Chapter 55 Chiasms My understanding of Revelation came from a thorough search for chiasms. I had read the two-volume series of Mervyn Maxwell called “God Cares.” Near the beginning of volume 2 on Revelation, there is a chapter devoted to chiasms based on the work of Strand. Strand saw that Revelation consisted of chunks of Scripture that was chiastically paired. Let us first explore the meaning of chiasms for those who are unfamiliar with the term: Hebrew poetry is usually comprised of matching parts in the beginning and end, then the second part matches the penultimate, etc. In the middle of the poem is its focus, with everything before matching everything after. Here follows an example in the well-known Ps 23: 1a) Psa 23:1, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; 1b) Psa 23:2, He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters; 1c) Psa 23:3a, He restores my soul; 1d) Psa 23:3b, He leads me in the paths of righteousness; central axis) Psa 23:3c, For His name’s sake; 2d) Psa 23:4a Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; 2c) Psa 23:4b, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me; 2b) Psa 23:5, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over; 2a) Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 1a matches 2a where they both have to do with need. We shall not want, and God will care for us all of our days into eternity. 1b matches 2b dealing with peace and satisfaction. Peace and serenity, and our cups run over. 1c and 2c go together, dealing with restoration and care. 1d and 2d has as theme travelling on paths of salvation, protection even in the face of death. The focus, or central axis is that God’s care for us and His salvation is for His name’s sake. The fact that there is any good in us is because of His love. Our salvation is His honour and glorification. Besides the introduction and epilogue of Revelation, it has eight major portions: 7 Churches 7 Seals 7 Trumpets Beasts and Angels 7 Last Plagues Babylon Millennium New Jerusalem 7 Churches and New Jerusalem are paired off by matching elements in their contents. Likewise the 7 Seals and the Millennium. The middle four portions are not matched nested, but in alternation: The 7 Trumpets are paired off with the 7 Last Plagues, and Beasts and Angels are paired with Babylon. As an example, Beasts and Angels describe the woman in white in Rev 12. Babylon describes an evil woman in scarlet in Rev 17. The focus of this chiastic structure is the Close of Probation. Before the Close of Probation everyone has free choice in their destiny. After the Close of Probation, the destiny of every human is determined. The second half of Revelation simply shows the sequence of events that occur after the Close of Probation. This pairing off of major blocks in Revelation I like to call macrochiasms. Within several of these blocks there also are chiasms, which is more like those in Hebrew poetry. So we have chiasms within chiasms. In the chapters that follow, we will use chiastic structure to gain an understanding or some of the symbols in Revelation. Some of these chiasms ask for the reinterpretation of the understanding of some symbols.