The Chiastic Structure of Zechariah's Visions

The Greek letter Chi (rhymes with "eye") is represented with a character that looks like our English X.

One of the literary devices that the Bible uses repeatedly is referred to as a "chiasm," with reference again to that X. What is a chiasm, or a chiastic structure?

Basically, it is a word-picture that forms the X in terms of its structure and parallels. Often, it is a string of phrases or ideas that are structured so that the first is parallel to the last; then the second is paralllel to the next-to-last; and so on, until the parallels meet in the middle (so to speak.) Whatever that thing is that is at the middle, that is the idea that the writer is seeking to emphasis by employing this structure.

Chiastic structures are often pictured with the following sort of diagram:

1. Idea A
       2. Idea B
               3. Idea C
                      4. Central thought
               5. Idea C'
       6. Idea B'
7. Idea A'

You see how this forms one half of the X.

These chiasms are all over the place. I would contend that very few of them were deliberately created by the human author who wrote them. My bet is that they were unaware of this underlying structure that the Holy Spirit was installing in the text. When you are reading along in the Scripture and find repeated ideas in a short space of text, you might be dealing with a chiasm.

One example can be found in the eight "night visions" of Zechariah. I stumbled upon this when I was preparing our recent, single-night overview of this book. I am not aware of anyone else proposing this idea concerning these visions and their organization, but I would seriously doubt I am the first. I just don't have the right commentaries...:)

First, here is a very, very short summary of Zechariah's visions, which occupy the first half of his book.

1. (from 1:7-11) A vision of multi-colored horses among the myrtle trees, angelic entities who patrol the earth, making us mindful of the multi-colored four horsemen of the Revelation.

2. (Ch. 1, vv. 18-21) Four horns and four craftsmen. Horns being symbolic in scripture generally of human authority and power, these four are the empires which had historically harassed God's people up until this point. Probably Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. God is judging these horns by means of the four craftsmen. My pick for best-guess about these is that they reference the coming Grecian empire, which split early in its history into four sub-kingdoms. The four perennial harrassers would find themselves put under the thumb of this coming empire.

3. (2:1-5) An angel measures Jerusalem with a measuring line, reminding of events in Revelation 11. This is the holding of God's people to a fixed standard of evaluation, and almost certainly has to do with comparing God's covenant people to the law of God, the Scripture.

4. (3:1-5) The high priest, Joshua, stands accused by Satan before the Lord. God in His grace commands that Joshua's filthy garments be replaced with new, clean attire, symbolizing the removing of his iniquity (3:4.)

5. (4:1-14) A complex vision, involving Zerubbabel, Joshua's "partner in ministry" at the time. Two olive trees represent them both, along with lampstand symbolism, pointing to the first 3 chapters of Revelation. (#4 and #5 feature these men functioning as proto-messiahs, if you will.)

6. (5:1-4) A flying scroll, containing God's judgments against sinners. Probably a reference to God's faithfulness to His own Scripture in dealing with His people.

7. (5:5-11) A woman in a basket, who is named Wickedness, is shipped off to the land of Babylon/Shinar, where she will evidently be enshrined and worshipped there. The wicked woman is an oft-repeated prophetic symbol for false and/or apostate religion, most famously appearing in Revelation 17-18. Whereas the "horn" of Babylon had long plagued the people militarily (as in #2 above), this woman is the more insidious Babylonian plague, in which the people are seduced into joining themselves to Babylonian religion and idolatry. God in His grace is removing her influence from His people, and transporting it to a more permanent home elsewhere.

8. (6:1-8) Four chariots (angelic or heavenly vehicles) carrying God's judgment, pulled by multi-colored horses.

Okay, I'm proposing that the thematic content of these four visions can be arranged chiastically, without unduly "stretching" anything for the sake of making it all fit. The chiasm would look like this:

A. Multi-colored horse/angels

        B. Dealing with the oppression of Babylon (among others)

                 C. Holding God's people to the standard of the Word

                           D. Joshua prefigures Jesus

                           D'. Zerubbabel prefigures Jesus

                 C'. God's Word judges sinners

         B'. Dealing with the oppression of spiritual Babylon

A'. Multi-colored horse/angels.


Now, if this seems reasonable, then we shouldn't stop there. We should find the "crux" idea that fits between D and D'.

I suggest that idea is found in the prophecy of Zechariah 3:7-10. I won't type it all out here (because my fingers are already hurting) but the text is a powerful promise of the coming BRANCH, the Servant of God, and the fact that God will, "remove the iniquity of that land in one day." (3:9) Jesus, the Messiah, is coming to deal once and for all with the sins of God's people. See the first half of the book of Hebrews if you need that explained to you.