Language III: Poetic Forms & Structure
Bob Eckel · Nov 2, 2008
How to Study Bible (2008), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926115245368

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, we're today in How to Study the Bible on Lesson 5, which is on page 19. And this is Language 3. So this is a kind of a quick review as to what's been covered previously. Introductions 1 and 2 are why are we doing this and how are we doing this. And the three topics on language were word meanings two weeks ago, last week on grammar and figures of speech. and then today is on poetic forms and structure. And I think we're waxing increasingly academic as we move through these topics.

And today was a challenge. And I'm going to try to do my best to simplify and help you through this section. And I think maybe Vern should be the one here teaching this one and not yours truly. But nevertheless, I'm the one that the Lord has put before you. So let's see if we can't move forward judiciously through this section.

Okay, what do you think of when you think of poetry? Oh, we, Taurus, Timorous, Beastie, Oh, what a panic's in my breastie. That kind of thing. Robert Frost. He's fun to read because first of all you've got to kind of put on a different language. We actually, when Margaret and I were in Scotland, I was over there for a meeting about three or four years ago, we went by Robert Frost's memorial and gravesite and kind of got into his poetry for about 10 seconds while we were there. Realized why we'd left it behind, actually. So what do you think of when you think of poetry?

Just give me a quick gestalt. Word pictures. Word pictures. Metaphors. Metaphors. Songs without music. Songs without music. Another common theme, maybe it's not guess what I'm thinking, but it's what comes to my mind initially when I think of poetry. Rhyme. Rhyme would be, but rhythm, absolutely true.

And the limerick, how's the limerick go? Do you remember how that one goes? Oh, man. Which, it's a pentameter, right? There are five phrases. And the first two and the fifth rhyme. Right? So, I'm a cat, I wear a hat, I went across the street and almost got hit by a car, and isn't that amazing that, or something, you know? That was purely... But the limerick is a different kind of poem. But, you know, the poetry we're talking about in scriptural terms is somewhat different.

Vern frequently from the pulpit mentions there's another Hebrew poetry pattern, right? And he said that, I think, 150 times. And whenever he says that, I kind of say, what did he say? And so the lesson today is on kind of Hebrew poetry patterns. That's kind of what we're going to be talking about. So what's a Hebrew poetry pattern? We're on page 19 in your handout, by the way. Margaret has clarified that for us. Well, let's look at what's said here.

It says when poetic forms are found in scripture are most often characteristic of Jewish writing and are sometimes called Hebrew poetry patterns. And so these patterns are not unique to the Old Testament. We're going to look at some examples in the New Testament where these kinds of Hebrew poetry patterns are portrayed. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you think of some of the authors of the New Testament scripture, most of the authors, in fact, are ruder than Judaism. So, you know, Paul is well-versed in Old Testament truth and literature.

So we're not surprised to see some of these patterns continue. So let's look at this very carefully, because this is kind of a summarial description of these poetic forms of Hebrew poetry patterns. The first is to restate the same and or similar words in parallel. And the purpose there is to enhance the meaning. And it says rhyming and meaning. So this term rhyme comes up here, but we're not rhyming in the sense of... What's rhyming in English terminology?

Sounds like antonym? Antonym? It sounds the same? Is that what antonym is? Synonym, same meaning. Is homonym sounds the same? I'm not sure that's... Your homework this week. Sounds like. What's an antonym? Antonym is a contrast, right? That makes sense. All right, so the purpose of rhyming here is not so much, although in the Hebrew form, I guess it could rhyme. I don't know enough Hebrew to be dangerous to answer that one, but it'd be dangerous for me to answer. But it rhymes in meaning anyway.

The intent is recapitulated by using a similar word. The second is to restate the same and or similar words in a mirror image. And I think This is what's called a chiasm, and we'll come back to that. So the chiasm is kind of that, if you look at a mirror, the chiasm is your picture in the mirror being shown back.

And in the Hebrew poetry forms, this is fairly common. Sometimes it can be just one verse. Sometimes it could be multiple verses. And occasionally, as suggested by one of the commentators who Vern alludes to here, it can be the entire series of books that have the same theme.

