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A New Witness for Christ: Chiastic Structures in the Book of Mormon
A New Witness for Christ Chiastic Structures in the Book of Mormon Author:H. Clay Gorton Chiasmus is a literary form which is used extensively in the Bible. The structure of the chiasmus comprises repeated sets of identical or related words, phrases or concepts; the second set is a repetition of the first, but is used in inverse order, as A, B - B, A. Matthew 19:30 contains a well-known chiasmus: "But many that are first shall be la... more »st; and the last shall be first." Many chiasma are extensive and involve a central theme as well as numerous layers of related sets. Chiasma are not readily apparent to readers of the scriptures who are untrained in their identification. In fact, chiasmus as a literary form was virtually unknown to Bible scholars when The Church f Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored through Joseph Smith. It is obvious that Joseph was unaware of the form when he translated the plates of the Book of Mormon. Yet now, through the careful analysis performed by the author, over 960 Book of Mormon chiasma have been identified and are listed and analyzed herein. Author H. Clay Gorton, in his previous book Language of the Lord - New Discoveries of Chiasma in the Doctrine and Covenants, has already made a powerful case that chiasma are a characteristic of the Lord's speech pattern, and that their existence in the scriptures is strong evidence that those scriptres constitute divine revelation. He identified over 220 chiasma in the Doctrine & Covenants. Now, in this book, he documents over 960 chiasma in the Book of Mormon! He defines eight distinct types of chiastic structures. He takes all the chiastic passages found in the Book of Mormon and presents them in easy-to-read diagrams and explanations. A New Witness for Christ - Chiastic Structures in the Book of Mormon is an essential tool for scripture study - one which deserves a place in the basic library of every LDS gospel scholar. It also constitutes a powerful challenge to anti-Mormon critics, who must now provide a rational explanation for the existence of the great quantities of identified chiasma in the Book of Mormon and in the Doctrine and Covenants, if they deny the divine origin of those sacred scriptures. Understanding the form and nature of chiasma opens the way to a profound new level of scriptural understanding, since the structures of the chiasma often clarify the meanings of the passages involved. It has been wisely observed that "You don't understand the Book of Mormon till you know and understand this book - A New Witness for Christ!"« less