The Shape of Biblical Language: Chiasmus in the Scriptures - Bible Commentaries - Theological Studies - Book

Author: Fr. John Breck Published: 2008 Size: 6x9 Pages: 392  Paperback We read Scripture as we read any literary work, to understand its meaning. Meaning is usually expressed through narrative development, that is, through the unfolding of a story. Meaning, however, can also be expressed by "parallelism:" the juxtaposition of ideas and images typical of poetry or musical compositions. A complex yet beautiful example of such parallelism is known as chiasmus. This is a literary form that has seldom been studied in depth, although it appears with great frequency throughout the Old and New Testaments, as it does in other ancient and many modern literary works. The Shape of Biblical Language is the most complete and detailed introduction to chiasmus yet published. It also serves as a highly useful reference work that identifies and analyzes a large number of individual passages, as well as entire compositions (gospels, letters, hymns, etc.), which appear throughout the canonical Scriptures