(B′ – A′: God – Word)
and the Word was God. Theos Logos
…
And further, the chiasm is constantly traced. It is all poetry, except for the fragment where it talks about John the Baptist. If you remove it, what remains is pure chiastic poetry. Starting from verse 19 of the first chapter to the very end – the entire Gospel of John is a large chiasm with inclusion: A B C B′ A′, A – this is chapter 1 verse 19 to chapter 4 verse 3 (John 1:19 – 4:3), B – this is John 4:4 – 6:15, C – John 6:16-21, B′ – John 6:22 – 12:11, A′ – John 12:12 to the end of the Gospel. That is, the concepts, persons, themes, names, actions described in the first four chapters (A) are repeated in chapters 12-21 (A′); those in passage B are repeated in passage B′. And the whole meaning (which the author wants to convey to readers-prayers) is contained in C – in the third (central) part of the chiasm. But the amazing complexity of this chiastic structure is that each of these large parts A, B, C, B′, A′ in turn also consists of five parts (is a chiasm with inclusion). For example, A consists of a b c b′ a′, Χ. That is, the entire Gospel is a large chiasm, and within each part are small chiasms with inclusion. And that’s not all. Each of these small parts a, b, c, b′, a′ (in each large part (A, B, C, B′, A′)) also consists of chiasms (there literally verbatim, as we saw in the example from 1 John 3:9). The entire Gospel of John (this verbal Icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God) in its structure – is something amazing, this whole structure represents such a fascinating whirl, from which “the head spins.” It was necessary to so meticulously match all these chiastic correspondences to build such an amazing structure (one biblical scholar who studied (the chiastic structure) this Gospel called the apostle John – Genius John!). Again, for eighteen centuries this was unnoticed, no one saw this, it was possible (for biblical scholars) to see this by a miracle, a revelation in the 20th century (poor scholastics-letter writers – this fact revealed the delusion of many “theological” conclusions they drew from the Scripture, namely from the text of the Icon of the Gospel of John).
We have already said that the entire meaning of the Gospel of John is contained in the middle, in C. Incidentally, let’s look at the essence of this verbal Icon, at the content-essence of the main inclusion-block (John 6:16-21), which in turn is also a chiasm, consisting of two lines and a middle. This passage talks about walking on the sea: “When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea (A). They got into a boat and started across the sea to Capernaum (B). It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them: It is I (in Church Slavonic: Az yesm, in Greek: ego eimi, in Hebrew: YHWH – V. A.), do not be afraid (C). Then they wanted to take him into the boat (B′); and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going (A′).” In the Synodal translation, or even more so in the Ukrainian translation of the Synodal translation (and generally in translations it is difficult to preserve the poetic structure of the original, often in translations the chiasm is unclear, even when you know that there is a chiasm in the original) it is difficult to see the chiasm. Compare A and A′: evening came (Greek egeneto – came) in A, in A′ – immediately the boat reached the land (Greek egeneto – reached); the same verb (egeneto) in the Synodal translation is translated with different verbs; then in A: the disciples went down to the sea, and in the last part A′: immediately the boat reached the shore (in the Synodal: to the shore), here the sea and land are contrasted: the sea as an element of death, and the land as an element of life. In this passage (C) it is about a new Exodus. Moses was told to lead the people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. But they needed to pass through the sea. The people found themselves in a catastrophic situation: behind them was Pharaoh’s army, and ahead was the sea! Enemies behind, who will kill everyone, and water in front! And here before them appears the Name of God (I AM WHO I AM, YHWH) in the form of a pillar of fire (as the burning bush that Moses saw; fire, radiance, cloud – all this in biblical symbolic language means the glory of God, the Name of God, the appearance of God; the Name of God (YHWH) speaks of the appearance, communication in the presence of God and His absolute freedom: I will be with you, but in the way I choose to be… – see Parts I, II), and behind them was a pillar of cloud, which closed them off from the enemies. And they go through the sea (on dry ground through the sea), and this pillar of fire goes before them through the sea. And they come out of the sea onto the land, and so they go from slavery to freedom. This passage (C) speaks of the birth of the new Israel and about salvation from the slavery of sin, about the transition to life in the Kingdom of God. So this is the central moment of the entire Gospel: the new Exodus and in Jesus Christ appeared the Name of God (YHWH), that is, God Himself (the Glory of God). (“These things (that is, the entire Gospel, the entire Gospel verbal Icon) are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (YHWH), and that by believing (living the Eucharistic, in the Holy Spirit, Life), you may have life in His name (in Him, in the Life of the Holy Trinity)” – see John 20:30-31).