translation, Hebrew, quirks, redundant, poetry, speech patterns
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Hebrew and Aramaic speakers
often repeat themselves. This helps clarify and/or adds emphasis to
what they are saying. Typically they connect these parallel
statements with the Hebrew 'vav', generally translated
'and'. Since English speakers don't typically do this we are often
confused. English speakers usually use 'and' to connect two
different things not two similar or identical things. An obvious, unconfusing example of Hebrew use is Luke 1:20.
"But behold, you
will be mute and not able to speak until the day these
things take place..." Obviously mute and not able to speak
are the same thing.
Here's another
example: 'Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king
then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For
this cause I was born,
and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should
bear witness to the truth…."' (Joh
18:37) Being born and coming into the world are
the same thing.
However sometimes this
proclivity can be misinterpreted by English speakers. For instance:
"But some of the sect
of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary
to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of
Moses." (Acts 15:5) They advocated keeping the law of Moses by
circumcising the new converts. The Jews here are also adding weight
to their belief that circumcision was necessary, by invoking the
instruction by Moses. There was no movement afoot to discredit the
Law of Moses. Keeping the Law of Moses was not a second requirement,
but a reason to be circumcised. It
was being referenced to tap its authority and lend weight to the belief
that gentiles should be circumcised.
This Hebrew proclivity to
be redundant is pervasive throughout scripture. It is also
probably the most frequently missed aid to correct
understanding. Hebrew speakers simply did not think like English
speakers. If we are to understand what they are saying we need to
keep in mind how they tended to think.
Antithetical Parallelism
Not all Hebrew parallelism
involves simple repetition. Although
categorized as parallelism, some forms of this quirk deal with opposites
rather than sameness. For instance:
Prov 9:8 "Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and
he will love you.”
In this case we have two
related, but opposite items. “Do not
correct a scoffer” is opposed to “Rebuke a wise man”. Also “lest he hate you” is opposed to “he
will love you”.
Mat 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is
the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many
who go in by it.”
Mat 7:14 "Because narrow is the gate and difficult
is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
In this case there are
three opposite elements: the wide gate as opposed to the narrow,
destruction as opposed to life and many go there as opposed to the
few.
This type of antithetical
parallelism can get fairly complex, involving multiple and often
alternating lines in opposing thoughts.
Usually the flow and meaning is apparent. However, if something gets dropped from
the text the pattern will be broken.
The broken pattern will indicate a problem with the text. Also if there is some difficulty in the
translation or with understanding this opposing pattern can help resolve
the matter.
For a more complete
explanation see: http://www.crivoice.org/parallel.html