Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From dwashbur AT nyx.net =====
>I was wondering about this as I read your analysis.  How likely or possible 
is
>it that poetic structure changed between the time of most BH poetry and the
>Qumran poem you analyzed?  If there was a lot of change, that would render
>O'Connor's approach useless for the Qumran poetry but perhaps useful for the
>BH poetry.

As Ken suggests toward the end of the excerpt (and O'Connor has confirmed 
this 
to me privately), the method, because it is intended to link poetic structure 
to the structure of the language in general, is best restricted to a 
particular dialect. O'Connor does not expect it to work as applied woodenly 
to 
Qumran material; rather, it would require a complete replication of the 
study, 
so that unique features of Qumran syntax were taken into account. This would 
include things like adjusting the line length, but the whole system would 
need 
to be re-evaluated for a different linguistic setting.

Personally, I think O'Connor's system has a lot to commend it. If nothing 
else, it should generally prove enlightening to work out its features on a BH 
poem for comparison purposes. BTW, although O'Connor has added a supplement 
in 
the later edition, I believe the main text remains unchanged from 1980. As 
such, it reflects some ideas that he no longer holds. I think it's safe to 
say 
that the basic approach remains intact in his current teaching, though.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics