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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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