The book of Revelation is both a chiasm and a bifid. [Ellis Skolfield does a great discourse on bifids and chiasms.] A bifid is just a piece of literature or writing that is separated into two equal or almost equal parts. I’ll give you an example (Isaiah) from Ellis’s teaching.

[This is from one of his teaching slides that are public domain AND he gave me permission on the phone to use anything of his to teach.]

So a bifidic writing will tell a story or carry a theme, then repeat it again in the second half of the document. You can do as many themes in a section as you want, but the second half will carry the same themes, and the same number.

A chiasm is a pattern of writing where a series of statements are made, then repeated in reverse order. It’s almost like a poem that doesn’t rhyme. Once you start to see it, you’ll be able to spot it in other places in Scripture. Here’s a simple example of an AB/BA:

Psa 68:15- 16 The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desires to dwell in.

A. The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan (God’s hill)

B. an high hill as the hill of Bashan (high hill)

B. Why leap ye, ye high hills? (high hill)

A. this is the hill which God desires to dwell in (God’s hill.)

Here’s an example of an ABC/CBA from Mark 5:3-5

A: Who had his dwelling among the tombs (Tombs)

B: and no man could bind him, (Subdue him)

C: no, not with chains: (Chains)

C: he had been bound with chains, (Chains)

B: neither could any man tame him. (Subdue him)

A: And always he was in the tombs (Tombs)

Chiasms can be in short sentences like these, or can be in chapter form. One of my favorite teachings from Skolfield is “Daniel isn’t in chronological order”. And because I rarely take anyone for their word when studying the Word (especially if I don’t know them or their credibility), I took the time to look each foreign ruler up and compare and contrast them with the book of Daniel. Skolfield was right. Daniel was written in chiastic form, not in chronological order as the events happened, and it looks like this:

A. ch.2 The Great Image — 4 Gentile Nations

B. ch.3 The Fiery Furnace — God’s People in Tribulation

C. ch.4 King goes Insane — Gentile King Judged

C. ch.5 Belshazzar Killed — Gentile King Judged

B. ch.6 The Lion’s Den– God’s People in Tribulation

A. ch.7 The Four Beasts — 4 Gentile Nations

This was a common writing style for the Hebrews/Israelites, and they would have been able to pick out messages and meanings by recognizing repeating patterns. It’s Hebrew, not Latin, so English speaking readers are most likely unfamiliar with it.

When I was in my dining room study season, I was poring over the book of Revelation. I had written it out on butcher paper and hung it from my ceilings down my walls so I could see the whole book in one place. Then I just studied it, looking for patterns. At one point I began scratching my head (figuratively) because I noticed overlapping of themes, and I began asking myself if they were separate events or single events repeated in different form? How many “great earthquakes” were there supposed to be??? Then I began laying seeming patterns down.

I didn’t want to take liberty where I shouldn’t, but I had never heard anyone in all of my time studying and reading and listening, talk about overlapping repetitive themes in Revelation. So I began asking God if I should overlap them and consider them singular events instead of multiple events. I can’t remember how He led me to Skolfield, but it was his bifid/chiasm teaching that broke this open for me and showed me how to apply it.

There are several good teachers on chiasms. Skolfield has his chiastic outline for Revelation, but it didn’t make as much sense to me as some others I found. Another great teacher on Revelation and who has a chiastic outline for Revelation that was easier for me to follow is Walter Veith. He is an astounding teacher. You could get lost in his videos for weeks!

Here’s a slide presentation of bifids and chiasms from Skolfield: https://vdocuments.pub/ellis-skolfields-teaching-outline…

A great overview is his book “Daniel is out of order” that you can find on this page: https://www.ellisskolfield.net/books

If you want to dig more into this, look at Skolfield’s works and do a generic internet search with “chiasm revelation” and just start looking through them. I did some work at making my own chiasm outline for Revelation, but I still think it needs tweaked.

We have to get out of our traditional mindsets from a western education, both secularly and religiously, if we want to grasp some of the applications and truths of Scripture. As Americans instructed in a lineal language (Latin originated), we think lineally. The Hebrew language is a whole language. The characters are letters, numbers, words and even pictures. They have idioms that are used prolifically throughout Scripture that we take literally with no real understanding of what they are referring to. (This is one of my favorite lessons to teach on. e.g.: “the rod” is an idiom for “Torah”. Now read, “Spare the rod, spoil the child” and contemplate what it means. “No one knows the hour or the day” is an idiom for Rosh Hashanah. Now revisit Christ’s words quoting that. There are dozens if not hundreds of these in the Bible.)

I’ll post some examples of chiasms. I’m not endorsing any one chiasm. I’m still working on those myself, and I’m putting them out there for consideration or a starting point.

I don’t agree with any one teacher anymore than I expect anyone to agree completely with me. I take the parts that make sense (to me at the point of understanding I’m in), and I table or reject the ones that don’t.

When I was talking with Ellis Skolfield several years ago (maybe 2014?), I was asking him some questions. I’ll never forget one of his answers, “I don’t know. I haven’t figured that out yet. Maybe you will and you can tell me!” No one on this earth has the full understanding. Most of my learning and subsequent teaching is from putting pieces and parts together from a wide assortment of teachers and children of God. There are some gaping holes I’m still trying to find answers for. It’s work, but it’s rewarding.

To restate, I don’t have this whole thing figured out by a long shot, (but I feel like I’m closer than I was). I may have to renege or tweak some things later that I’m sharing now as I continue to learn. I’ve literally been waiting years until I get it all figured out before I share. But I probably won’t get it “all figured out”. So I’ll share what I have and we can sharpen each other. You’ll most likely have some angles and information I don’t have that will help me on my way, and vice versa. It’s almost like WWG1WGA

Be blessed in your pursuit of Him.

Here are a couple random breakdowns of Revelation in chiastic form. There are a lot of variations. These are just examples of how some others have seen it. There are a lot of variations.