Pattern Analysis for Psalm 30:1-12

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.

Like the imperfect chiastic structures, imperfect parallel symmetries can also have a high impact upon a reader. When an element has been inserted, omitted, transposed to another location, or substantially varied, that then is an imperfect parallel symmetry. This makes the structure look less than totally symmetric. An additional emphasis should be found in an imperfect parallel symmetry at the place of asymmetry.

A summarization that appears near the beginning portion of a structure. For example, SUM-A-B-C-A'-B'-C'. It is similar to a closing summary which is also represented by a SUM. The opening summary should be considered emphatic.

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'.

Some questions seem designed to ask the reader to pause and reflect on his or her own answer. In those cases, the text is intended to slow the reader down and cause them to read the context, listen to what the Spirit is nudging them, gain a fresh understanding, and then respond. Questions are many times emphatic, but it is a mistake to say that most questions are emphatic. Whether any one question is emphatic or not can be subjective.

The expected elements have been re-arranged, e.g. A-B-C-X-B'-C'-A'. When a transposition appears, the location of one element is interchanged with another; an intentional relocation. Transpositions appear in imperfect chiasms and parallel symmetries. The emphasis appears either in the element that is transposed or in the one which has been dislocated. That is, in an A-B-C-X-B'-C'-A' structure, either the B' or C' elements would be emphatic.