Literary Structure of the Abraham Story
One of the most common ways of structuring a narrative for the author of Genesis was to use a chiastic structure. We saw this earlier in the story of the flood. As a reminder, in a chiastic structure, the author creates parallel points arranged in inverted order around a central point. In other words, the first point relates to the last point, the second point relates to the second to the last point, and so on. The central point is the main idea. The main idea of the story of Abraham is his spiritual journey, as his faith grows more and more unwavering. This change in his character is highlighted at the center of the story when God changes his name and announces an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants. The layout of the table below will help you see the structure of the narrative.
Chiastic Structure of the Abraham Story *
- Genealogy of Nahor
- Death of Sarah
- Arranged marriage for Isaac
- Abraham's concubine and her children, final distribution of wealth, death and burial
By structuring his narrative in this way, the author highlights the main thrust of Abraham's spiritual growth and produces a satisfying sense of conclusion at the end. We can feel that we have been on a grand literary journey and finally returned home.
*Yoel Bin-Nun, "Abraham’s Chiastic Journey" TheTorah.com (2021). https://thetorah.com/article/abrahams-chiastic-journey
RSS Feed 