Popular Searches
On Biblical Poetry (new york/Oxford: oxford University, 2015 On Biblical Poetry takes a fresh look at the nature of biblical Hebrew poetry beyond its currently best-known feature, parallelism. F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp argues that biblical poetry is in most respects just like any other verse tradition, and therefore biblical poems should be read and interpreted like other poems, using the same critical tools and with the same kinds of guiding assumptions in place. He offers a series of programmatic essays on major facets of biblical verse, each aspiring to alter currently regnant conceptualizations in the field and to show that attention to aspects of prosody–rhythm, lineation, and the like–allied with close reading can yield interesting, valuable, and even pleasurable interpretations. What distinguishes the verse of the Bible, says Dobbs-Allsopp, is its historicity and cultural specificity, those peculiar encrustations and encumbrances that typify all human artifacts. Both the literary and the historical, then, are in view throughout. The concluding essay elaborates a close reading of Psalm 133. This chapter enacts the final movement to the set of literary and historical arguments mounted throughout the volume–an example of the holistic staging which, Dobbs-Allsopp argues, is much needed in the field of Biblical Studies.
F. W. “Chip” Dobbs-Allsopp, MDiv ’87, is the James Lenox Librarian and professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary.
He holds a BA from Furman University (1984), an MDiv from the Seminary, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University (1992). He joined the faculty of the Seminary in 1999 after spending five years teaching at Yale University (1994-99). He loves being on the water and poetry and has been known to enjoy a cigar with a glass of wine or whiskey. His research interests include the historical, philological, and literary study of biblical and ancient Near Eastern literatures (with special focus on poetry and Northwest Semitic inscriptions).
Dobbs-Allsopp’s most recent book is Divine Style: Walt Whitman and the King James Bible (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2024).
He is currently working on the Hermeneia volume on Lamentations with his co-author, J. Blake Couey (Gustavus Adolphus College; Princeton Seminary PhD alum, ’09.)
Biblical and ANE literature, historical criticism, philology, literary studies, biblical poetry Northwest Semitic inscriptions and literature, Lamentations, Song of Songs, Psalms, Elephantine, Ahiqar, Ugaritic, Aramaic
“Robert Lowth, Parallelism, and Biblical Poetry,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 21 (2021): 1–36, 2 figs. [peer reviewed]. https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs29586
“The Art of Poetry in Jer 17:5–8,” in Ve-‘Ed Ya’aleh (Gen 2:^): Essays in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Edward L. Greenstein (2 vols.; eds. P. Machinist et al.; Atlanta: SBL, 2021), 2:713–27 [peer reviewed].
“For the Love of Words in the(ir) World(s): Theorizing Biblical Philology,” in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. (eds. C. Rollston, S. Garfein, and N. H. Walls; ANE Monographs; Atlanta: SBL, 2022), 37–66 [peer reviewed].
“So-Called ‘Number Parallelism’ in Biblical Poetry,” in “Like ‘Ilu are you Wise’: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee” (eds. H. H. Handy et al.; Chicago: University of Chicago, 2022), 205–24 [peer reviewed].
“Signs of Writing (Poetry) in Lamentations,” in A Sage in New Haven: Essays on the Prophets, the Writings, and the Ancient World in Honor of Robert R. Wilson (eds. Alison Acker Gruseke and Carolyn J. Sharp; Leiden: Brill, 2023), 229–43 + 4 figs.
“On Hieratic and the Direction of Alphabetic Writing,” JANES 36 (2023): 28–47 [peer reviewed]. Open article
“The Song, Cixous, and écriture féminine,” in Let Me Hear Your Voice (eds. S. Chavel and E. T. James; Leiden: Brill, 2023), 107–32 [peer reviewed].
Divine Style: Walt Whitman and the King James Bible. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2024. xxiii + 386 pp., 50 figs. [peer reviewed]. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0357
