Page 1 of 2
Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:25 am
by Philosophy Explorer
Was it to emphasize or being poetic?
Google 7 and 40 in the Bible. The book of Deuteronomy was a lot of repetition. The parting of waters happened at least four times (see
http://www.o-bible.com/BiblicalInformat ... ARTED.html).
There are many more examples.
PhilX
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:27 am
by marjoram_blues
I suppose like in any other text, repetition is used to get a foothold in the reader's mind. Not hooked up to go look see.
Why are you so interested, PhilX ?
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:33 am
by Philosophy Explorer
marjoram_blues wrote:I suppose like in any other text, repetition is used to get a foothold in the reader's mind. Not hooked up to go look see.
Why are you so interested, PhilX ?
I'm naturally inquisitive.
PhilX
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:51 am
by marjoram_blues
Naturally
But why the focus on the Bible?
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:08 am
by Philosophy Explorer
marjoram_blues wrote:Naturally
But why the focus on the Bible?
Might be tied up with hidden messages or secret codes and possibly gain insight into what the thinking was back then.
PhilX
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:16 am
by marjoram_blues
Philosophy Explorer wrote:marjoram_blues wrote:Naturally
But why the focus on the Bible?
Might be tied up with hidden messages or secret codes and possibly gain insight into what the thinking was back then.
PhilX
OK, that's better than the 'Why not?' that I was expecting.
'Might be' - I've read about some of this coded stuff before. Secret societies an' all that. Holy handshakes.
You want to gain insight from the Bible into what the thinking was back when? When it was written...and why?
I think that would need further exploration - but where to go...?
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 12:33 pm
by duszek
A guess:
At first Bible was recited and passed on orally.
Repetitions help to remember things and to put them into a system.
They are a mnemonic device.
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:27 pm
by Skip
It was cobbled together by a committee of Latin-speaking Catholic bishops, with their own political agenda, from disparate parchments of various age and origin, most of them re-translated from ancient to modern languages.
Also, looking at television now, you wouldn't be surprised if some story lines had been so popular that more than one author used them, like the one about Abram and Sara and the badger game.
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:50 pm
by duszek
Really ?
But the Old Testament is the same as the Jewish Bible. And the Jewish Bible was put down in writing long before the bishops were there.
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:04 pm
by mesoraven
Personally I don't trust the bible. You know the old saying "a copy of a copy of a copy" its bound to have flaws
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:00 pm
by thedoc
Philosophy Explorer wrote:Was it to emphasize or being poetic?
Google 7 and 40 in the Bible. The book of Deuteronomy was a lot of repetition. The parting of waters happened at least
four times (see
http://www.o-bible.com/BiblicalInformat ... ARTED.html).
There are many more examples.
PhilX
Many years ago I was given this advice for composing a speech. (Them being the audience),
1. Tell them what you're going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you told them.
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:03 pm
by Philosophy Explorer
thedoc wrote:Philosophy Explorer wrote:Was it to emphasize or being poetic?
Google 7 and 40 in the Bible. The book of Deuteronomy was a lot of repetition. The parting of waters happened at least
four times (see
http://www.o-bible.com/BiblicalInformat ... ARTED.html).
There are many more examples.
PhilX
Many years ago I was given this advice for composing a speech. (Them being the audience),
1. Tell them what you're going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you told them.
Old sales advice.
PhilX
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:27 pm
by duszek
On the other hand, if you present some very new and unusual idea, then it may be good to offer several paraphrases (reformulations) of the same statement.
And the listener may offer his own paraphrase by asking: Do you mean that ... ?
And then you offer a critical comment of his formulation, with new examples to illustrate.
Are we not doing the same thing here ? Up to a point.
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:31 pm
by thedoc
Selling is selling, but it's important to know what the product is.
Re: Why so much Bible repetition?
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:33 pm
by duszek
It could be a problem of the attention span, too.
A speaker does not trust his audience to grasp the whole message in one go.
Suspecting that the audience only gets a few parts of it at first.
So he repeats the message and the audience fills in the missing parts.
And then he repeats again so that they can check if they got everything right.
And then he repeats again so that they can check if they still remember everything.