Biblical Style in the Spanish Golden Age: parallelismus membrorum and the Poets

Although Spanish medieval and Golden Age poets knew on the authority of St Jerome that certain books of the Old Testament were written in verse – 'David cantó en metro la victoria de los filisteos e la restitución del archa del Testamento e todos los cinco libros del Salterio', wrote Santillana (Gómez Moreno 1990: 53 and notes pp. 107–110) – it was not until Bishop Robert Lowth published his lectures in De sacra poesi Hebraeorum in 1753 that Christendom learned that the basis of Hebrew metre was what Lowth called 'parallelismus membrorum'. As Lowth describes it,

The poetical conformation of the sentences, which has been so often alluded to as characteristic of the Hebrew poetry, consists chiefly in a certain quality, resemblance, or parallelism between the members of each period; so that in two lines (or members of the same period) things for the most part shall answer to things, and words to words, as if fitted to each other by a kind of rule or measure […] It may […] on the whole be said to consist of three species. The first species is the synonymous parallelism, when the same sentiment is repeated in different, but equivalent terms.

(Lowth 1787: II, 34–45)

He cites Ps. 114:

When Israel went out of Egypt;The house of Jacob from a strange people:Judah was as his sacred heritage:Israel his dominion.

We might present the structure schematically:¹

When Israel [1a] / went out of Egypt [2a];The house of Jacob [1b] / from a strange people [2b]:Judah [3a]/ was as his sacred heritage [4a]:Israel [3b] / his dominion [4b].

That is, 'Israel' and 'The house of Jacob' mean the same (or broadly the same) thing; 'went out of Egypt' is synonymous with '[went out] from a strange people'. The equivalence 'out of Egypt' and 'from a strange people' exemplifies a common feature of parallelismus membrorum, whereby the specific 'Egypt' is aligned with the generic or metonymic 'strange people'.

Lowth's second type was antithetic parallelism. He cites Prov. 27: 67:

The blows of a friend are faithful;But the kisses of an enemy are treacherous.The cloyed will trample upon an honey-comb;But to the hungry every thing is sweet.

Expressed schematically:

The blows of a friend [1a] / are faithful [2a];But the kisses of an enemy [1b] / are treacherous [2b].The cloyed [3a] / will trample upon an honey-comb [4a];But to the hungry [3b] / every thing is sweet [4b].

Lowth continues:

There is a third species of parallelism, in which the sentences answer to each other, not by the iteration of the same image or sentiment, or the opposition of their contraries, but merely by the form of construction. To this, which may be called the Synthetic or Constructive parallelism, may be referred all such as do not come within the two former classes.

(Lowth 1787: II, 48–49)

He cites Ps. 19:8:

The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul;The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.

Or schematically:

The law of Jehovah is perfect [1a], / restoring the soul [2a];The testimony of Jehovah is sure [1b], / making wise the simple [2b].

Although Lowth's third category has the weakness of being a catch-all, we may discern a general synonymy of 'restoring the soul' and 'making wise the simple', in which 'making wise the simple' may be seen as a specific instance of 'restoring the soul'.

In the twentieth century, Lowth's schema is modified by Robert Alter:

Now the greatest stumbling block in approaching biblical poetry has been the misconception that parallelism implies synonymity, saying the same thing twice in different words […] By my count, however, […] instances of nearly synonymous restatement occur in less than a quarter of the lines of verse of the biblical corpus. […] A general term in the first half of the line is typically followed by a specific instance of the general category in the second half; or again, a literal statement in the verset becomes a metaphor or hyperbole in the second […].

(Alter 1987: 615; see also Alter...