KnoWhy #334 - How Much Could Joseph Smith Have Known about Chiasmus in 1829? (1 Nephi 3:19)

Many people have seen the distinctive and repeated use of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon as evidence that it was written by multiple ancient authors trained in the Hebrew literary tradition. Others, however, have wondered if Joseph Smith might have learned about chiasmus from information available in his day. While several European scholars had published research on chiasmus in the Bible, only a brief summary of a single publication was printed in America before the Book of Mormon was translated. The scarcity of such research—combined with the complexity of the Book of Mormon, the large quantity of its chiasms, and the circumstances of its translation—makes it difficult to imagine that Joseph Smith created these chiasms on his own.