Poets of the Bible: From Solomon's Song of Songs to John's Revelation

Poets of the Bible: From Solomon's Song of Songs to John's Revelation
Author:
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2017-06-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0393243907

“The vividness and beauty of the language emerge in a fresh way . . . with evocative simplicity.” —Robert Alter, professor emeritus of Hebrew and comparative literature, University of California, Berkeley The world’s greatest poetry resides in the Bible, yet these major poets are traditionally rendered into prose. In this pioneering volume of biblical poets translated in English, Willis Barnstone restores the lyricism and power of the poets’ voices in both the New and Old Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible we hear Solomon rhapsodize in Song of Songs, David chant in Psalms, God and Job debate in grand rhetoric, and prophet poet Isaiah plead for peace. Jesus speaks in wisdom verse in the Gospel, Paul is a philosopher of love, and John of Patmos roars majestically in Revelation, the Bible’s epic poem. This groundbreaking volume includes every major biblical poem from Genesis and Adam and Eve in the Garden to the last pages of Alpha and Omega in Paradise.

An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books

An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books
Author: C. Hassell Bullock
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2007-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1575674505

The poetic books of the Old Testament--Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon--are often called humankind's reach toward God. The other books of the Old Testament picture God's reach toward man through the redemptive story. Yet these five books reveal the very hear of men and women struggling with monumental issues such as suffering, sin, forgiveness, joy, worship, and the passionate love between a man and woman. C. Hassell Bullock, a noted Old Testament scholar, delves deep into the hearts of the five poetic books, offering readers helpful details such as harmeneutical considerations for each book, theological content and themes, detailed analysis of each book, and cultural perspectives. Hebrew is a language of "intrinsic musical quality that naturally supports poetic expression," says Bullock in his introduction. That poetic expression comes from the heart of the Old Testament writers and reaches all of us exactly where we are in our own struggles and joys.

The Bible and Poetry

The Bible and Poetry
Author: Michael Edwards
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2023-08-15
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1681376385

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.

Old Testament Wisdom Literature

Old Testament Wisdom Literature
Author: Craig G. Bartholomew
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2014-06-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830898174

Craig G. Bartholomew and Ryan P. O'Dowd provide an informed introduction to the Old Testament wisdom books Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job. More than an introduction, however, this is a thoughtful consideration of the hermeneutical implications of this literature.

Interpreting Hebrew Poetry

Interpreting Hebrew Poetry
Author: David L. Petersen
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2009-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451412529

Here is a convenient introduction to the unique aspects of interpreting the one-third of the Hebrew Bible that is in poetic form. Numerous are the occasions when a failure to distinguish poetry from prose in the Old Testament has resulted in flawed interpretation. Robert Lowth's Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews (1753, 1787), marked a turning point of major proportions by focusing on the importance of parallelism of lines. But new studies of the past decade now require significant adjustments to Lowth's analyses. Interpreting Hebrew Poetry offers an authoritative introduction to this discussion of parallelism, meter and rhythm, and poetic style. It also provides by way of example a poetic analysis of Deuteronomy 32, Isaiah 5:1-7, and Psalm 1.

A Poet's Bible

A Poet's Bible
Author: David Rosenberg
Publisher: Hyperion
Total Pages: 450
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781562829223

This is a modern paraphrase of chapters from various books of the Hebrew Bible (Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jonah, etc.) and Apocrypha (Judith and Maccabees).

A Manual of Hebrew Poetics

A Manual of Hebrew Poetics
Author: Luis Alonso Schökel
Publisher: GBPress Pont. Ist.Biblicum
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1988
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 9788876535673

"This manual closes a circle which began almost thirty-five years ago (November, 1954) with the beginning of work an a doctoral dissertation defended at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in April, 1957 (published in Spanish in 1962). During three decades of teaching and writing the author has kept an active interest in poetics and stylistics and the resulting accumulated knowledge has been concentrated in the present manual. The primary purpose of the book is not to serve as a source of Information about facts and authors but rather to initiate the reader into the stylistic analysis of poetry. To obtain Information and to classify it the reader can turn to recent works (Watson), earlier works (Knig, Hempel), or reprinted works (Bullinger). Among the poetic techniques discussed are Sound and sonority, rhythm, imagery, figures of Speech, dialogue and monologue, development and composition"--Page 4 of cover.

The Great Poems of the Bible

The Great Poems of the Bible
Author: James L. Kugel
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2012-04-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 145168908X

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.

Reading Biblical Poetry

Reading Biblical Poetry
Author:
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664224394

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.