Retribution means “repayment.” The ultimate repayment is giving someone back what they gave you. This concept is expressed in the Old Testament law of “breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” The repetition of action implied in this law is expressed poetically in the way the law is written in Leviticus 24:13-23. The law itself is first given, and then repeated backwards, giving form to its “tit for tat” or “measure for measure” essence.

A And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying

B Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him

C And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel

D saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death,
and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land,
when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death

E And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death

F And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast

G And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him

H breach for breach [Hebrew “sheber”]

I eye for eye

H’ tooth for tooth [Hebrew “shen”]

G’ as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again

F’ And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it

E’ and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death

D’ Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God

C’ And Moses spake to the children of Israel

B’ that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did

A’ as the LORD commanded Moses

Notice that element D is itself a sort of chiasm, with the main point (the point repeated in D’) situated at its center. This pattern of chiasm within one branch of a chiasm also occurs in the Book of Mormon. See, for example, element E’ of the Peace Chiasm and element A of the Interpreters Chiasm.

Also notice that the very center of the chiasm,

eye

for

eye,

is itself a chiasm that, in one three-word phrase, represents the entire law in both meaning and form. In fact, the single word for at the very center is a one-word summary of the law, with its meaning of “instead of” or “in place of.”

Alma, in teaching his son about the principle of restoration (the broader principle encompassing retribution), seems to be aware of the Leviticus chiasm. He addresses similar concepts and sets his main points also in the form of a chiasm. But his Restoration Chiasm in Alma 41:12-15 reflects a higher law more characteristic of the New Testament (see Matthew 5:38-48).

A And now behold is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state or to place it in a state opposite to its nature O my son this is not the case But the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil or carnal for carnal or devilish for devilish

B good for that which is good

C righteous for that which is righteous

D just for that which is just

E merciful for that which is merciful

E’ Therefore my son see that ye are merciful unto your brethren

D’ Deal justly

C’ judge righteously

B’ and do good continually

A’ And if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward

E” Yea ye shall have mercy restored unto you again

D” ye shall have justice restored unto you again

C” ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again

B” and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again

A” For that which ye doth send out shall return unto you again and be restored Therefore the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner and justifieth him not at all

The center of his chiasm is not “eye for eye,” but “merciful for that which is merciful; therefore my son, see that ye are merciful unto your brethren.” The law in the Book of Mormon gives mercy, not justice, the prime spot at the chiasm’s center.

Seer Stone Definition: A stone used to see visions; a stone that elicits the faith or state of mind to see a vision.

Seer Definition: One who sees visions, especially of a spiritual nature.

The church recently released a picture of the seer stone Joseph Smith used to translate the Book of Mormon. Even though the stone had been discussed in church magazines before, many Mormons apparently find this “news” surprising or even it troubling. It needn’t be.

Some are troubled that an instrument reportedly used in the magical arts would be used by a prophet of God. But we will see that seer is an old biblical term for prophet, and ancient prophets likely used seer stones, perhaps before magicians did. In any case, the use of something by a magician certainly does not tie God’s hands and prohibit him from using something similar.

Although Joseph Smith used the Jaredite interpreters (also known as the “Urim and Thummim”) to translate some of the original 116 manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon, he used as single seer stone as well. According to Martin Harris, he used the single stone for convenience, perhaps because of its smaller size or because he didn’t have to worry about using it in the presence of others. Based on witness accounts, he most likely used the chocolate-colored stone in translating all of the Book of Mormon we have today. He also used this stone to receive some of the early revelations that are now found in the Doctrine and Covenants.

The Jaredite interpreters consisted of “two stones in silver bows . . . and use of these stones were what constituted ‘seers’ in ancient or former times” (Joseph Smith — History 1:35). In other words, the interpreters were themselves just two seer stones wired together! So why should we find it troubling for Joseph Smith to have used a single seer stone to translate, when it’s just fine that he used two seer stones? God can surely work through one stone as well as two.

A seer stone is the instrument of a seer. What is a seer? Seer (“see-er”) means, literally, “one who sees.” What a seer sees is visions (from the Latin viseo, “a thing seen”), as noted by Isaiah (Isaiah 31:10 NASB):

Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions.

