Ep. 126 | 123 John Part 6: Poetry in an Epistle? | Jesse Turkington
Speaker: Jesse Turkington
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Summary
123 John Part 6
Jesse shares his findings on John's poetic affirmations. In a letter full of instruction and straightforward speaking, why does John turn to poetry to communicate further facts?
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Scriptures Explored: 1 John 2:12-17 & John 14:6-7.
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You can reach Jesse at: jesse@parableministries.com
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Music created by Chad Hoffman
Artwork created by Anthony Kuenzi
Speaker’s Bio
Jesse Turkington is the executive director of Parable Ministries and has been a Bible teacher since 2014. When Jesse was just finishing high school, he started a little Bible study at his parent’s house. Little did he know, this Bible study would change the direction of his life. He fell in love with the richness of the Bible and he wanted to pursue serious study. About 10 years later, Jesse still carries that passion for the Bible and from this passion was born Parable Ministries - a Bible teaching resource. Jesse believes that the Bible is a life changing book and that it can transform the way we view the world.
Transcript
Intro:
Hey there, welcome to Pickled Parables. This podcast is presented by Parable Ministries as a Bible teaching resource. Thank you for joining us. Pickled Parables is a podcast about taking in and living out the Bible. Here we will study, contemplate and testify to the Bible's incredible teachings and how it leads us to live better lives. To stay up to date with all things parable, follow us on Instagram at parable underscore ministries and visit our website at parableministries.com. We hope today's message finds you well.
Message:
Well, hello, everyone.
Welcome back to Pickled Parables.
My name is Jesse, and we will be continuing our book study of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John today by looking at 1 John 2 verses 12 through 17.
I recently presented a lesson on the previous paragraph of this study.
That episode is titled A New Commandment, with the main point being, taking inspiration from Jesus' teachings, and John prompts his readers to remember the example of Christ and to follow through on his command to love one another, as I have loved you.
So far in this letter, John has set up the foundation of Christ's work, position and role in the Christian's life, while addressing the responsibilities and practices that Christians should respond with.
As we enter the midpoint of chapter 2 here, we find an acknowledgement of the past content, with a transition to further instruction.
This acknowledgement is presented in a poetic-like structure, while the transition holds a peculiar secret.
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.
I am writing to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you children, because you know the father.
I write to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires.
But whoever does the will of God abides forever.
This is a fascinating passage to explore, because it brings up so many questions for me as a Bible teacher.
It's like finding a bunker door in the middle of a field.
It's mysterious.
My first reaction is why is this here?
This document is an epistle.
It's a letter.
It's written primarily in prose.
It's direct with what it's trying to communicate.
And it's written in what was normal everyday speech.
This passage is presented right at a transition point from one topic to another.
And I believe there is purpose in this poetic-like structure.
Now, I would like to open this bunker door and take you with me down this rabbit hole, because I am entirely intrigued by what the author is trying to do.
So this lesson will be a little different.
Rather than being direct and concise with my main point, I'm going to show you my research.
A peek behind the curtain, if you will.
And we'll just make observations until the end.
So with that, let's open up this curious door and hop inside.
Again, our focus is 1 John 2 verses 12 through 17.
So let me begin by dissecting our passage in the bite size chunks.
First we'll observe verses 12 through 14, and then we'll go to verses 15 to 17.
In verses 12 to 14, we have a list of three repeated twice.
I am writing to you little children, I am writing to you fathers, and I am writing to you young men.
Then it repeats with an errorous tense of I write to you children, I write to you fathers, and I write to you young men.
I will note that I am presenting this in the English standard version, the ESV, however in a little bit we'll get directly into the Greek.
Beyond this slight change, there are some additional differences between the repeated lines.
I'm going to list the repeated lines here side by side so that we can hear it.
I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.
Jumping down to verse 13, I write to you children, because you know the father.
I am writing to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Here's a list of questions I have from this.
In the listing of generations, why is it children, fathers and young men, when it makes more sense, at least in my mind, to follow the path of maturity, like children, young men and fathers?
My second question is, why does this repeat with sometimes connecting information, sometimes identical information, and sometimes developmental information?
I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.
I write to you children, because you know the father.
Listen to how Jesus connects these two statements from John chapter 14.
Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father except through me.
If you had known me, you would have known my father also.
From now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.
This idea of having your sins forgiven through Jesus, and knowing the father, are interconnected for all who sat under Jesus' teachings.
This parallel leads to the same thing.
Those who know Jesus and his saving work, know the father.
Then we have for the fathers, I am writing to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
These are identical statements, save for the eros tense.
Then we have the young men.
I am writing to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
This seems developmental.
It's the same thing, but more is added the second time, and everything that's added is in line with what was said before.
You have overcome the evil one, and because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, you have overcome the evil one.
Those additives are two criteria for how the young men have overcome the evil one.
They are strong, and the word of God abides in them, thus they have overcome the evil one.
Now, my third question is, is this a poem or some kind of song?
You can tell that people are unsure about this based on our different English translations.
I read through 10 different English translations of this passage, and 6 of them indented this paragraph, while 4 of them left it structured like everything else around it.
