Various Genres

Narrative – OT Historical – Gospels and Acts Reveals the deeds/words of God and how humans

respond to these deeds/words Poetry – Psalter

Reveals how the faithful respond to God as the deeds/words of God are understood and lived out

Poetry – Wisdom and Epistles Reveals how the faithful live and struggle as the deeds of

God unfold in the midst of evil Poetry – Prophets

Reveals how God responds to the forgetting of the words/deeds He manifested

Poetry – Apocalyptic Reveals the end of the deeds of God and how the earth

and her inhabitants relate to this ending

The Narrative Sermon = Telling the Story what Goddid, does and will do – Sermon as Information - Story

The Worship Sermon = Responding to what God did, does and will do – The Sermon as Worship

The Didactic Sermon = Understanding how to live as believer and church in a broken world

The Confronting sermon = Understanding that God continues His work even without us. Repentance and Hope

The Eschatological - Faith Sermon = Knowingthat God will finish what He began – Joy and Hope

Genre Structure

Historical OT BooksGospel

sActs

LIT

UR

GIC

AL

GE

NR

E

WIS

DO

M G

EN

RE

PR

OP

HE

TIC

GE

NR

E

EP

IST

OL

AR

Y G

EN

RE

AP

OC

ALY

PT

IC

GE

NR

E

REMEMBRANCE - Through Recital, Liturgy, Education and Hope

Notes on Parallel Readingin Narrative and Poetry

Comments on Hebrew Poetry – Kugel and others

Summary and notes of the book by Robert Alter

Adele Berlin

Kugel

Poetic ANALYSIS – From cola to strophe to stanza

PAUSE

PAUSE

PAUSE

Smaller Segments : Strophes

Begin with Smallest : Poetic Lines

Larger Segments : Stanzas

I: Parallelism and PoetryLowth (1778)

Parallelism Synonymous Antithetic Synthetic

Refinement of Parallelism Incomplete Staircase Janus Metathetic Etc

Poles of Parallelism

From obvious ‘analogy’ to ‘absence’ of analogy+ -

All Genres use forms of LINE-ANALOGY

(parallelism)

POETIC (Ps 92:13 - - - - - - - - - - - - - NARRATIVE

Poetry is made up of lines (cola)Line A --- ---- ----\ 2-3 beatsLine B --- ---- ---] 2-3 beats

Line B amplifies semantically line AIntensifies, concrete, specifies, heightens, dramatizes, contrasts etc.

Kugel’s rule in detail

NORMATIVE POETIC RULES

A Ada and Zilla – hear my voice

A A man I have killed for my wound

A If sevenfold avenged is Cain

B Wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech

B A boy (ellipsis) for my bruising

B Lamech then seventy-seven

LAMECH’S SWORD SONG – GEN 4:23-24

Ada and Zilla – hear my voice

A man I have killed for my wound

If sevenfold avenged is Cain

Wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech

A boy (elipsis) for my bruising

Lamech then seventy-seven

LAMECH’S SWORD SONG – GEN 4:23-24

Dynamic Interplay

A. Smoke went up from His nostrilsB. Consuming fire from His mouth = >C. Coals blazed forth from it = >>

D. He bent the heavens, came downE. Dense mist beneath his feet []

F. Mounted a cherub and flew G. Soared on the wings of the wind =

PSALM 18 – LINES 10-12

DisjointedParallelism

// INDICATORS

= synonymity (analogy)== synonymity with verbatim repetition> focusing, heightening, >>intensification, specification{} complementary – synthetic consequence (result, reason why) Contrast, opposite// Metaphor or striking image?> Rhetorical Question? If not sure or diffi cult to score

Kugels Rule: Psalm 80

A If A is so

B B is even more so!

The basic rule (poetry)

Rule of Kugel

◦If line A is so◦Line B is even more so

Manifold Interplay (Berlin)◦Grammatically◦Lexicographically◦Sound ◦Conceptionally

Interplay generates◦Sequence and movement ◦Logical Argumentation◦Emotive Power ◦Delight - Beauty

Example Proverbs 4:3-4

A When I was a son to my father, B Tender and the only one in the sight of my mother,

A He also taught me, and said to me:

B "Let your heart retain my words; C Keep my commands, and live.B

Kugels Rule: Job 3:3

A"May the day perish

on which I was born,

B And the night in which it was said,

'A male child is conceived.'

Sequential verses (often) tell a ‘story’Most in Job, ProphetsThe PsalmsLess in Proverbs (except 1-9 and 31)

LINES AND STORY

You drew me out of the womb

Their feet run to evil

Made me safe at my mother’s breasts

They hurry to shed blood = >>

STORY BETWEEN 2 LINESPS. 22:10 – PROV. 1:16 – JOB 16:13

His archers surrounded meHe pierced my kidney Spilled to the groundWithout mercy > my bile >>

A. My boy, keep my sayings

B. Keep my precepts and live

C. Bind them on your fingers

D. Say to ‘Wisdom’ “You are my sister.”

E. To keep you from the foreign woman

My precepts store up by you = >My teaching, like the apple of your eye => Write them on the tablet of your heart >>Call ‘Understanding’ your kinsman =From an alien woman who talks smoothly =>

CH. 2: STORY LINE IN PROVERBS 7

‘Story’ of Proverbs 23:29-35 NKJ Proverbs 23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who

has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine. 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things. 34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: 35 "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"

Proverbs 23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.

31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.

34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:

35 "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"

23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine. 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things. 34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the

sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: 35 "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"

Initial Question and Answer

The First Warning

The Second Warning

23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

35 "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"

How long, Lord, will you forget me perpetually?

How long will I cast about schemes in my mind?

How long will be my enemy over me?

Look, answer me, Lord my God!

How long will you hide your face from me?

. . . . Grief in my heart all day?

(????? silence)Give light to my

eyes lest I sleep death!

CH. 3: STRUCTURES OF INTENSIFICATION

HOW LONG?

HOW LONG?

HOW LONG? HOW

LONG?

LOOK! GIVE LIGHT, ANSWER (imperatives !!)

Perish the day I was born

That day, let is be darknesslet no brightness

Let darkness and deep gloom claim it

That night! Let blackness cease it – let it not join the days of the year >

That night! Let it be desolate

The night is was said: ‘A man-child has been conceived.’>>

Let God above not seek it outshine on it >>

Let a pal dwell over it – let what darkens the day cast terror on it

Let it not come in the number of the month >>

Let no sound of joy come into it >

EXAMPLE JOB 3 - INTENSIFICATION

WB2-page 18

ACROSTICHON: PSALM 111

Halleluja

(a)

(b)

(g)

(d)

(h) Etc.

Climactic: Psalm 134

He who made the Heavens and Earth

The Lord bless you from SionAnd praise the Lord

In the Sanctuary

Lift your hands up

In the House of the LordWho by night stand

All you servants of Yahweh

Behold, Bless the Lord

Antiphonal : Psalm 136