Let Me See Your Form
Subtitle: Seeking Poetic Structure in the Song of Songs (Studies in Judaism)
Publisher: University Press of America
Published: February 28, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 429
ISBN-13: 9780761829133
Subjects: Biblical studies, criticism & exegesis; Books of the Old Testament; Biblical Reference - Language Study; Religion / Bible / Language Studies; Religion; Religion - Biblical Studies; Bible.; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Hebrew poetry, Biblical; History and criticism; Language, style; O.T.; Song of Solomon
Description: This study tackles the problem of the Song of Songs' structure by beginning at the bottom, the microstructure of the Song, rather than at the top. By employing a new type of rhetorical method, Professor Roberts defines each of the minimal structural units of the Song by identifying the formal poetic features that mark its opening and closing, coupled with the poetic features that create cohesion within it. Moving up the Song's structural ladder, larger units are identified with the same technique. While this study does not identify an overall structure, it does demonstrate how recognition of these formal structuring devices can help the interpreter define the structural units of the Song with far greater precision. The final chapter presents a catalog of these formal, poetic features that typically mark the opening and closure of structural units in the Song, as well as those that effect cohesion. Within is a catalog that can be refined and enlarged by application of the same method to other poetic texts. Other exegetical insights abound. Professor Roberts demonstrates a more highly structured pattern of the wasfs than has been recognized heretofore, and proposes a new interpretation of the adjuration refrain. He identifies a type of phonological anacrusis employed numerous times in the Song, and addresses almost every text-critical issue in the Song, many of which are resolved by attention to poetic structuring devices. - Publisher.