Trees and Hermeneutics
When I was in the sixth grade, Mrs. Linda Jones required the class to memorize Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees.” I had forgotten to memorize it when I was home so I worked on it while on the bus going to school the very day I had to quote it in front of the class. The poem is still with me, thirty years later. I have used it often to illustrate the importance of distinguishing between different types of biblical literature.
Here’s the poem as I learned it in the sixth grade. You can double-check my accuracy. I think that I shall never see – a poem as lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth’s sweet flowing breast. A tree that looks to God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray. A tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair. Upon whose bosom snow has lain, who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. Lovely, isn’t it?
You would not read Kilmer’s poem and take it literally. He did not write it to be understood literally. It is poetry. It is full of personification and anthropomorphisms. Everyone understands that. Additionally, you would not take Kilmer’s poem literally and then interpret a biology textbook in light of his poem on trees. The textbook is written literally and to be understood as such. It is factual. It is not written to be understood figuratively.
Each book of the Bible is written within a certain type of literature. Genesis is a part of the law. It is not written to be understood figuratively. I have in mind especially chapter one. Nothing in chapter 1 specifically or the book of Genesis in general suggests that chapter 1 is myth or poetry. It is straight-forward history and is written to be understood that way. Moses intended to convey the idea that God created the world in six 24-hour days. Other passages in the Bible support that conclusion.
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On the other hand, when you come to the book of psalms, you understand that psalms are poetry. They are full of figures of speech. I have in mind especially Psalm 51:5 where David refers to himself as being born in sin. David is exaggerating. He felt so overwhelmed by guilt in having committed adultery with Bathsheba (see the superscription) that he uses hyperbole to express how badly he feels. It is similar to a child exclaiming in desperation, “I can’t do anything right!” The child is wrong and Bible students are wrong who take Psalm 51:5 as literal and make it teach a doctrine that conflicts with other biblical teaching. Brother Hugo McCord wrote an article in the Firm Foundation years ago pointing out that just because I may have been “born in a field of potatoes and in a field of potatoes my mother conceived me,” it does not mean that I was born full of potatoes!
Finally, jumping to the end of the Inspired Canon, the book of Revelation is its own unique literature. So much false teaching is propagated through a misunderstanding of the nature of Revelation’s literature. Bruce Metzger offers the idea, in his book Breaking the Code, that Revelation is written to our imagination. History is written to our minds; poetry is written to our hearts; Revelation is written to our imagination. It is full of symbols. Symbolism suggests figurative speech. Revelation needs to be understood in light of its type of literature. You do not take Revelation literally (I’m thinking now of the “thousand year reign” from chapter 20) and then interpret texts from historical works (such as Paul’s letters or the gospels) as figurative, in light of the book of Revelation.
Enjoy Joyce Kilmer’s poem. Allow it to remind you that you should “rightly divide” God’s word when it comes to discerning what type of literature you are studying (2 Timothy 2:15).
–Paul Holland
