Literary structure/ chiasms

by peacefulpete 15 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  Being very new to this type of inquiry I'd appreciate any inpute to refute or confirm the idea of Mark's literary style including chiasms. The word simply means 'intersection'. In this case it is argued that Mark like other literature of the day used a unique pattern of thought and structure that grouped sections into rounded out blocks where the end half mirrors or opposes the beginning half . Here is an example of one of many such chiasms found in Mark:

  Mark 6:1-6:
  
  A 1: He went away from there and came to his own country; and his disciples followed him. 2: And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him?
  .....B What mighty works are wrought by his hands !
  .........C 3: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" .............D And they took offense at him.
  .........C' 4: And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house."
  .....B 5: And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them.
  A 6: And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

  How widely accepted is this idea, and how much has it been considered in the textual reconstructions of Mark?
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  Wild_Thing

  I think it is just considered a writing style of the ancients. I do not know of any other significance attributed to it. Like ....

  Anyone shedding man?s blood, by man will his own blood be shed - Gen 9:6
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  peacefulpete

  Yes Wild thing. But how extensive was this method within the narrative of MarK? How much has this been considered in attempts to reconstruct the original text?
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  Leolaia

  I'm not so familiar with chiasmatic analyses of Mark....tho I have encountered them. I must confess a degree of skepticism however. One chiasmatic analysis I saw of the Passion narrative in Mark seemed to be quite far-fetched; the paralleled items seemed to have only a loose relationship with each other, and it seemed all too easy to select what you want to arrange into a chiasmus. There are, of course, obvious and indisputable cases, but I have gotten the impression that the analytical approach has at times been pushed way too far, with critics "discovering" chiasmata where none may really exist in the structure. I have also seen people pursue chiasmatic analysis as an argument against source criticism. I am thinking, for example, of Cassuto's arguments for the unity of the Flood story in Genesis, in which the doublets and other features which fit well with multi-source theories are explained as structural elements of an overarching chiasmus. Personally I don't see how a chiasmus in the final redacted work necessarily excludes the possibility of multiple sources contributing to the text, and the methodology of chiasmatic analysis seems rather arbitrary to me -- tho, for that matter, it is another question of whether it is more or less arbitrary than source and form criticism which has its own arbitrariness. I chafe a little at the freedom with which some treat difficult passages as interpolations without supporting evidence, but that is only a small quibble...
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  euripides

  Perhaps you have noted this short undergraduate essay:

  http://www2.andrews.edu/~rickyr/ntc00.html

  As far as chiastic structure goes, I'm not sure how illuminating it is overall. Obviously it's a common stylistic device pervasive in both Hebrew and Greek. Much has been made of Mark's overall encompassing structure, and I think there is merit in such analyses (ch. 8 as a pivotal turning point, the three separate reminders of the Son of Man's imminent death in chapters 8, 9 and 10, etc.). I agree that, for example, the "superchiasm" analysis of the Flood Story is forced to fit parallels where they may or may not be. There is no doubt the final redactor of Mark has structure in mind more than once throughout the text, but the incidence of this particular device carries minimal implication, in my view.

  Euripides
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  peacefulpete

  Thanks for the thoughts guys and gals. I felt that this is significant. Even if it may help only in understanding the final redactor's mind rather than the earlier layers. I must admit that I'm also skeptical about most grandiose or miniscule patterns perceivd by over zealous analysts which is why I posted this thread. I was left quite incredulous after wading thru that book "The Logic of Incest" with it's structural analysist of Genesis that seemed to explain too much. At least I think these more subjective methods can be seen as corroboration if the linguistic or external evidence suggests a problem.
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  Narkissos

  Structural analysis and especially chiasmata are quite helpful: they take a lot of space in the dissertations/essays of students/scholars of the "dull and laborious" class.

  Now true chiasmata are a puzzling phenomenon, probably pointing to an unconscious aesthetical pattern in (especially ancient Jewish) traditions and writings; sometimes they help to confirm an emendation where there is also semantic evidence for it. But in the absence of independent evidence they are hardly a trustworthy tool for literary reconstruction imo.
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  Midget-Sasquatch

  If I recall correctly, can't chiasms also be used as a supplementary line of evidence for the priority of Mark over the other two synoptics? I may be muddling up the device with something else, but since Mark has more numerous instances of chiasms, and Matthew only has a few, its more likely that Matthew borrowed them, rather than Mark taking a few and from the synoptics then constructing the rest.

  If I can see some of the sandwiching, (a few short ones) , it must be a pretty obvious and real pattern . Some of the more lengthy ones that are claimed, like the passion narrative, I don't really see.
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  Narkissos

  Some of the most convincing chiastic patterns actually seem to be better conserved in Matthew and Luke than in (the extant) Mark.

  Here is a short example.
  
  Matthew 10:33:

  Those who find their life
  will lose it,
  and those who lose their life for my sake
  will find it.

  Matthew 16:25:

  For those who want to save their life
  will lose it,
  and those who lose their life for my sake
  will find it.

  Mark 8:35:

  For those who want to save their life
  will lose it,
  and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,
  will save it.

  Luke 9:24:

  For those who want to save their life
  will lose it,
  and those who lose their life for my sake
  will save it.

  Luke 17:33:

  Those who look for their life
  will lose it,
  but those who lose their life
  will make it live.
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  Leolaia

  Yes, those simple, tight chiasms in the sayings material are quite nice. Interesting, if it is the case, that they are better represented in the daughter gospels than in the current text of Mark. The stuff that gets a little more questionable are some of the putative chiasms in the narrative structure which embrace rather large sections of text and for which the analysts appear to pick and choose what they want to fill the slots of the chiasmus.