πͺΆπ₯ CHIASMS — THE SACRED PATTERN HIDDEN IN SCRIPTURE
πͺΆπ₯ CHIASMS — THE SACRED PATTERN HIDDEN IN SCRIPTURE
There’s something that absolutely rocked my world years ago.
Not archaeology.
Not Hebrew.
Not debates.
A pattern.
A sacred literary pattern called a chiasm.
And once you see it…
you can’t unsee it.
πͺΆ WHAT IS A CHIASM?
A chiasm is an ancient way of writing where ideas mirror each other.
Like this:
A
B
C
✨ CENTER ✨
C’
B’
A’
The beginning mirrors the end.
The next section mirrors the next section.
And the MOST important truth sits right in the middle.
Almost like the writer is leading you inward…
toward the heart of the message.
“The Sacred Pattern”
Ancient sacred writers often placed the holiest truth in the center when under the influence of the Holy Ghost. All things point to Christ.
πͺΆ CHIASMS ARE ALL THROUGH THE BIBLE
Most people have no idea how common this pattern is in scripture.
Especially in:
- Psalms
- Isaiah
- Genesis
- Matthew
- John
- Revelation
Ancient writers loved sacred symmetry.
Not because they were trying to sound fancy…
but because the structure itself TEACHES.
It slows you down.
It pulls your attention inward.
It points you toward the center.
Toward Christ.
πͺΆ ONE SIMPLE EXAMPLE — PSALM 23
Most Christians know Psalm 23:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
But many scholars believe Psalm 23 itself is arranged chiastically.
It moves:
- from provision
- to guidance
- to suffering
- to protection
- and finally to dwelling with God.
The whole Psalm folds inward around trust in the Shepherd.
“Psalm 23 Chiasm”
The Psalm moves from care… into trial… and finally into rest with the Shepherd.
πͺΆ THEN CAME THE BOOK OF MORMON…
This is where things got serious for me.
Because Alma 36 is not just “sort of” chiastic.
It is one of the clearest and most astonishing examples of chiasmus ever discovered in sacred writing.
And the deeper I studied it…
the more it affected me spiritually.
Not academically.
Spiritually.
Because the entire chapter collapses inward toward ONE central moment.
One cry.
One name.
Jesus Christ.
πͺΆ ALMA 36 — THE CENTER OF THE WHOLE THING
The structure descends:
- rebellion
- fear
- torment
- guilt
- despair
Then suddenly…
the turning point:
“I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ…”
Then:
“O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.”
That’s the center.
That’s the pivot.
That’s the turning point of the entire chapter.
And honestly…
that became a turning point in MY life too.
“Alma 36 — Remembering Jesus Christ”
Everything in Alma 36 turns on remembering Jesus Christ.
_______________________________________________________
πͺΆ THEN I FOUND SOMETHING REMARKABLE IN THE NEMENHAH RECORDS
As I continued studying the Nemenhah Sacred Records, I discovered that they are filled with chiasms and other beautiful mirrored patterns.
One of the most remarkable examples appears near the end of Volume 2 in:
The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts
This is not merely a pattern that I noticed on my own.
The translators specifically identify the Lamentation as “a remarkable example of the use of Chiasmic Verse.”
The pattern stretches across thirty-five chapters, with smaller chiasms nested inside the larger structure.
And at the center of the entire lamentation is one glorious truth:
The Love of the Creator
The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts
This example is different.
I do not have to speculate about whether the translators recognized a chiasm.
The record itself contains this translator’s note:
“This author has left us with a remarkable example of the use of Chiasmic Verse.”
The translators add that the English translation may not allow the chiasm to operate with complete mathematical precision.
That is an honest and important qualification.
But the pattern is unmistakable.
πͺΆ A WOMAN PROPHET’S FINAL LAMENTATION
Mehnipahsihts was a woman prophet and Tiwehkthihmpt among the Nemenhah.
As disease, upheaval, and destruction overtook her people, she sang a great lamentation.
Her daughter, Maynehminispah, remained behind to care for her and preserve her words.
Maynehminispah engraved the lamentation upon thin plates made from a stone identified in the translator’s note as crystal mica.
She testified of her mother:
“Mehnipahsihts is a Prophet of the Creator and speaks as the Haymehnay directs.”
