Parallelism

An excerpt from the article "Hebrew Poetry," by T. Witton Davies,
in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(4) Parallelism. What is so called is a case of logical rhythm as distinguished from rhythm that is merely verbal. But as this forms so important a feature of Bible poetry, it must be somewhat fully discussed. What since Bishop Lowth's day has been called parallelism may be described as the recurring of symetrically constructed sentences, the several members of which usually correspond to one another. Lowth (died 1787), in his epochmaking work on Hebrew poetry (De Sacra poesi Hebraeorum prelectiones, English translation by G. Gregory), deals with what he (following Jebb) calls Parallelismus membrorum (chapter X). And this was the first serious attempt to expound the subject, though Rabbi Asariah (Middle Ages), Ibn Ezra (died 1167 AD), D. Kimchi (died 1232) and A. de Rossi (1514-1578) called attention to it. Christian Schoettgen (died 1751) (see Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae) anticipated much of what Lowth has written as to the nature, function and value of parallelism. The first to use the word itself in the technical sense was Jebb (Sacred Lit., 1820). For the same thing Ewald used the expression Sinnrhythmus, i.e. sense rhythm, a not unsuitable designation.

(a) Kinds of Parallelism: Lowth distinguished three principal species of parallelism, which he called synonymous, antithetic and synthetic.

(i) The Synonymous: In this the same thing is repeated in different words, e.g. Psalms 36:5:

"Yahweh, (i.) Thy lovingkindness (reaches) to the heavens,
(ii.) Thy faithfulness (reaches) to the clouds.'

Omitting "Yahweh," which belongs alike to both members, it will be seen that the rest of the two half-lines corresponds word for word: "thy lovingkindness" corresponding to "thy faithfulness," and "to the heavens" answering to "to the clouds" (compare Psalms 15:1; 24:1-3; 25:5; 1 Samuel 18:7; Isaiah 6:4; 13:7).

(ii) Antithetic Parallelism: In which the second member of a line (or verse) gives the obverse side of the same thought, e.g. Proverbs 10:1:

"A wise son gladdens his father,
But a foolish son grieves his mother"

Compare Proverbs 11:3; Psalms 37:9; compare Proverbs 10:1; Psalms 20:8; 30:6; Isaiah 54:7). Sometimes there are more than two corresponding elements in the two members of the verse, as in Proverbs 29:27; compare 10:5; 16:9; 27:2.

(iii) Synthetic Parallelism: Called also constructive and epithetic. In this the second member adds something fresh to the first, or else explains it, e.g. Psalms 19:8 f:

"The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart:
The commandments of Yahweh are pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever:
The judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb"

(See Proverbs 1:7; compare 3:5,7; Psalms 1:3; 15:4). In addition to the three principal species of parallelism noticed above, other forms have been traced and described.

(iv) Introverted Parallelism (Jebb, Sacred Lit., 53): in which the hemistichs of the parallel members are chiastically arranged, as in the scheme ab ba. Thus, Proverbs 23:15 f:

(a) "My son, if thy heart be wise
(b) My heart shall be glad, even mine:
(b) Yea, my reins shall rejoice
(a) When thy lips speak right things"

(Compare Proverbs 10:4,12; 13:24; 21:17; Psalms 51:3).

(v) Palilogical Parallelism: In which one or more words of the first member are repeated as an echo, or as the canon in music, in the second. Thus, Nahum 1:2:

"Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges:
Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath;
Yahweh takes vengeance upon His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for his enemies"

(Compare Judges 5:3,6,11,15,23,27; Psalms 72:2,12,17; 121; 124; 126; Isa 2:7; 24:5; Hos 6:4).

(vi) Climactic or comprehensive parallelism: In this the second line completes the first. Thus Psalm 29:1:

"Give unto Yahwe, O ye mighty ones,
Give unto Yahwe glory and strength"

(See Exodus 15:6, Psalm 29:8).

(vii) Rhythmical parallelism (De Wette, Franz Delitzsch): Thus Psalm 138:4:

"All the kings of the earth shall give thee thanks ...
For they have heard the words of thy mouth."

(See Proverbs 15:3; 16:7,10; 17:13,15; 19:20; 21:23,25)

Perfect parallelism is that in which the number of words in each line is equal. When unequal, the parallelism is called imperfect. Ewald (see Die poetischen Bücher des alten Bundes, I, 91ff, 2d ed of the former) aimed at giving a complete list of the relations which can be expressed by parallelism, and he thought he had succeeded. But in fact every kind of relation which can be indicated in words may be expressed in two or more lines more or less parallel. On the alleged parallelism of strophes see below.

(b) Parallelism as an aid to exegesis and textual criticism. If in Lowth's words parallelism implies that "in two lines or members of the same period things for the most part shall answer to things, and words to words," we should expect obscure or unknown words to derive some light from words corresponding to them in parallel members or clauses. In not a few cases we are enabled by comparison of words to restore with considerable confidence an original reading now lost. The formula is in a general way as follows: ab: cx. We know what a, b and c mean, but are wholly in the dark as to the sense of x. The problem is to find out what x means. We have an illustration in Judges 5:28, which may be thus literally translated:

"Through the window she looked,
And Sisera's mother x through the x."

Here we have two unknown, each, however, corresponding to known terms. The Hebrew verb accompanying "Sisera's mother" is watteyabbebh, English "and .... cried." But no such verb (yabhabh) is known, for the Talmud, as usually, follows the traditional interpretation. We want a verb with a meaning similar to "looked." If we read wattabbet, we have a form which could easily be corrupted into the word in the Massoretic Text, which gives a suitable sense and moreover has the support of the Targums of Onqelos and Jonathan, and even of the Septuagint (Codex Alexandrinus and Lucian). What about the other Hebrew word untranslated above ('eshnabh)? This occurs in but one other passage (Proverbs 7:6), where it stands as in the present passage in parallelism with challon, "window" (probably Proverbs 7:6 is dependent). We get no help from etymology or in this case from the ancient versions, but parallelism had suggested to our translators the meaning "lattice," a kind of Eastern window, and something of the kind must be meant. The verb shanabh, "to be cool," may possibly suggest the rendering "window," i.e. a hole in the wall to secure coolness in the house. Glass windows did not exist in Palestine, and are rare even now. There are innumerable other examples in the Old Testament of the use of parallelism in elucidating words which occur but once, or which are otherwise difficult to understand, and frequently a textual emendation is suggested which is otherwise supported.

(c) Prevalence and Value of Parallelism: Two statements anent parallelism in the Old Testament may be safely made: (i) That it is not a characteristic of all Old Testament poetry. Lowth who had so much to do with its discovery gave it naturally an exaggerated place in his scheme of Hebrew poetry, but it is lacking in the largest part of the poetry of the Old Testament, and it is frequently met with in elevated and rhetorical prose. (ii) That it pervades other poetry than that of the Old Testament. It occurs in Assyria (see A. Jeremias, Die bab-assyr. Vorstellung vom Leben nach dem Tode), in Egypt (Georg Ebers, Nord u. Süd, I), in Finnish, German and English. Indeed, A. Wuttke (Der deutsche Volks-Aberglaube der Gegenwart, 1869, 157) and Eduard Norden (Die antike Kunstprosa, 1898, II, 813) maintain that parallelism is the most primitive form of the poetry of all nations. It must nevertheless be admitted that in the Old Testament parallelism has in proportion a larger place than in any other literature and that the correspondence of the parts of the stichs or verses is closer.