CONCERNING EMPHASIS.
literature or in the Bible. For example, the bold contrast made by Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, between other teachers and himself would naturally prompt any reader of taste to lay stress on the pronoun "I" in the recurring formula—
Ye have heard that it hath been said . . . but I say unto you.[1]
3. Context and circumstance, however, are not always sufficient, because not always clear. We have therefore to be thankful that our Public Versions of the Bible furnish further guidance in the matter of emphasis by means of Idiom. The words are frequently so arranged as by their very order to indicate where the stress should be placed. Thus, in the history of Joseph, where "the butler," in confessing his fault in forgetting Joseph, narrates the diverse fate of "the baker" and himself, he says—
And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was: me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.[2]
In this sentence it is at once felt that the pronouns "me" and "him" are as certainly emphasised by their mere position as if they had been printed in capitals. So, again, where the Apostle Paul, after thanking God that he spake with tongues more than any of the Corinthian Christians, proceeds to say—
Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue,[3]
it is easily seen from the context that the clause "in the church" governs the whole sentence, and should receive the leading stress. Nor is it by order of words alone that an emphatic idiom is constituted. Certain forms of circumlocution serve the same purpose:
But as for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness,[4]
is an altogether effective means of reproducing the force of the emphatic pronoun which opens the verse in the Hebrew. Or a simple repetition secures the result—
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day.[5]
Or a qualifying word of a manifestly emphasising force is employed, like "surely" in the following:—
In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die;[6]
or "certainly" in this place—
Could we certainly know that he would say. Bring your brother down?[7]
or "diligently" in this—
If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God.[8]
4. Yet, varied as is the Emphatic Idiom of our Public Versions and numerous as are the examples which meet us in which that indication of stress has been turned to most admirable account, the pity is that it has not been resorted to ten times more frequently than is the case. For, be it observed, the Emphatic Idiom of the English is but a faint and fitful reflex of the Emphatic Idiom of the Hebrew and Greek.[9] This fact is wellknown to scholars, though scarcely dreamt of by the general Bible-reading public. A fact
- ↑ Mat. v. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44.
- ↑ Gen. xli. 13.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xiv. 19.
- ↑ Ps. xvii. 15.
- ↑ Isa. xxxviii. 19.
- ↑ Gen. ii. 17.
- ↑ Gen. xliii. 7.
- ↑ Deu. xxviii. 1.
- ↑ For an example of total neglect in A.V., and timid change in R.V., see Deu. vi. 13.