Words for seer and visions in the Hebrew Bible are closely related to each other.

There is a close Biblical association between ancient prophets and seership, as noted in 1 Samuel 9:9 (NASB):

Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he used to say, “Come, and let us go to the seer”; for he who is called a prophet now was formerly called a seer.

Many prophets have had visions and thus would be considered seers. Some, like Lehi, even saw and read books in vision (1 Nephi 1:8-13). Some seem to have used stones to see their visions. Abraham apparently used the Biblical Urim and Thummim to see his great vision of creation as well as to receive an explanation of the vision from God (Abraham 3:1-4). We don’t know what the Biblical Urim and Thummim was or how it functioned, but several ancient traditions associate the instrument with light and stones. Cornelis Van Dam, arguably the foremost authority on the Urim and Thummim and author of The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel, believes that it most likely consisted of a single stone. Urim is a Hebrew word that suggests “light” or “fire.” In Urim and Thummim, it may be referring to the physical light as well as the spiritual enlightenment produced by revelatory visions. Prior to Abraham’s time, the brother of Jared may have used the interpreters (two seer stones) to see a vision, as his vision appeared immediately after he received the interpreter stones (Ether 3:22-28).

Seer stones have been traditionally used by common people to see visions as well, in what is known as “scrying” or “seeing.” By Joseph Smith’s time, however, such “folk magical” ways were falling out of favor with most people. Joseph Smith is reported to have used seer stones to see visions of lost and hidden objects. For example, Martin Harris told of how Joseph Smith, by looking into the darkness of a hat containing his seer stone, was able to see a lost pin. Joseph Smith, he said, “reached out his hand beyond me on the right, and moved a little stick and there I saw the pin, which he picked up and gave to me. I know he did not look out of the hat until after he had picked up the pin.”

According to witness accounts, Joseph Smith used a seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon in a manner similar to the way he used it to see visions of lost and hidden objects. The witness accounts generally agree that he would place a seer stone in a hat, pull the hat over his face to exclude the light, and then look into the darkness to see the English translation (as described, perhaps, in Alma 37:22), which he then dictated to his scribe. Other people were often present as Joseph Smith dictated the text for hours on end. The gold plates, if in the room at all, remained covered with a cloth. The most detailed description of the translation process was given by David Whitmer, a special witness to the Book of Mormon who claimed that Joseph Smith described the process to him and others:

I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated by Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.

David Whitmer’s description of the translation process as a vision (“a piece of parchment would appear…”) is consistent with the use of the interpreters as described by Ammon in the Book of Mormon. Ammon’s words suggest that the very use of the interpreters consists of being a seer, or, in other words, seeing visions (Mosiah 8:13):

And the things are called interpreters…. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.

In reality, all of these stones (the interpreters, the chocolate-colored seer stone, and even the Urim and Thummim) may have been just ordinary rocks or gemstones that nonetheless had special significance to those who used them. Jesus healed a blind man by anointing his eyes with clay (John 9). Similar methods of “folk magic” had been used by others before Jesus, but the clay wasn’t really magic at all. Its function was simply to encourage and focus the man’s faith so that he could be healed. Moses’s brass serpent didn’t magically heal anybody, but it provided a focal point for the faith of those who were humble enough to follow directions and look, and live (Alma 33:19-21). The Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:22) provided for communication with God, but surely God didn’t need it. It was for the benefit of the person who desired the divine communication. God works miracles when we have faith, or belief, that he can (see Moroni 7:37; Matthew 17:19-20). Objects and rituals can help elicit the required faith within us. We don’t use clay for such purposes in the church today, but we do make similar use of consecrated oil to anoint and heal the sick by the prayer of faith, as was done anciently (James 5:14, Mark 6:13). When someone is anointed with oil and healed, we don’t attribute the healing to the oil, as if it were magic, but rather to the faith of those involved and to the power of God. In fact, if oil is unavailable, we go ahead without it. It can be helpful, but it’s dispensable.

