(Part 1)

JBTM Jeffrey G. Audirsch
35
The correspondence of one verse, or line, with another, I call parallelism. When a proposition
is delivered, and a second is subjoined to it, or drawn under it, equivalent, or contrasted
with it, in sense; or similar to it in the form of grammatical construction; these I call parallel
lines; and the words or phrases, answering one to another in the corresponding lines, parallel
terms. 17
In “Lecture XIX,” Lowth identifies and describes the three forms (lit. “species”) of
parallelism in biblical poetry: synonymous, antithetic, and synthetic. Elaborating on the
importance of parallelism for interpreting biblical poetry, Lowth explains:
The poetical conformation of the sentences, which has been so often alluded to as characteristic
of the Hebrew poetry, consists chiefly in a certain equality, resemblance, or parallelism
between the members of each period; so that in two lines (or members of the same period)
things for the most part shall answer to things, and words to words, as if fitted to each other
by a kind of rule or measure. This parallelism has much variety and many graduation; it is
sometimes more accurate and manifest, sometimes more vague and obscure. 18
For Lowth, reading biblical poetry meant analyzing/comparing the relationship between
consecutive lines of poetry. Of the forms, synonymous parallelism is the most prevalent
and the easiest to identify. The chief characteristic of synonymous parallelism is “the same
sentiment” in the first line of poetry and “repeated in different, but equivalent terms” in
the second line of poetry. 19 A wonderful example of synonymous parallelism is Ps 114: 20
1
When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2
Judah became his sanctuary,
Since its original English printing, several editions have appeared. In this essay, the 1829 version is
used: Robert Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, trans. George Gregory (Andover, UK:
Flagg and Gould, 1829). Through Lowth’s study of biblical poetry, he concludes that the origin and
“earliest application” of Hebrew poetry is grounded in the service of religion. See Lowth, Lectures on
the Sacred Poetry, 154.
17
Robert Lowth, Isaiah: A New Translation, with a Preliminary Dissertation and Notes, Critical,
Philological, and Explanatory, 10 th ed. (Boston: Peirce, 1834), ix. More recently, Gerald H. Wilson argues
that parallelism begins after a description/statement is made in “an initial line,” and then “a second
(and sometimes a third) line is generated that shares some obvious grammatical-structural similarities
with the first and yet redirects the focus of the first through alternate words and expressions. The
close grammatical-structural similarity between lines provides continuity that emphasizes the parallel
character of the two lines, while the distinctive phraseology of each phrase lifts the phenomenon
beyond mere repetition and offers the opportunity for expansion or advancement on the original
line’s meaning.” See Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms I, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2002), 39.
18
Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry, 157.
19
Ibid.
20
English translations are from the English Standard Version unless noted otherwise.