Bible Study

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October 7, 2009

The Poetic Books

O.T.

The old Testament can be organized into 3 stylistic sections:

1. Historical (Gen – Esther)
2. Poetic (Job – Song of Solomon)
3. Prophetic (Isaiah – Malachi)

The Poetic Books:

5 Books, middle of the OT, Could consider them the cultural books of Israel. They are in fact the poetry of the people of Israel – God was central in their lives in large part,

Application:

• Do you draw sketches in your notebook or write song lyrics, peoms, and/or little sayings that express your feelings?
• Do those things you draw/write ever express your feeilngs to God, or do you write/draw them as an expression of Worship to God?
• Is God central in your life?

Three (3) Types of Poetry are used in the Poetic books;

1. lyric – intended to be sung

2. Instructional – teaches principles of living

3. Dramatic – describes a narrative that tells a story in poetic form (Job, for example)

Two (2) Literary Techniques are used;

1. Parallelism – matching of ideas rather than matching sounds.

   1. 6 main types of Parallelism.

2. Figures of Speech – creating visual images, accomplished by using vivid “figures of Speech

   1. 5 main types of Figures of Speech

There are Five Poetical Books;

Job

1. Suffering and God’s Sovereignty

2. Uses Dramatic poetic style

Psalms

1. “Book of Praises”

2. Uses Lyric poetic style

Proverbs

1. Book of wisdom

2. Uses Instructional poetic style

Ecclesiates

1. Exposes the futility of temporal pursuits

2. Uses Instructional poetic style

Song of Solomon

1. God’s Marriage Manual

2. Uses Dramatic poetic style

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Psalms

Made up of Five (5) Books, divided into 150 Chapters

Book 1 (chpt 1-41),  Book 2 (42-72), Book 3 (73-89), Book 4 (90-106),Book 5 (107-150)

7 Known Authors, and some anonymous;

1. David (75) (2 of these are anonymous, but in Acts 4:25 and Hebrews 4;7, Pslams 2 & 95 attributed to David)

2. Asaph (12)

3. Descendents of Korah (10)

4. Solomon (2)

5. Heman (1)

6. Ethan (1)

7. Moses (1)

8. Anonymous (48)

Key Points

1. The Psalms were written for singing in public Worship

2. They were written over a period of 1000 years

3. They were collected and arranged over a long period of time. Holy spirit oversaw edits/new arrangements.

4. Written from the language of the human spirit…emotional, passionate…full of pain, strife, anger, joy, hapiness, sorrow, remorse…every human emotion represented…

5. Writing and expressing through psalms were part of ordinary Israelite life…spontaneous expressions to God. Some even found with Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, confirming the tradition.

6. Written for different reasons. Some for personal worship/devotion to God, others for public Worship.

7. Written in a response style, individuals responding to God.

Read Psalm 139  and Proverbs 3

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POETIC BOOK WORKSHEET

The poetical books fall into three major _______________________ of poetry within which the poets used a number of different literary ____________________ to communicate God’s Message.

Review of the three major types of Hebrew Poetry

1. Lyric Poetry -

2. Instructional poetry -

3. Dramatic Poetry -

Rather than Matching sounds, a Hebrew poet was more concerned with ____________________ ___________________________, a technique called “parallelism”.

Since the Hebrew poets wanted mental pictures to pop into the reader’s mind, a prime consideration was __________________ ___________________ _________________, which they accomplished with vivid “figures of speech”.

Self Test (Match the book with the description)

April 1, 2009

Joseph: Jealousy and Integrity

Previous Lessons coming….