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Rhetoric
Within Pattern Analysis, rhetoric is the persuasive portion of a literary unit based on its structure. Certain locations within each literary unit are potentially persuasive–they are presented below for the sake of analysis. Normally, many of the potential locations can be persuasive, but often not all. The student is encouraged to listen to what the Holy Spirit seems to be emphasizing.
A step-like symmetry such as A-B-C-A'-B'-C' or A-B-C-X-A'-B'-C' structure where the themes are repeated in the same direction. A continuing structure is also possible such as A-B-C-A'-B'-C'-A''-B''-C'' (consider the ten plagues of Moses). Other names for this device are extended alternation, forward symmetry, panel construction, step parallelism, and in certain contexts simply named "parallelism." The most common locations for emphasis are in the last/last position and the X center point. Lesser common locations are the first/first position and the various corresponding elements.
In a parallel symmetry, these are the two A elements, A-B-C-A'-B'-C'. Sometimes these are a place of emphasis.
Also known as conjugate pairs. It is any two elements that are paired with each other. In some cases, the pair may be emphatic even though they are not in a position of emphasis such as first/first or first/last. For example, in a chiastic A-B-C-X-C'-B'-A' structure, the two B elements might add considerable conviction to the reader or listener.
In a parallel symmetry, this is oftentimes a place of emphasis. For example, in an A-B-C-D-A'-B'-C'-D' structure, the two D elements are in the last/last position.
An emphasis or turning point that is at the logical center of a structure. It is either an X in the middle of a chiasm, parallel symmetry, immediate repetition, or list is a center point, or if two elements appear at the center of a chiasm rather than an X, those two elements are the center point. For example, X is the center point of A-B-C-X-A'-B'-C', and C-C' is the center point of A-B-C-C'-B'-A'.
This simple PARALLEL SYMMETRY shows that Noah did precisely everything that the Lord said he should do.
1) The LAST/LAST elements, C and C′, are the flood. If someone is asked about the main point of the Noah story, many would agree that it is the flood for forty days and forty nights, and the ensuing flood came after seven days.
2) The emphasis in the X CENTER POINT is a total destruction of life. The Lord confirmed His reason for bringing the forty days of rain and its associated flood: to blot out every living thing that He had created. Show More Rhetoric Show Less Rhetoric
PARALLEL SYMMETRY:
... Noah′s family and two of each animal entered the ark ...
demarks a divine oracle
BEGINNING MARKER: Then the Lord said to Noah, (v1A)
enter the ark
A
“Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. (v1B)
all the animals and birds
B
“You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. (v2,3)
rain will start in seven days and will continue for forty
C
“For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; (v4A)
purpose of the flood: blot out everything He made
X
and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.” Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. (v4B,5)
a genealogy marker
SUB-UNIT MARKER: Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. (v6)
they entered the ark
A′
Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons′ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. (v7)
all the animals and birds entered the ark
B′
Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. (v8,9)
the rain started after seven days
C′
It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth. (v10)