"Syntactical Chiasmus"

Steven Craig Miller stevencraigmiller at home.com
Mon Jan 29 09:01:50 EST 2001


To: John Barach,

<< Breck deals with two examples (Phil. 5 and Matt. 7:6) on pp. 29-30, the 
section dealing with parallelism (which he distinguishes from chiasmus 
proper). He says of Matt. 7:6 that it "follows a pattern common in ancient 
Greek and Roman rhetoric, referred to as *hysteron-proteron* or 
'last-first.'" >>

One can find "Hysteron Proteron" mentioned in Smyth-Messing's grammar. But, 
the examples they give in no way appear similar to the examples of Phil 5 
and Mt 7:6. In addition, they list it as a figure of speech and not as 
something which can override normal Greek syntax. Both Chiasmus and 
Hysteron Proteron were familiar rhetorical figures of speech in ancient 
Greek literature. But I can't find any hint in classical grammars that they 
were ever used to override normal Greek syntax. Does any of the works which 
you've cited offer any justification for assuming that they can be used to 
override normal Greek syntax?

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
stevencraigmiller at home.com




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