Assessing the Broad Impact of Jack Welch’s Discovery of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon

The attitude held by certain sectors of the anti-Mormon crowd has changed over the years, even to the point where some no longer deny the literary merit and beauty of the Book of Mormon. Although an assessment of the impact of Jack Welch’s work and writing on chiasmus may be premature, it is clear that his work on the subject incited the expansion of other literary analyses of the Book of Mormon and encouraged the publication of their results. Welch’s work influenced studies and analyses on chiasmus in Classic Mayan texts, and his publications have contributed much to the discipline of chiastic analyses.