I have a deep faith in Jesus Christ my Savior. I am an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

These articles and studies are a byproduct of my study of the gospel, but actually have very little to do with the core reasons for my faith. They are just interesting ponderings. I share them in hopes that they may be of interest to you, and in hopes that you share with me any of your own thoughts as you read them.

Two of these articles deal with a literary structure known as chiasmus. For background, I suggest you look at Jeff Lindsay’s excellent introduction to chiasmus on his website.

Ted Meikle
 

Out of the Darkness: The Chiastic Structure of Christ’s Introduction in 3 Nephi 9:13-22

The Book of Mormon records that, after Jesus’s death in Jerusalem, the Nephites and Lamanites suffered three days of darkness and destruction in the New World. A voice then penetrated the darkness and Jesus Christ introduced himself to the Nephite and Lamanite survivors. At this central moment, Christ spoke chiastically.

This article is a modified extract from the longer article entitled “Alma’s 400-Year Prophecy, Alma’s Conversion Account and Mormon’s 400-Year History: Shadows and Chiasmus.”

Alma’s 400-Year Prophecy, Alma’s Conversion Account and Mormon’s 400-Year History:
Shadows and Chiasmus

Near the end of the ministry of Alma the Younger, he shared with his son Helaman his personal conversion experience,  masterfully using the literary form of chiasmus (Alma 36).

That same year Alma shared with Helaman a prophecy that until then he had been unable to tell anyone: 400 years after Christ, the Nephites would dwindle in unbelief and become extinct.

Mormon, the great Nephite historian who led the Nephite people in their waning years as the 400-year prophecy neared fulfillment, seems to have recognized the parallel between Alma’s conversion account and the history Mormon was writing. His history tracks in a remarkable way important elements of Alma’s conversion account. Most remarkably, at that crucial point in the history where the Nephites and Lamanites hear Christ’s voice pierce the three-day darkness, at a point that parallels the chiastic center of Alma’s personal conversion account, Christ speaks to his people chiastically.

Genesis, Moses and Abraham Accounts in Parallel Columns

As Latter-day Saints, we are blessed not only with the account in Genesis of the creation, but accounts in the books of Moses and Abraham. Similar parallel accounts shed further light on Cain and Abel, on Enoch and on Noah. This link presents these accounts in parallel columns so they can be studied in harmony.