And it's called the Hexatu. We think of the Pentateuch, but the Hexateuch is Genesis through Joshua. It has been pointed out by many that the entire set of six books, the first six books of the Bible, are a chiasm, with Mount Sinai, the covenant, being the center of that chiasm, everything leading up to it, and everything from there in a mirror image reflecting the creation and all the events of Genesis and Exodus that preceded it. We've got to really put on a broad perspective of these Hebrew poetry patterns. They can be very, very small, but they can be huge.

I think, again, our purpose here today isn't to study this and be given a quiz on what these Hebrew poetry patterns look like. I think the purpose of these lessons are to try to enhance our understanding about the background. and ultimately literature foundation by which scripture was written. And it can enhance meaning. And keep in mind, the first two parts of a Hebrew poetry pattern are to enhance meaning. They're to reinforce what the Lord is saying.

So that's relevant. The third is to reinstate by a negative or a contrast, an anonym, thanks Ruthie. I mean, so we're looking here at contrasting. And often, if you think about this, When something contrasts one thing with another, it enhances meaning also, doesn't it? I mean that would help clarify a particular position scripturally.

And then the final example that's given here is the putting together two halves. And we'll look at some examples of those here today. So that the idea would be heavens and earth, land and sea, believers and non-believers, Jews and Gentiles. I mean, that kind of thing can be a Hebrew poetry pattern that is used to be comprehensive, but then looking at one half and then the next and comparing the two within context.

So as seen in the next paragraph, the two words that are bolded are important. So these hyper-poetry patterns are there to enhance, number one, emphasis, to make sure that we understand that God has a point to make. And the second thing is a re-enhancement or making things more certain or more finite. So the purpose of this is not random, and it's not mistaken. It's to really enhance our ability as biblical scholars, quote unquote, to understand scripture and what it's all about.

Now, the first example we have here is, in my opinion, a complicated example. I've looked at Psalm 6 repeatedly here, and I've written down all the potential Hebrew's poetry patterns in terms of the statements made above as to how these might fit. Let's try this one on for size, but to be honest with you, I really think it's a much more difficult one. Maybe as I think about it even a bit more, maybe we should delay this one and come back to it. But it might be best to start here only because, remember, the Hebrew poetry patterns began in the Old Testament. So if we begin here and look at how complicated this is, then as we look at some of the New Testament examples, we'll see how much clearer they are. And then we can kind of return to other examples of Old Testament Hebrew poetry patterns that might be making us see the roots of this whole kind of literature.

It's right here. Why are you getting interference? All right, so let's look at Psalm 6. I want you to kind of think about what we just went through. Same and or similar words in parallel, enhancing meaning. Same or similar words in mirror image, enhancing meaning. Contrast, enhancing meaning.

And finally, two halves. So those are the four examples we have above. And by the way, there are more. It's just these four, I think, are summarily given by Vern in this particular handout. So, let's just read the whole thing and then we'll go back and dissect it. I don't want to spend more than five minutes here because I think there are better examples that are more easily utilized in the New Testament and maybe even others in the Old Testament.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger nor chase me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed and my soul is greatly dismayed. But you, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, rescue my soul, save me. Because of your loving kindness, for there is no mention of you in death, in Sheol, who will give you thanks?

I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief. It has become old because of all my adversaries. Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication, receives my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back. They will suddenly be ashamed.

Now, without going through verse by verse, do you see a Hebrew poetry pattern in the whole text? And what do we see here? It's been emphasized by some, I think some of the highlighting here in italics. What do you see? Is this a parallelism or is this a mirror image? Is this a kaiism? Well, internally it has many of these components here. But as 10 verses of Psalm 6, what do you see here? Starts with whom? Oh Lord, who's in the middle of all this? No? Me.

My sighing, my bed swim, my fears. Who's at the end of all this? the Lord. And by the way, all my enemies will be ashamed. Sounds like it's about me. But no, it's about the Lord having domain over all my enemies, which means people not of the Lord, presumably, assuming that David is founded in the Lord. So here, I think the entire ten verses reflect this kind of mirror image of the Lord, me, the Lord.

