Near Eastern Acrostics and Biblical Acrostics: Biblical Acrostics and Their Relationship to Other Ancient Near Eastern Acrostics

Abstract

John F. Brug explores the literary form of acrostics in biblical poetry and compares them with acrostics from other ancient Near Eastern cultures. He categorizes biblical acrostics as alphabetic sequence acrostics, often used for stylistic and didactic purposes rather than mnemonic or magical ones. Brug analyzes Psalms, Proverbs, and Lamentations, noting structural variations and subtle message acrostics in Psalms 25 and 34. He contrasts these with Akkadian message acrostics, which spell out names or prayers, and Egyptian numeric and message acrostics, which use puns and structured sequences. Brug argues that Egyptian acrostics, rather than Akkadian or Ugaritic parallels, offer the closest stylistic and chronological resemblance to biblical acrostics. He concludes that biblical acrostics likely arose independently or were adapted from Egyptian models, serving primarily as literary devices to convey completeness and structure. Generated by Microsoft Copilot (GPT-4).