Amoebaeon: Like Paragraph Endings

Amoebaeon contains "a recurring identical phrase or sentence found at intervals, always at the end . . . of successive paragraphs." "Cycloides may occur at the beginning, or middle, or any part of [a passage,] but amoebaeon only at the end." Hebrew prophets, wanting to reinforce their message to their students, often punctuated the very end of the message with identical or nearly identical phrases. Amoebaeon is often difficult to distinguish from epistrophe, because the Hebrews did not define sentences or paragraphs the way we do today. Amoebaeon is found in narrative writings, often indicated by the phrase and it came to pass, while epistrophe applies to poetry, which may be divided into lines, or strophes. It is difficult to determine how Hebrew strophes and narrative sections should be identified and arranged.

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An extract from Hugh W. Pinnock, Finding Biblical Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999), 38-39.

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