Now, if we look at it in more detail, how about those first How about the first verse, O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath. It's parallelism, isn't it? It's repetition to enhance meaning. So, O Lord, you're angry with me, and David asks, do not rebuke me. But then, nor chasten me in your wrath. So God's wrath is redefined and now rebuking is, we have a new term, chastened, which in a sense has a similar but slightly different meaning. So it builds on itself, it's a parallelism, it's using a slightly different word to enhance the meaning. Everybody with me on that one? Okay. How about verse two and three?

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed. kind of a similar passage that just builds on what was previously said. By the way, this is kind of a chiasm in a sense in that, and my soul is greatly dismayed. I don't want to overly interpret that, but there's clearly the term dismayed is repeated, but it's kind of putting my soul in there. Then we come back to the Lord, but you, O Lord, how long? And what's being asked here is, be gracious unto me, heal me, and now how long is it going to take you?

I mean, in a sense, that's a little bit of a chiasm there because it goes from the Lord and his dealings with David and coming back to the Lord with David being in the center of it. So you're getting a theme for this as to what these things are all about. Another way a Hebrew poetry pattern can be put forth is this concept of a figure of speech. Let's look at that in verse six.

I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. What are we getting at here? My bed swim? Yeah, I mean, my bedswim is a metaphor, isn't it? That would seem almost like the poetry we're used to seeing today, right? So that's a neat use. That's kind of a parallelism in form, but yet it's a figure of speech being used to enhance meaning. And that's not covered in this handout, but some of the other research I did on these Hebrew poetry paddings brought that forth, using figures of speech. Personification would be a good term for this, absolutely. My bed swim is best, better than metaphor actually to define this in personification.

Look at seven, my eye has wasted away with grief, it has become old because of all my adversaries. Here's an example of what's called building upon a previous thought. So the statement is, my eye is wasted with grief, but we're building on that to say it has become old because of my adversaries. It further defines his grief.

So again, all kind of part of this broad theme of the Hebrew poetry pattern. So the same thing as in verse 10, all my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back and they will suddenly be ashamed. So the statement is, all my enemies will be ashamed. and greatly dismayed, and then the next statement, they shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed, is building on the previous thought. There is that mirror image, that chiasm that we talked about earlier, the Lord, me, and then the Lord again.

I think if we understand this psalm, we get the basis of the whole Hebrew poetry pattern, because there are multiple examples within this text that can be used to exemplify various components of the Hebrew poetry pattern. Any additional thoughts or insights into this psalm?

I think that it's pretty neat to see the Lord do something artistic like poetry in the scriptures. When I think about, to use this in a generic sense, holy texts, you don't think about things like poetry. It's like, okay, God's, when people say the Old Testament, you think Ten Commandments, you think the flood, you think things like that, and there's a richness in the poetry.

It's a very expressive personal form that you don't see that in other types of writing. The work online by Brad McCoy entitled, this is part of Schaeffer's Theological Seminary that I pulled forth from the web yesterday. This does provide some evidence that in non-scriptural writings that these types of poetry forms were also utilized. So this is not unique to scripture, but clearly exemplified in many passages of scripture. Because wouldn't this have been the way they would write normally anyway? I mean, this might have been a common way that they wrote at the time.

Right. And the Lord, you know, as we've seen before, even though we believe that Scripture is more revelation and inspired, the personality of the writer didn't change. Correct. We see that with all the New Testament books as well. With Paul, I mean, his writing is very specific to Paul.

And so I would think that that would be true throughout the whole Old Testament period, that they would utilize all those things. Let me remind you before we can go further, and this is a statement by... Let's see, who's this by? This is by... No, I don't have a... No, it's by Dennis Hanks. It's not on the printout, but it was in the reference. Dennis Hanks says this, and this is important for us to hear.

Is this called a final comment on all these Hebrew poetry patterns? Yes, it's possible to understand and benefit from the scriptures without knowing all of these things about Hebrew poetry patterns. you will still be able to benefit from studying the Word of God. God's Word was written for all of us, not just for us experts and scholars, in quotation. But knowing these things may enable you to better understand some of the poetical portions of Scripture. And if this happens, you will benefit greatly from this knowledge. So that helps put it into perspective.

