1778: Pleonasm in the Bible Oct 27, 2019

Pleonasm, even in translations, is a notable fixture of the Bible. This is not the same as clunky writing, which you can see more about in the linked Word Facts video, but often appears as using many separate expressions to indicate the same thing. This is particularly notable in Psalms, and one explanation could be that because there wasn't much literary tradition before it that it mirrors speech, as the level of pleonasm found in speech is similar. However, pleonasm is also common in poetry or lyrics, it may well be a poetic styling.