April 15, 2024

Why are you looking for the Living among the dead?

Why are you looking for the Living among the dead?

Have you ever wondered why some words or sentences stick with you longer or feel more powerful? It turns out, the way words sound can play a big part in this. Katie and I see this regularly with what Carissa remembers. For example, immediately after hearing an Amelia Bedelia story that teaches children “luck” does not exist, Carissa walked around chanting one line with gusto:

Step on a crack, break your mother’s back!

Ironically, the melody of the sounds within this rhyme made it more memorable and repeatable for her than the story’s main message.

Fascinatingly, in Luke 24:5-6 we find sounds used to excellent effect for reinforcing the story’s main message. Luke records the words of the angels, which are the main point of the story, in such a melodious manner in Greek that they are very easy to remember. This newsletter dives into why the angels’ rhetorical first words would have been particularly easy for the original audience to recall verbatim: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but risen!”

Melodic Memories: The Vibrant Interplay of Sound and Memory

Researchers like Lea et al. (2008) have found that the specific sounds in a sentence can not only make content easier for us to remember but can also help us feel connected to what is being said. These effects occur because our brains are not just processing the meaning of words but also how they emotionally resonate with us—we can access at a higher level through beautiful sounding statements (Obermeier et al. 2013).

In the story from Luke 24:5-6, there is a short exchange in which angels ask a rhetorical question, then make a brief statement. Even though this part is just a small fraction of the text—only 12 out of 176 words—it stands out.

Why?

Part of the reason is the 'sonic structure' or, in simpler terms, the melody of the sounds within these words. These sounds create contrasts and patterns that our brains find meaningful, making the message more memorable (Miall and Kuiken 2002). Combining multiple types of sound play, such as end-rhyme, alliteration, and rhythm, makes texts particularly memorable (Blohm et al. 2021, 19-22), which is exactly what we find happening in Luke 24:5-6.

Sound and Memory in Luke 24:5-6

Luke masterfully crafted the most critical proposition—that Christ has risen—using compelling artistic elements in the angels' rhetorical question and subsequent statement (24:5b-6a): "Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but risen." As a non-native speaker of the language, the most reliable way to determine what sections might have been most impactful is to do a statistical analysis of the sounds in the passage. The analysis starts with the smallest unit of sound, called phonemes (roughly represented by individual letters), and then looks at higher levels like syllables.

After doing a sound analysis of this passage, I found three points worth sharing:

First, this passage, comprising only 7% of the total words in Luke 24:1-12, contains 66% (2/3) of the total occurrences of zeta (ζ), 12% (4/31) of omega (ω), and 11% (8/72) of tau (τ). The higher concentration of these sounds in the passage, and particularly of zeta, makes the passage stand out to the ear.

Second, the passage employs a striking rhetorical technique, gradually decreasing the number of syllables and words in each phrase, culminating in the succinct and impactful contrast that Christ is not dead "but risen." This method can be likened to a musical crescendo, where the intensity builds before delivering a short but powerful finale, thereby ensuring that the central message—Christ's resurrection—resonates deeply. See the table below for more.

Phrase	Syllables in Greek	Words in Greek
Why are you looking for the living	7	4
among the dead?	5	3
He is not here,	5	3
but risen.	4	2

Table 1: Number of words and syllables per phrase in Luke 25:5b-6a

Third, the use of alliteration within these verses is not merely ornamental but serves to further capture the audience's attention. In Koine Greek, the case-agreement system enhances the effect of alliteration over end-rhyme, making it a particularly potent device. ¹ The effect of the third point can be illustrated visually through color coding the Greek text.

24:5b: Τί ζητεῖτε τὸν ζῶντα μετὰ τῶν νεκρῶν·

24:5a: οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε, ἀλλʼ ἠγέρθη

In the question (24:5b), every word starts with sounds in the front of the mouth and alternates between between starting with tau [t], zeta [z], which are both made on the ridge above the teeth, and mu [m] and nu [n], which both involve using the nasal cavity. ² The words also have many of the same vowels, including omicron and omega, and eta and epsilon. In the following statement (24:6a), every word starts with a vowel, alternating between starting with back rounded vowels (the omicron-upsilon diphthong and omega) and front mid vowels (epsilon and eta).

The high concentration of colors in similar positions, such as how the first four words start with blueish colors and alternate between having red and pink vowels, reflects how the statement had a regular sonic pattern. The frequency of alternation between the sounds indicates how tightly the passage is patterned and, in turn, makes it all the more memorable.

