What is a Chiasm?
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In modern day America we tell a story and then we end it at the peak of the story. The way that the Bible gets it’s point across is to do a chiasm. It is named after the greek letter Chi it is a letter that looks like a modern day x. One will be able to tell the point of the story because x marks the spot. I am doing an introduction now so I can refer back to this video later on. The use of chiasms are useful for more understanding the Bible.
In modern day America we tell a story and then we end it at the peak of the story. The way that the Bible gets it’s point across is to do a chiasm. It is named after the greek letter Chi it is a letter that looks like a modern day x. One will be able to tell the point of the story because x marks the spot. I am doing an introduction now so I can refer back to this video later on. The use of chiasms are useful for more understanding the Bible.
chiasm — A literary structure where parallel elements correspond in an inverted order (i.e., A-B-C-Cʹ-Bʹ-Aʹ).
This structure can be viewed as the ideas are being reflected back in a passage.
Genesis 2:4 “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,”
A heavens
B earth
X were created
X Lord God made
B Earth
A heavens
notice that heavens and earth are inverted in the first half it is heavens and earth and at the end of the verse it is earth and heavens.
This is that mirror structure where the ideas are reflecting back in a passage.
Chiasms also function as a sort of commentary so in the verse above the emphasis is on the Lord God as creator.
The most important part of the verse is the very middle so X is marking the spot.
Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
A two masters
B Hate one
X Love the other
X Hold to the one
B Despise the other
A God and mammon.
In this verse there is a contrast between two masters. The focus of the verse is that loyalty can only be given to one master. In life we can see that eventually the two masters will not agree and ultimately we will follow the one that we love.
If we take this idea further then if we review the choices of our life we can see when we have followed the wrong master. We failed to follow our Lord when we knew what we should do and chose not to do it.
Chiastic structure will encourage us to look at the whole verse or passage that contain them.
Chiasms demonstrate the brilliance of the Word of God. They allow us to get a more complete idea of what to focus on in scripture because we can see what is being emphasized. They can take up a verse, a book, or the whole Bible. Some are simple and some are complex. There are even sections of scripture that have Chiasms within chiasms.
