Should Proverbs be read as prose or poetry? Considering the language craft is of essential significance for a hermeneutical enquiry into the biblical book of Proverbs. Five suppositions to support the presupposition that Proverbs is best read as poetry were considered.
On reading the biblical book of Proverbs one instinctively tends to regard the proverbs as a language craft.
In his hermeneutical thoughts, Ricoeur (
Alter (
According to Deist (
Robert Lowth identified parallelism as a stereotypical communication pattern in the biblical text and promoted it to a place of prominence in biblical studies (Lowth in Berlin
Alter (
The lack of consensus among scholars is evident.
My presupposition is grounded in five suppositions that became apparent to me while studying Proverbs. Considered separately neither of them is sufficient to support the presupposition, yet together they seem to persuade one to read Proverbs as poetry rather than prose. I will admit that this persuasion is rather subtle. A reader instinctively reads the proverbs as poetry and the impression of these suppositions is more subconscious than conscious. [
The five suppositions are:
parallelism as constructive device
the sign of the poetic function
poetry: a text convention
a special way of imagining the world
metaphoric play.
I will now consider each in turn.
Firstly, one should bear in mind that the writers and/or redactors of biblical texts did not consciously label their writings ‘poetry’ or ‘prose’.
Along with Landy (
Alter ( יִרְאַת יְהוָה תּוֹסִיף יָמִים וּשְׁנוֹת רְשָׁעִים תִּקְצרְֹנָה׃ [The fear of Yahweh will cause to increase days but the years of the wicked will be shortened].
The proverb consists of parallelism contrasting the fear of the Lord with wickedness, and an increase of days with shortened years. Each colon ends with the consequences of the reader's choice. The severity of the consequence of a choice for wickedness is underlined by the contrast of the increase of days with the years being shortened. Through the structure of the proverb the consequences of the two options are contrasted with each other and spelled out clearly.
Another example from Proverbs 15:16 will illustrate this supposition. In the so-called ‘better-than’ (contrastive) proverbs of which Proverbs 15:6 is an excellent example; inversion and even subversion are created through binary opposition (Nel טוֹב־מְעַט בְּיִרְאַת יְהוָה מֵאוֹצָר רָב וּמְהוּמָה בוֹ׃ [Better a little in the fear of Yah wehthan a great storehouse and panic in it].
Proverbs 14:27 offers one more illustration:
יִרְאַת יְהוָה מְקוֹר חַיִּים לָסוּר מִמּקְֹשֵׁי מָוֶת׃ [The fear of Yahweh the source of life to keep far from the snares of death].
The proverb is structured by parallelism; simultaneously setting up a relationship of equivalence between the fear of the Lord and the purpose of avoiding the snares of death, as well as a relationship of opposition between the source of life and snares of death.
These representative examples demonstrate that parallelism is the constitutive or constructive device of the proverbs which, together with their terseness, is crucial to the workings of these aphorisms.
Secondly, parallelism in prose, as in poetry, is the sign of the poetic function (Berlin
By employing the linguistic phenomenon of parallelism, the reader's attention is focused on the message of the text for its own sake.
Clifford ( [
It is this focus on the message as such, by the use of parallelism, which is the sign of the poetic function in combination with terseness that marks Proverbs as poetry.
Proverbs 14:26 is a good example:
בְּיִרְאַת יְהוָה מִבְטַח־עזֹ וּלְבָנָיו יִהְיֶה מַחְסֶה׃ [In the fear of Yahweh the trust of strength and for his sons he will be a place of refuge].
The second colon is a continuation and completion of the thought in the first and carries it forward. Both halves of the proverb focus on the message that the aphorism wants to convey by making use of (progressive or climactic) parallelism: Yahweh is a safe assurance for those who fear the Lord.
Thirdly, and related to the second supposition, poetry is a text convention according to which poets organise their texts (Burden
The smoothness of the parallelistic lines is, according to Alter ( הָוהְי אֵרְי וֹרְׁשָיְּב ךֵלוֹה וּנְלוֹז דְּרָכָיו בּוֹזֵהוּ׃ [Walker in his straightness fearer of Yahweh but goer on his wrong ways despiser of him].
