Search for Words Repeated Three Times - "emphatic Semitic triplet"

What is so Semitic about it?

David J. Sugg said:

I am using Barrick's terminology. He is a Professor of Old Testament at The Master's Seminary. As far as I have been able to find out, he is the only one to use this phrase - and he only cites these three examples, which seems a small data set to establish a concept. Since he is an OT Prof, I am assuming he is claiming this only for Hebrew, or other Semitic languages - something I also am questioning.

The only NT example is Revelation 4:8 - "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

Right now I am trying to find other examples, hence the request for search help.

Dave

That is of course a quotation from Isaiah 6:3. I would search TLG and other linguistic corpora. I have a feeling this is a universal rhetorical device.

As for searching the OT. I can give you my results but I first want to know if this can be achieved in Logos (my results come from somewhere else)

David Knoll said:

What is so Semitic about it?

Here is my understanding:

In English (and other languages), there are different words to describe the intensity of something.  For example, red, redder, reddest.  Or sad, sadder, saddest.  Or holy, holier, holiest.

But in Hebrew, there aren't different words to describe the intensity, thus they would use a word multiple times to describe the intensity.  Thus "holy, holy, holy" would be equivalent to "holiest" in English and would describe something that is the most "holy".

Hope that helps.

Blessings.

Please have a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epizeuxis

It seems I was right it is a universal poetic device called epizeuxis. They have several examples there. I have already collected some more. It seems the Semitic theory has just been proved to be a fallacy.

Dave Hooton said:

These only confirm the results provided  - 3 in OT + 2 in NT.

That result is correct.

David J. Sugg said:

Thanks as well David Knoll for the link on epizeuxis. That confirms my suspicions that this was not something unique to Semitic languages.

The modern usage given in those examples does not conform exactly what is being suggested in the OT. Even if it was, it's a non sequitur to suggest that in itself proves it wasn't distinctively semitic in ancient times. (I have no idea whether it is or not. I'm merely saying we don't have enough evidence in this thread to come to a conclusion.)

<edit>The question really is whether the three-fold repitition is 'merely' to provide significant emphasis (which seems the view of most commentators), or whether (as Hamilton puts it, "It is the strongest form of the superlative in Hebrew. Its use here indicates that Israel’s God is the most “godly” of all the gods."</edit>

Genesius is helpful, perhaps: "The intensification of attributes by means of repetition belongs rather to rhetoric than to syntax".

Surprisingly, I also found a reference in BDF: they suggest it's not a Greek rhetorical device.

The NIDOTTE says the triple  repetition is either "extremely emphatic" or "a form of the superlative", and suggests it has Semitic features. I'll copy the section here:

Implicit threefold unities are to be found in the ordering of right-middle-left (Exod 14:29; Num 20:27), beginning-middle-end (Wisd 7:17–20), and heavens-earth-sea (Ps 96:11; Amos 9:6; Hag 2:6; cf. Lev 11). Exact triple repetitions are rare and extremely emphatic (Jer 7:4; 22:29) or a form of the superlative (Isa 6:3). The use of three terms belonging to the same semantic field is a feature of Hebrew rhetoric (Lev 26:15; Deut 5:31; 6:17). The Aaronic blessing has a triple structure and a threefold occurrence of the divine name (Num 6:24–27), and threefold linkage of words or phrases or grammatical sequences is common in both rhetorical prose (Deut 6:5; 30:11–14) and poetry (Mic 6:8; Nah 1:2), the third element usually being the climax. The most reduced telling of a story or delineation of a cycle takes place in three sections (beginning-middle-end; cf. Wisd 7:17–20). The universe can be described by ternary as well as by binary sets of terms (e.g., heavens-earth-water, Ps 96:11; Amos 9:6; Hag 2:6; cf. Lev 11). The tabernacle/temple has three main areas (Most Holy Place, Holy Place, court, Exod 25–27; 1 Kgs 6), corresponding to decreasing intensities of divine presence and increasing breadth of human access as one proceeds outwards.

Paul Newsome said:

I would add that the result from Jeremiah 22 is actually in context a verbal chant those from Judah would use to possibly try and call God to do their biddings.  It was the result of too many years without being in intimate relationship with God.  I guess it doesn't conform with emphasis either, but the tool was still great in finding it!

That view was put forward by Herrmann in ZAW of 1950. He based it on the formula irsitum irsitum irsitum (imagine a diacritical point under the s) in incantations. There are a lot of repetitions in incantations it is part of the genre and there is no reason to assume that there is any link. It is a mere coincidence.

David J. Sugg said:

Where is this quote from?

I said Hamilton in error, sorry. (I'm studying Hamilton NICOT commentary on Genesis at the moment and it was obviously still on my mind!). It's actually from Oswalt's NICOT commentary on Isaiah 1-39 (pg 181). Motyer takes the identical view:

"Hebrew uses repetition to express superlatives or to indicate totality.⁵ Only here is a threefold repetition found. Holiness is supremely the truth about God, and his holiness is in itself so far beyond human thought that a ‘super-superlative’ has to be invented to express it."

5. In Gn. 14:10 ‘pits, pits’ is rendered ‘full of pits’, and in 2 Ki. 25:15 ‘gold, gold’ is rendered ‘pure gold’.

David Knoll said:

David J. Sugg said:

The only NT example is Revelation 4:8 - "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

And Revelation 8:13

In Re 8.13 ff this is understood as literally 3 woes.