"The Bible is full of poems. It includes the Psalms and the Song of Songs of course, but poetry plays an immense part in the prophets and shows up in the historical books of the Old Testament. The New Testament, for its part, reverberates with allusions to the poetry of the Old and concludes with Revelations, a visionary poem, while Jesus, seeking to open his listener's eyes to the kingdom of heaven, describes it with the poetic epithet of "a treasure...