Lesson Notes

Introduction

• We’re nearing the end of this Summit course – tonight is the fourth and final night looking at specific genres of biblical writing.
• We’ll tackle two of the hardest for us – Westerners – to handle: poetry and prophecy
• These are difficult because they’re intensely visual in nature and culturally we aren’t 
  • We’re a culture of linear arguments and straightforward words, not word pictures
  • We like epistles and narratives, not poems and proverbs
  • Song of Solomon 4: 1-4 – does that stir your soul? It did theirs!
  • So, there’s a pretty wide gap we need to bridge
• The gap is bigger because Hebrew and Greek poetry is different from English poetry
  • We bring in cultural assumptions of what poetry is and t hings don’t make sense
  • And poetry typically incorporates more culture-specific elements, making it harder for us to grasp
• Prophecy builds on that challenge by being prophetic as well!
• We’ve got our hands full as students of biblical poetry and prophecy!
  • I guarantee we won’t answer every question tonight – these are deep subjects
  • My goal is to help you get better oriented to these types of biblical writings so that as you apply your tools of Reading Carefully in Context in light of the Big Story of the Bible you’ll get more out of poetry and prophecy than previously.
  • The process doesn’t change, but how you think through the elements does

Studying Poetry

• Poetry is a major feature of the Bible
  • Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, almost all of the 12 “minor” prophets.
  • Jesus often spoke in Jewish poetic structures – they were more memorable
• In the original texts, there’s nothing that visually distinguishes poetry from prose
  • For the Old Testament, the Masoretes who faithfully transmitted the text for centuries added markings to help us read. These help identify poetry because we know how the lines are meant to be divided
  • For the New Testament, there’s literally nothing in the early manuscripts to set poetry apart visually!
  • Scholars identify poetry based on structural and content elements and in modern English translations visually distinguish it by inset and shortened lines
• Hebrew and Greek poetry is quite different from English poetry
  • Hebrew and Greek poetry don’t rhyme!
  • Defined by rhythm, meter, and structure
    • Organized using syllable and stress patterns that are lost in translation
    • Some are acrostics in the original language – every line starting with the same letter (Psalm 119) or consecutive letters
    • There is assonance where vowel sounds are repeated
    • There are puns and word plays
  • None of these are obvious or even particularly accessible to us
  • That’s OK, we can still get a lot of truth out of Old and New Testament poetry and songs, there’s just a level of appreciation we can’t enjoy as well
• What defines biblical poetry and how does that help us understand and study it?
  • The structure of writing
    • Shorter lines, clipped phrases of roughly equal length and similar grammatical structure with rhythmic balance between lines
    • Parallelism – this is the distinguishing element of most Hebrew poetry
      • Lines are organized into groups of two to four where the first line says something…
      • Then the second either says the same thing differently, adding little significant meaning but perhaps greater clarity, so don’t read too much into it, OR
      • It says a similar thing but ramps up the intensity, so it helps develop meaning and builds toward a climax, OR
      • It expresses something opposite/contrasting – very common in the Bible, especially wisdom literature
    • Let’s look at some examples:
      • Matthew 7: 7-8 – this isn’t describing 3 different types of intensities of prayer. It’s Jewish parallel poetry where the lines are synonymous. Each line communicates the same truth, helping us determine what that truth is
      • Psalm 52: 8 – good example of synonymous parallelism that helps us understand the first line because of the second
      • Pretty much anywhere in Proverbs 10-15 you’ll find opposites
      • Matthew 10: 40 – an example of intensifying
      • Luke 1: 51 – line two gives an example of line 1
      • Proverbs 6: 16 – a common structure in proverbs to make an emphatic and memorable point
    • Groups of lines are organized into larger untis of related throught which we would call verses or stanzas in English – these are called strophes
  • The content of the writing
    • Poetry is intended to evoke feelings and impressions rather than conveying raw and detailed information
    • Very visual, lots of figures of speech – metaphors, similes, analogies, personification, etc.
    • Lots of symbolic language
    • Poetic descriptions of battles often use cosmic imagery to emphasize the dramatic way in which God fought for the people of Israel
    • We need to be cautious as we read carefully in context – because much of the language isn’t meant to be taken literally the way it is in prose
    • That does’t mean it’s false – the bible is completely true – but it means that we need to be thourghtful of how the author is conveying truth through images and symbols rather than literal descriptions like in prose
    • If we take something figurative and symbolic as literal, we misunderstand the text and vice versa

Helpful Comparison – Parallel Descriptions of Historical Events (Prose vs. Poetry)

• Judges 4: 1-16 (prose) and Judges 5: 1-22 (poetry)
• Exodus 14: 15-29 (prose) and Exodus 15: 1-12 (poetry)

Studying Prophecy

• A prophet was anyone sent to deliver a message given by God. 2 broad functions:
  • Foretelling: Significant amounts of prophecy proclaim what will happen if things don’t change, if things do change, or what’s going to happen no matter what
    • Typically addressing up to 3 eras: near future, messianic age, end times
    • As students of these ancient prophecies) or forward (to end times)
  • Forthtelling: Most prophecy is commenting on the present situation – Israel’s unfaithfulness, injustice, sinful immorality, etc.
    • Calling the people back to covenant faithfulness
    • Highlighting the consequences of continued unfaithfulness
  • Continue to read carefully in context
    • Again, no change to the process, rather how we answer the questions
    • Most prophecy is in the form of poetry
    • Invest time in learning about the historical context of the prophecy
      • Who delivered the prophecy?
      • To whom was it spoken?
      • When was it spoken? What was happening then?
    • Understand how the prophecy fits in the overall context of the book and Big Story of the Bible
    • If it is a prediction of the future, understand if there are conditions on it – like repentance or continued sin
    • Expect figurative and symbolic language (e.g. “cows of Bashan” to describe rich women in Amos 4: 1-3)
      • Our biggest challenge as interpreters will be to determine what’s symbolic/figurative and what’s literal – Christians will sometimes come to different conclusions for certain passages of prophecy
      • Isaiah 13: 9-11 – note the actual context in 13: 1 – this isn’t end times – this cosmic language is describing God’s intervention and judgment, not literal…
      • Stein, “I would suggest that the ancient prophets “painted” their prophetic message more along the lines of such nineteenth – and twentieth-century Impressionists as Money and Renoir than in the manner of the Flemish and Italian schools of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The prophets do not provide us with a telescope that allows us to see future events with microscopic precision.
        
        They do not even provide us with a clear glass window through which we can see the future. Instead they provide us with a stained-glass window whose hues and colors emphasize God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and sovereignty over the future that promises bliss and glory for those who ‘do justice…love kindness, and … walk humbly with their God’ but sorrow and judgment for those who practice evil.”
• As we do with any Old Testament passage, spend time understanding what was being communicated to the original hearers before jumping to applications today
  • Was this prophecy specific to them or does it reflect an ongoing promise of God?
  • Has this prophecy been fulfilled yet or not?