In case any of you were not aware, there was a devotional last night in Salt Lake City with Elder and Sis. Uchtdorf. They spoke about "the adventure of mortality" with reference to young adults. I had the privilege of attending the devotional live, and I certainly felt the Spirit. I would encourage all young adults reading this (and older adults if you want to) to go listen to/watch this devotional. Even if you have already seen it, you will benefit from studying it again.
Some of you may know that I enjoy learning about historical and literary evidences for the Book of Mormon. I believe that, just as it is important to listen to the Spirit when finding a testimony, we should also use our powers of reasoning and deduction to find truth. One of the more convincing evidences for the Book of Mormon that has come to light in recent years is the Hebrew literary structure called chiasmus.
A chiasmus is a way of emphasizing an idea through reverse parallelism. According to literarydevices.com, "Chiasmus is a figure of speech that displays inverted parallelism.... Examples of chiasmus can be found in ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Latin texts, as well as many religious scriptures." In addition to examples found in the Bible and other obviously Hebrew texts, the Book of Mormon authors used this method many times in their writing.
One of the first Latter-day Saints to notice chiasmus in the Book of Mormon was John Welch. He published an article in the New Era in 1972 about his discovery when he was a doctoral student at England's Oxford University. According to a note about Welch's research, 'A world-famous, non-Mormon scholar called it the "most stunning information I've learned concerning the Book of Mormon."' Bro. Welch also has a more recent article on the subject at the BYU Religious Studies Center website.
Chiasmus is really something you have to search out and study on your own, but I will include Alma 36 as an example:
As you can see, the organization of the entire chapter follows this structure. Although this is quite impressive, you are more likely to find smaller examples of chiasmus in the scriptures, such as in Mosiah 3:18-19.
To those who claim that the Book of Mormon is not divine and that Joseph Smith made it up, I ask: could a young, uneducated farm boy write such a book full of literary complexities? He could not even have learned about chiasmus in his local library, since books on the subject were not prevalent in the U.S. at the time. And since then, chiasmus has only really been found in texts of Hebrew origin. I know that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin; that Joseph Smith translated it from plates by the gift and power of God. Not just because of scholarly reasons - I know this because of the Holy Spirit of God. I encourage all sincere seekers of truth to ask God for this same witness.
Additional Study
Book of Mormon Central
KnoWhy
Fair Mormon
Elder Holland
Some of you may know that I enjoy learning about historical and literary evidences for the Book of Mormon. I believe that, just as it is important to listen to the Spirit when finding a testimony, we should also use our powers of reasoning and deduction to find truth. One of the more convincing evidences for the Book of Mormon that has come to light in recent years is the Hebrew literary structure called chiasmus.
A chiasmus is a way of emphasizing an idea through reverse parallelism. According to literarydevices.com, "Chiasmus is a figure of speech that displays inverted parallelism.... Examples of chiasmus can be found in ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Latin texts, as well as many religious scriptures." In addition to examples found in the Bible and other obviously Hebrew texts, the Book of Mormon authors used this method many times in their writing.
One of the first Latter-day Saints to notice chiasmus in the Book of Mormon was John Welch. He published an article in the New Era in 1972 about his discovery when he was a doctoral student at England's Oxford University. According to a note about Welch's research, 'A world-famous, non-Mormon scholar called it the "most stunning information I've learned concerning the Book of Mormon."' Bro. Welch also has a more recent article on the subject at the BYU Religious Studies Center website.
Chiasmus is really something you have to search out and study on your own, but I will include Alma 36 as an example:
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| BYU Studies |
As you can see, the organization of the entire chapter follows this structure. Although this is quite impressive, you are more likely to find smaller examples of chiasmus in the scriptures, such as in Mosiah 3:18-19.
To those who claim that the Book of Mormon is not divine and that Joseph Smith made it up, I ask: could a young, uneducated farm boy write such a book full of literary complexities? He could not even have learned about chiasmus in his local library, since books on the subject were not prevalent in the U.S. at the time. And since then, chiasmus has only really been found in texts of Hebrew origin. I know that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin; that Joseph Smith translated it from plates by the gift and power of God. Not just because of scholarly reasons - I know this because of the Holy Spirit of God. I encourage all sincere seekers of truth to ask God for this same witness.
Additional Study
Book of Mormon Central
KnoWhy
Fair Mormon
Elder Holland
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