Philip Sumpter, «The Coherence of Psalms 15–24», Vol. 94 (2013) 186-209
This article develops recent arguments that Psalms 15–24 constitute a relatively self-contained sub-collection that is chiastically arranged. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the arrangement by attending to three points: 1) the manner in which the content of each psalm is 'expanded' and 'brought forward' in its chiastic parallel; 2) the nature of the relation between the framing psalms (15; 19; 24) and those that intervene; 3) the significance of David and Zion. In short, it argues that the editors were concerned to situate David within his true theological context.
194 PHILIP SUMPTER
to the principles of parallelismus membrorum 25, we can see that a
proper understanding of the semantics of juxtaposition (or parataxis)
holds great potential for helping us grasp the unity of the Psalter.
One final observation needs to be made about a particular char-
acteristic of biblical parallelism before I summarize the implications
this theory should have for our exegesis of Psalms 15–24. Brunner-
Traut defines the decisive characteristics of these poetic “thought
couplets†as “repetition, variation, intensification [Steigerung] and
contrast†26. Robert Alter has analysed the semantics of biblical par-
allelism and concludes that there is a typical pattern that arises when
one reads a text linearly from colon A to colon B (and by extension,
although Alter does not countenance this possibility, from stanza or
psalm A to stanza or psalm B). This movement consists in a “height-
ening or intensification … of focusing, specification, concretization,
even what could be called dramatization†27. Alter characterizes this
“structure of intensification†as “incipiently narrative†28, for it creates
a sense of movement towards a goal. He summarizes this theory in
relation to verse-level parallelism within a psalm as follows:
If […] one recognizes that the semantic orientation of the system
of apparent repetitions […] is toward a focusing, a heightening, a
concretization, a development of meaning, it is possible to see that
the movement generated between versets (i.e. cola) is then carried
on from line to line into the structure of the poem 29.
What are the implications of this approach for our interpretation
of Psalms 15–24?
– First of all, we should seek its unity at the level of what the editors con-
sidered to be the common referent of the individual psalms, a referent
which they sought to elucidate by means of their chiastic juxtaposition.
In other words, how does the juxtaposition of the various messages and
images function to illuminate a single subject matter within its various
dimensions? As stated above, I take this subject matter to be the struggle
of faith within the context of the divine economy.
MILLARD, Komposition. We have already seen this principle above in
25
relation to Psalms 20–21.
BRUNNER-TRAUT, Frühformen des Erkennens, 153.
26
ALTER, Poetry, 19.
27
ALTER, Poetry, 28.
28
ALTER, Poetry, 28.
29
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