Why Repoetry? What is poetry's value? Politicians don't use poetry to write laws.

Scientists don't use poetry to publish their findings. Doctors don't use poetry to diagnose illness.

The value of poetry isn't in how precise it is, how pragmatic it is.

Poetry wants something different for you.

The primary way that it wants to connect and communicate with you is by bringing you through an experience,

a verbal artistic, emotional experience through verbal art.

And that's a value. It's of so much value that a third of these scriptures are cast in this form.

Poetry does a lot with a little. A few lines, a few choice phrases, like a seed harboring unrealized abundance.

It's an over abundant form of communication, and that's just a supreme value.

Poetry shapes your imagination, and it does this for those who pursue it, and it is a pursuit.

Biblical poetry is ancient Hebrew poetry, and so it requires of us to come with some familiar skills,

but also with some newly honed skills for how to appreciate this ancient art.

It isn't easy, but when we do, we tap into its genius.

Changes you. You walk away from really good poetry, as if you just went on a trip.

This is John at the Bible Project, and today we finish our conversation on Biblical poetry.

We complete a dialogue on ancient Hebrew verse.

Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

Okay, we've been talking about the arts of Biblical poetry.

Yes. Yeah, once you give me a state of the union where we've gone so far.

Where we've gone so far is we've just talked in general about how poetry is a way to use language.

It's different than what you would call typical language.

What would you call it? I call it more like functional.

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