—The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 1:5
What follows is not a small chiasm hidden inside a handful of verses.
It is an enormous sacred composition extending through thirty-five chapters, followed by a concluding account in Chapter 36.
And it contains smaller seven-part patterns within the larger structure.
πͺΆ THE FIRST MOVEMENT—DESTRUCTION
The first seven chapters form a clear mirrored pattern:
A — Chapter 1: Men Seek for Gain
B — Chapter 2: We Consume the Good of the Earth
C — Chapter 3: We Injure One Another
D — Chapter 4: The Earth Is Consumed
C′ — Chapter 5: We Injure One Another
B′ — Chapter 6: We Consume the Good of the Earth
A′ — Chapter 7: Men Seek for Gain
Look at that structure.
The pursuit of gain leads to consuming the earth.
Consuming the earth leads to injury.
And at the center:
The Earth Is Consumed
The pattern then moves outward again through injury, consumption, and gain.
Humanity’s outward hunger for wealth eventually consumes the very foundation upon which human life depends.
πͺΆ THE SECOND MOVEMENT—DOMINION AND JUDGMENT
The next seven chapters form another mirrored pattern:
A — Chapter 8: We Dominate Other People
B — Chapter 9: We Dominate the Earth
C — Chapter 10: We Judge Each Other
D — Chapter 11: The Love of Men
C′ — Chapter 12: We Judge One Another
B′ — Chapter 13: We Dominate the Earth
A′ — Chapter 14: We Dominate Other People
This movement traces the spirit of Babylon:
- seeking human approval
- judging one another
- exercising dominion over the earth
- exercising dominion over other people
At its center is the love of men—the desire to be praised, approved, measured, and elevated in the eyes of others.
That desire spreads outward until it affects families, communities, governments, and humanity’s relationship with the earth.
πͺΆ THE CENTER OF THE ENTIRE LAMENTATION
Then comes the central seven-chapter movement:
A — Chapter 15: The Creator Loves All His Children
B — Chapter 16: The Creator Loves All Creation
C — Chapter 17: The Creator Esteems All Equally
✨ CENTER—Chapter 18: The Love of the Creator ✨
C′ — Chapter 19: The Creator Esteems All Equally
B′ — Chapter 20: The Creator Loves All His Creation
A′ — Chapter 21: The Creator Loves All His Children
There it is.
At the heart of this enormous lamentation is not destruction.
Not disease.
Not judgment.
Not human failure.
Not even sorrow.
At the center is:
THE LOVE OF THE CREATOR
The entire record descends through greed, consumption, injury, domination, and judgment.
But at the very center, we encounter a God who loves all His children, loves His entire creation, and esteems all equally.
The heart of the lamentation is love.
πͺΆ THE LOVE THAT DOES NOT FAIL
Mehnipahsihts teaches that human beings often love conditionally.
We may love people because they agree with us.
We may value them because they serve our interests.
We may admire them because they possess something we desire.
But the Creator’s love is not measured that way.
The Creator does not love merely according to wealth, station, race, authority, usefulness, or outward appearance.
He loves all His children.
He loves His creation.
He esteems all equally.
Human judgment divides.
The Creator’s love gathers.
Human pride establishes ranks.
The Creator’s love restores the family.
Humanity turns creation into property.
The Creator beholds a living creation worthy of care.
That is the sacred center.
πͺΆ THE FOURTH MOVEMENT—THE WAY OF PEACE
From the center of the Creator’s love, the poem begins moving toward the remedy:
A — Chapter 22: Love Your Neighbor
B — Chapter 23: Steward the Earth
C — Chapter 24: Have All Things in Common
D — Chapter 25: This Is Peace
B′ — Chapter 26: Steward the Earth
C′ — Chapter 27: Have All Things in Common
A′ — Chapter 28: Love Your Neighbor
This portion does not preserve perfect mathematical reversal in its English chapter headings. The positions of stewardship and having all things in common do not reverse exactly.
That may be one reason the translators warned that the translation does not preserve every part of the chiasm with mathematical precision.
But the sacred movement remains clear:
- love your neighbor
- care for the earth
- share your abundance
- establish peace
- share your abundance
- care for the earth
- love your neighbor
And at the center of this movement:
THIS IS PEACE
Peace is not merely the absence of fighting.
