Chiastic structure

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Revision as of 10:12, 19 June 2023

Chiastic structure, or chiastic pattern, is a literary technique in narrative motifs and other textual passages. An example of chiastic structure would be two ideas, A and B, together with variants A' and B', being presented as A,B,B',A'. Chiastic structures that involve more components are sometimes called "ring structures", "ring compositions", or, in cases of very ambitious chiasmus, "onion-ring compositions". These may be regarded as chiasmus scaled up from words and clauses to larger segments of text.

These often symmetrical patterns are commonly found in ancient literature such as the epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Classicist Bruno Gentili describes this technique as "the cyclical, circular, or 'ring' pattern (ring composition). Here the idea that introduced a compositional section is repeated at its conclusion, so that the whole passage is framed by material of identical content". Meanwhile, in classical prose, scholars often find chiastic narrative techniques in the Histories of Herodotus:

Herodotus frequently uses ring composition or 'epic regression' as a way of supplying background information for something discussed in the narrative. First an event is mentioned briefly, then its precedents are reviewed in reverse chronological order as far back as necessary; at that point the narrative reverses itself and moves forward in chronological order until the event in the main narrative line is reached again.

Various chiastic structures are also seen in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament.

Etymology

When read left to right, top to bottom, the first topic (A) is reiterated as the last, and the middle concept (B) appears twice in succession. (Also, the middle concept could appear just once.)

The term chiastic derives from the mid-17th century term chiasmus, which refers to a crosswise arrangement of concepts or words that are repeated in reverse order. Chiasmus derives from the Greek word khiasmos, a word that is khiazein, marked with the letter khi. From khi comes chi.

Chi is made up of two lines crossing each other as in the shape of an X. The line that starts leftmost on top, comes down, and is rightmost on the bottom, and vice versa. If one thinks of the lines as concepts, one sees that concept A, which comes first, is also last, and concept B, which comes after A, comes before A. If one adds in more lines representing other concepts, one gets a chiastic structure with more concepts.

Mnemonic device

Oral literature is especially rich in chiastic structure, possibly as an aid to memorization and oral performance. In Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, for instance, Cedric Whitman finds chiastic patterns "of the most amazing virtuosity" that simultaneously perform both aesthetic and mnemonic functions, permitting the oral poet easily to recall the basic structure of the composition during performances. Steve Reece has demonstrated several ambitious ring compositions in Homer's Odyssey and compared their aesthetic and mnemonic functions with those of several South Slavic songs.

Use in the Hebrew Bible

Chiasms in the Hebrew Bible include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

• Genesis 6:10–9:18a (including a numerical mini-chiasm)
• Genesis 17:1–25
• Genesis 32:1–31 (including a name-changing mini-chiasm)
• Genesis 37:3–11
• Genesis 37:12–36
• Genesis 38:1–30
• Genesis 39:1–23
• Genesis 40:1–23
• Genesis 41:1–57
• Genesis 42:1–38

Genesis flood narrative

Gordon Wenham (1978) analyzed the Genesis flood narrative and concluded that it is essentially an elaborate chiasm. Based on the earlier study of grammatical structure by F. I. Andersen (1974), Wenham illustrated a chiastic structure as displayed in the following two tables.

Chiastic structure of the Genesis flood narrative

A: Noah and his sons (Gen 6:10)

B: All life on earth (6:13:a)

C: Curse on earth (6:13:b)

D: Flood announced (6:7)

E: Ark (6:14-16)

F: All living creatures (6:17–20 )

G: Food (6:21)

H: Animals in man's hands (7:2–3)

I: Entering the Ark (7:13–16)

J: Waters increase (7:17–20)

X: God remembers Noah (8:1)

J': Waters decrease (8:13–14)

I': Exiting the Ark (8:15–19)

H': Animals (9:2,3)

G': Food (9:3,4)

F': All living creatures (9:10a)

E': Ark (9:10b)

D': No flood in future (9:11)

C': Blessing on earth (9:12–17)

B': All life on earth (9:16)

A': Noah and his sons (9:18,19a)

Within this overall structure, there is a numerical mini-chiasm of 7s, 40s, and 150s:

Chiasm of the numbers 7, 40, and 150

α: Seven days waiting to enter Ark (7:4)

β: Second mention of seven days waiting (7:10)

γ: 40 days (7:17)

δ: 150 days (7:24)

χ: God remembers Noah (8:1)

δ': 150 days (8:3)

γ': 40 days (8:6)

β': Seven days waiting for dove (8:10)

α': Second seven days waiting for dove (8:12)