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| Title: | The Glory of God is Intelligence. |
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| Moderator: | BSS::RONEY |
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| Created: | Thu Jan 28 1988 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Apr 25 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 460 |
| Total number of notes: | 6198 |
137.0. "Chiasms & the Book of Mormon" by GENRAL::JESPERSEN () Thu Jun 09 1988 14:52
Hi There,
This is quite an interesting conference. I wish I had more time
to spend reading and contributing to it! Here's a short paper
I wrote a few months ago on the topic of chiasms, it may be of
interest to some of you.
dj.
================================================================
THE CHIASM
Chiasmus is an ancient literary form which is Hebrew in origin.
This writing style, which has received attention in recent years,
was used by many ancient Biblical prophets for about 3,000 years.
The chiasmus style consists of a progression of ideas or elements
written in such a way as to lead to a central point, and then the
same ideas or elements are written in reverse order moving away
from the central point. It is, in short, a reverse parallelism
of thought content.
Since the Book of Mormon claims to be a record of an ancient
people with Hebraic origins, it would seem reasonable to find
Hebrew poetry forms within its pages. In the late 1960s a BYU
professor, John W. Welch, began looking for chiasmic writing
styles in the Book of Mormon. In the course of his work,
Professor Welch found numerous examples of chiasms in the Book of
Mormon in addition to other Hebrew writing styles such as
parallelism (Alma 33:4-11). The discovery of such unique writing
forms provides undeniable evidence of the Book of Mormon's
antiquity. The follow examples and references are provided for
your information:
AN EXAMPLE FROM THE BIBLE: Psalms 124:7
Our soul is ESCAPED
as a BIRD out of the SNARE
of the FOWLERS: the SNARE is broken
and we are ESCAPED
AN EXAMPLE FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON: Mosiah 5:10-12
And now whosoever shall not take upon them the NAME OF CHRIST
must be CALLED by some other name;
therefore he findeth himself ON THE LEFT HAND OF GOD.
I would that ye should REMEMBER that this is the NAME
that should never be BLOTTED OUT
except it be through TRANSGRESSION
therefore
take heed that ye do not TRANSGRESS
that the name be not BLOTTED OUT of your hearts
I would that ye should REMEMBER to retain this NAME
that ye are not found ON THE LEFT HAND OF GOD,
but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be CALLED
and also the NAME by which he shall call you.
OTHER EXAMPLES INCLUDE: Genesis 9:12-17 2 Nephi 4:16-35
Isaiah 55:8 Mosiah 2:9-28
Isaiah 60:1-3 Mosiah 3:18-19
Psalms 3:7-8 Alma 36 (whole chapter)
Amos 5:4-6 Alma 41:12-15
Matt 13:13-18
over --->
*** SOME INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS ABOUT BOOK OF MORMON CHIASMS ***
1. "NO" chiasms are found in the Jaredite record (Book Of Ether)
since that book predates any Hebrew culture.
2. Chiasms are more common in the first half of the
Book of Mormon than in the second half.
3. Chiasmus can be found in verses, or an entire
chapter can be written in that form.
4. The exact rediscovery date of chiasms is not
clear. Most scholars believe this date to be in the
1930s while others place the date sometime in the 1860s.
Either way, this form of writing style did not gain
significant recognition until the 1960s, long after
the bringing forth of the Book Of Mormon.
5. Chiasms are not easy to write and certainly didn't
appear in the Book Of Mormon or Biblical passages
by accident.
REFERENCES: Welch, John, "Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon", BYU
Studies, Autumn 1969, Vol. X, #1
Cracroft, Paul, "A Clear Poetic Voice", Ensign,
January 1984, pg. 28
President Williams Larry R., "The Ancient Order
Restored", Colorado Springs North Stake Doctrinal
Forum, March 1985
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 137.1 | Fascinating | RIPPLE::KOTTERRI | Rich Kotter | Thu Jun 09 1988 15:07 | 9 |
| > 1. "NO" chiasms are found in the Jaredite record (Book Of Ether)
> since that book predates any Hebrew culture.
>
> 2. Chiasms are more common in the first half of the
> Book of Mormon than in the second half.
Fascinating! Thanks for entering this in.
Rich
|
| 137.2 | Some thoughts... | MEMIT1::OSSLER | | Thu Jun 09 1988 15:30 | 28 |
| RE: < Note 137.0 by GENRAL::JESPERSEN >
This is really interesting. I plan to look up your references and go
into it further. Thanks for entering it.
Discoveries such as this, like the testimonies of the Dead Sea Scrolls
and the archeological findings in Central & South America, provide
further tangible evidence that there is indeed something very special
about the Book of Mormon.
I find it interesting that the Lord is allowing these discoveries to
finally come forth. In the early years of the Church, one had to take
it completely on faith and by personal witness from the Holy Ghost
that the Book of Mormon was of divine origin. I'm sure that that is
exactly as the Lord intended at that time. But now we have temporal
witnesses also. Why?
I would like to think that this will be a help in missionary work.
Perhaps there are some who will be finally convinced as more and more
tangible evidence is brought forth. But I know that there are some
people for whom you can even perform miracles right on the spot, and
they still won't believe, as Jesus himself demonstrated.
To me it seems that the more such evidence comes out, the less time we
all have before the Millenium arrives.
/kevin
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| 137.3 | F.A.R.M.S. Documents | CACHE::LEIGH | | Wed Jun 15 1988 09:51 | 21 |
| F.A.R.M.S. has several documents that discuss Chiasmus. See note 125.1 for
mailing address.
Author Title Cat. # Price
------ ----- ------ -----
John W. Welch "Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon" WEL-69 $1.00
John W. Welch "Chiasmus in Heleman 6:7-13" WEL-87b 0.50
F.A.R.M.S. staff "Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon" (Video) LAN/CHI-V 19.95
Other documents that discuss the literary aspects of the Book of Mormon.
Larry G. Childs "Epanalepsis in the Book of Mormon" CHI-86 0.75
Angela Crowell "Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon" CRW-82 ?
John Tvedtnes "Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon" (set) 1.00
Angela Crowell "Hebrew Poetry in the Book of Mormon" CRW-86 1.25
Robert F. Smith "'It Came to Pass' in the Bible and
the Book of Mormon" SMI-80 0.50
Sidney Sperry "Our Book of Mormon" (chs. 4-13, 15,16) SP-OUR 3.00
Robert K. Thomas "A Literary Critic Looks at the Book of
Mormon" THO-70 0.75
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