1 Cor 12:1-11

Charles Peebles cpeebles at altamaha.net
Thu Nov 5 23:12:47 EST 1998


This is my first attempt to post to the B-Greek list. I'm quite sure that
I'm not going about it in the right way. Please forgive me. Concerning the
significance of ALLWi and hETERWi in 1 Cor 12: The interchanging of
synonyms is most likely just an effort to avoid excessive repetition, as
several other B-Greeks have already opined. The pattern, however, is almost
certainly not an accident. The stylistic pattern ABAA AABA, or in its more
common form AB BA is a figure of speech common in Greek and Latin prose and
poetry. It's called a chiasm or chiasmus because of its resemblance to the
shape of the letter chi (cf. Odit...privatam luxuriam, publicam
magnificentiam diligit. 'They hate private extravagance, public
magnificence they love.') This chiasm probably serves no purpose other 
than to give a pleasing structure to the enumeration of the gifts. Perhaps
it even served as a mnemonic device for those who might have cared to
memorize the list.
Timorously,
Chuck Peebles
Hazlehurst, GA
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