SYMMETRY IN THE APOCRYPHA

Various forms of literary symmetry are almost the hallmark of the books in the Bible, both OT and NT. It would be enlightening to look for the same type of order and symmetry in other proposed additions to the Jewish and Christian canon. The main problem with this proposed exercise is that if no such marks of “divine”structure are detected, one can still not state with any surety that they do not in fact exist. The next best approach is to canvass the literature for supposed examples of chiasm (mirror-image symmetry) or parallel cycles that have already been identified by others and critique those literary structures. The following random examples, given in rough chronological order, are not by any means exhaustive, but perhaps indicative.

Bel and the Dragon

The Apocrypha consists of OT additions to the Bible accepted by Roman Catholics and some other Christian denominations as part of the Canon to one extent or another. Some of these are not stand-alone books but short additions to existing OT books. Almost without exception, these short additions have the effect of disrupting the symmetry already found in those books. However, some books found in the Apocrypha, such as those to the book of Daniel, also represent complete stories which can be compared with the tales in the first part of Hebrew/Aramaic Daniel. Here is such an example.

Capitalizing on insights of Bruyn and Jordaan, one can construct an overall scheme of sorts that connects the two stories encompassed by the above title:

A. Bel is revered by Babylonians

    B. Daniel says it is not a living god

        C. King is angry and confronts priests

            D. Test proposed

                E. Daniel exposes the deception

                    F. Priests and their families are killed

A'. Dragon is revered by Babylonians

    B'. Daniel says it is not a living god

            D'. Test proposed

                E'. Dragon is destroyed

        C'. Babylonians are angry and confront the king

                    F'. Daniel is given over to them

A. Daniel put into lions' den

    B. Lions not fed

        C. Habakkuk is taken to Babylonian

            D. Daniel praises God

                E. Daniel is fed

        C'. Habakkuk is returned

            D'. King praises God

A'. Daniel is taken out of the lions' den

    B. Lions are fed

The theme of food / eating helps to unite the three stories, and there are a few hints in the text that do the same thing, i.e., three items of food given to each idol (vv. 3 and 27), sheep as food (vv. 3 and 32), and the number seven (vv. 32 and 40). In addition, the first two stories, with their mostly parallel arrangement, end on two open notes: (a) the false idols have been exposed to the king for what they are, but the king has not yet turned to the true God, and (b) Daniel's fate is left in the air. Both of these concerns are alleviated in the third story which, in keeping with its closed chiastic form, resolves these two issues. However, complete symmetry and more verbal parallels are lacking in this addition to the Book of Daniel.

The Book of Tobit

Murai analyzes this apocryphal book as a series of four interlocking chiasms. Only one of these chiasms will be discussed as a typical example of Murai's technique, but similar difficulties beset the other three sections.

A. Departure of Tobiah (4:1-6:1)

    B. Capture of Magic Fish (6:2-9)

        C. Recommendation of Marriage (6:10-18)

    B'. The Marriage (7:1-8:3)

A'. Prayer of Tobiah and Sarah (8:4-9a)

Insurmountable problems with this analysis include the following:

1. The topical summaries of the various units neither accurately capture the gist of each identified section nor provide any hint of the proposed parallelisms shown above.

    a. One would expect that “Departure of Tobiah” would be matched up with his section entitled “Return of Tobiah” (9:1-10:13) but he sees no parallelism between the two.

    b. From the section descriptions, one would expect to pair C and B' together.

2. Murai does provides keys to the more specific verbal parallels he identifies, but most of them are vague similarities or only involve small portions of the sections themselves.

    a. A and A' are identified as parallels strictly by the word “heaven(s)” and the fact that it occurs in a prayer in each case. The latter is not even true since its occurrence in A is part of a pious wish. In addition, this is a very uneven pairing of 43 verses in A with only 5 ½ verses in A'.

    b. B and B' are paired a little better since the magic item obtained in the former section is utilized in the parallel one. However, the pertinent verses in B' only represent the final two of a 21-verse unit.

By contrast, H. Efthimiadis-Keith defines the structure of the book as being broadly chiastic with the first section A (1:1-7:9a) outlining the effect of traumatic events on Tobit; followed by a center section B (7:9b-10:13) in which the positive effect of Tobias' marriage brings about a reversal in Tobit's life as evidenced in the final third of the book (Section A'). However, the approximately ten specific reversals she lists for A' do not line up in any orderly manner with the equal number of traumas in A. Also, her section divisions are in no agreement with those of Murai.

