Structure and theology in the Holiness Code

This dissertation investigates the structure of the chapters found in the Holiness Code. Following an introduction which includes a discussion of previous analyses of inverted structures, and of the methodologies to be followed, these chapters are investigated individually and arranged graphically so that the structure of each is made clear. The amount of material included in the individual structures discovered ranges from parts of verses, whole verses, individual units within chapters, whole chapters up to structures that cross chapter boundaries within the Holiness Code. Several types of structures are uncovered. Most of the structures are of the chiastic/inverted type, though parallel line structures are also very common and important. The use of these various types of structures allowed the authors to organize their writings, but even more importantly to emphasize a particular ideology or theology by the way they organized their materials. Each part of each chapter is analyzed as to structure and focus. Objectivity is obtained by observing the verbal parallels between lines. Once this is established, the ideological/theological agenda (as shown in the focus of the structures) of the writer may be determined with accuracy. The final chapter of this dissertation summarizes the findings with regard to the types of structures found, the placement of the focus of each structure, and the ideological/theological agenda thereby uncovered.;The Holiness Code often displays an ideological/theological agenda apparent in the individual structures, whether chiastic/inverted or parallel line, although not always. The most utilized types of structures found in the Holiness Code are that of the chiastic/inverted type, but the parallel line type plays a sometimes complex role in the structures of many sections. Leviticus 19 is found to have a unique structure, and several other sections within the Holiness Code are found to have no structure at all.