Preaching the Poetry of the Old Testament

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Preaching the Poetry of the Old Testament

• by
• Knut M. Heim

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Part 1 The Theological Power of Poetry
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The Old Testament

• Old Testament - Hebrew Bible - First
  Testament...?
• The Old Testament makes up two thirds of the
  Christian Bible
• Between 30 and 50 per cent of the Old Testament
  are poetry

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The Old Testament

• The new New Testament
• Where is the GOOD News in the Old Testament?
• Where is Jesus in the Old Testament, and how
  important is he anyway?
• How we talk about God

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Poetry - the Language of God

• How the Bibles poetry works
• Parallelism
• Imagery
• Metaphors
• Ambiguity
• Everything just to slow you down...

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What has been written with imagination must be
read with imagination. (Luis Alonso Schökel)
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Part 2 Preaching Poetry
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Preaching fromthe Psalms

• What are the poetic books and texts in the Bible?
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Job
• Ecclesiastes
• Song of Songs
• Poems in narrative texts

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Preaching from Ecclesiastes

• Ecclesiastes 31-15

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Preaching from Song of Songs

• Allegory of divine love or
• Love-song about human love or
• both?

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Preaching from the Psalms

• Psalm 137

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Preaching from Proverbs

• Proverbs 1122
• Proverbs 8

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Preaching from Job

• Structure
• Preaching with the bigger picture in mind

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Preaching from Poetic Parts of Narrative Texts

• Genesis 1, 2 and 3

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Bibliography

• Alonso Schökel, Luis, A Manual of Hebrew Poetics.
  Vol. 11, Subsidia Biblica. Rome Editrice
  Pontifico Istituto Biblico, 1988.
• Bos, Rein, We Have Heard That God Is with You
  Preaching the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.
  William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008.