Home >> Hobbies >> Reading

How to Discover Parallelism in the Psalms

Biblical Hebrew poetry uses parallelism to highlight thoughts and add balance to the verses as they relate to each other. Three main devices used in the Psalms are synonymous, antithetic and synthetic. Bishop Robert Lowth coined the word "parallelism" when he discovered the three main categories in the early 1750s.

Things You'll Need

Psalms
Bible

Instructions

- 1
  Look for synonymous parallelism, where the second line of a verse expresses similar thoughts and statements as the first. Examples can be found in Psalm 19:1 and 24:2.
- 2
  Find antithetic parallelism in verses where a thought expressed in one line contrasts in the next line with an opposite truth. See Psalm 1:6.
- 3
  Discover synthetic parallelism in a verse that has the second line adding to the information contained in the first. See Psalm 119:11.
- 4
  Look for climatic parallelism, where the thought in the first line builds to a climax over several verses. Read Psalm 8:3-4 for this progression.
- 5
  Uncover introverted parallelism in verses where the thoughts alternate in an ABBA pattern of poetry-t-he first line related to the fourth and second with the third. Note Psalm 91:14.

Reading