The stone may have served a similar function for Joseph Smith that the clay did for the blind man, that the brass serpent and Ark of the Covenant did for Israelites in ancient times, and that oil does for the sick who seek miraculous healing today–something of a meditative focal point. The translation of the Book of Mormon was a miraculous process, and could have only been accomplished by someone with unusual faith. Joseph Smith’s prior experiences of seeing visions with seer stones would have likely strengthened his faith that God could show him the translation of the Book of Mormon in the same way. Those prior visions may have been used (or even provided) by God to grow Joseph Smith’s faith so he would be able to see greater visions, including visions of the translated texts of ancient writings. Although his first experiences with seer stones were in a folk magic tradition, when it came to receiving the translation of the Book of Mormon and other revelations through the stone, Joseph Smith knew that it was “the gift and power of God,” not magic, that he was dealing with. Soon after finishing the translation of the Book of Mormon, according to David Whitmer, Joseph Smith gave his seer stone to Oliver Cowdery because he didn’t use it anymore. He had learned how to receive revelations (and perhaps see visions) without it. Having enough experience riding the bike, he no longer needed the training wheels. The stone had been helpful, but like oil for healing the sick, it was, in some measure at least, dispensable.

Joseph Smith’s later experience “translating” the Book of Abraham also suggests that, once he had enough experience with visions, he no longer needed the stone to see them. A Philadelphia periodical reported a conversation with Joseph Smith’s mother describing how he translated the Book of Abraham (Friends’ Weekly Intelligencer, 3 October 1846, 211):

She said, that when Joseph was reading the papyrus, he closed his eyes, and held a hat over his face, and that the revelation came to him; and where the papyrus was torn, he could read the parts that were destroyed equally as well as those that were there; and that scribes sat by him writing, as he expounded.

According to this report, Joseph Smith could see (read) and dictate the translated text of the Book of Abraham without a stone, but he still needed to block out the ambient light. This suggests that even when he used a stone while translating the Book of Mormon, the text he saw did not necessarily appear on the stone, or even in the stone, but was a vision that appeared before his eyes or in his mind’s eye, independent of the location of the stone.

It is certainly plausible that the chocolate-colored seer stone had special qualities that made it a useful tool for spiritual communication. But more likely, it was just an ordinary rock that, because of its meaning to Joseph Smith, helped inspire in him the faith he needed to see visions in a hat, just as a bit of ordinary clay or a figure formed of brass once helped others find the faith they needed to be healed. Like the brass serpent and Ark of the Covenant, the interpeters and chocolate-colored seer stone didn’t need to have any mechanical function, but only to inspire the faith to experience miracles.

Some wonder why Joseph Smith was given the gold plates in the first place, if he didn’t use them in translating. Perhaps they were given to him as evidence that there were ancient writings waiting to be revealed, and, like the stone, to inspire the faith he would need in order to see those writings in vision. The Egyptian papyri may have served a similar purpose for the revelation of the Book of Abraham.

After learning how Joseph Smith translated, some have been troubled and supposed that “the church” has been hiding the truth, since we have been taught in the past that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with the Urim and Thummim and gold plates, not with a stone in a hat. We are “the church.” We don’t have a professional clergy–we teach each other. Even the apostles learned most of their church history in Sunday school, from teachers who learned it the same way. Artists created paintings depicting the translation of the Book of Mormon based on their own limited understanding. Much of that understanding, it turns out, was incorrect. Part of the reason for the confusion was that Joseph Smith and other early Mormons used the term Urim and Thummim to refer to both the interpreters and to Joseph Smith’s other seer stones.  After a few generations, however, people came to assume that the term only referred to the interpreters. Because of this faulty assumption, they understood Joseph Smith’s statement that he translated the Book of Mormon with the “Urim and Thummim” to mean that he used only the interpreters. Meanwhile, the early witness account describing his use of a stone and hat were ignored or believed to be in error. Historians are still trying to sort out what happened, so it’s not surprising that artists and authors of Sunday school manuals got some of the facts wrong. We don’t believe in inerrancy of scripture or infallibility of prophets, much less inerrancy of paintings and infallibility of those tasked to write and approve the manuals.

Anyway, it’s pretty cool to see a picture of a real seer stone!

Looks a bit like a chocolate Easter egg.

Is there poetry in the Book of Mormon? I don’t mean verse, the kind of poetry that we usually think about. I mean poetry in the broad sense–artistic writing that follows a prescribed form.

