The Idea of Biblical Poetry

The Idea of Biblical Poetry PDF

Author: James Kugel

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 1998-06-26

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780801859441

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The story of how each age understood the nature biblical poetry, Kugel concludes, is a key to understanding the Bible's place in the history of Western thought.

The Art of Biblical Poetry

The Art of Biblical Poetry PDF

Author: Robert Alter

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2011-09-06

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0465028195

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Three decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry, his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative, Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew poetry in the Bible. Updated with a new preface, myriad revisions, and passages from Alter's own critically acclaimed biblical translations, The Art of Biblical Poetry is an indispensable tool for understanding the Bible and its poetry.

The Bible and Poetry

The Bible and Poetry PDF

Author: Michael Edwards

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2023-08-15

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1681376385

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A fresh, provocative look at the link between poetry and Christianity, both as it relates to the Bible itself as well as to Christian and religious life, by an accomplished scholar. The Bible is full of poems. In the Old Testament, there are the Psalms and the Song of Songs, the great exhortations and lamentations of the Prophets, and passages of poetry woven in throughout. In the New Testament, Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven with poetic epithets such as “a treasure hid in a field,” calling the Son of God “the true vine,” “the light of the world,” “the good shepherd,” and “the way, the truth, and the life.” The Gospels reverberate with allusions to the poetry of the Old Testament; the last book of all is Revelation, a visionary poem. The Bible, in other words, asks to be read poetically from start to end, and yet readers have rarely considered what that might mean, much less heeded that call. In The Bible and Poetry, the poet and scholar Michael Edwards reshapes our understanding of the Bible and religious belief, arguing that poetry is not an ornamental or accidental feature but is central to both. He speaks personally of his early, unanticipated, transformative encounters with scripture. He offers close, insightful, and resonant readings of biblical passages. Poetry, as he sees it, is the vital and necessary medium of the Creator’s word, and the truth of the Bible is not a question of precepts and propositions but of a direct experience of its poetry, its power.

The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism

The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism PDF

Author: Adele Berlin

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1467466735

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Understanding of biblical poetry is enhanced by the study of its structure. In this book Adele Berlin analyzes parallelism, a major feature of Hebrew poetry, from a linguistic perspective. This new edition of Berlin's study features an additional chapter, "The Range of Biblical Metaphors inSmikhut,"by late Russian linguist Lida Knorina. Berlin calls this addition "innovative and instructive to those who value the linguistic analysis of poetry." It is a fitting coda to Berlin's adept analysis.

The Great Poems of the Bible

The Great Poems of the Bible PDF

Author: James L. Kugel

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-04-24

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 145168908X

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From the Psalms to the Prophets, from job to Ecclesiastes, much of the Bible is written in poetry. The poems of the Bible include some of its best known and most beloved passages: "The Lord is my shepherd," "Let justice roll down like waters," "By the rivers of Babylon," "Remember your Creator," "Arise, shine, for thy light is come!" These poems live in the hearts of those who are familiar with the Bible and offer rich rewards to anyone who is approaching the world's greatest book for the first time. In The Great Poems of the Bible, Harvard scholar James Kugel presents original translations of the most beautiful and important poems of the Scripture. Taken together, these poems represent the very essence of the Hebrew Bible. Reading them one after another is like taking a guided tour through Scripture, meeting firsthand some of its most important teachings and opening the way to an understanding of the Bible as a whole. Each poem is accompanied by an eloquent and accessible explanation of the poem's language, and a reflection on its meaning. These learned, compact essays introduce readers to the broader spiritual world of ancient Israel. What did people in biblical times believe about God? Where is a person's soul located and what does it do? Is there an afterlife? How does one come to "know" God? Why wasn't Eve meant to be Adam's "helpmate" (Kugel shows how this was just a translator's slip-up), and what does the Bible have to say about the role of women? Kugel's sparkling translations of the poems, together with the fascinating insights that accompany them, distill the very best that the Bible and modern scholarship have to offer. Kugel brings new life to some of history's greatest poems, and offers a new look at a Bible we thought we already knew. Here, in one volume, is a "Bible's bible" that belongs in every home.

On Biblical Poetry

On Biblical Poetry PDF

Author: F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 620

ISBN-13: 0199766908

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Uniquely considering the characteristics of biblical Hebrew poetry beyond its currently best known feature, parallelism,On Biblical Poetry demonstrates the many interesting and valuable interpretations that yield from analyses of major facets of biblical verse, as well as careful attention to prosody--rhythm, lineation, and the like--and close reading. Through a series of programmatic essays, F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp argues that biblical poetry is, in most respects, just like any other verse tradition--and thus biblical poems should be read and interpreted like other poems. Using the same critical tools and kinds of guiding assumptions as traditional verse scholarship, this book also considers the historicity and cultural specificity that distinguishes the verse of the Bible. The literary and the historical, then, are in view throughout. Issues of orality, textuality, and literacy at the site of biblical poems are also probed extensively and there is a strong comparative orientation to much of the thinking in the volume.

Reading Biblical Poetry

Reading Biblical Poetry PDF

Author:

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780664224394

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A companion to Reading Biblical Narrative provides a holistic introduction to biblical poetry, offering literary examples of how the poets of the bible created their works. Original.

Classical Hebrew Poetry

Classical Hebrew Poetry PDF

Author: Wilfred G. E. Watson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2004-12-30

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780567083883

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In spite of debatable issues, such as metre, we now know enough about classical Hebrew poetry to be able to understand how it was composed. This large-scale manual, rich in detail, exegesis and bibliography, provides guidelines for the analysis and appreciation of Hebrew verse. Topics include oral poetry, metre, parallelism and forms of the strophe and stanza. Sound patterns and imagery are also discussed. A lengthy chapter sets out a whole range of other poetic devices and the book closes with a set of worked examples of Hebrew poetry. Throughout, other ancient Semitic verse has been used for comparison and the principles of modern literary criticism have been applied.