When Are Chiasms Admissible as Evidence?

Title

When Are Chiasms Admissible as Evidence?

Publication Type

Journal Article

Year of Publication

2010

Authors

Secondary Authors

Pagination

131-154

Volume

49 Issue

4 Terms of use

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Bibliographic Citation

Abstract

Since John Welch's discovery of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon in 1967, many critics have attempted to show how chiasmus appears in just about every type of literature, from Dr. Seuss to Strangite scripture. This article discusses the authors' statistical admissibility tests to verify whether a chiasmus in a work shows strong evidence of intentionality by the original author. Their results indicate that certain passages in the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon show deliberate chiasmus, while Strangite scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants, nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss, and other works are not intentionally chiastic.

Strangite

Parallelism

Chiasmus

Structure

Hebraism

Evidence

Chiasm

When Are Chiasms Admissible as Evidence?

Title