The poetry of classical Hebrew wasn’t the style of poetry we are most familiar with–verse built on rhyme and rythm. It wasn’t based on repetition of sounds (rhyme) or stresses (rythm) but on repetition of meanings or of words or phrases with the same, similar, or contrasing meanings were arranged in a patter to produce a sort of rhyme or rhythm of meaning.

The ancient Hebrews had their own styles of poetry that they used in important writings such as scripture. But poetry doesn’t translate well between languages. Sometimes it gets hidden in translation. Other times, it just gets awkward or strange.

While reading some portions of the Book of Mormon, you might have wondered why everything has to be repeated two or more times. For example, the Book of Mormon prophet Alma apparently thought his son Helaman needed to hear everything twice (Alma 37:21, 1830 edition of Book of Mormon):

And now, I will speak unto you concerning those twenty-four plates, that ye keep them, that the mysteries and the works of darkness, and their secret works—or the secret works of those people who have been destroyed—may be made manifest unto this people—yea, all their murders and robbings, and their plunderings, and all their wickedness and abominations, may be made manifest unto this people—yea, and that ye preserve these directors.

Alma is trying to emphasize the sacred importance of the Jaredite records and the miraculous directors (called interpreters in later editions) used to translate them. He’s passing both of these treasures down to his son and wants to make it clear that they should be carefully preserved. But still, couldn’t he have kept it simple? Maybe like this:

And now, I will speak unto you about preserving these twenty-four plates and these interpreters, so the secret works and sins of those people who have been destroyed might be made known to our people.

If Joseph Smith or anyone else involved with the publication of the Book of Mormon knew why the language was so repetitive, they didn’t say. It wasn’t until 1967, nearly 140 years after the Book of Mormon was published, that a young missionary in Germany discovered the answer. Upon learning about chiasmus in the Bible, John Welch wondered if the Book of Mormon had examples as well. He looked, and was soon working on a groundbreaking paper on chiasms in the Book of Mormon, which he published in the 1969 issue of BYU Studies.

A chiasm is an inverted parallel structure formed when words or ideas are repeated twice, the second time in reverse order. Chiasmus was used as a poetic device by the ancient Hebrews and other Semitic peoples, and is common (though usually not obvious) in the Bible and Book of Mormon.

Genesis 9:6 (ESV) has a simple example of a chiasm:

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.

The chiastic structure of this sentence is even more obvious in the Hebrew, where every word in the first half of the sentence has a match in the second:

Chiasms are often more complex, encompassing entire paragraphs or even books.
So what about Alma’s repetitious instructions to his son mentioned at the beginning of this article. Could it be a chiasm as well?

You guessed it.

The outer layer brackets the chiasm with Alma’s objective: to convince Helaman to take good care of the records and instruments. The center of the chiasm gives a reason: that the secrets and sins of the extinct Jaredites might be made known to the Nephites.

It turns out that this chiasm is just the first element of a larger chiasm (Alma 37:21-26):

Notice that element A is much larger than element A’. Such imbalance isn’t generally considered a good thing in a chiasm. In this case, however, it appears intentional, since A is in the form of a chiasm, with its central theme (making things manifest unto the people) mirrored beautifully by the “made known unto us” in A’.

The first half of the chiasm tells of an ancient prophecy, and the second half describes its fulfillment. Very nice. But it gets even better! Remember the little Jehovah Easter egg that appeared at the center of the “Zedekiah” chiasm only in the Hebrew? There’s a similar Easter egg in this one.

But first, what does directors mean?

The directors (called interpreters in later editions of the Book of Mormon) were a pair of stones the Lord provided to the Book of Mormon peoples (and later to Joseph Smith) for the purpose of translating ancient records. According to a paper recently published by Stan Spencer in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, directors is likely an English translation of Urim. Urim is a short form of Urim and Thummim, the biblical instrument used by ancient Israel to receive God’s word. Directors is a reasonable English translation of urim based on ancient Greek translations of Urim in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek Old Testament) and on the fact that the principle use of the Urim and Thummim, according to the Bible, was for the directing of Israelite warfare. In any case, a few years after publishing the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith began referring to the interpreters (or directors) as Urim and Thummim, and Alma may have been doing the same here.

