Week 2 : Chiasm, Intertextuality, Intercalation/Community Guidelines and Two hyperlinked mountaintop weddings

Summarizing the "Three Worlds" from today's reading...We covered a lot of ground today, talking about TEXTS.

Texts need contexts.

I had two students text me (cell phone) random text messages during class to illustrate that texts need contexts. 

Like this one:

GODISNOWHERE:  is it GOD IS NOWHERE  or GOD IS NOW HERE?

How you read the text changes as much as everything.

Spaces matter.

Like this:

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: 

"I hit him in the eye yesterday."

The word is "ONLY".

The Message:

1.ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)

2.I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)

3.I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)

4.I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)

5.I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)

6.I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)

7.I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)

8.I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)

                              -link 

Like this 'text message' from Jesus:

I SAY TO YOU TODAY, "YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.'

or is it,

I SAY TO YOU, " TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."

The original manuscripts of the Bible not only run all letters, all caps, together, but include no punctuation.

Punctuation matters.

Everything is  context.

Context is everything.

By the way, that last statement was a chiasm.

So far, we have looked at small chiasms, where the parallelism is "literally" in the words ("First shall be last" etc.)...but look how that chiasm grows:
Matthew 20... But we note how important is was NOT to go with standard chapter division, but start one verse before, so the grand chiasm (s)  below emerged.  "Literary world" is crucial (without it, we succumb to Verse-itis):

But many who are first will be last, 
                     and many who are last will be first.

For the kingdom of heaven is like:  a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.'
So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?  'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.   "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "The workers who were hired (last), about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 

            So the last will be first,
                               and the first will be last.

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And they can grow larger, and the parallelism can be more general, thematic,  This is Genesis 6:

Somtimes chiasms  are are so large that they  almost become a genre..or encompass an entire book.


Check this below from

"Chiastic Understanding of the Gospel According to Matthew," 

James B. Jordan:

A. Genealogy (past), 1:1-17

       B. First Mary and Jesus’ birth, 1:18-25

C. Gifts of wealth at birth, 2:1-12

D. Descent into Egypt; murder of children, 2:13-21

E. Judea avoided, 2:22-23

F. Baptism of Jesus, 3:1–8:23

G. Crossing the sea, 8:24–11:1

H. John’s ministry, 11:2-19

I. Rejection of Jesus, 11:20-24

J. Gifts for the new children, 11:25-30

K. Attack of Pharisees, 12:1-13

L. Pharisees determine to kill the innocent Servant, 12:14-21

K’ Condemnation of Pharisees, 12:22-45

J’ Gifts for the new children, 13:1-52

I’ Rejection of Jesus, 13:53-58

H’ John’s death, 14:1-12

G’ Crossing the sea, 14:13–16:12

F’ Transfiguration of Jesus, 16:13–18:35

E’ Judean ministry, 19:1–20:34

D’ Ascent into Jerusalem; judgment on Jews, 21:1–27:56

C’ Gift of wealth at death, 27:57-66

B’ Last Marys and Jesus’ resurrection  28
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For another SUGGESTED BOOK-WIDE CHIASM OF MATTHEW,see page 9 here,  or below. a chiasm making chapter 13 the center of book:

james B. Jordan, “Chiasm and Life” in Biblical Theology Basics:

“Very much of human life is ‘there and back again,’ or chiastic. This is how God has designed human beings to live in the world. It is so obvious that we don’t notice it. But it is everywhere. This shape of human life arises ultimately from the give and take of the three Persons of God, as the Father sends the Spirit to the Son and the Son sends the Spirit back to the Father. We can see that literary chiasm is not a mere curiosity, a mere poetic device to structure the text. It arises from the very life of God, and is played out in the structure of the lives of the images of God in many ways and at many levels. It is because human beings live and move so often chiastically, that poets often find themselves drawn to chiastic writing. God creates chiasms out of His inner life, and so do the images of God.

Biblical chiasms are perfect. That is, they are perfectly matched to the human chiasms they address and transform. As we become more and more sensitive to Biblical chiasms, we will become more and more sensitive to one aspect of the true nature of human life under God. We will be transformed from bad human chiasms into good human chiasms. In this way, becoming sensitive to chiasm can be of practical transformative value to human life, though in deep ways that probably cannot be explained or preached very well.

