two lines complement each other

synonymous, antithetic, synthetic

synonymous parallelism

of thoughts

antithetic parallelism

of contrast

Synthetic parallelism

2nd line completes thought

Chiasm

reverse the order of parallel themes

“crisscrossing” ABBA

Acrostics

alphabetic poems

22 letters (In Hebrew)

A …. / B …../ C…..

Ugaritic

language of Ugarit

place of discovered texts

Ugaritic Poetry

1) Clarify rare Hebrew words

2) Parallelism was a cultural style

3) polytheism (Baal + Asherah)

Wisdom Literature

Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes

(Psalms and Song of Songs)

Ancient: skill or talent

OT: holy life or right living

Sages

wise men in the Near East

essays on difficult problems (dialogues and monologues)

Wisdom Near East Literature

brief proverbial maxims (observations abt life)

discourses of difficult problems

Egyptian Instructional Literature

Wisdom Literature

sayings btw father and son

Proverbs

Mesopotamian Discursive Literature

“wisdom” literature

retribution and long speeches

no righteous person

Retribution

Good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to the wicked

Ludlulbel nemqi

monologue of a Babylonian noble praising Marduk for restoring him

(Job)

OT foundation of wisdom

fear of the Lord expressed in genuine faith

Psalm

a song or hymn

Praises

Authors of Psalms

David, Asaph (chief musician), Sons of Korah, Moses, Solomon, and many are unknown

Unique place of Psalms

1) Hebrew worship (corporate and personal)’

2) Hebrew Life

Doxology

concludes every book of the Psalms

ascription of praise to the Lord

Psalm Titles

Author, Setting, Dedication, and musical notations

Psalm Genres

Hymns, penitential, wisdom, royal, messianic, imprecatory, and lament

Hymns

Praise

Penitential Psalm

sorrow for sin

Wisdom Psalms

observations abt life

Royal Psalms

Israel’s king

Messianic Psalms

Messiah, God’s anointed one

Herman Gunkel

helped define the psalm classification

Imprecatory Psalms

God’s judgment on the psalmist’s enemies

Lament Psalms

bemoan one’s condition, state trust in God, and end with praise

Proverb

general principles of life

Proverbs (NOT)

promises or commands

discursive wisdom

difficult issues of life

pessimistic

Job

didactive wisdom

instructions about life

optimistic'

Proverbs

distiches

two-line poetic saying (proverbs)

Prologue

Introductory part of a discourse; Job: literary frame for poetic speeches

Job

play; narrator omniscient view and unknown; homeland Uz; pre-Mosaic

Theodicy

attempt to justify God’s ways in the world

Rationalist

reason as supreme authority (Zophar)

Job’s three friends

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar

Elihu

Young man: Repentance and suffering bring correction and deliverance

Behemoth

hippopotamus?? God’s great creature

Leviathan

crocodile?? God’s great creature

Retribution theology

you reap what you sow. Not all areas of life