Although director describes the use of the Biblical Urim, the word urim itself is probably closely related to the Hebrew word orim, meaning “light(s),” or urim, meaning “fire(s).” In fact, since classical Hebrew writing didn’t include vowels, urim (the instrument), urim (fire), and orim (light), would have all been written the same way. It’s no wonder that, in the Septuagint’s Ezra and Nehemiah, Urim was translated into Greek by forms of photizo, which means “to shine” or “to give light.”

Just as in the case of the Zedekiah chiasm, the center of Alma’s directors chiasm doesn’t work particularly well in English. At the center of this chiasm, directors is parallel to a stone which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.  The problem is that there’s no obvious similarity between a “director” and a shining stone. But if directors is just the English translation of urim, which could be read as “to shine” or “light,” then it’s a near perfect match!

Next we’ll see an Easter egg in the form of hidden allusions.

Later in his instructions to Helaman, Alma calls another instrument a director. This time it’s the brass ball–a sort of compass that miraculously guided the first Nephites through the wilderness to their promised land. At times, writing would appear on the brass ball to give additional instructions from the Lord. In this way the brass ball was analogous to the Biblical Urim and Thummim, so urim would be a suitable label for this instrument as well. Since the Hebrew word urim could be either plural or singular (a “plural of respect” or “plural of excellence” as some call it), Alma could have used the same word for both instruments. Urim would have been translated into English as director for the brass ball and as directors for the interpreter stones.

Speaking of the brass ball, Alma says that the “director” that “did bring our fathers…to the promised land” is like “the word of Christ” that will “carry us beyond this vail of sorrow into a far better land of promise” (Alma 37:45).

And now I say: Is there not a type in this thing? For just assuredly as this director [=urim?] did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the word of Christ, if we follow its course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

If Alma is indeed using the Hebrew word urim here, it makes for some pretty interesting scriptural allusions. Remember that urim (an instrument), urim (fire), and orim (light) would have all appeared identical in classical Hebrew writing. To the reader of the Hebrew text, Alma could have been speaking of an instrument, a light, or a fire (or all three!). The reader would have to decide which was the case, based on the context.

In Alma’s writing, the “light” that “did bring” the fathers to their promised land would have been reminiscent of Old Testament passages that use similar imagery. Just as Alma compared the director (or urim) to the word of the Lord that guides us through a “vale” (valley) of sorrow, the Old Testament presents light as a metaphor for the word of the Lord that guides us along a path to higher ground. In Psalm 119:105, his “word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” and in Psalms 43:3, we read, “O send out thy light and thy truth: let then lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill.” (It is perhaps no coincidence that the phrase “thy light and thy truth” in Psalm 43 has been seen by some authors as a reference to the biblical Urim and Thummim.) Alma himself compares the word of the Lord to a light elsewhere (Alma 5:7; 32:35). Also, the Lord had told the first Nephites that he, as their “light in the wilderness,” “did bring” then out of Jerusalem and would, according to their obedience, prepare the way before them and lead them towards the promised land (1 Nephi 17:13-14).

Urim’s alternative meaning of “fire” would have created another appropriate biblical allusion in Alma’s text. The “fire” that “did bring our fathers . . . to the promised land” in Alma’s poem would have brought to the Hebrew mind the pillar of fire that directed the Israelite fathers to their promised land (Exodus 13:21).

By using the word urim, Alma would have been making a brilliant four-way analogy. In one sentence, he would have compared the brass ball (“director”) that guided the Nephites, to the fiery pillar that guided the Israelites, to a light that guides us along a path, to the word of Christ that guides us through life. Is it merely coincidental that the word director is an appropriate translation for urim, which in turn is a fitting label for the brass ball? You be the judge.

Complex poetic structures (chiasms), Hebrew plays on words, allusions unlocked by ancient connotations. Who would have thought these little Easter eggs would have been hidden in the book Mark Twain called “chloroform in print.” This is just a small sampling of what appears to be abundant classical Hebrew poetry in the Book of Mormon. The prophet Alma seems to have been especially inclined to write in poetic form. (There’s another Hebrew wordplay in Alma 37 involving Liahona and Jehovah, but I’ll leave that for another post.)