One further thought. We saw in our previous essay that chiasms often have a double climax, one in the middle and the greatest at the end. The food we bought at market is put away in the cupboard and refrigerator when we get back home. Moving forward to a final climax is what all literature does, whether it has a middle climax or not. (Shakespeare’s five-act plays always move to a climax in the third and in the fifth acts.) This is just another way that human life matches literary production, in the Bible as well as in uninspired human literature. Becoming familiar with the shape and flow of Biblical texts will have a transforming effect on human life.”

James B. Jordan, “Chiasm and Life” in Biblical Theology Basics.

-link, Michael Bull’s blog: Theology you can eat and drink

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Mike Rinaldi, a local filmmaker (and Fresno Pacific grad) told this at the first "Gathering to Bless Christians in the Arts":
Blake Snyder, the screenwriter behind the classicSave The Cat"  book became a Christian not long before he died. 

Often at this point in such a story, folks ask "Who led him to Christ?" 

Go ahead and ask. 

The answer is: 

Chiasm. 

It happened in large part because Mike, not even knowing if such a well-known and busy writer would respond to his email, asked him if he had heard about chiasm. 

Turns out Snyder was fascinated with it all, and Mike was able to point out chiastic structure and shape in scriptwriting....and one thing led to another...and then in Scripture. 

All roads, and all chiasms, lead to the Center and Source. 


Mike, of course, learned chiasm in THIS CLASS.
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iINTERTEXTUALITY/HYPERLINKING:

One of Chris Harrison's projects is called "Visualizing the Bible":

"Christoph Römhild sent me his interesting biblical cross-references data set. This lead to the first of three visualizations. Intrigued by the complexity of the Bible, I derived a new data set by parsing the King James Bible and extracting people and places. One of the resulting visualizations is a biblical social network. The other visualization shows how people and places are distributed throughout the text."  Chris Harrison-

But why should I tell you when I can show you?:

"The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc - the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect." .More info about this chart, and charts of the Bible as a social network  here.

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INTERCALATION  (called in a more down-home way, "SANDWICHING")

           

"Intercalation" is a "sandwiching" technique. where a story/theme is told/repeated at the beginning and ened of a section, suggesting that if a different story appears in between, it too is related thematically.  We looked at  this outline of Mark 11:

CURSING OF FIG FREE

CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

CURSING OF THE FIG TREE

We discussed how the cursing of the fig tree was Jesus' commentary of nationalism/racism/prejudice, because fig trees are often a symbol of national Israel.  That the fig  tree cursing story is "cut in  two" by the inserting/"intercalating" of the temple cleansing, suggested that Jesus action in the temple was also commentary on prejuidice...which become more obvious when we realize the moneychangers and dovesellers are set up in the "court of the Gentiles," which kept the temple from being a "house of prayer FOR ALL NATIONS (GENTILES).

This theme becomes even more clear when we note that Jesus  statement was a quote from Isaiah 56:68, and the context there (of course) is against prejudice in the temple.

When a text reference is made to another text/Scripture, this is called INTERTEXTUALITY.

Summary:

Most think Jesus' "temple tantrum" was due to his being ticked off about folks "selling stuff in church.". But he didn't say "Quit selling stuff in church" , but "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations," quoting Is 56:6-8, whose context is all about letting foreigners and outcasts have a place..hmmm. He was likely upset that not that Dovesellers and money changers were doing business selling and changing , but that they were doing so in the "outer court,"  (AKA the "Court of the GENTILES"), the only  place where "foreigners" could have a pew at "attend church." They were making the temple area "a den of thieves" not (just) by overcharging for doves and currency exchange, but by robbing folks..'all nations'... of a place to pray..and to "access access" to God.

Could it be that Jesus' temple anger was targeted at racism/prejudice more than (instead of) commercialism? 

