A chiasm is a literary structure where vocabulary of the first section of a passage is repeated in the second. The center of the chiasm is typically the climax of the passage. In Luke 8:4b-15 the center and climax is Jesus telling his disciples, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand” (Luke 8:8-9).