Literary Structures

• All large documents contain some kind of structuring
• Ancient ways of structuring are very different to modern practices
  • Modern: chapters, subtitles, paragraphs, introduction & conclusion
  • Ancient: narrative techniques, inclusio, parallelism, inverse parallel structures, etc.
• Logic:
  1. Context is one of the most vital factors in determining meaning
  2. The most important aspect of the context of a passage is its role in the argument of the book.
  3. The structure of a book gives great help in determining the flow of argument:
     • both at the level of the whole book
     • and within smaller sections
  4. Therefore structure is of great exegetical importance.
• Structure of the book of Judges
• Colossians 3:1-6
• Structure of the book of Acts
• Structure of Galatians 5:13-6:5 (pdf document)
• Handout on structure of Luke 18:18-30
   

Two valuable papers:

• C. A. Smith, The Leaning Tower—Foundational Weaknesses if Contemporary Chiastic Studies, (Toronto: ETS, 2002)
• A. Boyd Luter And Richard O. Rigsby An Adjusted Symmetrical Structuring Of Ruth, JETS 39:1 (March 1996) p. 16