Understanding of biblical poetry, like any other, is enhanced by the study of its structure. In
The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism Adele Berlin analyzes parallelism, a major feature of biblical poetry, from a linguistic perspective.
Berlin begins with a brief history of the study of biblical parallelism by biblical scholars. She then focuses on parallelism considered more broadly in the work of linguist Roman Jakobson, a new section in this second edition. The chapters following concentrate on the various linguistic levels that come into play in the construction of parallel lines. Here is the key observation that parallel lines involve both similarity and difference on all linguistic levels - morphology, syntax, lexical, semantic and phonologic. Berlin concludes by showing how these levels can be combined and analyzing examples of parallelism in biblical passages.
Linguistic, but not overly technical,
The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism will enhance understanding of biblical poetry for both biblical and literary scholars.
