16.06.2013 Views

The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

JOSEPH L. TRAFTON 445<br />

3 His soul will not be disturbed by <strong>the</strong> vision of evil dreams;<br />

he will not be frightened when crossing rivers or rough seas.<br />

4 He gets up from his sleep <strong>and</strong> blesses <strong>the</strong> name of <strong>the</strong> Lord;<br />

when his heart is at rest he sings in honor of his God’s name.<br />

5 He prays to <strong>the</strong> Lord for all his household,<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Lord has heard <strong>the</strong> prayers of all who fear God.<br />

6 And <strong>the</strong> Lord fulfills every request from <strong>the</strong> soul that hopes in him;<br />

praised is <strong>the</strong> Lord, who shows mercy to those who truly love him.<br />

Here we find (1) four observations in synonymous parallelism about <strong>the</strong><br />

righteous man (1ab, 2ab, 3ab, 4ab), (2) a summary affirmation about <strong>the</strong><br />

righteous man (5a), (3) a fifth observation in synonymous parallelism<br />

about <strong>the</strong> faithfulness of <strong>the</strong> Lord (5b–6a), <strong>and</strong> (4) a final blessing<br />

directed to <strong>the</strong> Lord (6b).<br />

<strong>The</strong> NT contains hymns characterized by both kinds of parallelism,<br />

<strong>and</strong> some that have nei<strong>the</strong>r. An example of <strong>the</strong> first is <strong>the</strong> Magnificat<br />

(Luke 1:46–55):<br />

46 My soul magnifies <strong>the</strong> Lord,<br />

47 <strong>and</strong> my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,<br />

48 for he has looked with favor on <strong>the</strong> lowliness of his servant.<br />

Surely, from now on all generations shall call me blessed;<br />

49 for <strong>the</strong> Mighty One has done great things for me,<br />

<strong>and</strong> holy is his name.<br />

50 His mercy is for those who fear him<br />

from generation to generation.<br />

51 He has shown strength with his arm;<br />

he has scattered <strong>the</strong> proud in <strong>the</strong> thoughts of <strong>the</strong>ir hearts.<br />

52 He has brought down <strong>the</strong> powerful from <strong>the</strong>ir thrones,<br />

<strong>and</strong> lifted up <strong>the</strong> lowly;<br />

53 he has filled <strong>the</strong> hungry with good things,<br />

<strong>and</strong> sent <strong>the</strong> rich away empty.<br />

54 He has helped his servant Israel,<br />

in remembrance of his mercy,<br />

55 according to <strong>the</strong> promise he made to our ancestors,<br />

to Abraham <strong>and</strong> to his descendants forever.<br />

Although about half of <strong>the</strong> hymn contains nei<strong>the</strong>r synonymous nor anti<strong>the</strong>tical<br />

parallelism (48a, b, 49a, b, 50a, b, 54a, b), <strong>the</strong>re are several examples<br />

of both synonymous (46–47, 51ab, 55ab) <strong>and</strong> anti<strong>the</strong>tical (52ab,<br />

53ab) parallelism present.<br />

On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>the</strong> new song sung to <strong>the</strong> Lamb in Rev 5:9–10 has<br />

at best a loosely parallel structure:

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!