Maybe read this short article I wrote on the topic for Salt Fresno Magazine:

“Temple Tantrums For All Nations"

MORE ADVANCED LINKS ON THE TEMPLE TANTRUM:

• Temple tantrums and the "others"
• holy hemistitching and the temple tantrum: "How do you expect to get to heaven playing board games!?"

• temple tantrum/ which curtain was torn?

• Here  and here are helpful  Ray Vander Laan teachings on the temple courts.

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quiz prep:
(click each group's namee for a short article)
s

Sadducees

Pharisees

Essenes                                Zealots

Since we have spent so much time discussing the various "parties" of Jesus day, it is helpful to our discussion of culture to hear how one writer views and succinctly characterizes each group's approach to culture:

• "Pharisees  separated from culture
•  Sadducees blended into the culture

• Zealots ruled over culture/misused it

• Essenes ignored culture....

The Pharisees were sectarian, developing an unending number of laws to separate themselves from the common people. 

The Sadducees were syncretists, compromising their beliefs in order to blend into the culture.

 The Zealots misused culture as they attempted to usher in God’s kingdom through the use of force.

 The Essenes ignored culture altogether, retreating from society where they could seek mystical encounters with God in monkish privacy...

And so we see that sectarians love God but fail to love their neighbors,

 And so we see that sectarians
love God but fail to love their neighbors, 
              while syncretists love their neighbors,
               but fail to love God."
(note the chiasm?)

--

	Most of the parties were mentioned in the class video, but mostly the Zealots.  The heart of the video was Jesus' response to them, and Jesus as a rabbi in the synagogue. HERE below is a clip from a rabbi summarizing the four groups; we did not watch it in class, but you may find it helpful, and it can be used as a source for your notes and the quiz:

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>>This all lead to our "devotional" from Colbert (interviewing the congressman about the Ten Commandments), which

turned out to have several helpful serious points about the "literary world" of   today's topic (Moses on Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments).  Here it is:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a District - Lynn Westmoreland Update
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

and the "question of the day"..

Off the top of your head, list words and ideas that come to mind when you think of the story of the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai.

Then scroll down for the question..

Was "wedding" on your list?

                                        .....or "love"?

What does all this have to do with a wedding?

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AS A WEDDING:

The two Ray VanderLaan videos we showed from Mount Sinai were new, so there are no online versions of them yet.. excerpt for this short YouTube excerpt below( We didn't show this section, but it was filmed on the way up the mountain):

The episodes are on this DVD.

What did you learn from the first one about ":elevation"?

The second one dealt with the many"historical world" hyperlinks from Ten Commadments to wedding.

Too bad  the video is not  online, but most of the study guide IS..

see pp.197-251  here

THANKFULLY, though, here are (by popular demand) the wedding videos of the Laughing Bride...You'll remember these actually applied to our "historical world" conversation comparing the giving of the commandments to a wedding imagery:

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BONUS:  some of the bride's laugh attacks we didn't show in class:

Bacsktory:

---PS Here is my wedding and funeral book story:

CLick:"It happens every time you officiate a wedding"

Check out this card I was handed at the wedding:

COMMUNITY GUIDLINES

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SERMON ON THE MOUNT:
Great discussion on how Jesus was interpreting/reinterpreting the law of Moses/Torah(Matt 5:17-48).
Some would suggest that he is using the rabbi's technique of "Building a fence around the TORAH."

For example, if you are tempted to overeat, one strategy would be to build a literal fence around the refrigerator...or the equivalent: don't keep snacks around.

See

What does building a fence around the Torah mean? 

Some wonder of this is what Jesus is doing here.  See:
Jesus' Antitheses - Could they be his attempt to build a fence around the Torah?

One can see how this could turn to legalism...and when do you stop building fences.  See:

A Fence Around the Law

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I'll never forget taking the elevator from our towering Jerusalem hotel room down to the lobby for breakfast one Saturday.

Not only could I not push the lobby button,

but the elevator stopped automatically on every floor.
I wondered if I would make it down for lunch.

When I ordered, I realized that the waitress was not writing down any orders;
even the most complicated ones.

Writing was "work" on the sabbath,
as was pushing elevator buttons.
Thus, the "sabbath elevator"