MARK 4: ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES

As one who has a fascination for the various forms of symmetrical arrangements of material found throughout the Bible, which can almost be looked upon as God's fingerprints, I find it interesting to come across a biblical passage in which many scholars see unmistakable marks of the sort of mirror-image parallelism called a chiasmus, or a chiasm.

Snodgrass reviews several such proposed chiasms for Mark 4, a chapter roughly centered around the parable of the sower and the seed. He first alludes to commentators who have suggested a five-part chiasm to this chapter. He himself sees a more elaborate seven-part symmetrical structure, as shown below:

                                             Figure 1: Snodgrass's Analysis of Mark 4

A. Narrative Introduction (4:1-2)

        B. A Seed Parable (4:3-9)

                C. General Statement on the Purpose of Parables (4:10-12)

                        D. Interpretation of the Sower (4:13-20)

                C'. General Statements Applied to Parables (4:21-25)

        B'. Two Seed Parables (4:26-32)

A'. Narrative Conclusion on the Use of Parables (4:33-34)

By contrast, my own early and even more detailed nine-part analysis is presented in Figure 2:

                                                       Figure 2: My Analysis of Mark 1

A. Many things taught in parables (4:1-2)

        B. Parable of the sower and seed (4:3-8)

                C. 'Let anyone with ears hear' (4:9)

                        D. Secret given to the disciples only (4:10-13)

                                E. Parable of the sower explained (4:14-20)

                        D'. Secrets revealed (4:21-22)

                C'. 'Let anyone with ears hear' (4:23-25)

        B'. Two parables of kingdom growth (4:26-32)

A'. Many such parables (4:33-34)

These two proposals are not quite as different as first appears since I chose to break out the same key phrase which appears in vv. 9 and 23-25 from the passages to which they were connected in order to highlight the reverse symmetry more strongly. However, at the same time I realize that there is an inclusio with the word “listen” in vv. 3 and 9 which ties my sections B and C together.

The first reality check on these alternative analyses (which we will refer to as 1 and 2, respectively) is to see where various English versions and commentaries chose to place their paragraph divisions:

vv. 1-2; 3-9; 10-12; 13-20; 21-23; 24-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34; 35-38; 39-40; 41 (TEV)

vv. 1-2; 3-9; 10-12; 13-20; 21-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34;...35-41 (NEB)

vv. 1-2; 3-9; 10-12; 13; 14-20; 21-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34 (Lane)

vv. 1-9; 10-12; 13-20; 21-23; 24-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34; 35-41 (JB)

vv. 1-9; 10-20; 21-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34; 35-41 (RSV, NRSV)

vv. 1-9; 10-12; 13-20; 21-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34; 35-41 (NIV)

vv. 1-9; 10-12; 13-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34; 35-41 (AB, Mann)

vv. 1-12; 13-20; 21-23; 24-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33; 35-41 (AB, Marcus)

From these data, (rejecting the outliers) one can roughly obtain the consensus below for the major divisions within the chapter::

vv. 1-2; 3-9; 10-12; 13-20; 21-25; 26-29; 30-32; 33-34; 35-41

Also,only the NEB and NRSV see a more major demarcation after v. 34, indication that the vast majority of scholars feel that verses 35-41 must be incorporated into the overall structure of this passage, which both Figures 1 and 2 fail to do.

Strengthening that view considerably is the fact that there are no less than four specific verbal parallels between vv. 1-2 and vv. 35-41, demonstrating without a doubt that the two passages, or at least parts of them, act as an inclusio (i.e. a pair of bookends) for the whole chapter. These key words are “crowd,” “boat, “sea,” and “teach(er).” So to fine-tune Structure 2 even more, I would amend it to the eleven-part one shown in Figure 3:

                                           Figure 3: Final Proposed Structure of Mark 4

A. The crowd is taught many things by Jesus seated in a boat (4:1)

        B. Many things were taught, but only in parables (4:2)

                C. Parable of the sower and seed (4:3-8)

                        D. 'Let anyone with ears hear' (4:9)

                                E. Secret given to the disciples only (4:10-13)

                                        F. Parable of the sower explained (4:14-20)

                                E'. Secrets revealed (4:21-22)

                        D'. 'Let anyone with ears hear' (4:23-25)

                C'. Two parables of kingdom growth (4:26-32)

        B'. Many such parables were taught (4:33-34)

A'. Jesus words to the disciples while they were in the boat (vv. 35-41)

As you can probably tell from this brief account, doing such structural analysis on a biblical text is often more of an art than a strict science, and sometimes many iterations must be investigated before reaching what looks like the best fit. But in the end, the result can usually yield some valuable dividends in terms of insights into the main intended thought of a passage (often located at the center or at the two ends) as well as locating parallel passages that help to interpret one another. And if it does nothing else, it also should instill in the reader a sense of awe at all the hidden gems the inspired Word contains which seem to be utterly beyond the capability of unaided human authors to achieve.

By contrast, some time if you are interested you should look at the rather pathetic attempts of the Mormon scholar John W. Welch to demonstrate that the Book of Mormon contains just as much hidden symmetry as one finds in the Bible.

However, of much more utility are John Breck's The Shape of Biblical Language and The Literary Structure of the Old Testament by David Dorsey, in case you want to become more familiar with this phenomenon. Or view some of my past blogs on this site with the general title “The Literary Structure of [insert the name of the biblical book in question].”