Editing Blogposts of Psalms

Some blogposts on Psalms in December 2023 & January 2024 are no longer available as they are being edited and reposted in the fall of 2026.

Chiasmi in Old Testament Prose

In a previous post, we looked briefly at parallelism as a technique in Hebrew poetry. There are other important structures in the Hebrew scriptures.

For thousands of years, human writing, when it existed, was duplicated by careful one-on-one copying of the text.  Ancient Hebrew scrolls were replicated by schools of copyists and a single scroll or book was expensive and the property of a rich man or a group of people.  The Old Testament scriptures were read aloud in a synagogue or memorized and recited in public. 

Our modern world, with individuals owning one or more books, did not come into being until the Renaissance, after the invention of movable type. (See this Wikipedia article on the history of printing.)

Before the printing press, before books were common, the stories and Scriptures were communicated in  publicly readings. It was likely that stories, like those of Ruth or Esther, were memorized and repeated in common gatherings at certain feasts.

The stories and writings come to us with a variety of interesting structures. These structures may have made the writings easier to memorize; they also added a certain elegance and emphasis to the storytelling.  

One technique for emphasis in a text is to have a statement appear at the beginning and the end of the text, as a bookend or bracket for the passage. For example, Psalm 8 begins and ends with 

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This is clearly the theme of that song. Psalm 118 is another example, beginning and ending with

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

The technical term of the bookends is inclusio. An inclusio might set off a certain passage from the rest of the text, as our modern paragraph markings do. (Ancient Hebrew and Greek had no punctuation or paragraph markings.)

Once one is aware of the concept of the inclusio, one discovers double inclusios, brackets within brackets, in the form A B <text> B' A'. For example, in Genesis 39, the story of Potiphar's wife is set off by these statements 

The Lord was with Joseph ... the Lord was with him and ... gave him success in everything he did,

and

 the Lord was with him...  the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

These bookends set aside the episode of Potiphar's wife and provide a counterpoint to the abuse and defeat Joseph appears to be suffering.

Chiasmi

The concept of inclusios and double inclusios can be generalized and the ancient Hebrew writers did this. Some text would involve a series of concentric circles, in the form
A
    B
        C
<some text>
        C'
    B'
A
and so on. This structure is a chiasmus, a text in which a sequence of concepts or words is then inverted at the end. This seems to have been a fundamental concept for the ancient Hebrew writers and Hebrew scholars have enjoyed discovering these chiasmi (chiasmi is the plural of chiasmus) throughout the Old Testament. 

In Genesis 1:27 there is a chiasmic structure, concentric circles. The poem displays an A B B' A' form, 

 God created ... 

in his own image ... 

in the image ... 

he created 

in which the first and last lines repeat, and then the second and second-to-last lines have the same concept, and so on. (This is in addition to the parallelism there noted in last Sunday's essay!)

This structure of "concentric circles" can become quite complicated. Here is an analysis of the Flood Account as a chiasmic structure.

(This is from a BioLogos forum. Various versions of this chiamus can be found by searching on the title of the slide.  I learned about chiasmi in the previously recommended Exodus course by Carmen Imes.)

Note that the center statement of this chiasmus is the emphatic statement that "God remembered Noah". In some cases, the chiasmus has a central concept and that is the most important concept of the prose.

Resources

If you wish to obsess over chiasmi in Scripture, someone else has already done that. Look at this website, the chiasmusexchange that explores this in depth! (Anytime I "nerd out" on some concept, I discover there is someone that has been there before me!)

Here are notes by Robert Utley on Hebrew poetry that include discussion on forms such as inclusio, chiasmus and others.

Editing Blogposts of 2 Kings

Some blogposts on 2 Kings in December 2023 & January 2024 are no longer available as they are being edited and reposted in the fall of 2026.

Parallelism in Old Testament Poetry

At the end of Genesis 1, we have a short small poetic statement (Genesis 1: 27)

So God created mankind in his own image,

    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them

This is a classic example of Hebrew poetic style, displaying several forms. Hebrew poetry did not rhyme sounds, as English poetry tends to do, but rhymed concepts.  Ideas are repeated in parallel phrases. Note how the first two lines repeat the same idea, just phrased slightly differently. Then a third line is added which provides a climactic, emphatic ending to the first two lines. 

Parallelism

Parallelism is the "rhythm of thought rather than the beat of syllables," says 

The first two lines of that poem are an example of parallelism. In Genesis 4:23, Lamech says

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;

wives of Lamech, hear my words."

