Chiasm arranges ideas in a mirrored pattern, such as A-B-B′-A′.
Chiasm arranges ideas in a mirrored pattern, such as A-B-B′-A′.
A structural figure in which corresponding elements are arranged in inverted order, often to emphasize the center, the reversal, or the paired correspondences.
These examples show how Chiasm functions in biblical language, rhetoric, poetry, prophecy, narrative, or theological imagery.
whoever sheds man’s blood / by man shall his blood be shed
The wording forms a compact mirrored judgment pattern around bloodshed and human agency.
life, animal, injury, injury, animal, life
The legal sequence is commonly read as an inverted arrangement of corresponding penalties.
man, son of man, lower than heavenly beings, crowned, dominion
The movement descends and rises around humanity’s place under God’s creation rule.
snare broken / escaped
The imagery has a balanced reversal structure around deliverance from the trap.
heart dull, ears heavy, eyes blind / eyes, ears, heart
The sensory terms reverse order, emphasizing judicial hardening and the blocked path to repentance.
many first will be last, and the last first
The reversed order forms a simple chiastic reversal of status.
Sabbath made for man, not man for Sabbath
The inverted terms clarify the purpose of the Sabbath and correct legalistic distortion.
save life and lose it / lose life and save it
The reversal exposes the kingdom logic of discipleship and self-denial.
some last who will be first, and some first who will be last
The mirrored reversal warns against presumption about kingdom status.
to live is Christ, and to die is gain
The balanced pair is not a full chiasm but functions with compressed antithetical symmetry.
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