Indenting in the Bible is a way of noting that this is a quote from somewhere else, or that this is poetry.
A good way to think of it is like a psalm, and how that has that unique structure where some of those sentences stick out more than the others.
So those are my three basic questions.
It really boils down to this.
Is this intended poetry, or is the author simply repeating himself for added emphasis?
So this leads me to look at the author, his background, and what type of poetry he might have been influenced by.
In this book study, we are taking the position that this epistle is from the Apostle John, possibly in partnership with an amanuensis, or someone who wrote the letter on his behalf, as was commonly practiced during that time.
With this coming from the Apostle John, we know that he was a Hebrew who grew up in Galilee, most likely knowing how to speak, in at least some capacity, the languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Hebrew is the native language of the Hebrews.
Aramaic is similar to Hebrew, as they were both Semitic languages.
It's kind of like the same idea as Spanish and French being familiar.
They're different.
They're different languages, but they can sometimes share words with each other.
During Israel's exile to Babylon, Aramaic became the language of the people, as that was the language spoken by the Babylonians.
We even have the effect of that in our Bibles, as large portions of Daniel and a few chapters of Ezra are written in Aramaic, as those books were written during the exile.
Even in the Book of Nehemiah, we have a lament about how the Hebrew language was being forgotten by its own people because of their subjugation.
So, rules were put into place to practice certain prayers in Hebrew and keep that language alive.
Honestly, the history of the Hebrew language is quite interesting, as it's almost died a couple of times throughout history, but still manages to become revived.
So, during the time of Jesus' life, Aramaic was still the common language of the people, with Hebrew being a sacred language.
It's similar in the idea of how old Catholic churches would perform their services in Latin.
Hebrew was kept alive through religious practice.
So, the Hebrew language was known at that time, it just wasn't the street language.
And if we took the time, we could see several examples from the Gospels of Jesus talking to average people in Aramaic.
Even his last cry on the cross is in Aramaic, yet it's speculated that his sermon on the mount was in Hebrew.
That's a different rabbit hole that we could go down, but since it's filled with speculation, we're just going to mention that and keep going down our current path.
Even though Aramaic was the street language during John's time, Hebrew was the revered scripture language.
Now, the influence of Greek also played a role in this culture.
Once Alexander the Great conquered the known world, Greek became important as the trading language, kind of like how English is today.
Once the Romans conquered the world, they left Greek as the commerce language because it was already known far and wide.
So, Greek played a big role in the gospel's advancement as it was already known by many different people groups.
This is the language that the New Testament was written in.
And I believe that this was part of the fullness of time meaning for Jesus' arrival because this was really the first time in human history, or since the Tower of Babel, that a lot of the world was connected or reconnected through common language so that the gospel could advance at an unhindered rate.
Greek was so prevalent that the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, was translated in the Greek so that more people could access it.
This translation was called the Septuagint, and this was something that even Jesus quoted from.
So this epistle is from the Apostle John and written in the Greek language, possibly with the help of an amanuensis, but the unique aspect comes from John's multicultural background.
So the question becomes, if this passage is poetry, what kind of poetry is it?
Allow me to highlight a few differences between Aramaic poetry, Hebrew poetry, and Greek poetry.
Aramaic poetry comes from the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization.
The people among the Fertile Crescent developed some of the first writings, cities, and man, they had some serious agricultural sophistication.
Ancient Aramaic developed in this area, as did the many neighboring Semitic languages, such as Hebrew.
Now, despite the advancement of writing and cartography, drawing in clay or wax or mixing paints that you could put on a wall, oral transmission was still the main form of communication.
So as languages continued through time alongside the growing use of notation, the etymology of these languages began to reflect a vibrant visual view of the world.
The way they used their words produced vivid mental images.
Some of the oldest surviving works of poetry are poems in the Sumerian language.
These poems rely primarily on repetition for poetic effect.
Now, the Sumerian language is not a Semitic language.
However, it does seem to have influenced all of ancient Mesopotamian poetry that came after it.
For instance, Iana's Descent Into the Underworld is a poem about the Sumerian goddess Iana in the Sumerian language that was most likely composed during the Third Dynasty of Ur.
Let me read just a few lines of this poem from the ETCSL's translation into English.
From the great heaven she set her mind on the great below.
From the great heaven the goddess set her mind on the great below.
From the great heaven Iana set her mind on the great below.
My mistress abandoned heaven, abandoned earth, and descended to the underworld.
Iana abandoned heaven, abandoned earth, and descended to the underworld.
She took the seven divine powers, she collected the divine powers, and grasped them with her hand.
With the good divine powers she went on her way.
She put a turban, headgear, for the open country on her head.
She took a wig for her forehead.
She hung small lapis lazuli beads around her neck.
As you could hear just from these few lines, repetition is a key marker for this poetry.
Now, later poetry in the other Mesopotamian languages follows in this same vein of relying heavily on repetition.
For instance, here are the first few lines of the standard Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which the Babylonian scribe Sin Laki Unini compiled.
He who saw the deep, the foundation of the country, who knew all ways, was wise in everything.