We're not here to become literary scholars. experts because none of us are in seminary well Randy's been through I mean the issue is we're not here to pass tests on this we're here to understand scripture And there's a lot of truth to that, isn't there?

All of us have been through educational systems. Ruthie's a teacher. Everything we did in our educational system, almost everything, was to pass an exam, right? You crammed at the end. Make sure you knew the certain number of facts to get your boards, get your exams passed, pass the class. Boy, that's not life knowledge, is it? Scripture's the same way. We could spend weeks on Hebrew poetry. and examine them ad nauseum.

But the purpose is, if we spend time there, we're likely going to benefit a little bit, but it is not essential that we have this understanding of the Word of God. And that's really important to put into perspective. Don't be overwhelmed by this. The purpose of this series of lessons on how to study the Bible is just to enhance your study, just to give it a little bit more flavor. If we didn't know this by now, you know, and we still haven't actually been able to rebuttal and glean from it, then, you know, what he's saying is right. I mean, you're going to benefit, but all this will do is just allow you to really see it.

I guess there's two elements to it. One, if you don't have a consistent approach to study, then you have problems because you're not being methodical about it. Actually, just last week, for a practical example, somebody had read in Luke where Christ is talking about sell all your possessions. And the guy was going, I cannot sell all my possessions before I've got an autistic son and I want to make sure that he's provided for. I'm like, you're way out of context. You haven't been methodical when you're studying. Well, what Randy says really reveals what we've been about until now. Look at the lessons we've had.

Why are we doing this? How are we doing this? And the three language lessons have been on word meanings, grammar, and figures of speech, and now poetic forms. The purpose of all this is to make sure we interpret the Bible correctly, right? I mean, we all can't just go... By the way, before I was saying that I said this is Bible study Friday night, I thought you could use any section of the Bible, whatever you wanted, to make a point.

And you could because... A lot of people do. Exactly. Stan, you were going to say something. I think part of this is because... during the time of Job, which is one of the oldest books, and that's a poetic form, too, as I understand it. Very much so.

And Daniel also, when they were in captivity, I think a lot of it's for memorization purposes. And it does enhance that, and that point is brought up by several of the commentators. Yeah, it does enhance retention, and memory may not be the best, but it's a reasonably accurate term.

Wasn't it true that every rabbi had to have all the scriptures memorized? In fact, somebody said that he you had it so memorized that you actually knew on the front of one page and you could go over a chapter later and at the top of that particular page at that particular point they would know what it was. To that degree some of them memorized the scriptures. Let me provide a slightly different view and it's not necessarily one is right and one is wrong but I mean I grew up when I was an early believer in a neo-evangelical church and the kind of the theme there was memorize and then meditate.

And I think it's actually sometimes better done the other way. Meditate on the Word of God and ultimately that becomes memorized. Like just a case in point, this light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh in the far more eternal and purposeful meaning of glory. For we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are not seen. So the things that are seen are temporary, whereas the things that are not seen are eternal.

That just flows out of me because I've meditated on that passage. I didn't put that to memory. I think even though memory does enhance our capability of reflecting on the Word of God, memory is often kind of, again, test form-like. Memorize this, spout it out, and you get a point. You get a checkmark, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I do think when we memorize, we do retain. this excludes the opposite and that if we meditate on the word of God, ultimately we can memorize that scripture and make it part of your life. I think David, you have to read certain passages to say I meditate on your word day and night. Meditating on it is how you take it and know it intimately and you live it actively. Without that meditation, you know, I can spout off HTML to you, but that doesn't mean I can live it.

So that's a nice example. We all know plenty of people who can quote scripture from many of my friends who as Bob were in a really strict church. And then when you try to talk to them about what that scripture means, they have no clue what it means. I think Stan's point was really a valid one in that memory was really enhanced by the concept of these Hebrew poetry patterns.

We have to understand they didn't have a lot of methodology as far as documentation. Scriptures and scrolls were very delicate and they couldn't be carried around. You couldn't stick it in your back pocket and go down and teach something. Memorization was an important tool for teaching, I would imagine. I mean, you can't go back to the equations in the book and write them on the board when you're in the middle of class teaching.

