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Biblical Genres: Poetic & Wisdom Writings
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“My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.”
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1. Introduction
By a show of hands, how many of you have watched a Star Wars movie?
By a show of hands, how many of you have watched The Sound of Music?
Typically, more hands go up for the first option than the second.
I think that has mainly to do with the fact that The Sound of Music is a musical – it’s a movie genre with acquired taste.
Sometimes, when we read the bible we tend to favor some genres over others.
For instance, narrative is easy to follow.
We have facts, people, places, events.
Things are going on and we understand what’s happening most of the time.
But poetry, on the other hand, seems like a potential minefield.
Imagery, metaphors, parallelism, hyperbole – it’s easy to misunderstand.
Similarly, wisdom literature can be difficult to grasp.
For example, can we interpret the Proverbs as rock-solid truths for all of life and time, or are they more general in their application.
In this morning’s class, we’re going to cover the two genres of poetry and wisdom literature.
If you have a handout, you’ll see…
2. Why Poetic and Wisdom Literature together?
The poetic books of the bible are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs.
They all largely have elements of poetic structure, and contain much in the way of what we call wisdom literature.
These might not seem like two genres that go together very naturally, but as we walk through some Scriptural texts I hope you’ll see that it’s actually quite a natural relationship.
But before we get to that let’s start with figuring out what wisdom literature is first.
3. What is Wisdom Literature?
Wisdom literature is essentially instructions for successful living; or reflections upon the reality of human existence.
Broadly speaking, we see a two types of wisdom literature in the bible:
Proverbial wisdom - short, pithy sayings that state rules for personal happiness and welfare (e.g.
Proverbs).
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Speculative wisdom - monologues (e.g.
Ecclesiastes) or dialogues (e.g.
Job) which attempt to delve into such problems as the meaning of existence and the relationship between God and man.
16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”
17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.
I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,
and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God
and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
your own lips testify against you.
16 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
The wisdom literature contains both the moral substance of true wisdom (Prv) and also the intellectual explorations of wise men seeking to understand the fundamental problems of human existence (Jb, Eccl).
The starting point for an understanding of OT wisdom literature is Proverbs.
The wisdom of Proverbs concerns morality - the knowledge of how to live properly.
It has a theological foundation - the starting point, as for all wisdom, which is the reverence of God.
But for the most part, the book details the fundamentals of morality, the virtues of integrity, discipline, justice, common sense, and the like, and to show by way of contrast the failure in life that awaits the fool.
The book is strongly didactic – that is, its geared heavily toward moral instruction.
Even how it’s designed lends itself to being more easily memorized than other passages of Scripture.
With Proverbs as your starting point for wisdom literature, you begin to complement it with other wisdom books that offer the same truths, but from different perspectives.
Like the booster rockets that sit on a rocket ship, and work together with the main thruster to get it into orbit, so the books of Ecclesiastes and Job serve the central book of Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes tests the wisdom claims of Proverbs through the lens of skepticism.
Here you have King Solomon, reflecting the wisdom of a man who has lived long and seen the world from all perspectives.
He describes the grief and sadness of the world from the perspective of an observer – noticing that anything lived in this life apart from God is vanity – work, knowledge, power, pleasure.
Job, on the other hand, tests the wisdom claims of Proverbs through his own awful suffering.
His is a lived experience - Job grasps the problems from within, from the perspective of the sufferer.
a. Main Features of wisdom literature
Wisdom literature features several literary devices as aids to memory.
The most frequent device was the use of poetic parallelism, which we’ll cover a little later.
Some other features include:
· Comparisons (e.g. )
Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.
· Numerical sequences (e.g. )
16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.
· Alliteration and acrostic patterns (e.g. ; ) – more on that later
· Riddles ( – Samson’s riddle)
· Fables (e.g. ; .; 19:1ff.),
· Parables (e.g.
– Nathan Rebukes David)
· Allegories (e.g. )
**Any Questions?**
4. What is Poetic Literature?
Much of the OT is poetic in spirit and structure – we often find passages of elevated poetry, and the use of powerful imagery.
One way in which you can quickly tell if Scripture is poetic is by noticing an overlooked feature in our English bibles.
If you look at the book of Psalms, for example, you will see that the typeface and spacing is different to the rest of the books of the bible – as a result, you see wider margins.
This is deliberate – the parallel lines help us to see the flow of the text, especially since Hebrew poetry is unlike English poetry in significant ways.
a. Main Features of Poetic Literature
The Hebrew language was an ideal instrument for expressing poetic speech.
Its simplicity of form allowed for a combined intensity of feeling and pictorial power, and allowed great play of imagination.
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