Parallelism Of The Poetical Books

There are five poetical books contained in the Word of God, Job, Psalm, Proverbs, Song of Solomon and Lamentations.  The poetry contained in the Scritptures is not the same as we are accustomed to in the Western culture.  Our focus in poetry tends to be on rhyming.  The following is an example:

Jack and Jill went up the hill, 

to fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.

The emphasis of the poetry in our Bible is a repetion of thoughts or ideas, whether compared, contrasted or expanded.  This is called parralelism.  The following are five major forms of parallelism contained in the Word of God; synonymous parallelism, antithetical parallelism, synthetic parallelism, emblematic parallelism and introverted parallelism.  We will now give simple definitions to these various forms of parallesim and examples of each.

  Synonymous Parallelism

Synonymous parallelism is the repetition of an identical thought using different words.  The second line repeats what the first line states.  Let us use Psalm 59:2 as our first example.  "Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men."  Let us divide this Psalm into two rows, in the first row we will label all of the thoughts or ideas "A" words and in the second row we will label all of the thoughts or ideas "B" words.

1	2	3
A	A	A
Deliver me	from	the workers of iniquity
B	B	B
and save me	from	bloody men

Now let us substitute the "A" words in columns one and three with the "B" words.

1	2	3
B	A	B
let us exalt	the LORD	together
A	B	A
O magnify	his name	with me.

We can readily see how once again the sense of the passage is retained even though we have substituted one thought or idea for another.

Antithetical Parallelism

Antithetical parallelism is the contrasting of two things, thoughts or ideas.  The first line will contrast with the second.  Let us look to Proverbs 11:17 for our first example. "The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh."  Now let us divide this Proverb into "A" and "B" words like we did with the above Psalms and see how the thoughts contrast one with another.

1	2	3
A	A	A
The merciful man	doeth good	to his own soul
B	B	B
he that is cruel	troubleth	his own flesh

We see how how all of the "A" words are contrasts or antonyms to the "B" words.  Antithetical verses do not necessarily have to line up as given in the example above.  Consider Psalm 1:6  "For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."   This Psalm begins with the LORD, though He is not contrasted, it hinges upon the word way, and the righteous and the ungodly are the points of contrast.  We will use a graph somewhat different to the ones we have used before in an attempt to plainly see the layout of this passage of scripture.

1	2	3
(The Key)	(The Hinge)	(The Contrast)
	A	A
	the way	of the righteous
the LORD knoweth	B	B
	the way	of the ungodly perish

Synthetic Parallelism

Synthetic parallelism is where the second line of the verse takes up the thought of the first and develops it further.  It adds information to or expands upon what has already been said.  Let us look to Psalm 104:5 for an example.  "Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever."  In the first section of the the verse we see that God has laid the foundations of the earth.  In the second section we see this thought expanded upon and read that God not only laid the foundations of the earth but also that it's foundation shall not be removed forever. 

We find another example of synthetic parallelism in Psalm 1:3.  "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."  We see the central thought of this passage is the man that walks not in the way of the ungodly (refer to Psalm 1:1) shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season.  This thought is expanded upon in the second line of this verse.  His leaf also shall not wither;  and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Emblematic Parallelism

Emblematic parallelism is where the main idea, thought or theme of the verse is illustrated with an image or metaphor.  Let us look at Psalm 42:1 for an example.  "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

1	2	3
(Main Idea)	(Main Idea)	(Main Idea)
B	B	B
my soul	so panteth	after thee, O God
(Idea Illustrated)	(Idea Illustrated)	(Idea Illustrated)
A	A	A
the hart	panteth	after the water brooks

We see the main idea of the Psalm being the singer's soul longing for God illustrated by a hart that pants after the water brooks.

Introverted Parallelism

Introverted parallelism is where there are four clauses, thoughts or ideas.  The first answers or coresponds to the fourth and the second to the third.  We have an example of this in Psalm 135 15-18.  "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.  They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them." 

Here we see the first thought, "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands," parallels with with the fourth thought, "They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them."  We also see how the second thought, "They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;" parallels with the third thought, "They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths."

As and So Parallelism

There is another parallelism contained throughout the Word of God that any good student of the Bible should recognize, as and so parallelism.  It is when the word as (for instance, when taken into consideration in a specified relation) is used with the word so (in the same way).  The word "as" gives us an example that will assist us in understanding the subject of the "so."  Let us look to John chapter three to illustrate this idea.

"And as (for instance, when taken into consideration with the subject of the so) Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so (in the same way or like manner) must the Son of man be lifted up:"  emphasis mine 

Here we have our Lord attemting to lift the mind of Nicodemus from earthly things to heavenly things, and He uses an earthly illustration that Nicodemus would be familar with.  Now to understand this parallelism we must understand it's example, namely the serpent in the wilderness.  We find the account of the serpent in the wilderness in Numbers 21 where we read,

"And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." Numbers 21:5-9

The nation of Israel is being led through the wilderness by Moses when they once again begin to complain about their journey and the manna the LORD has provided for them.  And so the LORD sends fiery serpents in among the people, and when anyone is bit by one of these serpents he dies.  The people then realize there sin and go to Moses and ask him to pray to the LORD to take away the serpents.  Moses goes to the LORD to make intercession for the people, but instead of taking away the serpents, the LORD tells Moses to make a brazen serpent and lift it up on a pole.  Then, whenever anyone of the children of Israel was bitten by one of the fiery serpents and was about to die all he had to do is look to the brazen serpent and he would live.

Now our Lord ties this thought with His impending crucifixion.  He says, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."  As thoses Jews in the wilderness were under a sentance of death with no cure when bit by a fiery serpent, even so we are dead in our trespasses and sins.  And just as all an Israelite could do is look to that serpent in the wildrness for life, evens so all we can do is behold Jesus lifted up for our salvation.  There is a bottomless well of truth we can glean from these two passages of scripture when we recognize that they are "soed" together.