As a current example showing the utility of using structural criteria to investigate the authenticity of dubious Scriptures, the Latter-Day Saints in recent years have gotten on the band wagon and looked for chiasms (mirror-image organizations of words and/or ideas) in the Book of Mormon in order to prove that it also exhibits this tell-tale literary characteristic found in the Bible. The leader in this movement is John W. Welch, a BYU law professor who summarized his findings in an essay on the internet, “Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon.” He treats the subject in more detail in the book he edited entitled Chiasmus in Antiquity.
After locating some supposed examples of chiasm in the Book of Mormon, he states
1. “We can rule out the odd chance that Joseph Smith learned about chiasmus through scrupulously reading the Bible on the simple grounds that the King James translation, which he used, obscures almost every chiastic formation possible. Either in an attempt to avoid redundant repetitions or to prevent awkward word orders, the King James translators did a good job of leveling almost every chiasm in the Bible. Their 'good style' was anathema to 'good Hebrew.'”
That statement is blatantly false. There may be some cases where KJV omitted repeated words (as in Romans 1:4), but they are rare, and certainly all the parallelisms in Psalms remain intact even in translation. Actually, it is only by using a fairly literal translation such as KJV, RSV or ESV that one can easily discern these patterns even in English. By contrast, it is very hard to do so using NIV, New English Bible, or other dynamic translations because they don't adhere asclosely to the same wording or word order as the original.
2. Secondly, he states that chiasms in the Bible were not recognized during Joseph Smith's lifetime. This is another falsehood – The concept was well known at the time; it just wasn't called by that particular name.
3. Welch also says that the use of chiasms reflects a uniquely Jewish mindset, proving that the authors of the Book of Mormon came from a Jewish background. However, that ignores the fact that Luke, who wrote ¼ of the NT, was most likely a Gentile, not a Jew and his writings contain a number of chiasms. And some debunkers have even located examples of chiasm scattered throughout Joseph Smith's own writings, showing that he was well aware of and consciously imitating the style of the Bible.
But the most damning evidence comes from the few examples Welch highlights in his on-line summary. I am going to make the reasonable assumption that these were among the most persuasive examples he could come up with. A couple of examples are only a few verses long. Here, if anywhere is where one could expect to see the influence on Joseph Smith by even a casual reading the Psalms. His first example is perhaps his most persuasive, but even it has grave flaws. He cites Mosiah 3:18-19 but needs to lop off the first part of verse 18 and the last part of verse 19 even to get it to work.
Mosiah 3:18b-19a
a. they humble themselves
b. and become as little children
c. and believe that salvation...is...in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent
d. for the natural man
e. is an enemy to God
f. and has been from the fall of Adam
f'. and will be, forever and ever
e'. unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit
d'. and putteth off the natural man
c'. and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord
b'. and becometh as a child
a'. submissive, meek, humble...full of love...
The parallelism between e and e' is especially weak, and that between f and f' is only achieved by splitting a single thought into two. However, the other pairings appear to be strong, that is until one considers the whole of Chapter 3. Thus, the blamelessness of children (b and b') is also the theme of verses 16 and 21; the fall of Adam (f and f') is specifically mentioned in verses 16 and 26; atonement (c and c') appears also in verses 11 and 15; and blood atonement is found in verses 11, 15 and 18, but not 19. In addition to these repetitions, many more appear in Mosiah 3 that form no discernible symmetrical patterns: “joy” (vv. 3,4,13), miraculous events (vv. 3,15), “salvation” (vv. 9,12,16,17), “Lord Omnipotent” (vv. 5,17,18,21), “name” (vv. 9,17,21), “prophets” (vv. 13,15), salvation only through Christ (vv. 12,17), “children of men” (vv. 5,6,10,13,17), “God/Lord commanded” (vv. 22,23,27), “blameless” (vv. 21,22), “evil” (vv. 24,25), “faith” (9,21), “and lo” (vv. 7,9), Christ's coming (vv. 13,15), “the law of Moses” (vv. 14,15), “speak words” (vv. 22,23), “was and is” (vv. 5,18), “judgment” (vv. 10,18,24), evil men “drink” judgment (vv. 18,26), “every nation, kindred, tongue” (vv. 13,20), and “forever and ever” (vv. 19,27).
In short, the author has repeated most of the words or phrases in the chapter at least once in a vain attempt to imitate the repetition he has seen in the Bible without in the least understanding the original rhetorical purpose of such repetitions. It is no wonder that Welch can pick out a few of them that have the semblance of a chiastic order, while ignoring the many other verbal and thematic duplications that serve no structural purpose at all.
The next chiasm Welch offers appears at the end of Alma 41, vv. 13-15. The pertinent elements are outlined below:
a. “the word restoration” is to bring it back
b. evil, carnal, devilish
c. good
d. righteous
e. just
f. merciful
f'. merciful
e'. deal justly
d'. judge righteously
c'. do good
f''. mercy
e''. justice
d''. righteous judgment
c''. good
b'. return to you again
a'. “the word restoration”
Welch states that this is an “extremely clever” twist on the chiastic form. I would personally call this a rather obvious variation on the form in contrast to the much more subtle chiasms that appear in the Bible. Welch also states that it is “unequaled in Hebraic literature” and in this I would agree. In fact, it is an overly-clever attempt to marry the two ubiquitous literary structures in the canonical literature: chiasm and parallel constructions. (The latter would have been even more obvious for a reader like Joseph Smith to pick out, with a reader having to go no further than Genesis 1 to see an extended example.) Unfortunately, the results of this bastardization lead to asymmetry as a whole, as one can see.
