KnoWhy #355 - What Can We Learn from 10 of the Best Chiasms in the Book of Mormon? - Part 3

1 Nephi 4:4–27, the narrative about retrieving the brass plates, is one of the most chiastic sections of Nephi’s writings. The point of the chiasm comes as Nephi realizes the need to have the plates for his posterity to keep the commandments.

All of 1 Nephi is an elaborate chiasm. Lehi’s and Nephi’s visions of the tree of life form “the central section of the book,” with Nephi’s encounter with the Spirt marking the very center.

Statistically, Alma 36 is the strongest example of chiasmus in the entire Book of Mormon. The chiastic structure “powerfully communicates Alma’s personal experience,” with “the central turning point of his conversion” coming “precisely when he called upon the name Jesus Christ.”