I mean, you've got to know those equations. Right. I just want to make sure we distinguish head knowledge from life application. I mean, the meditation aspect is how the life is ultimately lived out. The head knowledge can be very intellectual. We don't want to discount the importance, please don't discount the importance of memory. I think it's very important.

But it can work the other way too, where we get into the Word, we increasingly become part of 2 Corinthians 3.18 and reflect His glory in us. And that's meditating and ultimately then sometimes Scripture just falls into place. And I would make sure that I would listen to those kids that decided that Satan was worse. And I'm terrible at memorization. My mind doesn't work that way. I just can't do it.

And every once in a while, something would happen in life, and I'd go, oh, that's what that scripture means. Isn't that neat? That's neat. And so did you remember the scripture and say that to them? Or you had an experience, but you went back then? I can remember that this was a particular scripture that he had studied and that they had to have right knowledge. And there's so many different versions anyway, it's silly to have a quoted word in the works.

That's right. We all have our favorites. And then to argue which is better is I mean probably some are better translations truly. I mean, the Word of God is there for all of us. We just want to make sure we're not reading a section of Scripture that clearly is an error.

Like, for instance, Romans 8.1, right? There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That next section puts a condition on it, doesn't it? Let's see. We're getting a bit tangential here. there's therefore now no condemnation, then we're in Christ Jesus who walked not after the spirit but after the flesh. That's not in the original translation. So that is a phrase that should not be in your Bibles. Which one? Two? A-8-1-B. Which is not in NASB.

Or be under letter of agreement. So anyway, I think that that's all kind of part of of what we're doing in this class, how to study the Bible. We want to make sure that we get to the best source we can and make sure the interpretation is based on what Scripture really says. Let's go ahead then. On page 20, we're going to look now at an example in the New Testament. This is 2 Corinthians 4, 7-11, and this is the New American Standard. But we have this treasure in earth and vessel so that the surpassing greatness and power will be of God and not from ourselves. Now notice that verse 7 kind of is the first statement which then introduces the contrast at the end of that verse. So, and not from ourselves. Now verse 8 and 9 is all about us. We are afflicted, not crushed. Perplexed, not despaired. Persecuted, not forsaken. Struck down, not destroyed.

Always caring about the body, the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our flesh. So this is a true kaiism in that we start with God and then we transition to us and then back In the last verse, verse 11, for we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. In a sense, for we who live are constantly being delivered over is the treasure we have on earth in vessels. Nice mirror image. Paul, through the Spirit, states What we have is treasure we have in earthen vessels that reflect the greatness, the power of the will of God. And then we end that the life of Christ may be manifest in our mortal flesh. Perfect book ends. to the book that's in the middle which is ourselves and ultimately how that principle is manifested in our lives. All the afflictions, the persecution, the perplexity, etc. Nice example.

We're not going to look at Ephesians 2.19-22 other than to say lots of parallelisms here and also like in verses 21 and 22, fitted together, built together. 21, growing into a holy temple or built together into a dwelling of God. I mean, lots of kind of similar terms that ultimately have related meanings.

And then let's, at the bottom of the page, look at examples of these halves that are ultimately a form of Hebrew poetry pattern. Heavens and Earth, Earth and Heavens, both in Job and 1 Chronicles 16, Genesis 1-1, and then in the bottom, we're not going to look at these verses, Jews and Gentiles, land and sea, etc. So these are other examples. Now, the second point is a more detailed description of the chiasm. And again, the chiasm, we think, is literally a mirror image. So, we've seen examples of this already. Let's turn to the next page and then come back to the first one.

I'd like to go to 1 John 3.9, which is the second example. And what a lovely chiasm, and so simple. So if you wanted ever to describe a chiasm to a fellow believer, this would be a tremendous first. And Ruthie, Margaret, we dealt with this on Friday night a little bit. Remember when we started the study of 1 John 4, 11 through 22 or whatever the last verse was. We kind of used this up for the benefit of one of the members of the Bible study who hadn't been there before. So look at this. What a nice example.

Whosoever has been born of God does not sin. So A and B provide two themes. B describes further what A just said. So whosoever born of God doesn't sin for his seed remains in him, is the connecting component of the mirror image. So B prime, he cannot sin, simply reflects does not sin.

