Further Resources on Chiasmus

The FARMS Multimedia Page provides video and sound recordings of John Welch's lecture, "Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon" - a masterful 54-minute lesson that could be a valuable resource for a class or any serious student of the Book of Mormon. The movie is available for QuickTime and Windows Media Player. You can also skip the video and just listen to the lecture if you have QuickTime.

Further examples of chiasmus in the writings of Nephi are provided by David Sloan,
"Nephi's Convincing of Christ through Chiasmus: Plain and Precious Persuading from a Prophet of God," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1997. The link is for a PDF file. The article is also available in HTML format.

To see if drafting powerful examples of Semitic chiasmus was a typical skill for farmboys on the frontier (or anyone else!) in 1830, see John Welch's article, "How Much Was Known about Chiasmus in 1829 When the Book of Mormon Was Translated?"

Another helpful resource is John Welch, "Criteria for Identifying and Evaluating the Presence of Chiasmus," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1995. Welch has warned that some Latter-day Saints have taken the chiasmus issue way too far, finding chiasmus everywhere when it may not have really been intentional.

I have updated my page on chiasmus in the Book of Mormon to include these resources. I also fixed some broken links.