Approved by hand
Inclusio & Bookends
Openings that return at the close: from single books to the whole canon (a tree in Eden, a tree in the New Jerusalem).
The shape of this lensAn opening and its return
Summary
Every pair on this page was proposed with its evidence and approved one at a time by Marcus Brown. Rows carry the work they came from.
- 32 pairs published
- 1 more lens stands on the same shelf.
- 13 lenses in all, each one its own page.
- Law
- History
- Wisdom
- Major Prophets
- Minor Prophets
- Gospels
- Acts
- Pauline Epistles
- General Epistles
- Apocalyptic
Opens
Revelation 1:8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.
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Revelation 22:13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
BOOK-LEVEL. Revelation's 'Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end' frame (1:8 / 22:13) - the divine self-designation brackets the book.
ASV/WEB text; Catholic Resources Christological Titles
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Amos 1:2He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”
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Amos 3:8The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken—who will not prophesy?
BOOK/SECTION. Amos's roaring-lion frame: 'The LORD will roar from Zion' (1:2) and 'The lion hath roared, who will not fear?' (3:8) bracket the oracles against the nations.
ASV/WEB text; academia.edu 'The Literary Tapestry of Amos 3:1-8'
Opens
Psalms 8:1O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.
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PERICOPE. Full-line verbatim inclusio: 'O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!' opens (v.1) and closes (v.9) the psalm.
ASV/WEB text; GotQuestions 'What is an inclusio?'
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Psalms 103:22Bless the LORD, all His works in all places of His dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!
PERICOPE. 'Bless the LORD, O my soul' opens (v.1) and closes (v.22). Verbatim frame.
ASV/WEB text
Opens
Genesis 2:9Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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Revelation 22:2down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
The tree of life opens Eden and closes the New Jerusalem; legible as one arc only across the LXX (H6086 'ets ha-chayyim -> LXX xylon tes zoes -> G3586 xylon zoes in Rev 22:2). Canon-level frame; the orchard's first and last station.
Beale, A NT Biblical Theology (2011, cite-only); LXX Gen 2:9 (Swete, PD); Rev 22:2
Opens
Revelation 22:17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.
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Genesis 2:24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
'The Spirit and the bride say, Come' closes the arc the Eden wedding opened; the canon's frame is a marriage (Eden wedding -> wedding of the Lamb). Mirror Row 6.
MT-ASV; G3565
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Revelation 21:1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
CANON-LEVEL. 'God created the heaven and the earth' (Gen 1:1) reused as 'a new heaven and a new earth' (Rev 21:1). Verbatim vocabulary reuse (heaven+earth) across the canonical frame.
ASV/WEB text; Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology
Opens
Jeremiah 1:10See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”
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Jeremiah 24:6I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.
BOOK-LEVEL. 'To pluck up and to break down... to build and to plant' (1:10) returns at 24:6, bracketing Jeremiah chs. 1-24.
Wikipedia Inclusio (citing E. F. Campbell); ASV/WEB text
Opens
Genesis 2:9Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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Revelation 22:2down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
CANON-LEVEL. Tree of life opens (Eden, Gen 2:9) and closes (New Jerusalem, Rev 22:2, 'leaves for the healing of the nations') the whole canon.
Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology (2011); ASV/WEB text; GCU/ICR bookends articles
Opens
Genesis 2:10Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:
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Revelation 22:1Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
CANON-LEVEL. River from Eden (Gen 2:10) mirrored by river of the water of life from the throne (Rev 22:1); mediated by Ezek 47:1-12.
ASV/WEB text; BibleProject Ezekiel 47; Beale, Temple and the Church's Mission
Opens
Genesis 3:17And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
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Revelation 22:3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him.
CANON-LEVEL. Curse imposed ('cursed is the ground', Gen 3:17) and lifted ('no more curse', Rev 22:3) - the frame's thesis: the opening's wound is the closing's cure.
ASV/WEB text; Matthew Henry Commentary (PD); BibleStudyTools Rev 22:3
Opens
Genesis 3:24So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
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Revelation 22:14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.
CANON-LEVEL. Access to the tree of life barred by cherubim (Gen 3:24) then restored ('right to the tree of life... enter through the gates', Rev 22:14).
ASV/WEB text; ICR bookends
Opens
Matthew 1:23“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).
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Matthew 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
BOOK-LEVEL. Matthew's Immanuel frame: 'God with us' (1:23) opens, 'I am with you always, even unto the end of the world' (28:20) closes - the Gospel's spine.
Brauns/Blomberg (chrisbrauns.com); ASV/WEB text
Opens
Ecclesiastes 1:2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
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BOOK-LEVEL. Verbatim refrain 'Vanity of vanities... all is vanity' opens and closes Qoheleth's argument. Identical text at both edges.
ASV/WEB text; BibleHub Ecclesiastes 12:8 commentaries
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John frames his whole Gospel with the confession of Christ's deity: it opens with “the Word was God” (1:1) and climaxes with Thomas falling down before the risen Jesus and saying “My Lord and my God” (20:28), immediately before John states why he wrote the book. Where scholars push back: Unitarian readers take Thomas's words as an exclamation directed past Jesus to the Father rather than a confession of who Jesus is.
TGC John commentary; critique: biblicalunitarian.com John 20:28; ASV/WEB text
Opens
Genesis 3:8Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
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Revelation 21:3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
CANON-LEVEL. God dwelling with humanity - lost (walking in the garden, now hidden from, Gen 3:8) and regained ('the tabernacle of God is with men', Rev 21:3). The temple/dwelling thread's two ends.