Slightly different in terms of its worry, but builds on the same theme. And A prime really is essentially A, because he has been born of God. Now, we could discuss the interpretation of this verse for a long time, but again, those of you who have been in the class when I've taught in the past, I feel very strongly that the epistle of John needs to be built on a foundation of Pauline theology. So if you don't understand identification and position, this verse is going to be a difficult one to deal with. The truth is, his seed remains in us. Therefore, the absence of sin reflects God's view of us as believers. We, in his seed, don't sin. And that's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is a beautiful example of a single verse that really convincingly shows what a chiasm looks like. mirror images. The first half and second half are identical, but the middle really reflects the theme of the meaning of the verse. Now the book of Jude, I thought we might have time to look at the book of Jude, but we don't have time. But the book of Jude, the entire book could be looked at as a chiasm.

Let's look at this. A is assurance for the Christian, and A prime is assurance for the Christian. So these are the first two verses and the last two verses. The believer and the faith is B and B prime. B prime takes up four verses where B is only one. B prime, what are you talking about? B with apostrophe.

So that's the important thing about the kaiism. You want to identify the middle component. Once you have the middle component, which is kind of the thematic that's being presented, identified, then everything flowing backwards really needs to be a mirror image of what was presented before. So the end reflects the beginning, the beginning reflects the end.

So C is apostates described, and that's also true of, I'm using the term C prime just because C What's that term called? It's an apostrophe. I guess it's an apostrophe. And E is the apostasy in the supernatural realm and E prime or E apostrophe is the apostasy in the natural realm.

And then F is the ancient tree of apostates. So this theme is the ancient nature of the apostates as it then reflects to the believer. So if you take the nature of the apostates and build down from that, ultimately it's an assurance for us that we're in fact separated by faith from these apostasies.

So are all those top and the bottom, are they all kind of focusing on what you're calling that middle component? Yeah, that's right. I mean, the middle component reflects what precedes it and what follows it. I mean, in a sense, the foundation of the verse is the assurance for the Christians. But yet what that's centered about is the tree of apostates. Let's turn to, let's open to Jude here a second. We'll take a look at that. I don't want anyone singing that here this morning. Follow my example.

So verse 11 is woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward and perished in the gamesaying of Chorus. So that seems like a funny centrality of the Chiasm but in fact it is because what follows equals to what precedes.

And we'd really have to read the whole chapter to put it all into perspective, but I think you can look at this when you get home in terms of the verses that are identified and reflect this kaiism. So I think in many ways the New Testament examples of Hebrew patterns are a little bit easier than some of the ones of the Old Testament to understand and to interpret. Now there are other structures that can reflect Hebrew poetry patterns which are not covered in your handout.

And just to kind of provide some examples of that, we talked about figures of speech. The personification about your bed swimming is an example of that figures of speech. And another one, just FYI, would be something like this. In Psalm 42.1 it says, As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for thee. Oh, God. OK, so. So the deer is thirsty, wants a drink. And our soul has a thirst for the Lord.

I mean, again, it's a figure of speech that, again, is like a Hebrew poetry pattern in the way of exemplifying meaning or enhancing the certainty of what the Lord is telling us in that passage. Another example is the alphabetical use and repeated uses of, that's mostly Old Testament Hebrew, letters. A good example of that is Psalm 119. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, and Psalm 119 uses all 22 eight times in consecutive order. So this is kind of another structural example of a Hebrew poetry pattern. Another one is the use of numbers. And in Proverbs is a good example. Let me make sure I put this correctly. This might go something like this. There are three things like in Proverbs 30, 18 to 19. There are three things which are too wonderful for me for which I do not understand.

And then he goes and articulates that the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, this whole thing building on numbers and then identifying each number sequentially as to its meaning. Let me read what Hines has to say here. He says, ìIn the first line we find the number three, while in the second line we find the number four. It is not that the author couldnít count. Rather, he was using these numbers poetically, starting with one number three, then building upon it by addition in order to reach the climax in the second line. This second number is the real number of items he intended to describe, as the context demonstrates.

