'n Ongebluste vlam - Die eksegese van 'n vriendskap

Abstract

An eternal flame: Exegesis of a friendship: In 1983 I was nominated as poet by the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church to the commission for reworking the Biblical psalms to singable church hymns. The exegetist with whom I was to work, was Professor Willem Prinsloo of the theologicalfaculty of the Dutch Reformed Church at the University of Pretoria. In this article I wish to commemorate our cooperation, especially on Psalm 42, and our friendship. I got to know him as a brilliant scholar of the Old Testament, who could bring to light the Hebrew poem that every psalm essentially was, revitalising its significance to let is comefully into its own. He was a kinderd spirit and a loyalfriend to me. His tragic death, which I here attempt to comprehend in the light of the Bible and A Alvarez's The Savage God, detract nothing from the meaningfulness of his life and career.