Beale, Temple and the Church's Mission (NSBT 17, 2004); ASV/WEB text
Opens
Isaiah 1:2Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.
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Isaiah 66:24“As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”
BOOK-LEVEL. Isaiah frames rebellion ('they have rebelled against me', 1:2) with final judgment on transgressors (66:24), the new heavens/new earth (65:17; 66:22) answering ch. 1. Assumes final-form unity (multiple-authorship debate noted).
ASV/WEB text; academia.edu 'Isaiah 65-66: New Heavens and New Earth'
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PERICOPE. 'O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever' - verbatim at vv. 1 and 29.
ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Inclusio example list
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Mark 11:20As they were walking back in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots.
PERICOPE. Mark's fig-tree/temple intercalation: the cursed fig tree (11:12-14, 20-21) brackets the temple cleansing (11:15-19), so the withered tree interprets the temple's judgment.
ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Inclusio example list
Opens
Hebrews 8:8But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
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Hebrews 10:16“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”
SECTION. Hebrews brackets its central argument by quoting the new-covenant oracle of Jer 31:31-34 twice (8:8-12 and 10:16-18).
ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Inclusio example list
Opens
Matthew 5:17Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
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Matthew 7:12In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.
PERICOPE/BOOK. 'The Law and the Prophets' brackets the body of the Sermon on the Mount (5:17 'to fulfil the law and the prophets'; 7:12 'this is the law and the prophets'), naming its subject. Verbatim catchphrase.
ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Matthew 7:12; Theopolis 'Structure of the Sermon'
Opens
Ruth 1:1In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.
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Ruth 1:22So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
BOOK/PERICOPE. Ruth's opening frame: leaving Bethlehem for Moab (1:1) mirrored by returning from Moab to Bethlehem (1:22) - the 'empty then return' hinge.
E. F. Campbell, Ruth (Anchor Bible); ASV/WEB text
Opens
Matthew 4:23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
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Matthew 9:35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.
BOOK-LEVEL. Near-verbatim ministry summary ('teaching... preaching... healing every disease') brackets the Sermon and the miracle cycle (Matt 5-9).
ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Inclusio example list (verified against text)
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Romans 1:5Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
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Romans 16:26but now revealed and made known through the writings of the prophets by the command of the eternal God, in order to lead all nations to the obedience that comes from faith—
BOOK-LEVEL. Paul's 'obedience of faith' (hypakoe pisteos) stands at the virtual beginning and end of Romans - a verbatim Greek-phrase frame around the letter's argument.
Grace Evangelical Society 'The Obedience Which Is Faith'; STEPBible TAGNT; ASV/WEB text
Show all 32 pairs
Opens
Psalms 104:1Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
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Psalms 104:35May sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Hallelujah!
PERICOPE. 'Bless the LORD, O my soul' opens (v.1) and closes (v.35); twins Ps 103's frame.
ASV/WEB text
Opens
Job 1:1There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.
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Job 42:7After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.
BOOK-LEVEL. Job's prose frame (prologue chs. 1-2 / epilogue 42:7-17) encloses the poetic dialogue; 'blameless and upright' Job at both ends - a narrative envelope.
ASV/WEB text; Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (1999)
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Psalms 73:28But as for me, it is good to draw near to God. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all Your works.
PERICOPE. Ps 73's 'good' (tob) frame: 'Truly God is good to Israel' (v.1) resolved by 'it is good for me to draw near to God' (v.28) - the crisis re-defines the good. Catchword inclusio.
ASV/WEB text; expository studies (expositorythoughts.wordpress.com)
Opens
Revelation 1:3Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.
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Revelation 22:7“Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.”
BOOK-LEVEL. Revelation's beatitude-on-the-reader frame: 'Blessed is he that readeth... the words of this prophecy' (1:3) and 'Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book' (22:7).
ASV/WEB text
Opens
Psalms 106:1Hallelujah! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.
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Psalms 106:48Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!
PERICOPE. Hallelujah ('Praise ye the LORD') frame opening and closing Ps 106.
ASV/WEB text
Opens
Psalms 1:1Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
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The Psalter is framed on purpose. It opens with the wisdom portal of Psalms 1–2 (the two ways, and the enthroned Son) and closes with five straight hallelujah psalms (146–150) ending “let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.” Torah at the door, praise at the end. Where scholars push back: Whybray (Reading the Psalms as a Book, 1996) argues the editorial shaping Wilson proposed is lighter than claimed and that the collection grew more loosely than a single designed frame.
Wilson, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (1985) / 'Shape of the Book of Psalms' (1992); critique: Whybray, Reading the Psalms as a Book (1996)
Opens
Mark 1:16As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
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Mark 16:7But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.’”
Peter is the first named disciple in Mark (1:16–18) and the last one named (16:7), bracketing the whole Gospel. Bauckham reads that bracket as Mark naming his eyewitness source: the ancient convention of an “inclusio of eyewitness testimony.” Where scholars push back: Reviewers answer that Peter's prominence at both ends may simply reflect his prominence in the story, without signalling authorship.
Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (2006/2017); critical reviews (allkirk.net)
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John 21:24This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who has written them down. And we know that his testimony is true.
John's Gospel brackets itself with the Beloved Disciple: an unnamed disciple stands with Andrew at the very beginning (1:35–40), and the book closes by identifying that disciple as the one “which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things” (21:24). The frame is John's own claim to have seen what he reports. Where scholars push back: Critics of Bauckham's reading hold that the closing verse is a later editor's endorsement rather than the author's self-identification.
Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses