The Field's Musings

Personification Personification occurs when human characteristics are attributed to anything non-human. Psalm 98:8 ‘let the rivers clap their hands’ Psalm 93:3‘the floods have lifted up their voice’ Anthropomorphism This occurs when a writer attributes human characteristics to God. ‘Incline your ear to me’ These figures of speech help us to understand who God is. Figures of Substitution When word is substituted for another because of some relationship between the two words. Sinectickys/Synecktike?? When the relationship of the two words entails the part of the whole. Eg Do you have any wheels? The part of the car is a figure for the whole car. Psalm 132:15 ‘I will satisfy her needy with bread’ Bread represents needs in general Psalm 44:6 ‘I will not trust in my bow nor will my sword save me.’ Meaning: Human/temporal strength will not save me Metonymy An attributive word is used for what is actually meant. Eg Joe is addicted to the bottle Joe is not addicted to the actual bottle but rat...

Strophic Structure (stanza structure) Is a structure where parallel lines can be grouped together in a common way. How do we know there is strophic structure? 1) Look for a refrain. A refrain is a regularly recurring verse that stands at the end of the stanza. The refrain is also known as the chorus. For examples see Psalms 39, 42, 43, 62, 67. See Isaiah 9:8-10:4 See the refrain in verses 9:12b, 9:17b. 9:21b, 10:4b. The division between these chapters is wrong (also the division between Psalm 42 and 43). 2) Look for an alphabetic acrostic This is a poem where each successive line or verse starts with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 135. Alphabetic acrostics were primarily for remembrance. Example: Isaiah 44:24-28 V24 Stanza 1 refers to events of the remote past V25-26 Stanza 2 refers to the present V27-28 Stanza 3 refers to the future The movement of tenses may indicate the change of stanza Figures of speech A figure of speech translate...

Hebrew poetry is structure or cause to vibrate by different means. Parallelism The basic unit of a verse consists of two lines called bi-call??? You can get a three-line verse. This is called tri-call??? The different lines in the verse express similar thoughts. They say the same thing with different words. Psalm 19:8 ‘The statues of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;’ The commandments of the Lord are both for the heart and the eyes. Psalm 104:33 ‘I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.’ Types of Parallelism a) Synonymous Parallelism This is when two or more lines of poetry express the same idea in different words b) Complete synonymous Parallelism This is when every member of the first line has a member in the second line. Psalm 142:2 ‘I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble’ A = I pour out my, I declare B = complaint, my trouble C = Before ...

Josiah continued Josiah smashes the bones of the priests to demonstrate that there is no future life for them- no resurrection to life. Hebrews 11:17-22- God is able to raise men even from the dead. By faith Joseph gave orders concerning his bones. Joseph like Isaac understood that God could raise the dead. Joseph believed that he would live forever. Psalm 34:15-20. Quoted in John 19:32-36 V20 ‘He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken’ Bones being preserved pointed to the bodily resurrection form the dead. Christ was the first to be raised bodily from the dead. He broke open the gates of heaven. Poetry What is poetry? Words can be used in two ways: 1) Denotative - direct explicit meaning of a word 2) Connotative- an idea suggested by a word in addition to the explicit meaning a) His father stood over him while three problems of subtraction. b) The little cousin is dead by foul subtraction. In b) a mathematical term has tragic overtones. Poetry is taking denotative ideas and v...