(as composed in contrasting/complementary panels)
The biblical books do not reduce truth to a straight line. Unlike the hugely influential philosophy of Descartes---his quest for “clear and distinct ideas”---the biblical books present reality from diverse points of view. They bring ideas into dialogue, and have sometimes been described as dialogical. C. K Barrett, for instance, uses “dialogical” to describe the theology of John’s gospel.
But dialogue or dialogical structure is much older than John’s gospel. It is emerging that many biblical texts consist largely of balancing “panels”---pairs of texts that are complementary or contrasting.
Panels in Hebrew poetry.
Researchers are beginning to discover that many of the psalms are constructed of balancing panels. Psalm 69, for instance, is a great cry of lament, but its second part switches from lament to petition (69.14b-30). And then, to round off the psalm, there is a half-panel of divine praise (69.31-37).
Psalms 73-78 are quite diverse---they range all the way from justice to national history---but they all consist of pairs of contrasting panels. And there is evidence that a similar structure occurs in many other psalms.
For evidence and references, see Lawrence Boadt, “The Use of ‘Panels’ in the Structure of Psalms 73-78”, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 66 (2004) 533-550.
Panels in Hebrew narrative.
What occurs in many psalms is emerging also in Hebrew narrative. The entire book of Genesis, for instance, traditionally divided into fifty chapters, can be divided more clearly into fifty-two panels; and the fifty-two consist of pairs---two of creation, two of sin, two genealogies, two for the deluge, two for Noah’s sons, and so on.
To start at the very beginning, the opening lines of the two creation texts (Genesis 1:1 and 2:4b) start with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet (b) and they balance one another, yet they are delicately diverse, and they complement one another:
In (b…) the beginning // God // created // heaven and earth…
On (b…) the day // Yahweh God // made // earth and heaven…
Each phrase has four elements (the time // the divinity // create/make // heaven/earth), but while the first text presents these elements in a way that emphasizes the transcendent or heavenly, the second gives priority to something more down to earth:
• Mysterious “beginning,” gives way to the simple word, “day.”
• Elusive “God” is expanded to “Yahweh God”, a name that is more specific and apparently more down to earth.
• Creating becomes simple making.
• “Heaven and earth” is reversed, giving priority to earth.
And so it goes on. The two entire creation texts (Genesis 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-25) balance one another over and over, but the second keeps moving down to earth. In the first text, humankind is transcendent, in God’s image; in the second, is made of clay. The relationship between the panels is sometimes tense, deeply dialogical. The dialogue is not an afterthought. Both elements are indispensable.
This tension can be perplexing. Jean Astruc, a prestigious medical man who studied the Bible, misdiagnosed it disastrously. He read the variation in the naming of God (“God”, and “Yahweh God”) as a reflection of two diverse sources, and he read other tensions as confirming his diagnosis.
Astruc was guarded in his conclusions---he called his book Conjectures (1753) ---but the effect was serious. The biblical books began to be divided into imaginary diverse sources; and the positive aspect of tension---the power and purpose of dialogical writing---became obscured or sometimes lost.
The division into imaginary sources, especially into the main four (indicated by the letters J, E, D and P), corresponded to real features of the text, but while the features are real and important, the imaginary sources have caused great confusion. They have caused far more problems than they have solved. One of the negative side-effects of dwelling on imaginary sources is that the possible relationship to existing texts sources has been neglected.
There is initial evidence that what is true of Genesis---composition in paired panels---is true also of other biblical books. For details and references see Thomas L. Brodie, Genesis as Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2001).
