You may be right, Joe. This was spin's idea; why are you not asking him about it? Something in the pericope as spin presented it reminded me of those pericopes I had worked on earlier, so I pointed it out. I think it makes a lot of sense, but I am still piecing things together.
JoeWallack wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:27 amThis is a classic Markan chiasm.
I do not buy very much into "chiasm theory" (as it were). That is, I do not think that anybody went about distributing complicated chiastic structures all over Mark to the extent that is claimed. The elaborate chiasms can exist, and where they do exist they are impressive. But the ones proposed beyond those core phenomena are, to my mind, mostly in the mind of the theorist. Or, alternately, the chiastic structures that withstand testing are usually so simple that they probably were not explicitly striven for.
Marcan pericopes tend to begin and end like chiasms, because he always has Jesus on the move, so the first sentence will be about Jesus entering a locale and the last sentence will be about Jesus exiting a locale. This I accept fully. However, beyond that first and last bracket of the alleged chiasm, the internal structure (if there is one) does not have to be chiastic at all. Mark 1.16-20 has a beginning and an end, to be sure, but the main part of the pericope is a very clear A-B-C A-B-C structure which parallels the calling of Simon and Andrew with the calling of James and John. And Mark is capable of other structures besides chiasms and parallel chains, too.
Some chiasms exist almost by default. Since most pericopes begin and end with movement, the outer brackets are already established. Then, since many pericopes begin with a problem (like a disease or a demonic possession or a challenge from Jesus' enemies) and end with a solution (like a healing or an exorcism or a witty remark by Jesus), that is another pair of brackets good to go. But this is probably not some fascination with the Greek letter
chi; it is just very simple storytelling:
Josephus, Antiquities 20.5.1 §97-99:
A1 Now it came to pass while Fadus was procurator of Judea....
- B1 ...that a certain enchanter, whose name was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them and follow him to the river Jordan.
- C1 —
a For he told them that he was a prophet, and that he would by his own command divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it.
b And many were deluded by his words.
- C2 —
a However, Fadus did not permit them to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them.
b Falling upon them unexpectedly, he slew many of them and took many of them alive.
- B2 They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head and carried it to Jerusalem.
A2 This was what befell the Jews in the time of the leadership of Cuspius Fadus.
A: Cuspius Fadus' procuratorship.
B: Theudas' rise and fall.
C: A prophetic act becomes a "wild attempt" and the deluded become the slain and the captured.
A structure is there, but of a kind which is painfully simple to achieve when one is telling a very simple problem/solution story. In the case at hand, if chiasms are what you want:
Main story:
A1 21 And he journeyed into Capernaum.
- B1 And straightway on the sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught.
- C1 22 And they were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as having authority, and not as the scribes.
- C2 27 And all wondered so that they debated with each other, saying,
- B2 "What is this? A new teaching with authority? {He even commands unclean spirits, and they obey him.}"
A2 28 And news of him went out everywhere straightway unto the whole region of Galilee.
Insert:
A1 23 And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted out, 24 saying,
- B1 "What are you to us, Jesus the Nazarene? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the holy one of God!"
- B2 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet and come out of him!"
A2 26 And the unclean spirit convulsed him and cried out with a great voice and came out of him.
Given the main story already, what a simple procedure it would be to preserve its chiastic structure by inserting another chiastic structure right in the middle. If chiasms are the goal, this one is a cinch.
But I doubt that chiasms were the goal here in any real way. Rather, the story structure
itself is so simple that it is easy to cast it in a chiastic light. And, if it were not a chiasm, it would be parallel chains or some other super simple arrangement.
You boldfaced words in your presentation which made it look like each pair of brackets shared a common vocabulary hook (or in one case a conceptual one); but this is, I believe, the natural result of Marcan repetition. On the one hand, you split out my A brackets into two separate units, based on location (Capernaum/Galilee) and on the word "immediately" — on the other hand, however, the single most pronounced phrase of the entire pericope is probably "teaching with authority" (so pronounced, in fact, that this is the only element that Matthew preserves of the passage), and our chiastic structures put the twin instances of that phrase into
different brackets. I cannot find it in me to believe that Mark went to all the trouble of creating this structure only to split this phrase up.
Here is the passage with the duplicated vocabulary boldfaced and color-coded:
21 And he journeyed into Capernaum. And straightway on the sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted out, 24 saying: What are you to us, Jesus the Nazarene? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God. 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying: Be quiet and come out of him. 26 And the unclean spirit convulsed him and cried out with a great voice and came out of him. 27 And all wondered so that they debated with each other, saying: What is this? A new teaching with authority? He even commands unclean spirits, and they obey him. 28 And news of him went out everywhere straightway unto the whole region of Galilee.
There is no
real pattern here. You took the matches you needed and ignored the rest, winding up with two "teaching" words in the bracket immediately after the actual "teaching" bracket, the name Jesus in the bracket called "hidden identity" for some reason, and that huge missed opportunity with "teaching with authority" as the line of choice (among others). These issues would have been easy to fix, had Mark such a structure in mind; but I do not think he did. There is an overall chiastic effect (the causes of which I have gone into above) and
lots of repetition (of which I listed examples for vocabulary, but there are also examples for concepts/ideas). Everything else is, I think, exegetical whimsy.
These are my opinions, nothing more. I may be wrong about Mark, both here and elsewhere, but I cannot work with what I cannot make myself believe. I promise you, I read every chiasm you post on this forum. I look both for strengths and for weaknesses. If something changes my mind about Mark and chiasms overall, I will definitely let you know.