Dead Sea Scroll Chiasmus

Photograph of a Dead Sea Scroll containing a chiasm that is on display in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. Used in ancient scripture, chiasms are a powerful, symmetric pattern of writing. This funneling structure focuses in and emphazises the main concept in the middle. From here.  Personally, I find this particular design intriquing.  [...]

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Chiasmus Quotes

    . Chiasm was used as a literary device in the ancient world, in Babylonia, Israel, Greece, and Rome. It fell out of use, however, and in modern times the existence of chiasms in ancient literature was only recognized by a few scholars in the 18th and 19th centuries. This changed in the middle [...]

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Chiasmus Quotes – “Scripture in Tradition”

   . A few years ago I read the book, “The Shape of Biblical Language – Chiasmus in the Scriptures“, written by Father John Breck.  This morning I picked up John’s “Scripture in Tradition:  The Bible and Its Interpretation in the Orthodox Church“.  Chapter 5 is entitled, “Chiasmus as a Key to Biblical Interpretation”.  Below are [...]

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Chiasmus Quote

From here. . Chiasmus is common throughout literary history.  It is found in modern history in the writings and speeches of men like Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare, and Ben Franklin.  Chiasmus has been found as early as the third millennium B.C.  Quintilian, the first century A.D. Roman rhetorician [...]

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Chiasmus Quote – Symbol of Beauty

From here. Though art has made many transformations throughout time the underlying symmetrical composition of the image has remained a constant. The inborn inclination of humans to be attracted to symmetry coupled with the natural desire or pursuit of happiness leads to the premise that symmetry is indeed the symbol of beauty. Symmetrical properties are [...]

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Chiasmus and Translation – From “Better Bibles Blog”

  In my previous entry I pointed out a case in which knowing a passage is chiastic may aid in the text’s translation.  In this entry I want to point to a blog entry at “Better Bibles Blog” which discusses chiasmus and translation.  I’m not sure I agree with the author’s approach.  I would far rather see the chiasmus [...]

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Chiasmus Quote

The repetition of words and themes, while ponderous and redundant in our own age, struck the ear or eye of an ancient audience with welcome familiarity.  Repetition alerted an audience to impending change: to endings, beginnings and transitions.  Symmetry, however – a child of repetition – is far more discreet both in text and orality.  Symmetry [...]

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Chiasmus Quote

  The manifestation of aesthetic phenomena in Scripture cannot be brushed aside as an unnecessary luxury.  The aesthetic exposure is broad and extensive, involving vast swaths of narratives and poetry.  God used a complex of aesthetic patterns as He revealed Himself in Scripture.  …  Encounter with and understanding of God will be unavoidably affected as [...]

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