An Easter egg is a fun hidden feature or message. You get an Easter egg when you type DO A BARREL ROLL in the Google search box. There are Easter eggs hidden in the Book of Mormon, too. Who knew?

If you think the Google barrel roll is a good trick, wait until you see Mormon use a chiasm to transform a few years of Nephite history into the Book of Mormon’s Prescription for escaping the Pride Cycle and securing national peace and prosperity. Read this if you dare (Alma 62:39-52):

 And thus ended the thirty and first year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi; and thus they had had wars, and bloodsheds, and famine, and affliction, for the space of many years. And there had been murders, and contentions, and dissensions, and all manner of iniquity among the people of Nephi; nevertheless for the righteous’ sake, yea, because of the prayers of the righteous, they were spared. But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility. And it came to pass that after Moroni had fortified those parts of the land which were most exposed to the Lamanites, until they were sufficiently strong, he returned to the city of Zarahemla; and also Helaman returned to the place of his inheritance; and there was once more peace established among the people of Nephi. And Moroni yielded up the command of his armies into the hands of his son, whose name was Moronihah; and he retired to his own house that he might spend the remainder of his days in peace. And Pahoran did return to his judgment-seat; and Helaman did take upon him again to preach unto the people the word of God; for because of so many wars and contentions it had become expedient that a regulation should be made again in the church. Therefore, Helaman and his brethren went forth, and did declare the word of God with much power unto the convincing of many people of their wickedness, which did cause them to repent of their sins and to be baptized unto the Lord their God. And it came to pass that they did establish again the church of God, throughout all the land. Yea, and regulations were made concerning the law. And their judges, and their chief judges were chosen. And the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land, and began to multiply and to wax exceedingly strong again in the land. And they began to grow exceedingly rich. But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him. Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land. And it came to pass that all these things were done. And Helaman died, in the thirty and fifth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi.

It’s a nice story, isn’t it? Did you catch the six points Mormon is trying to make? If not, try reading it as a chiasm. A chiasm is a form of poetry in which a sequence of words or ideas is repeated in reverse order. Jesus gives both a definition and an example of a chiasm in Matthew 19:30:

But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

This small chiasm is in the form ABCCBA. Chiasms are often more complex, encompassing entire paragraphs or even books. Mormon’s account of the Nephites’ transition to peace appears to have been written as a large chiasm. (Notice that element E’ is itself a chiasm.)

A And thus ended the thirty and first year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi;

B and thus they had had wars, and bloodsheds, and famine, and affliction, for the space of many years. And there had been murders, and contentions, and dissensions, and all manner of iniquity among the people of Nephi;

C nevertheless for the righteous’ sake, yea, because of the prayers of the righteous, they were spared.

D But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.

E And it came to pass that after Moroni had fortified those parts of the land which were most exposed to the Lamanites, until they were sufficiently strong, he returned to the city of Zarahemla; and also Helaman returned to the place of his inheritance; and there was once more peace established among the people of Nephi.

F And Moroni yielded up the command of his armies into the hands of his son, whose name was Moronihah; and he retired to his own house that he might spend the remainder of his days in peace. And Pahoran did return to his judgment-seat; and Helaman did take upon him again to preach unto the people the word of God;

G for because of so many wars and contentions it had become expedient that a regulation should be made again in the church.

H Therefore, Helaman and his brethren went forth, and did declare the word of God with much power unto the convincing of many people of their wickedness, which did cause them to repent of their sins and to be baptized unto the Lord their God.

H’ And it came to pass that they did establish again the church of God, throughout all the land.

G’ Yea, and regulations were made concerning the law.

F’ And their judges, and their chief judges were chosen.

E’ And the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land, and began to multiply and to wax exceedingly strong again in the land. And they began to grow exceedingly rich. But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity,

D’ they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him. Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies.

C’ And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually,

B’ insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land.

A’ And it came to pass that all these things were done. And Helaman died, in the thirty and fifth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi.

