James (the supposed brother of Jesus) teaches using many forms of rhetoric in chapter three of his writings. He sure new his rhetorical devices.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
...7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
From the use of metaphor, to parallelism, to even exergasia (it can be argued) this whole chapter is filled with powerful uses of rhetorical devices. Three of which I desire to point out, which are: tautologia, anaphora, and anastrophe.
Tautologia is "the repetition of the same idea in different words, but (often) in a way that is wearisome or unnecessary." This is used in verse seven as James lists the different kind of animals. He could easily have said, all animals have been tamed but instead who chose to emphasize the fact that man has been able to tame all things (in contrast with the lack of ability in taming our own mouths).
Anaphora is used with the simple word, "and" within verse 7 to go even farther in creating an image of contrast. By using the word "and" after every type of animal he emphasizes once again how many things man has tamed only to fail in taming his own tongue.
Finally, anastrophe is used in verse 9 "...bless we God... Curse we men.." allows the reader to really see how grand the gap is between what we choose to say. By putting the verb first, it places emphasizes and added awareness of the opposite nature of these two things.
Great thoughts Mark. Interesting how James speaks of the "power" of speech while using rhetorical devices. It was somewhat difficult to decide on which scripture to use because there are so many good ones. A difficulty I faced was that I would find something, know that it was a topic of invention or part of rhetoric, but couldn't find out which type it was.
ReplyDeleteI found this to be a very unusual post in terms of choice of scripture. However, that isn't to say that I didn't like the choice. I liked how you were able to take something not as commonly known, and still be able to analyze it for its full rhetorical value. I don't know if I would say that it uses Tautologia necessarily, but that just may be me used to the phrasing of scripture. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this. :)
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