Ephesians 3:17-19

A couple weeks ago, I was looking at Ephesians 3:17-19:  "17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." [ESV]

I noticed that there are a number of rhetorical effects in the phrase "the breadth and length and height and depth" (τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ ὕψος καὶ βάθος).  The list of various dimensions is something of a rhetorical catalogue; the dimensions all go in different directions, forming a sort of three-dimensional merism; and all of the elements are linked with polysyndeton.  Even just one of these effects would provide a sense of this vastness, but because there are multiple effects, the sense is compounded.

I also noticed that the phrase "filled with all the fullness of God" (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ) is somewhat redundant, not only in "filled with... fullness" but also in "all the fullness."  As in Psalm 65:11, though, which I wrote about last month, these redundancies mirror this abundance.

John 10:9

A couple weeks ago, the Daily Dose of Latin went over John 10:9:

ego sum ostium per me si quis introierit salvabitur et ingredietur et egredietur et pascua inveniet

"I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." [ESV]

The foreignness of "ingredietur et egredietur" caught my attention, and I realized that there's an echo of Psalm 121 here.  Although the order is reversed, "go in and out" also appears in Psalm 121:8:  "The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore" [ESV].  There's also a similarity between "be[ing] saved" and the repeated יִשְׁמֹר in the last two verses of Psalm 121, which the NKJV translates as "shall preserve":  "7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.  8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore."

Psalm 69

Last month, I read Psalm 69 in the ESV and noticed a few features.  The Psalm starts with some water imagery that recurs in later verses:

1 Save me, O God!  For the waters have come up to my neck.  2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.  3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.  My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.  15 Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.

There are waters both above and below the Psalmist, so there's something of the same effect as a merism here, and the degree of the Psalmist's peril is emphasized.

There's a similar effect with the wetness of the water that threatens to drown him and the dryness of his throat as he calls out for help.  Both qualities cause him discomfort.

Verse 8 exhibits a sort of parallelism:

I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.

While "my brothers" and "my mother's sons" refer to the same people, the second expression describes the relationship in more distant terms, so even in the language, there's a sense of this ostracism.

Isaiah 40:30-31

A couple weeks ago, I read Isaiah 40:30-31:  "30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." [ESV]

I noticed that the contrast between the faltering strength of the "youths" and "young men" and the sustained strength of "they who wait for the LORD" is highlighted by the different number of verbs used to describe them.  The first group has three ("shall faint," "[shall] be weary," and "shall fall exhausted"), but the second group has four ("shall renew their strength," "shall mount up," "shall run," and "shall walk") (plus a further two if you include the negated "not be weary" and "not faint").  That those in the second group are able to do more illustrates the greater strength that they have because they "wait for the LORD."