Thursday, November 13, 2014

Eloquence and Isaiah: Parallelism, Synonymia, and Repetition in Isaiah 53:5


            Isaiah 53:5 states, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”  

Parallelism

             I noticed chiefly here that the majority of eloquence, beauty and pleasing manner of the verse occurred through parallelism.  I noticed through the parallelism that the structure goes for the first two clauses, “He was helping verb for our plural noun.”  Thus we have a classic clausal parallelism in two adjacent clauses. 

Synonymia             

Furthermore, we see synonymia, which is the use of several synonyms together to amplify or explain a given subject or term.  In this verse we understand that wounded and bruised, transgressions and iniquities, and chastisement and stripes are basically synonymous in this context.  The use of synonymia adds emotional force, repeating the horrible and amazing truth that the Savior was hurt for our sins.  Furthermore, it adds a type of intelligence to the verse.  It would be much simpler to say simple that Jesus died to forgive our sins, but by adding various synonyms for hurt, sins, and chastisement, we are compelled twice to analyze the meaning behind the words in a more intellectual manner than a more simple construction would yield.

Repetition

Repetition is the final stylistic idea that I thought was a major part of this verse that added to its eloquence.  Its anaphora (if we ignore the “but” at the beginning of the verse) of “he was” adds emphasis on Jesus and is pleasing and musical to the ear.  There is a certain rhythm overall to this verse and the repetition throughout of “he” throughout the verse adds a consistency and rhythm to the verse.  Clearly, Isaiah was aiming not only to instruct in this verse but to please through eloquence.  This verse is most definitely Middle Style.

2 comments:

  1. I like your point about the intelligence of the verse. It would be easier to skip over the verse if it hadn't had that synonymia, but with that you are forced to slow down and really consider what is being taught. Very insightful, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like the word "but" to start this verse, because then when you read this verse in isolation (such as in this post) as the reader you are reminded that there was another option. Jesus Christ didn't have to suffer for us, it was avoidable. But, the cost was all of us. The "but" reminds us that He wasn't compelled. . . He chose to sacrifice for us. He chose to hurt for us. He chose to hurt for me, and knowing it was a choice changes my perception on the description provided in the rest of the verse as to how he was hurt. I now play a part. Those wounds, bruises, chastisements, and stripes- I am not independent of those events. For the purpose of anaphora, the exclusion of the word would be nice; however, I really appreciate the reminder its inclusion provides. (I'm not sure if there is a term to describe this, I searched everywhere on Silva Rhetorica)

    ReplyDelete