PARALLELISM
08/01/24 15:55
So, we talked about Chiastic Structures and now let's talk about Parallelism's. Parallelism's are another vastly used literary structure used in the Bible. Parallelisms are a regular recurring juxtaposition of symmetrically constructed sentences carried out in substance as well as in form. It points to the relation of the expression to the thought. If you're already feeling overwhelmed please keep reading as it gets easier as examples are given.
Parallelism's can be spotted by the rhythmic pattern and repeated phrases but it's not repeated in the patter of one side of an X like a Chiasm. Instead, these repeated phrases run parallel with each other, hence the name parallelism. Proverbs is a book of parallelisms.
Proverbs 10:1 is an example of an Antithetic parallelism where apposing behaviors reveals the kinds of children that please their parents.
A wise son makes a glad father,
But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.
If you ever wondered how God divided the light from day on day one but didn't make the sun moon and stars until the fourth day it's because Genesis 1 was written in a linguistic and thematic parallelism.
Note: The poetic, parallel structure, of the creation story does not support nor negate whether the account is literal or figurative. Lately, many who support the literal creation story have gotten upset at the fact that Genesis 1 is a Hebrew parallelism. Most of the Bible is written in either a parallelism or a Chiastic Structure but these structures never negate the facts of the story or the ways in which they happened.
Most parallelisms are lost in translation. If we could read the text in the original Hebrew we'd spot these poetic structures right away.
An example of a palillogical parallelism would be James 1:14-15. These poetic parallelisms are when a word is repeated in order to build upon one another.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Notice how "desire" is built from line one to line two then "sin" added in line two and built upon in line three.
Genesis 1:27 is another example.
So God created man in His own image;
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
In this parallelism, understanding the Hebrew way of looking at it, we're being told that the union of man and woman is the image of God, not just man or woman alone. Not that man or woman alone being created in the image of God is wrong but the union is then the "mystery" pointed out by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (5:32)
By noticing and noting parallelisms, we can find some hidden gold or at least see where an exclamation point was added to the original Hebrew text so we can take notice of great importance of subjects being talked about.