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 PSALMS

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PSALMS

with line, couplet with couplet, strophe with antis- trophe, in the lyric upbuilding of the poetic picture or imprecation or exhortation.

B. Metre. — Is there metre in the Psalms? The Jews of the first century A. D. thought so. Flavius Josephus speaks of the hexameters of Moses (Antiq., II, x\'i, 4; IV, viii, 4-1) and the trimeters and tetram- eters and manifold meters of the odes and hymns of David (Antiq., VII, xii, 3). Philo says that Moses had learned the "theorj- of rhythm and harmony" (De vita Mosis, I, 5). Early Christian writers voice the same opinion. Origen (d. 254J says the Psalms are in trimeters and tetrameters (In Ps. cx\-iii; cf. Card. Pi- tra, "Analecta Sacra", II, 341) ; and Eusebius (d. 340), in his "De praeparatione evangehea", XI, 5 (P. G., XXI, 852), speaks of the same metres of Da^■id. St. Jerome (420), in " Pra;f. ad Eusebii chronicon" (P. L., XXVII, 36), finds iambics, Alcaics, and Sapphics in the Psalter; and, writing to Paula (P. L., XXII, 442), he explains that the acrostic Pss. cxi and cxii (ex and cxi) are made up of iambic trimeters, whereas the acrostic Pss. cxix and cxlv (c.x\-iii and cxliv) are iambic tetrameters. Modern exegetes do not agree in this matter. For a time many would admit no metre at all in the Psalms. Davison (Hast., "Diet, of the Bi- ble ", s. v.) writes: "though metre is not discernible in the Psalms, it does not follow that rhj'thm is excluded". This rhrthni, howe\-er, "defies analysis and system- atization". Driver ("Introd. to Lit. of O. T.", New York, 1892, 339) admits in Hebrew poetry "no metre in the strict sense of the term". Exegetes who find metre in the Psalms are of four schools, according as they explain Hebrew metre by quantity, by the number of syllables, by accent, or by both quantity and accent.

(1) Defenders of the Latin and Greek metrical standard of quantity as applied to Hebrew poetrj* are Francis Gomarus, in " Da\-idis lyra", II (Lyons, 1637), 313; Mark Meibom, in "Da\-idis psalmi X" (Am- sterdam, 1690) and in two other works, who claims to have learned his system of Hebrew metre by Divine revelation; WilUam Jones, "Poeseos Asiaticte commentariorum " (Leipzig, 1777), who tried to force Hebrew words into Arabic metres.

(2) The number of syllables was taken as the stand- ard of metre by Hare, " Psalmorum Uber in versiculos metricedi\-isus" (London, 1736); he made.all feet dis- syllabic, the metre trochaic in a Une of an even num- ber of syllables, iambic in a fine of an odd number of syllables. The Massoretic system was rejected, the Syriac put in its stead. This opinion found chief de- fence in the writings of the learned Innsbruck Professor Gustav; and in Bickell's "Metrices biblicae" (Inns- bruck, 1879), " Supplementum ad Metr. bibl." (Inns- bruck), "Carmina veteris testamenti metrice" (1882), "Dichtungen der Hebraer" (1882-84). Gerard Gietmann, S.J., "De re metrica HebriBorum" (Frei- burg im Br., 1880); A. Rohhng, "Das Solomonische Spruchbuch" (Mainz, 1879); H. Lesetre, "Le livre des psaumes" (Paris, 1883); J. Knabenbauer, S.J., in "Job" (Paris, 1885), p. 18; F. Vigouroux, "Manuel biblique", II, 203, have all followed in Bickell's foot- steps more or less closely. Against this system stand some patent facts. The quantity of a word is made to vary arbitrarily. Hebrew is treated as Syriac, a late dialect of Aramaic — which it is not; in fact, even early Syriac poetry did not measure its lines by the number of syllables. Lastly the Massorah noted metrical structure by accents; at least sdph pa-fHk and alhnah indicate complete lines or two hemistichs.