Note the repeated statements.  This follows with 

"I have killed a man for wounding me, 

a young man for injuring me."

The repetitive process of storytelling is an important concept in ancient Hebrew writings, where the story would be read to others and possibly memorized and recited.

A parallelism is an example of a bicolon, a poetic pair of statements. In Old Testament poetry, scholars have attempted to classify parallel statements as

• synonymous parallelism (the two lines essentially say the same thing)
• antithetic parallelism (the two lines complement each other, the second line expressing the first in an opposite manner)
• synthetic or climactic parallelism (the second line builds on the other.)

Synonymous parallelism

As described in this Oxford University Press online reference, synonymous parallelism occurs when the two parallel lines essentially say the same thing. Repetition may be for emphasis or to give a slightly different viewpoint.

There are literally thousands of examples of parallelism in the Old Testament! I've pulled a few examples from several resources (mentioned at the end of the section) and left unmentioned many many more.  

Examples of synonymous parallelism include Psalm 1:5:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

and Amos 5: 24:

But let justice roll on like a river, 

righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Micah 4:3 has three sets of examples of synonymous parallelism.

He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

David's lament for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1: 19-20 has these three sets of parallel statements:

"Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights.  How the mighty have fallen!

"Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, 

lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.

Antithetical parallelism

Examples of antithetical parallelism are Psalm 1: 6:

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Note how the second line complements or contrasts the first line. 

Hundreds of the stanzas in the book of Proverbs involve antithetical parallelism, with the second line often introduced by "but...".  Here, for example, is Proverbs 1:10:

A wise son brings joy to his father, 

but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

There are many more examples at this GotQuestions website.

Synthetic parallelism

In synthetic parallelism, the second line builds on the first, adding to it.  This is sometimes called "climactic" parallelism, as the second line might be the climactic, most important thought. As before, the first psalm also has an example of this Psalm 1: 2:

... whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

Here the "delight" in the law is expanded into daily, consistent meditation.

One interesting form of this is sometimes called "numbers parallelism", for example, 1 Samuel 18: 7, 

“Saul has slain his thousands,

    and David his tens of thousands.”

(In the base ten system of the ancient Near East, it was often common to multiply the first number by ten to get the next!)

If one recognizes synthetic parallelism as a major poetic tool of the Old Testament, one is not surprised by the romantic buildup of Proverbs 30:18-19,

“There are three things that are too amazing for me,

four that I do not understand:

the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a snake on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

    and the way of a man with a young woman."

Synthetic parallelism softens (at least) the sexism of Ecclesiastes 7:28, 

I found one upright man among a thousand,

  but not one upright woman among them all.

a passage which emphasizes the stubborn unrighteousness of all mankind, male or female.

Staircase parallelism and tricolons

If one is accustomed to the techniques of parallelism, then an emphasis can be achieved by deviating from or adding to the expected doublet. Sometimes the couplets of parallelism are emphasized by a climactic third line!  (Three lines of thought are sometimes called a "tricolon".)

For example, back to Genesis 1: 27:

So God created mankind in his own image,

    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them

The first two lines are synonymous parallelism, but just when one imagines the stanza is done, a third line elaborates, explaining that God made these "images" in the forms male and female. This prepares us for the upcoming story of the first couple in Genesis 2.

Some see this process in Exodus 15: 6-7, each line building to the next.

Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power.

Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy.

In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you.

There are many more examples -- once one is aware of these, they seem to be everywhere. Here is Psalm 121: 3-4:

He will not let your foot slip—

    he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

And Psalm 18: 25-26:

To the faithful you show yourself faithful, 

to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

to the pure you show yourself pure, 

but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

A few resources

Parallelism is a fundamental concept in much of Old Testament Hebrew.  There are numerous online notes and resources on this.  Here are a few.

• There is a Wikipedia page on Biblical poetry. 
• The Bible Project has a number of short videos; here is their first. 
• The Gospel Coalition has an article here. 
• Ligonier Ministries has an article here.
• Mike Mazzalongo reviews the Psalms and looks at the poetry of them in this online lecture. beginning around 4:05. 
• Here are notes by Robert Utley on Hebrew poetry that include discussion on forms such as inclusio, chiasmus and others.

In the free online course by Dr. Carmen Imes on Exodus, Dr. Imes stresses that the theology of the Old Testament is carried by the songs, not by the narrative. This emphasis sharpens our need to recognize the styles of Old Testament poetry, as we seek to both understand it and enjoy it. 

I will have more to say when we get to the Psalms and Proverbs.