Inclusio

A literary bracketing device in which a passage begins and ends with the same or similar words, creating a frame around the content. Psalm 8 opens and closes with 'Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!' Ecclesiastes begins and ends with 'Meaningless! Meaningless!' (1:2, 12:8). Psalm 103 is framed by 'Praise the Lord, my soul.' Romans 1:5 and 16:26 bracket the letter with 'obedience of faith.' Mark 1:1 and 15:39 bracket the Gospel with declarations of Jesus as Son of God. Inclusio signals the unity of a text, identifies its boundaries, and often highlights its central theme.