Jesus the poet
This is the first in a series of articles which will look at the various
teaching methods used by Jesus and why it’s important to understand
these methods in order to have a clear understanding of His message.
This series of articles will include the following:
1. Jesus the poet
2. Jesus’ use of humour
3. Jesus’ use of figures of speech
4. Interpreting the parables
5. Teaching through miracles
6. Direct encounters with individuals
Jesus was undoubtedly an interesting speaker. Large crowds followed
him, sometimes travelling long distances and going without food
so they would not miss a word. His audience were impressed by
the way in which He taught, as well as by His message and His
unique personality. The reason He drew large crowds was a combination
of what He taught, who He was, and how He
taught. These articles will look at how these three things were
woven token to produce the most powerful message every taught.
JESUS THE POET Hebrew poetry is
quite different to English poetry. For example, English poetry
tends to rely on similar sounds while Hebrew poetry relies
on similar thoughts. While English poets might be looking
for words which sound the same, Hebrew poets would be looking
for different words which express similar ideas. Consequently,
English poetry makes extensive use of rhyming and wordplays, while
Hebrew poetry uses sometimes complex techniques for setting ideas
against each other. We call this Hebrew poetic device parallelism
because ideas are set against each other in parallel lines.
There are several different ways of using parallelism and
the following examples range from simple and fairly obvious ones
through to more complex forms. all the examples are taken from
Jesus’ own teachings although the Old Testament contains large
amounts of Hebrew poetry, including almost whole books (such as
Psalms, Job and Isaiah). Simple parallelism where one thought
is expressed and then represented in one or more ways in subsequent
lines is called Synonymous Parallelism. Here is
a simple example where one thought is expressed in three different
ways:
1. If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
2. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
3. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand;
his end has come. (Mark 3:24-26)
Here is a another example: But I tell you who hear me:
1. Love your enemies, 2. do good to those who hate you, 3.
bless those who curse you, 4. pray for those who mistreat you.
(Luke 6:27-28) Sometimes the parallelism can run into
two or more verses, where the second and subsequent verses return to
the parallelism in the first verse and build on it. Here is a good example:
1. Ask and it will be given to you;
2. seek and you will find;
3. knock and the door will be opened to you. 1. For everyone
who asks receives; 2. he who seeks finds;
3. and to him who knocks the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)
The above verses are examples of parallelism where the same or
synonymous thoughts are repeated. Sometimes contrasting
thoughts are paralleled, and this is called Antithetical Parallelism
as in the following examples where the second line stands in
contrast to the first. 1. For whoever wants to
save his life will lose it, 2.
but whoever wants to lose his life for me and the gospel
will save it. (Mark 8:35) Notice how
Jesus uses the words “save” and “lose” in both lines but simply reverses
the positioning so that the two statements are contrasted. The
following example is similar: 1. Whoever can be trusted
with very little can also be trusted with much, 2.
and whoever is dishonest with very little will also
be dishonest with much. (Luke 16:10)
Here the words “very little” and “much” stand in the same positions
in both lines, but the words “trusted” and “dishonest” are set in contrast.
The parallelism can become more complex as both synonymous and
contrasting thoughts are woven together. An example of this is Inverted
Parallelism and the following verses use a form of inversion
where the first and last lines are related, and the middle lines are
contrasted.
A1 Whoever exalts himself
B1 will he humbled
B2 and whoever humbles himself
A2 will be exalted. (Matthew
23:12)
Here the first and last lines (A1 and A2) use the words “exalt”
and “exalted” while the middle lines (B1 and B2) contrast these
by using the words “humbled” and “humbles”. Using an earlier
example we can see that there is an element of inversion within
a tight poetic structure.
A1 Whoever wants to save his life
B1 will lose it,
B2 but whoever loses his life for me
and the gospel
A2 will save it. (Mark 8:35)
The first and last lines are similar (“save”); the second and third
are a contrast (“lose”). A final example of inverted parallelism
demonstrates how by understanding that Jesus sometimes used poetry
we can make sense of a difficult verse.
A1 Do not give dogs what is sacred;
B1 do not throw your pearls to pigs.
B2 If you do they may trample them under their feet,
A2 and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matthew
7:6)
If we read this as prose we are faced with the difficulty that Jesus
appears to be saying that pigs will trample the pearls under their feet
and then turn and attack the person who threw them. This would be uncharacteristic
behaviour for pigs and it’s puzzling why Jesus would say this. However,
seen as poetry it is clear that the first and last lines (A1 and A2)
are about dogs and the middle lines (B1 and B2)
are about pigs. It is the dogs who “turn and tear you
to pieces”, not the pigs, and this makes perfect sense. When
we are faced with a saying of Jesus which is initially difficult to
understand, we should ask the question “is He using poetry?” It’s possible
that we will discover an explanation simply by reading the text as verse
rather than prose. For example, in John 7:37-38 Jesus says “If anyone
is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in
me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from
within him.” This gives the impression that Scripture teaches that streams
of living water will flow from within the person who believes in Jesus.
This would appear to be consistent with what Jesus said in John 4:13-14
(“... the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.”) However, the difficulty lies in the words “as
the Scripture has said” because John 4 was not then “Scripture” (as
John still hadn’t finished writing this gospel) and there is no other
Scripture which teaches that “living water” would flow from the believer.
The NIV offers an alternative construction of these verses in
a footnote, and suggests that this could be a use of poetry. If so,
it would be an example of synonymous parallelism, as follows.
1 If anyone is thirsty,
2 let him come to me.
1 And let him drink,
2 who believes in me. As the Scripture has said ...
So, reading the first and third lines together, and the third and fourth
lines together (i.e. as prose rather than poetry), we have “If anyone
is thirsty, let him drink. And let him come to me, who believes in me.”
Then the words which follow (“As the Scripture has said ...”) would
be a comment or explanation about this. “Streams of living water will
flow from within him” would be referring to Jesus as
the source of living water (“... will flow from within Him” ie. from
Jesus). This makes perfect sense in the context because the believer
is being invited to come to Jesus to drink of Him. So, is there a Scripture
which teaches this? (“As the scripture has said ...”) There are
several possibilities, but it’s helpful to note that John says in verse
37 that these words were said by Jesus “on the last day of the Feast
(of Tabernacles)”. As part of the celebrations on this day a priest
would take water from the stream of Siloah which flowed from under the
Temple mountain and pour it from golden vessels onto the altar. At this
precise moment the words of Isaiah 12:3 were sung: “With joy you will
draw water from the wells of salvation”. There are allusions
here to several other Scriptures as well, including Isaiah 55:1 (“Come,
all you who are thirsty, come to the waters”), Isaiah 44:3-4, and the
references in Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Zechariah 14:8 to the “living water”
which flows from beneath the Temple. When Jesus said “as the
Scripture has said” He may have been referring to the words being sung
at that time in the Temple (Isaiah 12:3) or the large body of Scriptural
material on this theme and not to any one Scriptural text. It’s important
to notice that many of these Scriptures refer to water as symbolic of
the Spirit of God (e.g. Isaiah 44:3-4 “For I will pour water
on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out
my Spirit on your offspring”) and John’s explanation of Jesus’ words
in the next verse “By this he meant the Spirit, which those who believed
in him were later to receive.” So, by reading these lines in
John 7:38 as poetry we see that Jesus was using the occasion
in the Temple when water from beneath the Temple was being poured on
the altar, and the choir was signing about the “wells of salvation”,
to draw their attention to Himself as the source of the Spirit for believers.
