Around 1200 BCE, during the Shang Dynasty in ancient China, there arose a form of religious divination, a way of looking into the future, that is known as Oracle Bone Inscription. Various kinds of bone were used, among them the shoulder blades of oxen, but the bone of choice was the plastron, the flat ventral… Continue reading Beauty from the Mists of Chinese Antiquity
Category: Chiasmus
The Gospel of John: Hidden Beauty Speaking from the Depths
About three years ago, as one of my HyC Presentations, I sent out an essay that describes the complex and beautiful structure of John’s Gospel, a structure based on the rhetorical figure known as chiasmus. The title of the essay is: The Gospel of John: A Miracle of Composition and I will soon be posting… Continue reading The Gospel of John: Hidden Beauty Speaking from the Depths
Chiasmus: An Introduction
“Ask not what your country can do for you,ask what you can do for your country.” That sentence, spoken by President John Kennedy in a famous speech, is a good example of chiasmus, a rhetorical figure that reverses the terms of the two clauses that make up a sentence, or a part of a sentence.… Continue reading Chiasmus: An Introduction