In many respects, this is a special instance of the third type of parallelism that really, again, wasn't discussed in your handout today, but it's just another example. And Proverbs, by the way, I think you see that three or four times where he says three, and then, oh, I meant four, or two, and I meant three. And so that's another example.

So are you saying then that they're using the numbers basically just to show progression? Progression and or to enhance meaning or to build on a previous concept. Again, that's all part of the theme of a Hebrew poetry pattern, to enhance meaning and to emphasize interpretation. I'm not sure I understand the question. I mean, the numbers I think affect structure and that may enhance memory.

But I think the idea is that if I say, Randy, gee, you know, there are three things I like about you. By the way, there's really four. I mean, I mean, yeah, I like bullet points. Yeah. We can build attention sometimes. What's the way to emphasize you only have four? I mean, it kind of builds up to four. I only have four things I want to tell you, but I'm going to I'm going to lead you down that path. I'm going to say there's four things, Randy, that are really cool.

I'm going to say three first. And you must admit, that does get your attention, doesn't it? You know, it's not a curse. You know, there are two things I've been really needing to tell you. Oh, but it was really three. I mean, so you thought two's bad enough. Now this third thing, goodness. So you can see how that could be used for a special emphasis, can't you? Yeah. Well, and sometimes, actually sometimes that's when I read online, there'll be people who make a list of Well, this is used in marketing all the time, isn't it?

You buy three and you get the fourth free? Doyle and I buy a package of ten Nuggets tickets that Don and Margaret and I share and we have ten. But if you buy the package of ten, which we split five each, you get an eleventh game for nothing. By the way, that 11th game, I don't have to pay for it, right? Well, you really did as part of the 10. So I think that's kind of a sweet example of a Hebrew poetic pattern that really has tremendous emphasis. I like the BS on 11th. But I think that's not a bad example.

In fact, you know, you write a letter. In fact, I just wrote one to somebody on email just a day or two ago, and I put a P.S. on it. Ultimately, the P.S. gets more significance than what you put in the text above, because it's the last thought, right? I see where you've been spending your time.

All right. So what's really sad is I can't It gets worse with time. All right, so let's go to the bottom of page 22. And by the way, there are other examples there that we don't have to take time to do. I think you get the concept that we're trying to get across here.

But the bottom says, as you can see, we can find numerous kaiisms in scripture, from one verse long to whole books. And again, as I pointed out, some people view Genesis through Joshua. or a hexateuch as a huge chiasm. Now I didn't go back and study that in detail to see what the merit of that was, but again the covenant of God with the nation of Israel was felt to be the fulcrum of that chiasm, and you could go back and challenge that perhaps or agree with it. But why are there so many chiasms and how can they help us study the Word of God? So the first point is chiasms, emphasized by repetition, and by the pivot or center of the passage.

So we've seen examples of that. I think that's clear. And chiisms are kind of fun. I almost think that the chiism is a more puristic form of the Hebrew poetry pattern. My opinion is when you repeat a phrase to build on it, you could look at every aspect of scripture in most writings and say that the sentence preceding it is the foundation of the sentence that follows it. So you could become overly you know, jot and tittle-ish in terms of going about looking at all the prose you read, including scripture, and just overly interpreting it as a Hebrew poetry pack. But the chiasm is nice because it does put a center to the theme that what precedes equals what follows. The second point is the chiasms made for a memory tool and a cross check for copying by hand, and Stan's made that point very nicely. So this could be a way which enhanced the ability to reproducibly record scripture and pass it on.

I think less necessary today, when we have the written word for sure, but nevertheless might be of help to some under some circumstances. The third, I think, is less relevant. Two cousins made for an orderly presentation. That's fine. But I think the first, which we mentioned about the emphasis of repetition and pivoting or centering around a particular theme of the passage.

And the fourth, I think, is important. They serve to help us check our understanding of each part of the passage. So when we have the chiasmic view, we can really then focus in on what did God really mean by this passage. When we see an emphasis, that precedes a point and then also follows the point, that point gets really well enhanced and ingrained in our ability to interpret what the Lord has for us.

So, hopefully that was helpful. I learned a lot in preparing for this and I think it's, again, our job here is not to become scholars. Our job is to see how the Word of God can ultimately reinforce the importance of Scripture in our hearts and minds as we use these things.