The Prayer of Manasseh

Breck has proposed a 10-part chiasm for this short work based wholly on thematic pairings of verses. There is always an inherent problem with this approach, especially in this case where the entire work centers around only one theme, sin-repentance-forgiveness. As a test of his proposal, a study of repeated language in the prayer was conducted to see if duplications matched up with his section divisions.

The following repeated words/phrases do help to confirm Breck's analysis:

A-A' heaven

B-B' for thou art the Lord / for thou, O Lord, art

    repent

    mercy (also in Section C)

D-D' sin (verb) (also in Section C)

E-E' sin (noun)

    multiply

On the other hand, a larger number of words and phrases are repeated in non-matching sections. They include: wrath, sinner, evil, transgression, beseech thee, save, unworthy, for ever, glory/glorious, and repentance. Breck's own judgment on a possible chiasm in on of the Dead Sea Scrolls applies here as well: “But at best the parallels are thematic rather than verbal and can arguably be explained as simple and random repetition of key ideas.”

The Wisdom of Solomon

The Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha notes that although this book was probably written by a single author, “The literary style of the book varies from poetic patches of high lyrical quality to plodding and pedestrian prose.” That same unevenness appears to evidence itself in the literary structure of the book. Sigvartsen finds one major section of the book, 1:1-6:21 which appears to possess a degree of literary symmetry, in contrast to the rest of the book. His analysis appears to be a fairly good representation of the structure of these verses. In addition, one can note that there are even weak verbal markers at the start and conclusion of sections A (“righteousness”), B (“reasoned”), and A' ("O kings / O monarchs").

A. Rulers enjoined to pursue wisdom (1:1-15)

    B. Speech of the ungodly (1:16-2:24)

        1. Introduction (1:16-2:1a)

        2. Speech (2:1b-20)

        3. Conclusion (2:21-24)

        C. Four contrasts (3:1-4:20)

            1. The just vs. the wicked (3:1-12)

            2. Sterile woman/the eunuch vs. generation of the wicked (3:13-19)

            3. Praise of virtue vs. useless fruit of the wicked (4:1-6)

            4. Premature death of the just youth vs. the wicked (4:7-20)

    B'. Speech of the ungodly (5:1-23)

        1. Introduction of judgment scene (5:1-3)

        2. Speech (5:4-13[14])

        3. Conclusion of judgment scene (5:14[15]-23)

A'. Rulers enjoined to pursue wisdom (6:1-21)

    1. Kings exhorted to understand and learn (6:1-8)

    2. Positive motives for learning wisdom (6:9-21)

It is even possible to firm up the symmetry in the above proposal by recasting Section C as a modified chiasm:

1. Premature death of the righteous not understood (3:1-9)

    2. The ungodly will be punished (3:10-13a)

        3. Fruit of the undefiled (3:13b-15)

            4. Fruit of adulterers (3:16-19)

        3'. Fruit of the virtuous (4:1-2)

1'. Premature death of the righteous not understood (4:7-17)

    2'. The ungodly will be punished (4:18-20)

Psalm 151

This is seven-verse psalm is part of the Orthodox canon but not widely accepted elsewhere in Christendom. There are several barriers to ascribing canonical status to this apocryphal work ascribed to David:

1. It disrupts the overall form of the Psalter (see my post "The Psalms: Introduction to the Literary Structure").

2. It only exists in Greek (although it appears to be a compilation of two separate Hebrew psalms found among the Dead Sea scrolls).

3. It is not written in poetic form at all.

In spite of these barriers, Father Breck defends it by detecting an overall chiastic form to the psalm. His assigned pairings of verses are only vaguely thematic in nature: the humility of David vs. the greatness of his victory, David the musician vs. David the warrior, and the Lord's acceptance of David vs. His rejection of David's brothers. And Breck's descriptions of the last contrasting pair do not even do justice to the meanings of those verses. In addition, absolutely the only verbal confirmation within these contrasting verses is the presence of “Lord” in the last pairing.

Keeping in mind that the above examples are about the only ones in the whole Apocrypha even proposed to have symmetry at all, one can easily see that these additions to the Bible do not exhibit the literary excellence seen in either the OT or NT books, whose writings bracket the Apocrypha in time of writing.