An Invitation to Biblical Poetry

An Invitation to Biblical Poetry is an accessibly written introduction to biblical poetry that emphasizes the aesthetic dimensions of poems and their openness to varieties of context. It demonstrates the irreducible complexity of poetry as a verbal art and considers the intellectual work poems accomplish as they offer aesthetic experiences to people who read or hear them. Chapters walk the reader through some of the diverse ways biblical poems are organized through techniques of voicing, lineation, and form, and describe how the poems' figures are both culturally and historically bound and always dependent on later reception. The discussions consider examples from different texts of the Bible, including poems inset in prose narratives, prophecies, psalms, and wisdom literature. Each chapter ends with a reading of a psalm that offers an acute example of the dimension under discussion. Students and general readers are invited to richer and deeper readings of ancient poems and the subjects, problems, and convictions that occupy their imagination.

Elaine James is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. She studies the ancient literature of the Bible with particular attention to its aesthetic and ecological dimensions.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: Voices
Emotion
Ascription and Authorship
Multiplicity and Dialogue
Prophetic Voicing
Gender
Psalm 55: A Reading

Chapter 2: Lines
Parallelism
Enjambment
Psalm 19: A Reading

Chapter 3: Forms
Terms
Hymns
Laments
Love Poems
Parody
Acrostic
Psalm 119: A Reading

Chapter 4: Figures
Metaphor and Simile
Personification and Anthropomorphism
Metaphors for the Deity
Symbols
Psalm 65: A Reading

Chapter 5: Contexts
Three Worlds of the Text
Worlds Behind the Text
Allusion
Prophetic Poetry's Refusals
The Poetry of Exile
Psalm 137: A Reading

Conclusion

Index