The Chiasmus that is 1 Nephi

I’ve mentioned in the past about the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. I’m not a meticulous or careful enough scholar to find these by myself. Rather I’m borrowing and presenting the work of John Welch. So, this entry is not the result of my work but that of Bro. Welch. I present it here, because it’s fascinating to me and is one more piece of evidence of the Book of Mormon’s antiquity.
A chiasmus is a Hebraic literary art form, much like a sonnet is an English literary art form. Like a sonnet, a chiasmus has a clear set of rules which the work must conform to, to be labeled as such. Where sonnets have a set meter and rhyming pattern, a chiasmus must follow a specific structure and order of meanings and expressions. Rather than rhyme, a chiasmus has a set order for its structure.
This is the chiastic structure:
A
    B
        C
    B’
A’

In this structure, A and A’ say the same thing with slight variations in nuance, often using the same words such that read together they carry more meaning than if read alone.
In the same way, B and B’ do the same thing. But they build on A and A’ to the apex statement C, which is the heart of the expression. For a further exploration into what a chiasmus is, I suggest you read this article by Bro. Welch.
What I wanted to write about is this: 1 Nephi is written as a large chiasmus. While it was taken from the records Nephi wrote, it was something which took him a considerable amount of time to read and produce. It is far more complex than it seems when you simply read it through. Here is the chiastic structure of 1 Nephi:
A.    1 Nephi 1 - Lehi’s dream which is a warning to the Jews.
  B. 1 Nephi 2 - Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem for the Promised Land
    C. 1 Nephi 3-5 - Nephi performs a great feat with the help of his brothers in getting the Brass Plates from Laban. God intervenes to complete the assignment.
      D. 1 Nephi 7 - Ishmael joins the group with his family
        E. 1 Nephi 8 - Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life
          F. 1 Nephi 10 - Lehi’s prophecy of the coming of the Messiah to the Jews.
             G. 1 Nephi 11 - Nephi’s encounter with the Spirit of the Lord and his testimony of Christ, the Messiah
          F’. 1 Nephi 12 - Nephi’s prophecy of Jesus coming to his descendants
         E’. 1 Nephi 15 - Nephi’s interpretation of his vision of the Tree of Life
       D’. 1 Nephi 16 - The marriages of Ishmael’s daughters to Lehi’s sons and the death of Ishmael
     C’. 1 Nephi 17 - Nephi performs a great feat with the help of his brothers in building the boat. God intervenes to protect Nephi from his brothers.
   B’.  1 Nephi 18 - Nephi’s departure from the Old World and arrival in the Land of Promise.
A’. 1 Nephi 19-22 - Nephi warns the Jews

What I find particularly interesting is the apex is the testimony of the mission of Jesus Christ. Ever after in the Book of Mormon, the Savior is referred to as Christ by the Nephites. Up until this point, Lehi’s group were Jews looking for the coming of the Messiah. Afterwords, they were Christians.

Alma 36-38 - Letters to Helaman and Shiblon

This section of the Book of Mormon contains some of the most personal writing in the entire work. Only the letters of Mormon to his son Moroni evoke a stronger sense of love and poignancy. Also contained in this passage is THE chiasmus of the entire Book of Mormon, Alma 36.

These are not letters dashed off in a moment. They are instead, works of literary art Alma spent hours crafting. His intent wasn’t to write something beautiful and instructive, though they are. He wrote them to bare the most powerful witness he could to the reality of Jesus Christ and the events surrounding his conversion. While you can read them quickly in a few minutes and get something out of them. If you spend time pondering this passage and getting lost in the artistic beauty of the work, you’ll learn so much more.

To delve further into the literary artistry is beyond the time and space I can take here. If you’re interested here are a couple of links to much more detailed examinations of the chiasmus: Chiasmus in Alma 36, A Masterpiece: Alma 36

Also in this passage, Alma retells his conversion to his sons Helaman and Shiblon. He also hands over to Helaman custody of the plates, including instructions about what not to say of the Jaredite record. Contained in it is one of my favorite scriptures, Alma 37:37

“Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings,
and He will direct thee for good.

     Yea, when thou liest down at night,
    lie down unto the Lord,

        that He may watch over you in your sleep.

    And when thou risest in the morning,
    let thy heart be full of thanks unto God.

