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| I Can't Believe It's Been Over a Year |
| 12.11.07 (5:31 pm) [edit] |
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My last blog entry was over a year ago! I can't believe it. My life is busy -- that's for sure! -- but I didn't realize that time had gone by so quickly. I may not even have any readers anymore.
But just in case I do...
Here is an exercise for you to try. As Christmas approaches, I began to look at the story of Jesus' birth from the perspective of Matthew's Gospel. Starting with Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18-25 (Matt. 1:18-25), I thought I would try an experiment. I looked in the text for what is called a chiastic structure (a chiasm).
A chiasm takes its name from the Greek letter X (chi), and a text will employ the chiastic structure by using parallel concepts that, when charted, look like the left side of the letter X.
[snooze.....]
Here are two chiasms I came up with for Matt. 1:18-25:
Ignatius’ Chiasm
18 A birth of Jesus Christ
B His mother Mary was pledged to be married
C she was found to be with child
20 D an angel of the Lord appeared...and said
WHAT IS CONCEIVED IN HER IS FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT.
21 SHE WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS,
BECAUSE HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.
22 D’ to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet
23 C’ virgin shall be with child
24 B’ took Mary home as his wife
25 A’ birth to a son
Ignatius' Alternate Chiasm
18 A before they came together, she was found to be with child
19 B he had in mind to divorce her
20 C After he considered this, an angel...appeared...in a dream
20 D what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit
SHE WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON,
21 E AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS,
BECAUSE HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS
23 D’ The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son
24 C’ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel...commanded him
24 B’ took Mary home as his wife
25 A’ he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son
What do you think? The point, of course, is to see what the unifying thought is in the middle. In both cases, I came up with practically the same affirmation.
If you decide to try it, let me know what you come up with.
Thanks.
[Note: I tried to an "edit" on these chisams to see if I could display them properly, but...I couldn't. It'll take some extra effort on your part to read them. If you decide to do so...thanks.]
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