This tight sonic patterning, in conjunction with how the syllables in each clause decrease while the clauses simultaneously become more important, results in an even more memorable statement.

Meaning and Memory in Luke 24:5-6

The sonic structure is not the only element drawing attention to these verses—the meaning of the words themselves and what they imply also plays a pivotal role in engaging the audience.

First, while statements allow the audience to remain observers, "why" questions thrust them into the narrative, prompting them to formulate answers and become active participants.³

Second, the angels' rhetorical question carries an assumption that the women should have expected the resurrection, and it drives this point home in two significant ways. - (A) The rhetorical questions are a prevalent form of reproof in the New Testament (Barnwell 2020, ch. 35), implying a gentle chastisement for their lack of foresight. - (B) The angels’ response suggests that the women should have anticipated Jesus being alive on the third day, a point further reinforced when they recount Jesus's prophecy and urge the women to remember what he had said.

Third, as seen above, the most important proposition in the whole statement, that Christ is “risen,” has the least number of syllables and words in Greek. If the audience was to be able to quote any particular line after hearing this story once, it would be the question and response “he is not here, but is risen.” Furthermore, if they could only quote a single word, it would most likely be “risen.” What more does anyone need to remember?

Conclusion

The analysis above reveals the intricate interplay of sound and meaning within Luke 24:5-6, underscoring the passage's ability to engage listeners on multiple levels. Beyond conveying a pivotal theological point, the sonic structure of these verses invites the audience into a deeper, more immersive experience of the narrative. It exemplifies how sound and meaning intertwine, creating a memorable proclamation of hope and triumph that resonates across centuries. The startling revelation is clear—Christ is not dead, but risen.

TL;DR

If the email was too long to read, here are the main points:

• Melodious statements, like a gentle breeze, whisper through memory.
• Luke recorded the angels’ words in a particularly melodious fashion.
• The most sonically memorable section of the empty-tomb account also contains the main point: Jesus is risen!

Challenge for You

Luke crafted the rhetorical question and following statement to be particularly memorable in Greek. Try crafting your own version of the rhetorical question and response, then share it with someone!

Hours of meticulous research and commitment went into creating this newsletter. Remember, knowledge grows when it's shared. So, don't hesitate to pass this on!

References

1. Barnwell, Katharine. 2020. Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles, Fourth Edition. 4th ed. edition. Dallas, TX, USA: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Academic Publications.
2. Blohm, Stefan, Maria Kraxenberger, Christine Knoop, and Mathias Scharinger. 2021. “Sound Shape and Sound Effects of Literary Texts.” In , 7–237. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110645958-002.
3. Blohm, Stefan, Winfried Menninghaus, and Matthias Schlesewsky. 2017. “Sentence-Level Effects of Literary Genre: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence.” Frontiers in Psychology 8. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01887.
4. Colvin, Stephen. 2007. A Historical Greek Reader : Mycenaean to the Koiné. Oxford: OUP Oxford. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=222387&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
5. Kantor, Benjamin. 2023. “The LXX and Historical Greek Phonology: Orthography, Phonology, and Transcriptions.” Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 54 (4–5): 494–526. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700631-bja10060.
6. Lea, R., David Rapp, Andrew Elfenbein, Aaron Mitchel, and Russell Romine. 2008. “Sweet Silent Thought Alliteration and Resonance in Poetry Comprehension.” Psychological Science 19 (August): 709–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02146.x.
7. Litwak, Jessica. 1996. “Label Length and Title Type as Determinants in Visitor Learning.” In Proceedings of The Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Label-Length-and-Title-Type-as-Determinants-in-Litwak/9f331a3ad1a1bb697b164dc6857dc5056006f5a7.
8. Miall, David, and Don Kuiken. 2002. “The Effects of Local Phonetic Contrasts in Readers’ Responses to a Short Story.” Empirical Studies of The Arts 20 (July): 157–75. https://doi.org/10.2190/M9RC-WBP5-4NDQ-2EJD.
9. Obermeier, Christian, Winfried Menninghaus, Martin von Koppenfels, Tim Raettig, Maren Schmidt-Kassow, Sascha Otterbein, and Sonja Kotz. 2013. “Aesthetic and Emotional Effects of Meter and Rhyme in Poetry.” Frontiers in Psychology 4. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00010.