Peace grows when we love our neighbors, care for creation, and refuse to allow poverty and unnecessary suffering among us.
This is Tsiahn.
This is Enduring Peace.
πͺΆ THE FIFTH MOVEMENT—HEALING
The final seven-chapter movement reveals the way back:
A — Chapter 29: Be Satisfied with Sufficient
B — Chapter 30: Give Back to the Earth
C — Chapter 31: Relieve Suffering
D — Chapter 32: Renewing of the Earth
C′ — Chapter 33: Relieve Suffering
B′ — Chapter 34: Give Back to the Earth
A′ — Chapter 35: Be Satisfied with Sufficient
The opening movement showed the earth being consumed.
The final movement shows the earth being renewed.
Greed is answered by being satisfied with sufficient.
Consumption is answered by giving back.
Injury is answered by relieving suffering.
Desolation is answered by renewal.
The pattern does not merely diagnose Babylon.
It reveals the way out.
πͺΆ THE WHOLE MOVEMENT
Look at the complete spiritual journey:
The descent:
- seeking gain
- consuming the earth
- injuring one another
- dominating people
- dominating creation
- judging one another
- seeking the approval of men
The center:
The Love of the Creator
The return:
- loving our neighbor
- stewarding the earth
- having all things in common
- establishing peace
- becoming satisfied with sufficient
- giving back to the earth
- relieving suffering
- renewing creation
This is more than clever poetry.
The structure itself teaches repentance.
It shows us what humanity has become—and what the Creator is inviting us to become.
πͺΆ CHAPTER 36—THE DAUGHTER PRESERVES THE WITNESS
Chapter 36 stands outside the thirty-five-chapter poetic structure as its conclusion.
Maynehminispah tells us that this was the lamentation of her mother before Mehnipahsihts died.
The daughter then preserves her mother’s witness.
That detail touches me.
A woman prophet sings as her people collapse around her.
Her daughter remains beside her.
She hears the lamentation.
She takes up the stylus.
She engraves her mother’s words.
And those words survive.
The voice of a dying woman becomes a warning to generations she would never meet.
πͺΆ ALMA AND MEHNIPAHSIHTS
Alma 36 and the Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts are very different records.
But look at what each places at its center.
Alma’s descent through guilt and torment turns when he remembers:
Jesus Christ
Mehnipahsihts’s descent through greed, destruction, dominion, and sorrow turns upon:
The Love of the Creator
One centers on the name of the Savior.
The other centers on the Creator’s love.
Perhaps those are not two different centers after all.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…”
—John 3:16
The love of the Creator is revealed through Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ brings us back into the love of the Creator.
πͺΆ WHY THIS MATTERS TO ME
I am not saying that finding chiasmus automatically proves that a record is scripture.
A literary pattern alone cannot replace prayer, study, revelation, or the confirmation of the Holy Ghost.
But it does make me stop.
It makes me look again.
It causes me to ask:
Why was this message arranged this way?
Why does the poem descend through humanity’s failures?
Why does it place the Creator’s love in the center?
Why does it then lead us outward through service, stewardship, equality, sufficiency, and healing?
The pattern itself invites us to walk the message.
πͺΆ MAYBE THAT IS THE REAL LESSON
Life moves outward.
We wander.
We accumulate.
We compare.
We compete.
We judge.
We injure.
We sometimes treat people and the earth as things to be used.
Then, somewhere deep in the middle, we encounter the love of the Creator.
And if we receive that love, everything begins to turn.
Greed becomes sufficiency.
Consumption becomes stewardship.
Injury becomes healing.
Dominion becomes service.
Judgment becomes equality.
Isolation becomes community.
Babylon begins giving way to Tsiahn.
Perhaps that is what a sacred chiasm can teach us.
We do not merely study our way into the center.
We meet Christ there.
And then He leads us back out—changed.
π SIMILAR POSTS TO READ NEXT:
The Endowment as a Walk, Not Only a Ceremony — Sacred patterns as living journeys back into the presence of God.
The Medicine Wheel—Walking With Jesus in Real Life — How sacred circular patterns teach balance, remembrance, and Christ-centered living.
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