With this chiasm, Mormon takes a few years of Nephite history and turns them into a 6-step prescription for establishing and preserving national peace and prosperity. The two dates in level A frame the chiasm. Level B contrasts the horrors of war and wickedness with the blessings of peace and prosperity. The remainder of the chiasm tells how to obtain and preserve the aforementioned peace and prosperity:

1. Prayer. Pray to end war (C) and to preserve peace (C’).
2. Humility. Be humble during hard times (D) as well as during times of prosperity (D’)
3. Strength and Security. Base national strength and security on military defensive fortification (E) and economic growth (E’).
4. Civilian Rule. Restore (F) and staff (F’) civil government.
5. Rule of Law. Base the government of both church (G) and nation (G’) on uniform law and regulation.
6. Righteousness. Establish righteousness by religious preaching (H) and institutions (H’).

Although it is last in the list above, righteousness is at the center of the chiasm, suggesting that Mormon considers it to be especially important. All of these principles could have been teased out of the text even if it were not in chiastic form. What the chiasm does, however, is highlight these 6 points in a classical Hebrew manner. Who would have guessed that just below the surface of Nephite war history you could find a Hebrew-style peace essay?

An Easter egg is a fun hidden feature or message. You get an Easter egg when you type DO A BARREL ROLL in the Google search box. There are Easter eggs hidden in the Book of Mormon, too. Who knew?

In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma writes a Hebrew style poem centered around the “interpreters,” which were a pair of stones provided by God to Book of Mormon prophets for the purpose of translating ancient records. A recent paper in the journal Interpreter (no joke) provides evidence that Alma’s poem was originally written in Hebrew, and that he composed it using the Hebrew word urim where the English version has interpreters. If this is indeed the case, it highlights a couple of interesting Easter eggs in Alma’s poem.

Urim is short for Urim and Thummim, the name of the instrument used by the ancient Israelites to receive God’s word. A few years after the Book of Mormon was published, Joseph Smith began referring to the interpreters (and his other seer stones) as Urim and Thummim, apparently considering Urim and Thummim to be a class of revelatory instruments. Alma may have similarly considered it appropriate to refer to the interpreters as urim.

The English Bible tells us very little about the Urim and Thummim. It doesn’t tell us what the instrument was made of, what it looked like, or how it functioned. It doesn’t tell us what urim means, either, and the origin of the word is a subject of intense debate. The ancient translations of this word in the Septuagint (ancient Greek Bible used by Jesus) suggest that its principal connotations were “manifestation” and “light.” These same connotations are also reflected in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Aramaic Bible) rendering of Exodus 28:30:

And you shall put into the breastplate the Urim, which illuminate their words and make manifest the hidden things of the House of Israel.

We’ll see how Alma creatively integrates the connotations of manifestation and light into his intepreters poem.

Alma’s poem tells of an ancient prophecy and of it’s fulfillment, and of a nation that was destroyed because of its dark deeds. Alma uses repetition as a poetic device to establish the theme of manifesting, or revealing, what is hidden. In Alma’s poem (Alma 37:21–26) below, the words and phrases shown in bold all express the idea of manifestation.

And now, I will speak unto you concerning those twenty-four plates, that ye keep them, that the mysteries and the works of darkness, and their secret works—or the secret works of those people who have been destroyed—may be made manifest unto this people—yea, all their murders and robbings, and their plunderings, and all their wickedness and abominations, may be made manifest unto this people—yea, and that ye preserve these directors. For behold, the Lord saw that his people began to work in darkness; yea, work secret murders and abominations; therefore the Lord said, if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth. And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem a stone which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations. And now, my son, these interpreters [urim?] were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying: I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works and their abominations; and except they repent I will destroy them from off the face of the earth; and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land. And now, my son, we see that they did not repent; therefore they have been destroyed, and thus far the word of God hath been fulfilled; yea, their secret abominations have been brought out of darkness and made known unto us.

While the subject of this poem is the importance of the interpreters, the theme is clearly manifestation (the idea of manifestation is repeated nine times in the five sentences), fitting very nicely with one of the principal connotations of urim!

Alma incorporates the other principal connotation of urim–“light”–into his poem in a fascinating way. First, notice that the “interpreters” that “were prepared” are the fulfillment of a prophecy that the Lord would “prepare…a stone which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.” As the fulfillment of the prophecy, the interpreters must be light-emitting stones, at least metaphorically. Incidentally, Cornelis Van Dam, arguably the foremost expert on the Urim and Thummim, believes urim to have been the verifying light that emitted from what was probably a single stone (The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel, p. 230).

