Chiastic Structure in the Bible

Chiastic structure is a literary structure, in which the second half repeats the first half in reverse order. This term comes from the Greek letter "chi", which looks like an X. It's a simple concept, and it's not uniquely Jewish, as it can be found in many common sayings as well, such as this Benjamin Franklin quote: "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." And here's another axiom: "Don't use a man you doubt, don't doubt the man you use." According to some rabbis, it's also known as "menorah pattern", you known, the Jewish lampstand with seven branches, among which the tallest is right in the middle, it goes like ABC-D-CBA. Here are a few familiar examples:

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” (Gen 9:6)

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27)

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matt. 10:39)

For he who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:11)

And here's Psalm 67, the most prominent and obvious passage that goes in this structure, verse 1 and 2 match 7 and 6, 3 and 5 are identical, and 4 is the longest. It's carefully and purposefully written in the shape of a menorah:

1 God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us.
2 That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
3 Let the people praise You, O God, let all the peoples praise You;
4 Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth.
5 Let the people praise You, O God, let all the peoples praise You;
6 Then the earth shall yield her increase, God, our own God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

Then you take a look at Revelation, the entire book is written in this structure. The first half reveals Jesus, the second exposes Satan, and right in the middle is chapter 12, the turning point where it TRANSITIONS from heaven to earth. It starts with - and ends with - John the Revelator's blessing and exhortation. If Revelation is a movie, then chapter 12 is the intermission. Overall, this pattern is very common in the bible, many verses, passages, chapters, sections or even entire books are written in chiastic structure. Recognizing the chiastic structure is a key to read the bible in the right way.

Yeah, I do that a lot in my writings as well........In fact writers of all sorts of things do it quite often.

BTW; I like the "favorite Scripture" on your Profile Page

The books of Samuel are written completely in this fashion with interlinked chiasm.

Yeah, old Samuel was a great Poet

In a few spots it's a coarse limryc.

Fantastic Chiastic!

Chia-Trump!

Really? The two books as a whole? I can see Saul's persecution in 1 Samuel and Absalom's rebellion in 2 Samuel, but it's not easy to know where exactly it starts and where exactly it ends, and then spot this pattern from a broader perspective.

Biblical examples of chiastic structure include Ecclesiastes 11:3-12:2 and Matthew 23:11-12.

It also looks like James write in chiasms, too

Is Joel 3:17–21 a chiasm? Other possible examples:

Ecclesiastes 11:3—12:2; Genesis 6—9; Amos 5:4–6a; Isaiah 1:21–26; and Joshua 1:5–9


James 4~ God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.Humble yourselves before
the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Yeah, Gen 6-9, Noah's flood, that's a good one. Nice catch.

There are only two books because they couldn't make a scroll long enough to hold both...one is seamless into the next.

Genesis is actually a seamless story into Exodus...but again scroll length prohibited them from being put into a single scroll.

I would add that the seven letter section in Revelation itself is written in chiasm. Both Ephesus (1st) and Laodicea (7th) have an apathy problem, their love for Christ has grown cold; Smyrna (2nd) and Pheladelphia (6th) are the only good ones; Pergamum (3rd) and Sardis (5th) are Christians in name only, they are ineffective, which displeases the Lord; and the climax is Thyatira (4th), also the turning point, from there on it began to decline.

There's a progression from the 3rd church to the 5th. Those Nicolaitans that were rejected by the Ephesus church somehow found their way to sneak into Pergamum, and their false teaching permeated the entire church, when it came to Thyatira, they reached their peak, it was completely taken over by Jezebel. By the time of Sardis, the church was completely hollowed out and left in the shadow of its former glory. Many believe that Pergamum, Thyatira and Sardis are referring to the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

I've heard a fascinating theory that the seven kingdom parables in Matthew 13 are subtly describing these seven churches. A quick rundown of the progression: Seeds of gospel sowed in the field, then Satan sowed his seeds of tares, that's the onslaught of persecution; nevertheless, the seeds of gospel flourished, and that attracted all kinds of people, including those with unclean spirits, aka "fowls of the air"; then you've got Jezebel hiding her "leaven" in three measures of meals; after that there's a twist, the "field" is seemingly dead, and yet the Master still found the hidden treasure, and then a pearl, which is no longer in the field, but in the sea, which means brand new mission field; in the end is the harvest, the Master will separate the good from the bad, the sheep from the goat, the righteous from the unrighteous. So again, a menorah pattern.

I am familiar with that form, still I will now be watching for it in still reading from the Bible, while not letting my watchfulness for that detract from seeing the meaningful messages from the Bible for what I need or should know.