NEWS FEATURE: The Form of the Biblical Chiasm

c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When looking in the Bible for coded literary patterns called chiasms, you can learn from tight, clear examples. Take, for instance, Gospel of Mark chapter 11, verses 12, 13, 14 and the start of verse 15. The first rule is: Don’t let those numbered verses limit where you start, […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When looking in the Bible for coded literary patterns called chiasms, you can learn from tight, clear examples. Take, for instance, Gospel of Mark chapter 11, verses 12, 13, 14 and the start of verse 15.

The first rule is: Don’t let those numbered verses limit where you start, end or make breaks for each possible step that you identify.


Here is Mark 11:12-15a as translated in the Revised Standard Version:

A 12 _ On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.

B 13a _ And seeing in the distance a fig tree

C 13b _ in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.

D 13c _ When he came to it,

C’ 13d _ he found nothing but leaves,

B’ 13e _ for it was not the season for figs.

A’ 14-15a _ And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And the disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem.

Rule 2: Catchwords or corresponding ideas often signal a chiasm. “Came” in the A lines, “fig tree/fig” in the Bs, and “leaf” and “find” in the Cs. Words or phrases with similar _ or opposite _ meaning can be links. “Hungry” and “eat fruit” are similar ideas; Bethany and Jerusalem both are place names.

Rules for midpoint include the following: Chiasms tend to get smaller at the center; large centers are suspect. The midpoint here is a single line, but some authors use matched pairs (ABCDDCBA). Mark nearly always brings a chiasm to a stand-alone center, whereas chiasms in Paul’s letters may do either. The center often has a catchword and/or a motif that relates to A and/or A’. The midpoint may be the action turning point or key wording to focus the reader on the meaning of a section written chiastically.

If you really get hooked on these word puzzles, find reference books that tell you what words lie behind the oft-misleading English translations _ and what the actual word order is in Hebrew or Greek.

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For example, Mark 2:27 (NRSV) _ “The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath” _ is often cited as an ABBA chiasm. But the saying has a ABCBA pattern in the Greek original:


A The sabbath

B for humankind

C was made

B’ not humankind

A’ for the sabbath.

Another rule: Don’t be surprised to find small chiasms within larger ones. Three chiastic steps before 2:27 is 2:21-22 which says that sewing a new piece of cloth on an old garment will cause a tear, and likewise putting new wine into old wineskins will burst the skins.

Those verses on damage made by stretching material can be compared to 3:4b-6 (three chiastic steps after 2:27) in which Jesus heals. He asks the man to “stretch out” his withered hand. The man “stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”

Final rule: Expect to be amazed by clever word artistry and wit from biblical authors _ codes that are only “secret” because they rarely surface outside scholarly circles.

_ John Dart

DEA/PH END DART

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