You are here

Book of Mormon Central / Archive / Gender-Matched Parallelism

Gender-Matched Parallelism

TitleGender-Matched Parallelism
Publication TypeIcon
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsPinnock, Hugh W., and Fernando Vazquez
KeywordsParallelism
Abstract

When masculine and feminine nouns occur in parallel combinations, we observe a form that Wilfred G. E. Watson identifies as "gender-matched parallelism." In Hebrew, as in modern languages such as Spanish and French, nouns have gender; that is, they are either feminine or masculine. The ancient writers of the scriptures often arranged nouns in parallel forms according to their gender. Watson gives the following example of a gender-matched parallelism:

I will make your heaven (m.) as iron (m.)

And your earth (f.) as brass (f.)

(Leviticus 26:19)

In Hebrew, the words heaven and iron are masculine, while earth and brass are feminine. Thus this gender-matched parallelism is in the equivalent of A-A/B-B form.

--------------

An extract from Hugh W. Pinnock, Finding Biblical Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999), 51.

For more from this volume, please visit the link below.
URLhttp://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1097&index=4
Citation Key1139

Terms of Use

Items in the BMC Archive are made publicly available for non-commercial, private use. Inclusion within the BMC Archive does not imply endorsement. Items do not represent the official views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or of Book of Mormon Central.