Holy men of God spoke and wrote the revelation of God as they were moved by the Spirit of God, but they did not do so in a literary format which was foreign to those who received their words. In the narrative portions of Scripture, the same Holy Spirit of God who breathed out the revelation also used the language and grammar consistent with the narrative literature of the ancient Hebrews. He did not give His revelation in some mystical or incomprehensible fashion, but, in keeping with His purpose to reveal Himself and His will to humanity, He gave it in a format that was readily understood by anyone capable of speaking or reading the language, thus intending that the narrative portions would be interpreted according to the criteria for ancient Hebrew narrative.
The ancient Hebrew, however, was not limited to the narrative style in his communications; he was equally capable in the ancient Hebrew parallelistic writing style usually referred to as "ancient Hebrew poetry." Those men and women of ancient days were not only aware that both narrative and parallelistic styles existed, they were also able to communicate and understand both formats, even when the two literary styles were intermingled with one another. The manner in which the Hebrew Scriptures flow back and forth from one style to the other, sometimes even appearing to blend the two together, indicates that this literary flexibility was developed to a very high degree. Even a cursory analysis of the Scriptures reveals this ability in the writers:
Genesis - Esther: Often referred to as "Law" and "History," these 17 books are generally historical in nature, but they also contain much material written in God's parallelistic structure. Various texts, songs, and special statements are recorded in parallelism and must be interpreted accordingly. The holy men of God who recorded these books interspersed parallelistic passages among their narrative writings, expecting full understanding on the part of their readers.
Job - Song of Solomon: Often referred to as the "Poetic Books," the holy men of God who recorded these five books used the Creator's parallelistic structure almost entirely. They are also often characterized as "wisdom literature," because of the great volume of wisdom for daily living and knowing God that is available through accurate interpretation and application of their parallelism.
Isaiah - Malachi: Typically designated the "Prophetic Books," these writings, with the exception of Daniel and other substantial narrative portions, are primarily written in parallelistic structure. Thus, full and accurate interpretation of the wisdom and theology which these holy men built into these books requires a full and accurate knowledge and application of the Creator's parallelistic writing style.
The inescapable fact is that the Holy Spirit of God moved His ancient writers to inscribe much of the OT revelation in the literary style now called ancient Hebrew parallelism.
The composition rules which govern ancient Hebrew parallelistic writing ("poetry") differ from those used for narrative writing ("prose"), and thus, the parallelism of the Scriptures must be interpreted according to the criteria which governed the writers. Writers of poetry often employ grammatical forms and constructions which are somewhat unusual and may even appear to violate that which is acceptable in normal speech and writing. They also use various modes of expression to arouse the reader or to vividly depict something or to make their words especially memorable. The words themselves are chosen with great care for their relationships to one another so that they convey their messages and truths very specifically. Writers may choose to use a poetic format to express truths which are perceived only by thoughtful and careful correlation of all the words and grammatical structures they used. The ancient Hebrew poetry of Scripture displays all these characteristics, but its primary characteristic is its parallelism, and it must be interpreted accordingly.
Despite their differences, poetic and narrative material share many features which may make them appear similar, so similar that they seem to invite the reader to interpret poetry just as though it were narrative. Such interpretation practice is very dangerous in that it may result in conclusions which are far from the author’s intentions. When the material is some insignificant poem or song, such error may not be of importance, but when it is the revelation of God, then the error literally becomes a matter of life and death. Clearly, the supreme value of God’s poetical revelation demands thorough and accurate understanding, understanding that is achieved by interpreting that revelation as what it is: ancient Hebrew parallelistic writing.
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