I'll never forget this story. I think it was MacArthur. He's very well schooled. He's got all these degrees. I mean, he could go into all this and look at each one of these and understand it and all the rest of it. And so he spent a month putting together the sermon that he thought was going to be his absolute perfect sermon. And he finally had it. And he got up there, and he gave it. And he said, this is also the best presentation I've ever done. And he was so proud of it.

And when he left, one of the people who came out, I guess it was uneducated, you know, not even in grade school education, walked by him and said, have you considered that maybe, and he knew right then that he missed the essence of the whole thing. And he just went home and just like, he was depressed. It blows the needle out.

And that's what the Bible does. It's because anyone and everyone can go to this book. and be benefited from it. Every time I teach, I do a talkable thing. It's never exhausting. I remember one Sunday morning I taught, and the lesson was over, the coolers were all turned off, and Roy came up to me and said, how does that fit in with this passage here? And I was like, no, we didn't get to that passage. And when we talked about the Holy Spirit in the last series, he said, well, what do you think about John 17? You get the job 17, but it was one of those things where the longer you study God's Word, the more you see how all the interrelationships of the different doctrines and topics are concerned.

And it's humbling. Yeah, and remember always, the Christian life is not to be lived by intellectualizing scripture. I mean, that's not where the life is. The life is by faith. And God gives us so much of his written word to believe what he's written. And we all have the ability to read it and get knowledge from it, but that's not where the victory is.

The more we grow, like I said, we've done Romans in our Bible study, I don't know how many times, six, seven, and eight we've done. maybe 8 times. Well in church and at home they have probably, Roger and Mike and Vern have done it 50 times. And you learn something new every time you do it. Yeah, when we first did it I saw this and every single time we've done it and it's like, wow, was that there before? You know, where was that? So as you grow, then your understanding, it's like it opens up, the whole world.

Alright, just to close then, next week we're going to begin two new lessons on culture. The first on Old Testament culture, the second on New Testament cultures, and then the principles of interpretation 1 and 2, and finally a passage we're going to dissect in detail. So who's teaching next week? Perkins, good. Okay, and Roger, why don't you give us a little bit of an idea of what's going to follow this fall. Did you guys see there was a Power of All Church email?

And there's a thought, kind of two thoughts. There's one thought that Bernard has done revelation before, historically. So that would be a year-long study on revelation. And then, it's kind of a thought to have kind of a rotating theme here, where we start with position and condition, Christ and me, and me and Christ. So it kind of rotates through that theme.

They kind of tie, they kind of get trace in there so that you could and also grace grace them all it's not kind of a three-part thing if you could rotate to those three you could start with and they go the other you didn't have to start the same one and repeat that at least once so you know actually the one about the triplicate we kind of like even though there's what Bobby's fun there's some repetition there but repetition in who you are in Christ never you can't get enough of that because you know don't think that way we just don't think as we should scripture says you are in Christ and it comes back over and over and over again and the ramifications of that and that's the Christian life if you if you miss that point or you you know, saying, well that's an interesting thing, let me go on with the rest of my life here, and you know, you miss so much of Scripture. My thought there, Roger, was repeating the 34 steps of Chafer might, we might want to think about that a little differently. But he actually wasn't, he wasn't proposing that Christ in me and me in Christ was not the repetition of it. It's something else. Well, I think there's no question about the importance of that theme. So if you take the book of Revelation, it looks like, Roger, you're picking a whole year's study. You're in there for the whole year.

And Vern, presumably, was going to co-teach that with somebody, right? Yes, I think that's not the plan. So the other two classes would then be between Mike Doyle and Courtney, and then this group here, basically, would co-teach those. You mean, so two of us would do one, the other two would do the other? No, no, not really. We haven't gotten to that point yet. There are basically three classes at any one point. And this is starting in January.

OK. All right. Doug, you close us in prayer, please. OK, sure. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us, for this opportunity you give us to come and learn from our impure me, the real me, the parts we miss from me, read in the Bible itself, and stop to analyze what you have been conferring, are hungry for it. Thank you for that. Amen.