Chiasms

• Michael De Groote, "How missionary found Book of Mormon secret", MormonTimes.com

An account of how Chiasms were first recognized in the Book of Mormon.

A chiasm is a textual structure common in Hebrew texts. The main idea is that elements of a text are reflected in the reverse order in the latter half of the text. These structures can easily involve wordplay and other embedded structures.

Chiasm is often pluralized as "chiasmus", though I prefer "chiasms".

• To emphasize a point, typically the center of the chiasm.
• For style, anesthetic
• To make the text more memorable
• To give a passage a sense of closure.
• To safeguard the integrity of the text.

Simple:
Mark 2:27 (Jesus speaking about the Sabbath)

• A The Sabbath was made
• B for man,
• B' not man
• A' for the Sabbath.

It can be really easy to fall into the trap that a rigid use of specific words is required in order for a chiasm to be valid. Chiasms, however, are poetry, and we cannot reasonably expect a poet to eschew getting a little creative.

A little creative:
Matthew 6:24 (Serving two masters)

• ​A No one can serve two masters;
• B for either he will hate the one
• C and love the other,
• C' or he will be devoted to the one
• B' and despise the other.
• A' You cannot serve God and mammon.

Here we see closely related ideas being mirrored; even "two masters" being mirrored by "God and mammon".

Opposites are also often used as counterpoints.

Opposites:
Psalm 30:5 — Sorrow and Joy

• A Weeping may stay for the night,
• B' but joy comes with the morning.

This is often especially true for actions (eg. stay vs. come above; the floods came up vs. the waters receded; they went in vs. they came out)