Pottery, Poetry, and Prophecy: An Essay on Biblical Poetry

OETRY is not only central in the title, but for the study of the Hebrew Bible. There is no intention here of disvaluing the prose of the Bible, which constitutes the first major literary composition in that medium ever produced, so far as I am aware, whether we speak of the so-called Court History and the J source of the Pentateuch of the 10th century B.C., or the composite whole which we may call the Primary History (Genesis through Kings) of the 6th century.' The preponderance of prose is even greater in the NT, whether we speak of the narratives of the Gospels and Acts, or the essays on religion and ethics contained in the Epistles.2 There is little danger that the prose of the Bible will be lost or forgotten, neglected or abandoned by scholars, much less by the vast constituency which holds this literature sacred. On the contrary, the Bible will be read and studied, admired and absorbed, primarily as a prose work in the future as in the past. The case with the great poetic tradition of the Bible is far otherwise. While particular compositions and certain books of the Bible have always been identified and acknowledged as poetic in form and content, much of the poetry of the Bible has been incorporated into the prose tradition. The rediscovery of the poetry of the prophets is a major contribution of modern scholarship, as is the recognition of the poetic tradition behind the earliest prose narratives.3 Since some large fraction, perhaps a quarter to a third of the Hebrew Bible, must be reckoned as poetry or poetic in character, just its bulk would demand serious attention, but its quality and difficulty make it even more important. In many respects it is older and more basic than the prose materials; at the same time it is more obscure and challenging. The form and style, the selection