Mark ~ Musings on the gospel: Chiasms and Palistrophes
OK -- disclaimer time:
I am a nerd.
Some of you, those who know me, already know that. Yeah, you are right ~ not exactly a news flash! One of my favorite books, Planet Narnia by M. Ward, is a doctoral thesis ~ OK, a BRILLIANTLY written, and quite easily readable doctoral thesis, but yeah...doctoral thesis none the less. I love etymology (that would be the study of a word's history of origin) ... like, I look up words for FUN! I like Shakespeare -- watching and reading it. I have read several of the plays in their entirety.You get the idea. I wanted to tell you that so you could be warned and be aware that, actually, you might not want to read this blog. You can click out now. I will understand perfectly {yeah, not that I would even KNOW}
I am going to talk about (as the title already warned you) chiasms and palistrophes. I have included several web addresses at the end that most of you, I know, will not want to go check out. But I wanted to show you where I have been in my reading and 'research' this week.
So ~ I was enjoying my perusal of Mark. Delighting in the subtle things that I found 'interesting', 'intriguing' ... like "why did Mark exclude the cool Peter stories?", and "why did Mark ~ and only Mark ~ include that parable about the seed right after the classic parable about the Sower?", and "Did Mark include the miracle of healing a blind man just before the Triumphal Entry in, Mark 10:46-52, just to tell a miracle story -- or was the story placed to highlight the contrast between faith and the blindness of the Pharisees?". I was finding the general commentaries on Mark ... well ... less than riveting. Then I remembered an obscure-ish website I had gone to ~ while reading on something or other some time ago ~ that discussed an example of a palistrophe in Mark.
OK -- I hear you. What? What is a 'palistrophe' or 'chiasm'? One of the websites listed below
(http://www.christviewmin.org/bible.study/bible.studies.literary.patterns.php)
explains them so much better than I can that I STRONGLY suggest you go check out the site now, . . . . ., OK, are you back?
and for those of you who didn't go check it out ....
A chiasm or palistophe -- they are a literary structure used quite commonly in ancient literature. 'Chiasm' gets its name from the Greek letter 'chi' which is the letter X. In a chiasm the ideas are written so there is a mirror-like opposite parallel, where all the ideas lead up to a point and then reverse and return back to the origin, with the phrasing and ideas forming a structure like one side of an X , like an arrow's point. > (See ... I recognise them, but that was a ridiculous attempt.) OK, let me show you a VERY simple example:
A Hickory Dickory Dock
B The mouse ran up the clock
C The clock struck one >
B` The mouse ran down
A` Hickory Dickory Dock
Now let me show you one from the gospel of Mark 11:13-20
Mark 11:13-21
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
"'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'?
But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
Now, here is the passage outlined showing the chiasm
A
Jesus takes authority over a fig tree by cursing it
B
Jesus takes authority over merchandisers at temple
C
My house will be a house of prayer for all nations
C'
You have made my house into a den of robbers
B'
Jewish leaders are loosing their authority
A'
Disciples recognize Jesus’ authority in the withered fig tree
Do you see it? Do you see the mirrored parallels? Do you see how it leads to a point, then descending, emphasized that point? Don't you think it is soo soooooo sooooooooooo cool? Well, I do! (See, nerd. Right?) Well what I discovered in my reading/research were some NOT dry, dull, insipid commentary writers. They had read and studied the whole of the gospel in the Greek and found that the entire gospel is one HUGE chiasm, that is sprinkled with lots and lots and lots of individual chiams. One commentator even said that the gospel is like a chain of pearls : one chiasm following another, following another. From the reading I saw that one of the things that hides this literary structure from us is that we are reading the gospel, indeed the whole Bible, in English and translation hides the paralleled words and word forms that highlight and decorate the structure. Another thing is that we do not tend to use this literary structure in modern literature. But it was common -- very common come to find out -- in ancient literature. We don't see it because we don't see it. Like, I am sure most everyone is familiar with the nursery rhyme I used above. How many people think, :" ah ~ that is a chiasm." ?
For me, one of the strengths of the chiasmic structure is that it reveals the point of the author in the stories he gives us. I love literature. I love not just reading it, but I also love studying the style and structure of literature. Epics, sonnets, haiku and tankas. I am amazed at the writers who can use form and structure AND write story and poetry, using the structure to highlight the point they are making in the story or poem.
Some commentaries hinted that they thought Mark a weak author, his Greek too elementary, mistakes rife in the telling of the stories. It was exhilarating to find this complex literary structure in this little gospel. Reading it now, through the lenses of a chiastic structure, has made me see it anew. It has gone from that "little gospel by Mark" to a work of art.
Can't WAIT to see Mark at the Wedding Supper so I can high-five him!
- - - - - - - - - -
http://bible-discernments.com/joshua/secondchapter.pdf
http://www.christviewmin.org/bible.study/bible.studies.literary.patterns.php
http://www.well.com/user/davidu/veil.html
http://www.preachingpeace.org/2010/04/06/mark_chiasm/
I am a nerd.