Landy ( יִרְאַת יְהוָה מוּסַר חָכְמָה וְלִפְנֵי כָבוֹד עֲנָוָה׃ [The fear of Yahweh the instruction of wisdom and before honour humility].
The proverb seems to be simply stating a revealed truth.
From a slightly different but related view, Alter ( טוֹב־מְעַט בְּיִרְאַת יְהוָה מֵאוֹצָר רָב וּמְהוּמָה בוֹ׃ [Better a little in the fear of Yahweh than a great storehouse and panic in it].
At first sight the two halves of the proverb do not match, yet a closer reading and some pondering reveal the interaction between them.
My fourth supposition flows from the previous one. Alter ( Poetry is a special way of imagining the world, or to put this in more cognitive terms, a special mode of thinking with its own momentum and its own peculiar advantages. (p. 205)
Texts with a wisdom perspective use this special way of imagining the world to reference the symbolic world that the wisdom scribes envision for their readers through the text. Figures of speech and poetic devices such as metaphor, antithetic parallelism and chiasm are used to convey the wisdom understanding of reality (cf. Loader
This becomes most evident when the corollary of antithetic parallelism is considered. The general observation is that antithetic parallelism dominates Proverbs 10:1–15:33 (Clements
The sages see humanity as divided into two parts antithetically opposed to each other: the righteous-wise versus the wicked-fools. This bipolarity lies at the core of the sages’ belief that is more than just a convenient and simple way of describing human society; they view it as something deeply engraved in the heart of mankind (Frydrych הוֹלֵךְ בְּיָשְׁרוֹ יְרֵא יְהוָה וּנְלוֹז דְּרָכָיו בּוֹזֵהוּ׃ [Walker in his straightness fearer of Yahweh but goer on his wrong ways despiser of him].
In the proverb the bipolar structure of reality is revealed: The fearer of Yahweh that walks in straightness stands antithetically opposed to and is contrasted with despisers of him that goes on wrong ways.
Lastly, the connection between metaphoric play and poetry provides an important key to understanding Proverbs as poetry. Ricoeur (
Proverbs 14:27 exploits metaphoric play to achieve the second order reference that Ricoeur ( יִרְאַת יְהוָה מְקוֹר חַיִּים לָסוּר מִמּקְֹשֵׁי מָוֶת׃ [The fear of Yahweh the source of life to keep far from the snares of death].
Dependant on as a source of life, a source (fountain) was a well-known entity in the biblical world. In what way the fear of the Lord resembles a fountain is left to the reader of the proverb to discover.
Longman ( [
Though there most certainly are prosaic elements in the book of Proverbs that I would not wish to deny,
Being conscious of the five suppositions that I proposed to support the presupposition that the wise sayings in Proverbs are best read as poetry may aid the reader to savour more of their richness, and to delight in their wisdom.
The author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.
I prefer the term language craft to other alternatives such as language communication or discourse strategy. This is in accordance with Ricoeur's understanding (and Reese's) of the author as an ‘artisan at work in discourse’ (Ricoeur in Reese
Here I draw on and develop insights concerning the second pole (of four) of a Ricoeurian hermeneutic. For a summary of the structuring considerations of a Ricoeurian hermeneutic and to determine where the second pole fits into Ricoeur's hermeneutic approach, see Viljoen (
Be as it may, insights from scholars who disagree may be used with great fruitfulness. Insights from various scholars with differing opinions on what Petersen and Richards (
This is the main contribution of the article. By formulating the five suppositions it makes conscious for readers of the book of Proverbs what they would instinctively or subconsciously do. To the best of my knowledge the existing scholarly research has not as of yet formulated and grouped available research into workable suppositions that support the presupposition that Proverbs is best read as poetry.
Berlin (
The poetic function is ‘the set (
This principle is worded from a different angle by Burke (
The work of the authors or composers of the proverbs.
The work of the redactors of the collections.
For example Proverbs 7:3–23.