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Tue May 3 10:41:24 EDT 2011
A Guide to Detecting Chiastic Patterns
To help the reader acquire some facility in detecting chiastic patterns
throughout the Bible, the following steps are offered as a guide.
1. Acquire a study Bible you can freely mark up with a pencil.
2. Try to detach yourself from the divisions in the printed text,
paying as little attention as possible to paragraphs or verse and
chapter numbers.
3. Look for units of text - several lines at most - that begin and end
with similar terms or themes [A:A' inclusion]. When you find such
correspondences, mark them off from the rest of the unit with brackets
[...].
4. Read the passage through several times to sense its narrative flow
[from A to A'], before attempting to discover other parallel
elements in it.
5. Move from the extremities toward the center: try to identify the
presence and limits of B:B', then C:C', etc.
6. Look for a logical center of meaning [O]: one or two lines [whole
statements or single words] that seem to summarize the theme of the
passage as read "from the outside in." Set it off with brackets.
7. Test the center [O] by moving outward from it in an effort to detect
and determine the limits of 1:1'.
8. Re-read the entire passage to verify the parallels [read A then A',
then B and B', etc] and set them off from one another with
parenthesis (...).
9. On a large sheet of lined paper write out the passage according to
its parallel structure [using letters or numbers, and indenting as we
have done], in order to _visualize_ its form.
10. Read the passage aloud as you have written it, in order to _hear_
its concentric flow.
11. Work out the helical analysis [A to A'; B to B'; etc.] tp test fpr
any _heightening_ that may occur from the first line to its complement.
12. Return to the printed text and "read chiastically."
________________________________________________
George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA
______________________________________________________
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