Chiasm: Treasure hunt

Bema podcast · Marty Solomon

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

Chiasmus

A chiasmus is a mirror in the text. Ideas are lined up and then run backwards: A—B—C … C′—B′—A′ (inverted), or alongside each other A—B—C … A′—B′—C′ (parallel). It is named after the Greek letter Χ (chi).

Why pay attention

When you come across a mirror like this, the author is giving you a signal: something is hidden here. A chiasmus works like an arrow — it points to its own centre. And that is exactly where the treasure tends to be buried: a key word, a name, an idea.

How to read the diagram

first half — A B Cmirrored half — A′ B′ C′treasure in the centremirror axis

Genesis 9:6

אדם · adamman — the image of God

Six words, perfectly mirrored. At the centre stands man twice (ha-adam / ba-adam) — and that is the treasure. Why must human blood not be shed? The answer is buried in the middle and uncovered immediately afterwards: because man bears the image of God.

Genesis 1

Genesis 1 is a double chiasmus, no less. By the length of its paragraphs it is inverted; by content it is parallel: three days of separating, three days of filling. The diagram is still an empty field — fill it in and go after the treasure.

The diagram is empty. Click to uncover the treasure.

1 · short paragraph

2 · medium-length paragraph

3 · long paragraph

4 · long paragraph

5 · medium-length paragraph

6 · short paragraph

Light and darknessday and night separated

Sky and watersthe vault divides the waters

Dry land and greeneryland and plants

Sun, moon, starslights “for appointed times”

Birds and fishfill the sky and the waters

Animals and humansfill the dry land

מוֹעֲדִים mo'adimappointed times · feasts — the treasure (Gen 1:14)

What follows from this

Conclusions

1A 3 + 3 structure. What is separated in the first three days is filled in the next three: light → lights, sky and waters → birds and fish, dry land → animals and man.2The refrain “and there was evening and there was morning”. The day begins in the evening — first you go to sleep, and only then comes the work. Your day doesn't start with performance but with rest.3The seventh day has no refrain. It never ends — it is an invitation into a rest that lasts.◆The treasure in the centre: mo'adim. “Appointed times, feasts” — the word on day 4 points to the Sabbath and the whole calendar of feasts.

Interpretation

Two mentalities

The first listeners were Israelites fresh out of Egypt, where their worth depended on production — “how many bricks did you make?”. Genesis 1 sets a different reality before them.

Egypt

core: fear

your worth = what you produce
endless toil
there's never enough of anything
Pharaoh never says “enough”

Shalom

core: trust

creation is “very good”
you bear God's image
your worth doesn't depend on performance
so you are allowed to rest

Sabbath = an act of resistance against the empire (Walter Brueggemann). When you rest, you declare: “I am not a slave, I am not what I produce, and the world doesn't rest on me.” God didn't give Israel better information about freedom — he gave them a schedule, a diet and the Sabbath. Slavery didn't live in their opinions but in their bodies.

More treasures in Scripture

Once your eye is tuned to the mirror, you will see chiasms everywhere — from single verses to whole stories. At the centre there is always something waiting, the reason the author built the text this way.

The Flood

Genesis 6–9 · a great narrative chiasmus

ANoah and his sons

Bthe creatures enter

Cthe waters rise

God remembered NoahGenesis 8:1

C′the waters recede

B′the creatures come out

A′Noah and his sons

In Hebrew, “to remember” is not a recollection but an act. In the middle of the flood God acts — and the waters begin to recede.

Babel

Genesis 11:1–9 · a tower to heaven

Aone language

Bthey settled

C“let us build a tower”

The LORD came downGenesis 11:5

C′“let us go down and confuse”

B′scattered

A′confusion of language

People build upwards to reach heaven; God has to come down even to catch sight of it. The treasure reveals the gulf between pride and God.

Amos 5

Amos 5:1–17 · lament and hope

Alament

Bseek and live

Cthe sanctuaries will fall

the LORD is his nameAmos 5:8

C′justice and judgement

B′seek good

A′wailing everywhere

In the middle of the judgement stands praise of the Creator. The treasure is God himself — and the frame reads: “Seek him and you will live.”

“The rabbis always wanted the student to arrive at the answer himself — because only then does he understand it more deeply, and the idea transforms him more. That is why the authors bury treasures in the text, and we get to enjoy finding them.”

Bema podcast (Marty Solomon)

“Genesis 1 is not primarily about how God created the world, but about what God is like and what kind of world he is building. It is not an illustration of the poem — the Sabbath is the poem installed into the week.”

Bema podcast · after Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance

The Hebrew “remember” (zakhor) is not a mental act but a bodily one. That is why God didn't teach Israel with a lecture but with a rhythm — a calendar, food, the Sabbath. A slave with four hundred years of Egypt behind him isn't reprogrammed by speeches, only by rhythm.

Sources

Bema podcast (Marty Solomon) — a Jewish approach to Scripture; chiasms, mo'adim, the Sabbath as a pedagogy of the body

Chiasms in Scripture — Gen 9:6 · Genesis 1 · the Flood Gen 6–9 (centre Gen 8:1) · Babel Gen 11:1–9 (centre 11:5) · Amos 5:1–17 (centre 5:8)

Walter Brueggemann — Sabbath as Resistance (the Sabbath as resistance against the empire)

The treasure in the field — Matthew 13:44 · the “treasure hunt” theme throughout Scripture