Some of you, those who know me, already know that. Yeah, you are right ~ not exactly a news flash! One of my favorite books, Planet Narnia by M. Ward, is a doctoral thesis ~ OK, a BRILLIANTLY written, and quite easily readable doctoral thesis, but yeah...doctoral thesis none the less. I love etymology (that would be the study of a word's history of origin) ... like, I look up words for FUN! I like Shakespeare -- watching and reading it. I have read several of the plays in their entirety.You get the idea. I wanted to tell you that so you could be warned and be aware that, actually, you might not want to read this blog. You can click out now. I will understand perfectly {yeah, not that I would even KNOW}
I am going to talk about (as the title already warned you) chiasms and palistrophes. I have included several web addresses at the end that most of you, I know, will not want to go check out. But I wanted to show you where I have been in my reading and 'research' this week.
So ~ I was enjoying my perusal of Mark. Delighting in the subtle things that I found 'interesting', 'intriguing' ... like "why did Mark exclude the cool Peter stories?", and "why did Mark ~ and only Mark ~ include that parable about the seed right after the classic parable about the Sower?", and "Did Mark include the miracle of healing a blind man just before the Triumphal Entry in, Mark 10:46-52, just to tell a miracle story -- or was the story placed to highlight the contrast between faith and the blindness of the Pharisees?". I was finding the general commentaries on Mark ... well ... less than riveting. Then I remembered an obscure-ish website I had gone to ~ while reading on something or other some time ago ~ that discussed an example of a palistrophe in Mark.
OK -- I hear you. What? What is a 'palistrophe' or 'chiasm'? One of the websites listed below
(http://www.christviewmin.org/bible.study/bible.studies.literary.patterns.php)
explains them so much better than I can that I STRONGLY suggest you go check out the site now, . . . . ., OK, are you back?
and for those of you who didn't go check it out ....
A chiasm or palistophe -- they are a literary structure used quite commonly in ancient literature. 'Chiasm' gets its name from the Greek letter 'chi' which is the letter X. In a chiasm the ideas are written so there is a mirror-like opposite parallel, where all the ideas lead up to a point and then reverse and return back to the origin, with the phrasing and ideas forming a structure like one side of an X , like an arrow's point. > (See ... I recognise them, but that was a ridiculous attempt.) OK, let me show you a VERY simple example:
A Hickory Dickory Dock
B The mouse ran up the clock
C The clock struck one >
B` The mouse ran down
A` Hickory Dickory Dock
Now let me show you one from the gospel of Mark 11:13-20
Mark 11:13-21
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
"'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'?
But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
Now, here is the passage outlined showing the chiasm
A
Jesus takes authority over a fig tree by cursing it
B
Jesus takes authority over merchandisers at temple
C
My house will be a house of prayer for all nations
C'
You have made my house into a den of robbers
B'
Jewish leaders are loosing their authority
A'
Disciples recognize Jesus’ authority in the withered fig tree
Do you see it? Do you see the mirrored parallels? Do you see how it leads to a point, then descending, emphasized that point? Don't you think it is soo soooooo sooooooooooo cool? Well, I do! (See, nerd. Right?) Well what I discovered in my reading/research were some NOT dry, dull, insipid commentary writers. They had read and studied the whole of the gospel in the Greek and found that the entire gospel is one HUGE chiasm, that is sprinkled with lots and lots and lots of individual chiams. One commentator even said that the gospel is like a chain of pearls : one chiasm following another, following another. From the reading I saw that one of the things that hides this literary structure from us is that we are reading the gospel, indeed the whole Bible, in English and translation hides the paralleled words and word forms that highlight and decorate the structure. Another thing is that we do not tend to use this literary structure in modern literature. But it was common -- very common come to find out -- in ancient literature. We don't see it because we don't see it. Like, I am sure most everyone is familiar with the nursery rhyme I used above. How many people think, :" ah ~ that is a chiasm." ?
For me, one of the strengths of the chiasmic structure is that it reveals the point of the author in the stories he gives us. I love literature. I love not just reading it, but I also love studying the style and structure of literature. Epics, sonnets, haiku and tankas. I am amazed at the writers who can use form and structure AND write story and poetry, using the structure to highlight the point they are making in the story or poem.
Some commentaries hinted that they thought Mark a weak author, his Greek too elementary, mistakes rife in the telling of the stories. It was exhilarating to find this complex literary structure in this little gospel. Reading it now, through the lenses of a chiastic structure, has made me see it anew. It has gone from that "little gospel by Mark" to a work of art.
Can't WAIT to see Mark at the Wedding Supper so I can high-five him!
- - - - - - - - - -
http://bible-discernments.com/joshua/secondchapter.pdf
http://www.christviewmin.org/bible.study/bible.studies.literary.patterns.php
http://www.well.com/user/davidu/veil.html
http://www.preachingpeace.org/2010/04/06/mark_chiasm/
Well, nerd, you showed excitement over reading and learning from Mark and that excites me as I study with you. I was aware of parallelisms in the OT and in Revelation, though never really thought of it in the other NT books. Good job of bringing that to me, that I should, and will, even if I can't pronounce those words for parallelisms, think of it as I read the NT.
ReplyDeleteOK, Dennis ... Chiams -- KI as um
ReplyDeletepalistrophe -- PAL is trofe
Just wondering ... did you go to the sites?