Gradual Ascent
The figure of speech, anabasis, is so called when a writing ascends up step by step, with an increase of emphasis. Psalm 1 is a vivid example of this figure. “Blessed is the man –1) who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, 2) nor stands in the way of sinners, 3) nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” Each phrase is successive in emphasis. Bullinger describes this verse in his Figures of Speech in the Bible as “the first continue in that mind, taking evil counsel. The second carry it out, as the principle of their walk. The third settle down in their evil, as on a seat” (p. 429). Another example is Zechariah 7:11: “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets…” This succession is a good description of the process that Israel went through to reject Jehovah and the law and the reason they ended up in captivity. The figure is not only used to describe a negative downfall. It can be positive as well. Ephesians 2:5–6 says, “Even when we were dead in sins, 1) he hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) 2) and hath raised us up together, and 3) made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
What is then the emphasis of this figure? I believe that the phrases in succession point to the very next sentence or phrase following the ascent like an arrow that points upward. What is important is not the arrow, but what it is pointing toward. In Psalm 1 the next sentence is, “his delight is in the law of the Lord…and whatsoever he does shall prosper.” In Zechariah 7, the next sentence is: “therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.” Ephesians 2:7 is “that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” What a joy to see the emphasis of these verses and why they have so much impact!