Friday, September 20, 2019

1 Corinthians 1:18

Last Friday, there was an installation service for various LCMS leaders.  I saw some clips of this (on Instagram stories, of all places), including some of the readings.  I noticed something about 1 Corinthians 1:18:  "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

I realized that this is in the form of a chiasm:
A. For the word of the cross is folly
B. to those who are perishing 
B. but to us who are being saved
A. it is the power of God.
As a word, chiasm comes from the Greek letter chi (χ), which is shaped like a (tilted) cross.  I don't know if there's really anything theological to this, but I thought it interesting (and a bit amusing) that this description of what "the word of the cross" is has a structure named after a cross-shaped letter.