The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

480 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
RF also dislikes Winkle’s reference to the literary style of some of Jeremiah’s
verses, and in this connection he refers to pages 210, 211 in Winkle’s article;
this is very good, for thus he reveals whence he has his ideas about
‘parallelisms’ (cf. RF, pp. 79, 80). Let us just take a look at this, before we move
on: RF claimed that 2 Chronicles 36:21 formed in four lines a genuine Hebrew
parallelism, which I disclaimed, showing that this stylistic feature does not
occur in Hebrew prose such as the text in question. Nevertheless, Winkle was
first to suggest something like that, even though he did not make quite the
same claim that RF did, no doubt because he knew better. Winkle wrote the
following about 2 Chronicles 36:20b-21 (pp. 209-211):
In this passage there are two sets of parallel clauses, either beginning
with ‘ad or lemallot. Displaying the text according to a quasi-poetic style
(in order to highlight the parallels) results in the following (my
translation):
Line
1 And they were servants to him and his sons
2 until (‘ad) the reign of the kingdom of Persia
3 in order to fulfill (lemallot) the word
4 of the LORD in the mouth of Jeremiah
5 until (‘ad) the land had enjoyed its sabbaths
6 (all the days of its desolation
7 it kept sabbath)
8 in order to fulfill (lemallot) seventy years
Line 2 completes the thought of line 1, while lines 3-4 further clarify
lines 1 and 2. Line 5, which starts with the same word as line 2, must be
parallel to it.
After this Winkle quotes three examples of this kind of ‘parallel structure’
(Exodus 16:35; Jeremiah 1:3; 2 Chronicles 36:16), and he is right as far as the
similarity of structure is concerned. However, none of these examples fulfill the
criteria for true poetic parallelism such as found in the poetic writings in the
Hebrew Bible. Instead of this we may apply to them the words of Professor E.
König of Bonn University as found in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. V, p.
116) where he issued a warning against regarding everything rhythmic in
Hebrew prose as though it were parallelisms:
It must be remembered that the higher form of prose, as employed
especially by good speakers, was not without a certain kind of rhythm.
Indeed, this higher form of prose by such eminent speakers as the great
prophets, e.g. Jeremiah, whose book is written for a large part (more than half)
in poetic form (cf. NIV), and who also penned the all-poetic book of