Alma does even more with the connotation of light. Just as he uses repetition of an idea to establish the theme of manifestation, he uses repetition of words and ideas to establish a dark mood. Then out of that dark mood, he shines a light as if from the interpreters (or urim).

The dark mood becomes starkly evident in the text of the poem when all neutral words are removed. The sequence of words below represents Alma chapter 37 up to and including the interpreters poem. It consists of all nouns (except proper nouns) and adjectives that have connotations of physical or metaphysical light or darkness. The positive/light words are in capital letters and negative/dark words are in bold. The interpreters poem is underlined:

SACRED WISE HOLY SCRIPTURES mysteries BRIGHTNESS BRIGHTNESS HOLY foolishness WISE WISE SALVATION WISDOM error KNOWEDGE SALVATION incorrect REPENTANCE KNOWLEDGE REDEEMER stiffnecked sin iniquities KNOWLEDGE REDEEMER mysteries WISDOM SACRED SACRED SACRED chaff SACRED hell DILIGENT DILIGENT mysteries darkness secret secret murders robbings plunderings wickedness abominations darkness secret murders abominations destroyed darkness LIGHT secret darkness wickedness abominations darkness LIGHT secret abominations LIGHT secrets abominations destroyed secret abominations darkness.

Notice that words with positive connotations prevail until the interpreters poem begins, then it’s almost uniform darkness to the end of the poem. The only words that break the darkness are three instances of LIGHT. The effect of this contrasting mood is that the interpreters (or urim) appear even brighter as they “shine forth in darkness unto light.” Brilliant!

To the average reader of the English text, Alma’s poem may seem repetitive and  depressing, but the “enlightened” reader who knows the ancient connotations of urim can appreciate the Easter eggs Alma has hidden between the lines.

An Easter egg is a fun hidden feature or message. You get an Easter egg when you type DO A BARREL ROLL in the Google search box. Would you believe that there are Easter eggs in the Book of Mormon, too?

Moroni’s writing in Ether 12:23-25 predicts that unbelievers will mock the Book of Mormon because of the awkward writing.

And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them; And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. 

And maybe they mock with good reason! To the naive reader, the passage above seems to be a jumbled mass of stumbling, redundant sentences. But it is not. The naive reader has been fooled. The above passage is actually a finely structured chiasm. Chiasmus is a form of poetry used by classical Hebrew writers in which a sequence of words or ideas is repeated in reverse order. Jesus gives both a definition and an example of a chiasm in Matthew 19:30:

But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Even the biblical chiasms that are easy to see in English would have been even more apparent in the original Hebrew. Here’s a chiasm from Genesis 9:6 [ESV]:

Who sheds the blood of a man, by a man shall his blood be shed.

In Hebrew this sentence has exactly six words, arranged in the form ABCCBA:

Moroni’s large chiasm is in the form ABCDEEDCBA. It may look like a mess in English, but as Hebrew poetry, it’s a work of art.

A And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things,

B because of our weakness in writing;

C for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith,

D but thou hast not made us mighty in writing

E thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;

E’ And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands.

D’ Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.

C’ Thou hast also made our words powerful and great,

B’ even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words;

A’ and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words.

The Lord responds with, “Fools mock, but they shall mourn.”

The center of the chiasm summarizes the prophets’ frustration: their inability to effectively express their inspired words in writing. Moroni had previously referred to his awkwardness in writing in Mormon 9:33:

And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.

This scripture suggests that the awkwardness (or imperfection) of writing in the Book of Mormon is at least partially due to the difficulty of converting the thoughts (and writing style?) of the authors from Hebrew into other languages. In fact, the classic Hebrew poetic structure of Moroni’s writing suggests that it was originally composed in Hebrew or another Semitic language. By putting this text in the form of a chiasm, Moroni is demonstrating his skill in Hebrew poetry, although the English version seems awkward because of the repeated words and phrases.

By pointing out Moroni’s skillfully written poetry, we show mockers that what they thought was weakness is in fact strength. And thus, Moroni’s weakness in writing has “become strong,” poetically mocking those “fools” who mock it. This little Easter egg suggests Book of Mormon prophets may have had a sense of humor.

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