Google is amazing! Yesterday I was completing a writing project and using “Google books” to track down a few stray references. On one page Google linked to an article by Kevin Gary Smith titled “The Structure of Titus: Criss-cross Chiasmus as Structural Marker.” I had never heard of this article so I followed the link. I discovered that this article is from volume 3 (March 2007): 99-110, of Conspectus the online, refereed journal of South African Theological Seminary.
Smith interacts with my article and monograph on the structure of Titus as well as an article by Clark.[1] Smith accepts the chiastic structural suggestions made by Banker[2] and myself but wants to press them further. There is little point in me here summarizing the argument when the article is readily available and only 12 pages in length.
I am pleased to see ongoing reflection on the structure of the Pastorals, and I agree with Smith that Titus “may well be the most delicately structured of all Paul’s letters” (99). In the end Smith says his argument “confirms, with minor adjustments” my own proposal (109). I think this is true, though I am not convinced by the adjustments. He mentions his intention to publish a follow up article with supporting linguistic evidence. I will be eager to see that article as well.
I would be quite interested to hear from others what they think of Smith’s argument. It is good to see this conversation continue.
UPDATE: Elias Fairfield has kindly pointed me to the link for Smith’s dissertation online:
https://www.sats.edu.za/
Thanks, Elias!
[1] Ray Van Neste, ‘Structure and Cohesion in Titus,’ Bible Translator 53.1 (January 2002): 118-33; Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles (London: T&T Clark, 2005); D. J. Clark, “Discourse Structure in Titus,” Bible Translator 53.1 (January 2002): 101-17.
[2] John Banker, Semantic Structure Analysis of Titus (Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1987).