Curated: published only
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
- 32pairs published
- 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.
returns
Returns
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
Opens
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.”
returns
Returns
Amos 3:8“The 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 8:1“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.”
returns
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?'
returns
Returns
Psalms 103:22“Bless 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 2:9“Out 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.”
returns
Returns
Revelation 22:2“down 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 22:17“The 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.”
returns
Returns
Genesis 2:24“For 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
returns
Returns
Revelation 21:1“Then 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.”
returns
Returns
Jeremiah 24:6“I 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 2:9“Out 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.”
returns
Returns
Revelation 22:2“down 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 2:10“Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:”
returns
Returns
Revelation 22:1“Then 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 3:17“And 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.”
returns
Returns
Revelation 22:3“No 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 3:24“So 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.”
returns
Returns
Revelation 22:14“Blessed 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”).
returns
Returns
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!”
returns
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
returns
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 3:8“Then 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.”
returns
Returns
Revelation 21:3“And 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 1:2“Listen, 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.”
returns
Returns
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'
returns
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
returns
Returns
Mark 11:20“As 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 8:8“But 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.”
returns
Returns
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 5:17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.”
returns
Returns
Matthew 7:12“In 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 1:1“In 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.”
returns
Returns
Ruth 1:22“So 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 4:23“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
returns
Returns
Matthew 9:35“Jesus 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)
Opens
Romans 1:5“Through 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.”
returns
Returns
Romans 16:26“but 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