(3) Accent is the determining principle of Hebrew metre according to C. A. Anton, "Conjectura de metro Hebra;orum" (Leipzig, 1770), "Vindiciae dis- put. demetr. Hebr." (Leipzig, 1771), "Specimen edi- tionis psalmorum" (Vitebsk, 1780); Leutwein, "\'ersuch einer richtigen Theorie von der bibUschen Vorkunst" (1775); Ernst Meier, "Die Form der hebriiischen Poesienachgewiesen" (Tubingen, 1853);

JuUus Ley, "Die Metrischen Formen der hebraischen Poesie" (Leipzig, 1886); "Ueber die Alliteration im Hebraischen" in "Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morgen- landisch. Ges.", XX, 180; J. K. Zenner, S.J., "Die Chorgesiinge im Buche der Psalmen" (Freiburg im Br., 1896), and in many contributions to "Zeitsch. fiir kathol. Theol.", il891, 690; 1895, 373; 1896, 168, 369, 378, 571, 754; Hontheim, S.J., in "Zeitsch. fur kathol. Theol.", 1897, 338, 560, 738; 1898, 172, 404, 749; 1899, 167; Dr. C. A. Briggs, in "The Book of Psalms", in "International Critical Commentary" (New York, 1906), p. xxxix, and in many other pubhca- tions therein enumerated; Francis Brown, "Pleasures of Hebrew Poetry" in "Journal of Biblical Litera- ture", IX, 91; C. H. Tov, "Proverbs" in "Internat. Crit. Comm." (1899); W. R. Harper, "Amos and Hosea" in "Internat. Crit. Comm." (1905); Cheyne, "Psalms" (New Y'ork), 1892; Duhm, "Die Psalmen" (Freiburg im Br., 1899), p. xxx. This theory is the best working hj'pothesis together with the all-essential principle of parallelism; it does far less \-iolenee to the Massoretic Text than either of the foregoing theories. It does not force the Massoretic sj'Uables into grooves that are Latin, Greek, Arabic, or Aramaic. It is inde- pendent of the shifting of accent; and postulates just one thing, a fixed and harmonious number of accents to the Une, regardless of the number of sj'Uables therein. This theory- of a tonic and not a syllabic metre has this, too, in its favour that accent is the determining principle in ancient Egyptian, Babylo- nian, and Assyrian poetrj'.

(4) Of recent years the pendulum of Hebrew met- rical theories has swung back upon quantity; the syllabic must not be utterly neglected. Hubert Grimme, in "Grundzuge der Hebraischen Akzent- und Vokallehre", Freiburg, 1896, and "Psalmen- probleme' '(1902), builds up the metre chiefly upon the tonic principle, at the same time taking into ac- count the moroe or pauses due to quantity. Schlogl, "De re metrica veterum Hebraeorum" (Vienna, 1899), defends Grimme's theory*. Sievers, "Metrische Studien" (1901), also takes in the unaccented syl- lables for metrical consideration ; so does Baethgen, "Die Psalmen" (Gottingen, 1904), p. xx\'ii.

C. Other Characteristics. — Alliteration and asso- nance are frequent. Acrostic or alphabetic psalms are ix-x, xx\-, xxxiv, xxxatI, cxi, cxii, cxix, cxlv (ix, xxiv, xxxiii, xxxvi, ex, cxi, cx\'iii, cxliv). The letters of the alphabet begin successive lines, couplets, or strophes. In Ps. cxix (cx\'iii) the same letter begins eight suc- cessive lines in each of the twenty-two alphabetic strophes. In Pss. xiii, xxix, Ixii, cxlviii, and cl (xii, xx\iii, Ixi, cxlvii, and cxlix) the same word or words are repeated many times. RhjTnes, by repetition of the same suffix, are in Pss. ii, xiii, xx\-ii, xxx, liv, Iv, cxlii, etc. (ii, xii, xx\-i, xxix, liii, hv, cxh, etc.); these rhjTnes occur at the ends of lines and in ca;sural pauses. Lines were grouped into strophes and antis- trophes, commonly in pairs and triplets, rarely in greater multiples; at times an independent strophe, like the epode of the Greek chorus, was used between one or more strophes and the corresponding antis- trophes. The word Selah ("") almost invariably marks the end of a strophe. The meaning of this word and its purpose is still a moot question. We think it was originally ~?5 (from ^''jC, "to throw"), and meant "a throwing down", "a prostration". During the antiphonal cantilation of the Psalms, the priests blew their trumpets to mark the end of a strophe, and at the signal the two choirs or the people or both choirs and people prostrated themselves (cf. Haupt, "Expository Times", May, 1911). The principle of parallelism determined these strophic arrangements of the lines. Koster, in "Die Psalmen nach ihrer strophischen Anordnung" (1837), distinguishes various kinds of strophic parallelism, corresponding to various kinds of