Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 02:4 (Fall 1959)
Article: The Effects Of Poetic And Literary Style On The Interpretation Of The Early Chapters Of Genesis
Author: G. Douglas Young

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BETS 2:4 (Fall 1959) p. 15

The Effects Of Poetic And Literary Style On The Interpretation Of The Early Chapters Of Genesis

G. Douglas Young

Trinity Theological Seminary

The Problem

In the continuing attempts to understand science, the early Genesis chapters and the relationship of the one to the other, one of the factors that might be significant is that of the Semitic poetry and literary style in which Genesis is written. Specifically, if the early chapters of Genesis are couched in poetic style, what could this mean for understanding the accounts? Because it is poetry, can we “interpret” the language of Genesis in such a way as to bring it more into line with the present conclusions of science, as some evangelicals are doing? Or. can we be sure enough of what Genesis means that we can say to science, categorically, this or that conclusion of yours is unacceptable because as an item of natural revelation it is not in conformity with the written revelation?

I. Important Features of Semitic Poetry

Several important features of Western poetry are missing from pre-Arabic Semitic poetry. It has no meter, neither accentual or syllabic. It does not use rhyme. It has no stylistic regularity that can be named, at any level It manifests no regularity in the manner in which stichs (lines) may be combined to form sentences, that is, complete thought units. It manifests no regularity in the sequence of similarly combined stichs. Variation is the norm, not the exception. These poets felt under no constraint to abide by strict poetic codes.

One feature is important to Semitic poetry. It is the phenomenon of the repetition of thought in parallel stichs. Even here the norm is irregularity. The poet tells his story ornamented with a liberal, scattered sprinkling of paralleled thoughts. It is this recurring pattern of repetition of thoughts which gives the composition the character of poetry.

The poet has his form specialties. He uses acrostics. He inverts the words which are parallel to create a chiastic effect. He “balances” a shorter line with a synonym of greater length, often called a ballast variant. He makes some use, a minor feature, of epistrophic and strophic structure. But none of these is basic or essential. Only thought paralleling is basic.

II. Is Early Genesis Poetry?

The test is not the slight evidence of strophic structure with the repetition of the seven days. The test is not the mildly epic style. The only sure test is thought repetition in adjoining stichs. By this test the early chapters of Genesis do not qualify for the classification of poetry. True, some scattered verses are in this style, but not the majority. For this reason some have suggested a poetic substratum, and that this present version...

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