Roberts discusses the extensive use of chiasmus in Old Testament poetry and Semitic literature at large with emphasis on the ability of chiasmus to maintain its meaning across several translations due to its unique structure. She concludes by stating that chiasmus is uniquely built to be translatable in a way that typical poetry is not—even more translatable than non-poetic text.
For anyone who doesn’t know, chiasmus is a poetic form of literature in which each line ‘rhymes’ with another through meaning or thought rather than phonetically. Here is an example that Roberts shares from psalm 51:
Have mercy upon me, O God.
according to thy lovingkindness:
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies
Blot out my transgressions…
This chiasm has a ‘rhyming’ structure of ABBA in which “have mercy upon me,” is synonymous in thought with “blot out my transgressions,” and “according to thy lovingkindness,” rhymes with “according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.”
After sharing this short couplet, Roberts explores a far more complex chiasm composed of 28 lines with a more advanced “rhyming scheme,” on pg 991. After this, she explores the reversibility of chiasmus, in which a chiasm can be mirrored from beginning to end, and with very little change to the words maintains the same meaning. This method of self-reinforcement of meaning or “selfglossing” as Roberts calls it is what allows chiasmus to maintain its highly translatable property.
After this, Roberts discusses several other aspects of chiasmus typically found in Semitic literature that is not common to all chiasms, but were common tools used by various authors, including transitioning from abstract to concrete thought following the “turn” or central point of the chiasm, and parallel thought that nonetheless develops to a certain end throughout the chiasm, transforming the turn in the chiasm into a redemptive moment in which everything mentioned after is a type of what came before, but transformed in some way from what came previously.
With this in mind, Roberts is able to show the layered meaning in certain biblical passages that is only revealed when the structure of the chiasm is made known to the reader, eventually lamenting that students of theology and biblical studies neglect to learn and identify this poetic art form that is extremely pervasive throughout Abrahamic scripture.