Assignment: Analyzing Biblical Eloquence

My students have been reading St. Augustine's On Christian Doctrine. Augustine discusses and analyzes the eloquence of scripture. We will do the same. Here is their assignment (for Friday, November 14 or Saturday, November 15, 2014):

Find an eloquent or poetic passage from the Bible which you comment on rhetorically. Look for passages that are appealing not because of their content or doctrinal importance necessarily, but because of their pleasing expression. The passage you choose should be paraphrased and/or quoted and briefly analyzed.

In essence, I'm asking you to do something similar to what Augustine models in Books III and IV when he observes and analyzes scriptural eloquence. For another example of him doing this, read ahead to Book IV Chapter 7 (pp. 77, paragraph 11). Be sure that you both identify one or two rhetorical elements and then discuss their significance -- why the rhetorical elements are needed for the author or speaker to make his or her point, or why knowing these rhetorical aspects improves our ability to understand that passage, or what the function or effect is of this form of expression. The passage you analyze need not be long. See the example below as a guide.

Two cautions:

• Avoid merely observing the use of parables or symbols. Don't explain to us that Jesus meant "look after people" when he said "feed my sheep." It's okay to look at metaphors and other forms of comparison, but do more than just identify well known correspondences like baptism being representative of going into the grave and then being resurrected. Also, do not do an allegorical reading yourself ("The children of Israel wandering in the desert were a type of the human condition"). Such readings tend to focus more on content than on expression. Look for eloquent expression and its function.

• Please diversify your passages and your approaches. Read what others are writing so that you don't use the same Bible passages. Do get ideas from one another about analyzing, but I do not want to read 20 posts that all focus on metaphor. If you are using terms that others use, attempt to do a novel approach to your use of the term.

Example Post #1
[note, as prep I just browsed marked passages in my Bible and then tried to see if I could identify any rhetorical patterns or figures of speech. In this case, I noted a lot of repetition. I looked up figures of repetition on Silva Rhetoricae]

"Praise ye the Lord," begins Psalm 150. The word "praise" is then repeated 12 different times, all but once at the beginning of each verse or sentence of the psalm. This is known as "anaphora." I'll arrange the psalm in such a way as to make this repetition clear:

Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary:
praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts:
praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet:
praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance:
praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals:
praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord

If I didn't know the genre of this writing (a psalm is a song), I might have thought all that repetition was overdone. Instead, it contributes to a rhythm across the whole psalm and makes the words themselves musical. Also In this case, it isn't just the repeated words that suggest music, many of the actual verses refer to praise being done via music (with a trumpet, harp, etc.). The structure of this passage (as a psalm with lots of repetition) makes me feel the enthusiasm of the speaker and the musical nature of it associates praise with a group of people (like a choir). Praise happens well alongside other people. It's like a musical ensemble, or it literally is.

Example Post #2
[This one demonstrates analyzing a longer passage]

Many stories are told in the Bible, but what makes some of them really eloquent and compelling is the use of various rhetorical devices working together. An example is Acts 27, the story of Paul getting shipwrecked. As encouraged in the progymnasmata method, "narrative," stories can be amplified for effect by adding descriptions and by adding dialogue. Both of these methods are used in the shipwreck story.

As far as descriptions go, the weather is given vivid description--there arose a "tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon"; and later, the darkness is made vivid by saying they couldn't see sun or stars for days. The storm is described as "no small tempest." This uses a form of exaggeration called "litotes" (by negating the opposite). So, instead of it being a "big storm" it is described as "no small tempest." All of these vivid descriptions and exaggeration increase the drama.

Related to description is the use of division, a topic of invention. Here, the larger story of the shipwreck is broken down and described as a lot of individual actions, creating a dramatic scene that draws us in emotionally:

15 And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.
16 And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat:
17 Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.
18 And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
19 And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
20 And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.

The other method that is recommended in the progymnasmata exercise "narrative" is adding dialogue. Dialogue makes things more present and brings to life characters.  The power of direct speech is actually doubled in this section, where Paul speaks and then reports the actual words told him by an angel. I've reformatted these verses to indicate the dialogue more clearly:

But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, "Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, 'Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Cæsar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.' Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.  Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island."

If description, division, and dialogue had not been used, this dramatic story of a shipwreck would not have worked on the imagination of readers as much emotionally, and they would have been less invested in Paul than they are from reading this amplified version.