(Our attention has been drawn to the writings of John Forbes who produced a commentary on Romans in 1868 using chiastic parallelism. His reasons for writing strike a welcome chord – here is an  excerpt from the preface.)

Forbes, J. (1868). Analytical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Tracing the Train of Thought by the Aid of Parallelism, with Notes and Dissertations (pp. v–xi). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

“… Parallelism enables us to concentrate our attention on a small portion till its leading idea is discovered. Proceeding thus paragraph after paragraph, and stating to ourselves in concise terms the leading idea elicited in each, we can compare it successively with the paragraphs that precede and follow, and gradually ascertain the true relations and connexion of the whole”.