Hooked on wordplays: Concatenation with psalm titles
LE3. A278 2012
2012
Wooden, Glenn
Acadia University
Master of Arts
Masters
Theology
Acadia Divinity College
I can begin this thesis with some practical questions. Imagine that a certain Christian is asked to read scripture in church next Sunday. He or she is assigned a particular psalm. Being diligent, he or she goes home to study the psalm in order to understand it and to read it well. Before reaching v. 1, he or she is confronted with some perplexing terms and references in the title. This Christian’s Bible might have some helpful remarks made by the English editors. After that, he or she also finds another “title” that includes strange words like Miktam, or “Do not destroy.” The reader is perplexed: “What do these terms mean? Should I read them out loud with the rest of this psalm on Sunday? Are they inspired, like the text below them? If I fail to understand them, will I fail to understand the psalm?”1 Moreover, that Christian’s pastor might be facing similar questions in his/her sermon preparation. Approaches to the titles of the psalms have varied over the centuries.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:226