And if ye always do these things,
ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”

A quick word to the observant, the punctuation here is not what is found in the current printing of the book, but what exists in Royal Skousen’s work, “The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text.” I’ve presented it pretty much as it appears in that work, though I’ve marked the parallels with the indentations to make them easier to see. I did it so you can see Alma's use of parallelism to enhance the meaning of the passage. As you compare each level against its counterpart, you'll get a deeper meaning of what Alma is trying to say. This is just a taste of the literary artistry in this passage. Reading Skousen's version will increase your appreciation for the Book of Mormon and show in a compelling way, this is not the work of an Upstate New York farmer of 1829.

1 Nephi 12 - A little something in between

In chapter twelve, we get the condensed history of the Nephites and Lamanites. The main event is the appearance of the Savior to the Nephites. This account of the visit is the chiastic counterpart to chapter 10 which tells of the Savior’s visit to the Jews.

We also get the interpretation of the river, the spacious building and the mists of darkness. It’s interesting to me to see these definitions given in the context of the history he saw. I’m sure there’s a lesson there but what it is evades me at the moment. It’s something I get to ponder upon. I do think however, it’s an example of how Heavenly Father teaches us about Him and His works using images we understand and our experiences. Again, the concept of taking us from where we are to higher states of awareness.

I just have to add this… it has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon, but with the temple. I go weekly on Wednesdays. What struck me today is how alike men and women are treated in the temple rituals. Many ordinances are performed by women upon women. The ritual clothing with all their symbolic meanings are virtually the same for all. It’s something to think about.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned, Nephi gets apocalyptic next when we read through Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen.

1 Nephi's Chiastic Structure

If you don't already know what a chiasmus is, I'll give this short description. It's a Hebrew literary art form using repetition combined with parallelism. Envision if you will a stair case which goes up to an apex and then back down to the ground floor. There are an equal number of steps going up and down.

This is a visual representation of the structure. Now, instead of steps you have a phrase or short passage which contains a meaning. The repetition comes into play with each step and its mirror on the other side saying a similar thing or the same thing using different words. The parallelism comes because they sequence of the sayings is reversed so each list of expressions is a mirror. They lead to and enhance the apex, the highest step which doesn't repeat.

With this in mind, this is the chiastic structure of 1 Nephi
a. Chapter 1 - Lehi has a dream and he warns the Jews.
  b.  Chapter 2 - Lehi flees Jerusalem for the Promised Land
    c.  Chapters 3-5 - Nephi miraculously gets the plates
      d.  Chapter 7 - Ishmael joins the group along with his family
        e.  Chapter 8 - The vision of the Tree of Life
          f.  Chapter 10 - The Prophecy of the coming of the Lamb of God to the Jews
            g. Chapter 11 - The Spirit of God testifies of the coming of Jesus Christ
          f.  Chapter 12 - Prophecy of Jesus appearance to Nephi's descendants in the New World
        e.  Chapter 15 - The interpretation of the vision of the Tree of Life
      d.  Chapter 16 - The marriages of Ishmael's daughters to Lehi's sons and Zoram
    c.  Chapter 17 - Nephi miraculously builds a boat
  b.  Chapter 18 - Lehi's group, now led by Nephi leave the Old World for the Promised Land
a. Chapters 19-22 - Nephi warns the Jews of the latter days of the destruction of Satan's followers

And all this was thought up by a 22 year old farm boy from upstate New York who could barely read, a minister and a school teacher who culled all this from the bible, a history book and a novel. Ah... right.

The truth of it is this: It's less of a leap to believe it was revealed by God than to think they dreamt all this up. You have to keep in mind, once Joseph started translating, it was just him, the scribe, the plates (under a linen), the stone or stones and the hat. They did it in a room where others often stood by and watched. Hours on end, day after day they did this. So, if there really were years of preparation... he still had to memorize all of this so he could recite it to the translator. Keep in mind there were people in the room who never joined the church, yet they said the same thing about what happened.

Emma never outed her husband even though she had cause to do so. The Whitmers, who were eye witness to the effort never renounced or denounced the process. Ockham's Razor (the simplest explanation is often the correct one) demands accepting the translation of the Book of Mormon by the power of God as fact. Nothing else is even plausible. Which is why critics twist themselves and their logic into pretzels to try and explain it away as something man-made. It can't be done.