From: Carl William Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 07 1997 - 08:06:45 EST
On Sun, 7 Dec 1997, Jonathan Robie wrote:
> In the KJV, it looks like the swine are the ones who "turn again and rend
> you":
>
> Matt. 7:6 (KJV) “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye
> your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn
> again and rend you.”
>
> In the TEV, it looks like the dogs are the ones who do this:
>
> Matt. 7:6 (TEV) “Do not give what is holy to dogs—they will only turn and
> attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs—they will only
> trample them underfoot.”
>
> I just read an article that claims this is an example of chiasm, and that
> the chiasm requires the interpretation given by the TEV. The argument was
> made using the KJV:
>
> Matt. 7:6 (KJV)
> [A] Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
> [B] neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
> [B] lest they trample them under their feet,
> [A] and [the dogs] turn again and rend you.
>
> I have just started to chew on chiasm again, and haven't done much with it
> in the past. When I try to structure the Greek as a chiasm, I come up with
> this:
>
> [A] MH DWTE TO hAGION TOIS KUSIN
> [B] MHDE BALHTE TOUS MARGARITAS hUMWN EMPROSQEN TWN COIRWN,
> [B] MHPOTE KATAPATHSOUSIN AUTOUS EN TOIS POSIN AUTWN
> [A] KAI STRAFENTES hRHKSWSIN hUMAS
>
> The people who wrote the article clearly knew Greek, and claim that if I
> recognized the chiasm, I would realize that this last clause applies to the
> dogs:
>
> [A] KAI [TOIS KUSIN] STRAFENTES hRHKSWSIN hUMAS
>
> Unfortunately, they don't really tell me how I can know that this is an
> example of chiasm. It seems to me that the non-chiasm reading makes perfect
> sense - what should tip me off to the chiasm? Or is this really chiasm?
I don't really think it's a chiasm; if it were, then B' should refer to
the pigs and A' to the dogs again.
It should probably be realized that this saying may originally have been
using "dogs" to mean "Gentiles"--just as in the story of the
Syro-Phoenician Woman (children's food to dogs, even the dogs under the
table get the crumbs--all in the Marcan context of lots of crumbs left
over after the miraculous feedings of multitudes).
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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