Short Stories and Essays
A SHORT ESSAY ABOUT CHIASMUS
There is chiasmus hidden in the following passage taken from the 13th Chapter of Matthew:
Matthew 13-18 reads in the KJV as follows:
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
[End of scripture quotation]
Chiasmus is a literary art style. It is composed of inverted parallelism, sometimes called introversion. In its simplest form, it is a two-liner, like “Everything happens for the best, if you make the best out of everything that happens.” Are you catching on? You repeat yourself backwards, so to speak.
Here are some modern examples of simple chiasmus:
Chiasmus Examples in Speeches
• “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” -John F. Kennedy.
• “We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings shape us.” -Winston Churchill.
• “We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.” -John McCain.
In a complex form, the text can be quite lengthy, demonstrating a lot of thought and writing behind it, unless you are perfect. Then you can naturally use a chiasmatic format as you speak. Even where the text was not originally spoken in perfect chiasmus, the recorder/historian can reduce the report of the event to chiasmus.
The second half of the chiasmus following the axis or turning point is usually the more righteous alternative. The chiasmus does not necessarily break at the verses because the verses and chapters came hundreds of years after the original writings and without a knowledge of the presence of chiasmus. Also, much of chiasmus is lost when a text is translated from one language into another, such as from Hebrew to English, or from Greek to English. Here is a modified graph of a part of Chapter 13 of Matthew, verses 13-18, that demonstrates the existence of complex chiasmus. In this record, the Savior is speaking:
a. Therefore speak I to them in parables:
b. because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
c. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith,
d. By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand;
e. and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
f. For this people’s heart is waxed gross,
g. and their ears are dull of hearing,
h. and their eyes they have closed;
lest at any time they should [center axis or turning point]
h. see with their eyes,
g. and hear with their ears,
f. and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
e. But blessed are your eyes, for they see:
d. and your ears, for they hear.
c. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men
b. have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
a. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
[End of Graph]
Do you see how the words in the first “a” line match the words in the last “a” line, and so forth for each letter?
I supposed the above could be an accident if it were the only example in the Bible. However, the Bible is chock full of chiasmus. This type of pre-Gutenberg writing lent itself to memorization at a time when written records were not readily available to the general public.
Chiasmus was one of the writing styles known and used by Hebrew prophets, and the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is also full of very complex and hidden chiasmus, being written by Hebrew prophets (descending through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, who were transplanted to the Americas)
The following 1972 article by a young John Welch will take you to the beginnings of the discovery of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. There is no evidence that Joseph Smith knew anything about chiasmus when he translated the 500-plus pages of The Book of Mormon in less than 75 days. This article is well worth the time it takes to read it.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/1972/02/chiasmus-in-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
ENJOY!