[B-Greek] Psalms and Greek poetry

Trevor Peterson abuian at access4less.net
Fri Feb 11 21:29:02 EST 2005


Albert Pietersma wrote:
> 
> You seem to have answered your own question. Since Hebrew poetry differs 
> from Hebrew prose and since Septuagint translations are typically formal 
> correspondence/equivalence translations,  features of Hebrew poetry are 
> often carried over in to Greek. BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE GREEK POETRY,

Of course.

> nor 
> for that matter do such literary devices as assonance and alliteration, 
> EVEN WHEN THESE APPEAR IN THE GREEK TEXT WITHOUT WARRANT IN THE SOURCE 
> TEXT. One should bear in mind, however, that the Hellenistic culture was 
> still very much an oral culture in which to be it remained an ideal to 
> be regarded "a doer of deeds and A SPEAKER OF WORDS." Recall the role of 
> rhetoric from the classical period onward. No great surprise then that 
> even translationese partakes at times of the literary features.
> But since the question was about Greek POETRY and not about Greek 
> literary style in general the answer to your initial question remains, 
> No—not in my view.

Thanks. I see your point.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics



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