I have been looking at chiastic structures in Jonah, and am currently investigating the possibility that the first two chapters (or more precisely, Jonah 1:1 – 3:2) constitute a fairly large single chiasm.
In this first article on this topic, I will first look at the matching opening and closing verses of this proposed chiasm (1:1-2 and 3:1-2),and then proceed by suggesting that Jonah 1:4-16 actually forms the central section of this “big” chiasm. Jonah 1:4-16 is, in fact, widely recognised as chiastic in many commentaries and articles, and I will be reviewing two of these proposed versions in this article, as well as presenting my own modified version. In future articles, I hope to present a justification for my analysis of verses. 4-16, and in doing so will discuss a little bit about how I try to go about analysing potential chiasms. Then I hope to see whether I can “fill in the gaps” – that is, the verses not so far included – in order to complete the analysis of the big chiasm, but that is for future articles.
I hope you will enjoy this article, which is presented as a word document which can be freely accessed and downloaded by clicking on the link below:
Jonah-TheFirstTwoChapters(PartOne)
Categories: Chiastic and Other Structures, Jonah, Old Testament Exegesis
Famous Fox Book Publishing 
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