Synthetic Parallelism

Synthetic parallelism is a little more difficult to understand than the foregoing, more linear types of parallelism, but it is well worth the extra effort it takes to learn. "Here, in Syntheton, much more is meant than is expressed and embraced by the conjugation of the two words." "It is called synthetic because a synthesis, or coordination, between the two elements takes place." The synthesis signifies the placing of two things together. Ridderbos and Wolf define it as a form "in which the second line develops or completes the thought in a way that could not be determined by the first line." Put another way, Donald Parry explains that "Simple synthetic, as a rule, is composed of two lines, neither of which are synonymous or antithetical. Rather, in this poetic verse, line two gives explanation or adds something new or instructive to the first line."

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An extract from Hugh W. Pinnock, Finding Biblical Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999), 68.

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