Smith DTh Thesis (final).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

Chapter 6: Composition of Psalms 3-8• Row 67 קש)‏ and ‏(קשש constitutes the most important shared root in thecorpus. Coupled with Row 2 ‏,(אֹיֵב)‏ this provides a clear editorialrationale for the arrangement of Psalms 6-8 (see §5.4 and §5.5) andalso provides the unifying thematic thread for the entire corpus (see§6.3).Although neither Table 6.10 nor the discussion of its main features introducesanything substantially new to the analysis of verbal links between Psalms 3-8,it does solidify previous observations by showing graphically where exclusivelinks between psalms occur.6.3 Thematic unityIs there a unifying theme (or network of themes) that provided the editorialpurpose for the overall arrangement of Psalms 3-8? Does this little group ofpsalms bear any marks of being a carefully crafted literary unit with a clearpurpose and message? Does it bear the marks of new literary work, namely,unity, plot and purpose? Having discovered strong indications that the editorsjuxtaposed neighbouring psalms on the basis of verbal and thematicsimilarities, I now want to turn my attention to a different question—whetherthere is an editorial objective in the arrangement of the entire corpus.269