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Suggested Criteria For Determining The Antiquity Of The Ancient Poems In The Old Testament, John Miller

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Within the Old Testament there is a group of poems which a majority of scholars believe is quite old. In most of the books and articles which have been written on these poems, the songs are designated "ancient" or "archaic" in a rather arbitrary manner. It is the contention of this thesis that the archaic poetry is different from later poetic writing with respect to style, form, and language, and that it is possible to isolate the distinguishing characteristics of ancient poetry and, using them, to form criteria and establish a balance of probability as to the antiquity of a …