Gilgamesh, who saw the deep, the foundation of the country, who knew all ways, was wise in everything.
He explored everywhere the seats of power.
He knew the totality of wisdom about everything.
He saw the secret and uncovered the hidden.
He brought back a message from the Antediluvian age.
Now, while this was written in the Akkadian language by the Babylonians, Aramaic is what replaced their standard language by the time of the Judean exile.
So repetitious delivery is indicative of this cultural language.
Now, in regards to Hebrew poetry, repetition is also practiced.
However, there is a high emphasis on parallelism or synonymous ideas.
An easy way to think of this is, instead of rhyming words, like in English, they like to rhyme ideas.
This was often done with figurative imagery or hyperbole, thus the territorial marker of poetry, but it often communicated clear observable facts.
Let me share an example.
This is from Psalm chapter 19.
Just listen along as I read this in the ESV.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun.
Which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
This small passage is packed with parallelism.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
That's the same thing, it's just said differently.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are their words, whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
This is developmental parallelism, where each line develops the idea more and more, while being similar to what was said before.
There's much more that we could mine from this paragraph, but we'll just leave it there for the sake of time.
This type of poetry strikes a chord with me personally.
It's beautiful.
It is.
The Psalms is a place where many people go in times of depression or heartache, because it delivers such vivid and comforting imagery, even in another language.
That's one of the coolest things about Hebrew poetry and other Semitic poetry, is that it translates well into other languages, because it's not rhyming native words, but universal ideas with repetition.
Now, in comparison, ancient Greek poetry is inherently technical within its own language, similar to English, with a focus on having a set meter for poetic effect.
Modern metrical poetry is poetry that uses a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, which is called meter, to create rhythm and flow.
An example of this can come from Edgar Allan Poe, once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.
It sounds great, that has a nice flow, it's very rhythmic as you read it out loud, but for the ancient Greeks, their metrical poetry was a bit different, because it depended on syllable length, rather than the stressed and unstressed syllables.
Both the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer were written in this type of poetic structure.
And I have a recording here by a professor, David Chamberlain, reading the first few verses of the Iliad in its original Greek.
Listen along for the rhythm, as Professor Chamberlain reads.
As you could hear, the words don't rhyme, but there is a rhythm to it.
Having this set meter is what differentiated poetry from prose within Ancient Greek.
Unfortunately, it just doesn't translate well into other languages.
If I were to read those same verses in English, it would sound like this.
Seeing goddess, the godlike wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, that psychopathic wrath, that caused countless pains for the Achaeans, it hurled the Hades' many precious lives of warriors.
Greek poetry, while inherently technical, just doesn't translate well into other languages.
It becomes a simple narrative instead of a stylized poem.
So, as we circle back now to 1 John chapter 2, we find a letter written in the Greek language by the Apostle John, a man with a multicultural background, possibly written with the help of an amanuensis, or someone who helped pen the epistle.
So far in this letter, John has set up the foundation of Christ's work, position and role in the Christian's life, while addressing the responsibilities and practices that Christians should respond with.
As we enter chapter 2, verse 12, we find an acknowledgement of the past content with a transition to further instruction.
This acknowledgement is presented in a poetic-like structure, while the transition holds a peculiar secret of its own.
I believe that verses 12 through 14 act as a blinking light, summarizing the content that came before it.
This blinking light, a poem written in Greek, seems to bear an Aramaic repetitive structure.
I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.
I am writing to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you children, because you know the father.
I write to you fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Meanwhile, verses 15 through 17, transition the topic towards the next part of the letter.
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the father, but is from the world.
And the world is passing away, along with its desires.
But whoever does the will of God, abides forever.
This paragraph, verses 15 through 17, while impossible to see in English, consists of three strophes, which are structural divisions with an ancient Greek poetry.
This letter of 1 John is commonly accepted to have been written for the churches of Asia Minor, an audience which spoke both Greek and Aramaic.
My attempted theory, then, is that John is appealing to those who knew both Greek and Aramaic by crafting two poems.
The first poem, while written in Greek, consists of an Aramaic poetry type style, and the second being a proper Greek poem.
John has a history of including multiple cultures within his writings, so this isn't a far-fetched proposition.
Now, this doesn't answer all of my questions that I raised at the beginning, but it does offer an explanation for this peculiar transition.
Suffice it to say, these two poems serve as an acknowledgement and a transition.
The first poem could be summarized as, I am writing to you, little children, you fathers and you young men, so that you know the assurance of your salvation.
And the second poem, which turns our attention to something new, do not love the world or the things in the world.
Because all that is in the world is not from the Father whom you know intimately through Jesus Christ.
Rather, abide with the Father by doing his will.
Those are my summarizations for these two poems.
One poem looks back to wrap up what has been said, and the other looks forward to continue on.
Dear listeners, may you be encouraged with John's words even in our English language.
While these paragraphs may not serve as a blinking light for us, they still serve as edifying reminders nonetheless.
Thank you so much for going with me down this rabbit hole.
I had a blast.
I hope this was helpful for you.
Until next time, I'll catch you later.
Outro:
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