A chiasm is a literary structure where themes of the first section of a passage is repeated in the second. The center of the chiasm is typically the climax of the passage. In 2 Corinthians 1:9 the center and climax is “so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God.”Aindeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves (1:9a)Bso that we would not trust in ourselves, (1:9b)B’but in God (1:9c)A1who raises the dead; (1:9d)