A chiasm is a literary structure where the themes of the first section of a passage are repeated in reverse order in the second. Typically whatever is in the center of the chiasm is what is being emphasized. In 1-2 Kings, the emphasis is on the Omrid Dynasty (1 Kings 17-2 Kings 11).ASolomon and the United Kingdom (1 Kings 1-11)BSeparation of the Northern Kingdom (1 Kings 12)CKings of Israel and Judah (1 Kings 13-16)D The Omrid Dynasty (1 Kings 17- 2 Kings11)C’Kings of Israel and Judah (2 Kings 12-16)B’Fall of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings17)A’Kingdom of Judah Alone (2 Kings 18-25)1 Bruce K. Waltke and Charles Yu, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 693.
The Chiasm of 1 and 2 Kings1
About the Author: Mike Rusten
Mike Rusten grew up in Plymouth, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. God drew him to himself at a Billy Graham crusade when Mike was a junior high boy, and life was never to be the same. He graduated from Princeton University where he was president of the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship. Read More ...
Leave A Comment