Are Bible Rhythms Like Poetry?

“Bible rhythms” can help you learn verses by heart, but they’re not as regular as poetry. You’re looking for rhythms that are more subtle.

I got a great email question asking me to clarify what I mean by “rhythm” in the Bible. (You may want to start with that earlier article if you haven’t seen it yet.) Bible rhythms aren’t as regular as English poetry, but they’re still real.

English Poetry Rhythms

In English poetry, rhythm usually means exact patterns: bah-BOOM bah-BOOM bah-BOOM bah, bah-BOOM bah-BOOM bah-BOOM. That kind of thing. It’s all very regular and precise.

If the Bible had that kind of rhythm, it would be much, much easier to memorize. But it doesn’t.

Poetry-style rhythm is intimately tied to language. Unfortunately, our Bibles are all translations. Even the original Greek documents are translations of spoken Aramaic.

Rhymed Translations

There have been attempts to shoehorn the Bible into English rhythm, and even rhyme. Maybe there’s a jewel out there, but so far, all I can find are samples like this:

When of Judea, Jesus was  
  Thus born in Bethlehem;  
In Herod's days wise men from East,  
  Came to Jerusalem  

They said, where is he that is born?  
   King of the Jewes to bee,  
For seeing his starre in the east,  
   To worship him come wee.

Zachary Boyd, 17th century.

If there’s some splendid Gospel in English verse out there, let me know!

More “Natural” Rhythms: the Beatitudes

In the meantime, we’re looking for this kind of rhythm:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It’s a rhythm of ideas. The two phrases balance each other. It’s like question and answer, stimulus and response, to and fro.

Or like music, where one chord sets up expectation, and the next chord satisfies.

And we can feel this rhythm by speaking it. Look again at this:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Versus this:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Wouldn’t you say those differently?

Not as regularly as “Roses are red,” no. But you’d emphasize the key words. You’d pause between the phrases. The second phrase would complete the first.

The longer the passage, the more you can see the difference:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the land.

Versus the usual paragraph:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.

When we read the Gospel as prose, we miss the rhythmic structures.

The Beatitudes are a masterpiece of these rhythms. Each “blessed” is a couplet: the striving and the reward.

And these small rhythms are combined into larger rhythms. Have you ever noticed that the first and last beatitude both end with the same promise? “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Rhythms in Almost Every Verse

But these rhythms aren’t limited to the Beatitudes. You can find such couplets and triplets throughout the Gospels.

Try an old translation like the Douay Rheims or the King James. More modern translations attempt to be “readable,” but what reads well doesn’t always speak well, and vice versa. (Song lyrics are fun to sing, but tedious to read.)

I’m working on an edition of the Gospel of Mark that breaks every verse into such rhythms.

When you hear entire stories as rhythms, the text truly awakens into voice.

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