From: George Blaisdell (maqhth@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Mar 05 1999 - 13:46:18 EST
B-Greekers ~
Once upon a while ago we had a thread on this pericope that had all
kinds of ways of approach, and as I am recalling none looked at it
chiastically. [??] We had dogs trampling, pigs biting, pigs trampling
and dogs biting, and both pigs and dogs biting and trampling. As it
ended up, we seemed to be left with the somewhat mystifying nature of
the grammatical implications of Greek word order. Subsequently I
figured out that canine [teeth] bite [hence it is the dogs that bite]
and that hooves trample [hence the pigs], and had put the matter to
rest, albiet with a lingering sense of word order mystification, for
this resolution depended upon lexical implication, and not grammatical
form [Greek word order].
Seen in chiastic terms ~ In this case inverted parallels, the word order
achieves a sparkling clarity:
A MH DWTE TO AGION TOIS KUSIN
B MH DE BALLETE TOUS MARGARITAS
hUMWN EMPROSQEN COIRWN
B' MH POTE KATARATASOUSIN AUTOUS
EN TOIS POSIN AUTWN
A' KAI STRAFENTES RHXWSIN hUMAS
This format clearly connects A to A', which has the dogs turning on you
and ripping you open, and B to B' [the pigs trampling your pearls
underfoot], and has the following three-fold conceptual ordering of its
strophes:
1] A B B' A' As heard
2] A A' B B' Implicitly understood
3] B B' A A' Implicitly understood.
And no others!!! [???]
This chiasm business looks like a wonderful syntactical tool...
Are there opposing understandings?
George
George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA
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