A final short example is diagrammed below:
Mosiah 5:10-12
a. And now … whosoever shall not take upon him the name of Christ
b. must be called by some other name;
c. therefore he findeth himself on the left hand of God.
d. I would that ye should remember also, that this is the name
e. that never should be blotted out,
f. except it be through transgression
f'. therefore, take heed that ye do not transgress,
e'. that the name be not blotted out of your hearts
d'. I would that ye should remember to retain the name
c. that ye are not found on the left hand of God,
b'. but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called,
a'. and also, the name by which he shall call you.This simple example again relies mainly on the repetition of common words, and he is selective as to which ones are paired up. For example, “name” does appear in a and a', but it is also found in b, d, and e. Similarly, “call” is in b and b', but it is also in a. More specifically, the combination of “call” and “name” only appears in b and a', which he does not match up. Similarly, the phrase “your hearts” appears in e' and d', but that is not mentioned since it would also disrupt the pattern. Another problem is that these three verses are located within a larger chapter which possesses no such parallelism.
Welch attempts a whole chapter, Alma 36, with somewhat more success, but even this analysis has its problems. Without showing his detailed organization, suffice it to say that it is a 26-member chiasm containing a fair amount of verbal parallelism between corresponding units. However, again a little fudging is necessary to reconstruct the chapter as a full chiasm.
1. Verses 3a, 5b-8, and 25 are totally missing from his organization.
2. The subjects listed for sections h' and g' (both in v. 26) are listed in reverse order from their actual occurrence in the text.
3. He pairs section d, with its phrase “did deliver them” together with d' which contains the phrase “will deliver me.” However, an even closer parallel with the same verb tense, “delivered me,” actually appears earlier in the text between his f' and e'.
4. Specific phrases repeated in the text are not located in the parallel sections outlined by Welch and must be ignored entirely for the scheme to work: “fell to earth” (vv. 7,11), “three days and nights” (vv. 10,16), “keep the commandments” (vv. 1,13), “raise/lift me up” (vv. 3,28), “seek no more to destroy the church” (vv. 9,11), and “born of God” (vv. 5,23,24,26).
5. The individual sections identified by Welch range in size from six verses down to a third of a verse. Such variation in size is not common in biblical examples.
6. His largest section “l” is identified as vv. 11-16. However, such a division is highly unlikely and should also include v. 17 (his section m) since the latter contains the words “racked,” “torment,” “harrowed up” and “remember,” all appearing in section l.
7. Official Mormon literature recognizes that Alma 36 is only part of the larger section chs. 36-37 covering the same subject. This runs counter to Welch's scheme of a complete chiasm for Chapter 36 only.
When Welch tries to analyze a whole book, he runs into even more problems.
First Book of Nephi
A. Lehi’s dream leads him to prophesy warnings to the Jews (ch. 1)
B. The departure from Jerusalem (ch. 2)
C. Nephi accomplishes a great feat ; the brothers are confounded (chs. 3-5)
D. Ishmael joins the group with his daughters (ch. 7)
E. The tree of life (ch. 8)
F. Lehi prophesies about the Old World and the coming of the Lamb (ch. 10)
G. Nephi and the Spirit of the Lord (ch. 10)
F'. Nephi prophesies about the New World and the coming of the Lamb (chs. 12-14)
E'. The tree of life interpreted (ch. 15)
D'. The sons of Lehi marry the daughters of Ishmael and Ishmael dies (ch. 16)
C'. Nephi accomplishes a great feat; the brothers are confounded (ch. 17)
B'. The departure from the Old World (ch. 18)
A. Nephi warns the Jews and quotes the prophecies of Isaiah (chs. 19-22)
Welch analyzes the whole book of I Nephi as a 13-part chiasm, but his reasoning is fatally flawed for several reasons.
Some of the supposed parallels rely on vague thematic similarities. For example, Section A warns the Jews that they will be going into captivity. However, A' concerns not warnings but prophecies of the coming of Jesus and eventual conversion of the Jews. Sections C and C' represent two completely different types of activity: stealing a scroll and building a ship. Welch says that both are “feats” which “confound” the brothers. But the word “feat” does not appear in either section, and although the brothers are confounded in C, they are dubious and encouraged in C'.
Other
supposed parallels such as D-D' and E-E' rely solely on individual
words taken out of whole chapters. This is especially telling in consideration of the fact that, in general, the chapter divisions in the Book of Mormon are much longer than those in the Bible.
Not one of the individual sections exhibits its own internal symmetry or features such as inclusio to confirm that they are discrete literary entities.
In addition, note that Welch has to leave out chapters 6, 9 and 11 even to get this supposed chiasm to work.
And he purposely misrepresents the facts in his listing of sections f and g. Yes, both subjects do appear in ch. 10, but notice that Welch conveniently leaves out their verse numbers. That is to hide the fact that the events in g are described in the first part of the chapter followed by those in f, not in the order he has stated.
Finally, when Joseph Smith originally dictated the book, he indicated where the chapter divisions were to take place (felt to be present in the original writings), but neither these groupings in the original 1830 edition nor the current divisions in the revised 1981 edition match up with Welch's section breaks.
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