Why is biblical poetry more difficult to interpret than other genres?
Poetry, unlike narrative, poetry has a lot of complexities that are not so obvious to the average reader. While most everyone is exposed or familiar with poetry on a daily basis, such as listening to music or hearing quippy sayings, we tend not to actually break down what it is about that poetry that makes it effective. When the poetic writers of the Bible implement dynamics such as parallelism, meter, or imagery, the reader may miss the subtle structure that is not just meant to convey information, but to do it in a way that illustrates feeling and helps the reader to remember. Parallelism may come off as confusing due to its repetition and juxtaposition. Meter has an inherent challenge in that the beats work in Hebrew, but not as neatly in translated languages; again the subtlety and added effect can be missed altogether. Imagery, on the other hand, can be taken literally when it’s intended to be figurative. Even with knowledge of these different poetic devices, I am sure the margin for debate becomes wider given the artistic nature of the writing.
In what ways have you seen apocalyptic literature (Daniel and Revelation) interpreted poorly? How do the tips for interpreting Apocalyptic literature avoid abusing or misusing these texts?
Look no further than my own interpretation of apocalyptic literature to see some examples of how it has been done poorly. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was taught that many of the futuristic events being described and referenced in the apocalyptic writings of Daniel and Revelations were more relevant to their current contexts than still-to-come events. Add to that my lack of understanding of the poetic nature to those writings, and I was certainly interpreting things with a certain literalness that I’m now re-evaluating.
With these tips, particularly that these writings should have made sense to the original readers, I’ll have a renewed approach that avoids misuse of these texts. Even just the conviction that these texts are not about me, or that they aren’t some decoder ring for predicting future events, is challenging my previous assumptions.