What Is at the Center of Scripture? 📖 Discovery 19
📖 Discovery 19
What Is at the Center of Scripture?
How Chiasmus Keeps Pointing Us Back to Jesus Christ
Come and See
❓ The Question
Years ago, I did something simple with my Book of Mormon.
I marked passages about:
Jesus Christ,
His Atonement,
His sacrifice,
His mercy,
and His power to redeem.
About a year later, I returned to the Book of Mormon and began studying chiasmus—an ancient form of writing in which ideas move inward toward a central point and then return outward in reverse order.
That was when I noticed something that deeply affected me.
Again and again, many of the chiasms I studied placed their most important message near the center.
And so often, that center drew my eyes back to:
Jesus Christ.
Later, when I began studying the Nemenhah Sacred Records, I found chiasmic writing there as well.
Once again, the structure was not merely showing literary skill.
It was teaching where to look.
Look toward the center.
And at the center, I repeatedly found the Savior, the love of God, repentance, forgiveness, and the way to build Zion.
🔁 What Is Chiasmus?
Chiasmus is a mirror-like form of writing.
A simple chiasm might look like this:
A — A people fall away
B — They suffer because of sin
C — They remember God
D — They cry unto Jesus Christ
Cʹ — God remembers them
Bʹ — Their suffering is removed
Aʹ — They return to righteousness
The opening and closing ideas correspond.
The second and next-to-last ideas correspond.
The pattern moves inward until it reaches a turning point.
That center often contains the heart of the message.
Chiasmus alone does not prove the origin or age of a record. Patterns can sometimes be perceived where none were consciously intended.
But when the structure is clear, repeated, and meaningful, it can help readers recognize what the writer wanted them to remember.
The question is not merely:
“Is there a chiasm?”
The better question is:
“What did the writer place at its center?”
📖 The Book of Mormon Witness
The Book of Mormon plainly declares its central purpose:
“We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ.”
— 2 Nephi 25:26
The record does not hide its focus.
It points to Jesus Christ.
Several important Book of Mormon structures reinforce that purpose.
1. Alma 36 — Jesus Christ at the Turning Point
One of the best-known examples of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon is Alma’s account of his conversion.
Alma begins by describing rebellion, bondage, fear, and suffering.
The account moves inward until he remembers his father’s teachings about Jesus Christ.
At the turning point, Alma cries:
“O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.”
— Alma 36:18
Then the direction reverses.
His torment is replaced by peace.
His darkness is replaced by light.
His guilt is replaced by joy.
His rebellion becomes a life devoted to bringing others to Christ.
A simplified outline looks like this:
A — Alma calls his son to remember
B — God delivered their fathers from bondage
C — Alma rebelled against God
D — He was struck down and suffered
E — He remembered the coming of Jesus Christ
CENTER — “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me”
Eʹ — He received forgiveness through Christ
Dʹ — His pain was replaced with joy
Cʹ — He arose and became a witness
Bʹ — God continued to deliver him
Aʹ — Alma calls his son to remember
The center is not Alma’s intelligence.
It is not a priesthood office.
It is not an institution.
The turning point is a desperate soul calling directly upon:
Jesus Christ.
Why It Matters
Alma’s life changes when Christ enters the center of his story.
That may also be the message for us.
Our lives may remain disordered until Jesus Christ becomes more than a subject we study—until He becomes the One upon whom we personally call.
2. The Book of Mormon’s Larger Movement Toward Christ
When we step back and look at the whole Book of Mormon, another possible mirror-like pattern appears.
I would not claim that this broad outline is mathematically exact or prove that every editor deliberately constructed one single book-length chiasm.
But the narrative clearly moves toward its greatest event:
The appearance of the resurrected Jesus Christ.
A simplified pattern can be seen:
A — Lehi’s family leaves a collapsing civilization
B — Nephite and Lamanite peoples divide
C — Prophets call the people to repent
D — Pride, war, and destruction increase
CENTER — Jesus Christ appears and declares His doctrine
Dʹ — The people abandon contention and war
Cʹ — They live the teachings of Christ
Bʹ — They become one people and no longer divide themselves
Aʹ — After rejecting Christ’s way, their civilization collapses again
At the center stands Christ’s declaration:
“Behold, I am Jesus Christ.”
— 3 Nephi 11:10
He then teaches His doctrine and warns against contention:
“He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me.”
— 3 Nephi 11:29
The story before His appearance shows humanity struggling without fully living His way.
The story after His appearance shows what happens when a people receive Him—and what happens when later generations turn away again.
3. Fourth Nephi — The Fruit of Keeping Christ at the Center
After the Savior’s ministry, the people lived His teachings.
The result was not merely a more successful religion.
It was a changed society.
“There were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another.”
— 4 Nephi 1:2
“They had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor.”
— 4 Nephi 1:3
“There was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.”
— 4 Nephi 1:15
This is the fruit of a Christ-centered people:
no contention,
no rich or poor,
justice,
unity,
healing,
and the love of God dwelling within them.
But when pride, wealth, class distinctions, and competing churches returned, Zion faded.
The Book of Mormon’s pattern is unmistakable:
When Christ remains at the center, people become one.
When pride replaces Him at the center, they divide.
🪶 The Nemenhah Witness
Near the end of the Nemenhah Sacred Records is a thirty-six-chapter work called:
The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts
It was preserved by Maynehminispah, the daughter of Mehnipahsihts.
Her mother had witnessed the collapse of her people through disease, pride, division, competition, and the abandonment of sacred principles.
Maynehminispah remained behind to care for her mother and engraved her mother’s lamentation upon thin stone plates.
The translators specifically introduce the work by saying that the author left a remarkable example of chiasmic verse, while acknowledging that translation may prevent the pattern from working with mathematical precision. The opening also describes it as a song created after a pattern used in the land of their ancestors’ first inheritance.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 1:1–5
That is important.
The chiasmic nature of the work is not something we invented.
The record itself directs readers to look for it.
🌿 The Great Zion Pattern
As we have studied the entire thirty-six-chapter Lamentation, a broad movement appears:
A — Chapters 1–14: Zion Collapses
These chapters diagnose the sickness of the people.
The record describes:
seeking gain,
injuring one another,
jealousy of another person’s gifts,
competition between communities,
pride,
hoarding,
dominion,
neglect of the poor,
abandonment of healers,
and forgetting the responsibilities of stewardship.
In The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 5:1–4, neighbors begin treating each other’s talents and stewardships as threats. Cities and nations compete to become greater than one another.
This is the outward evidence that the people have lost the heart of Zion.
They may still have communities, councils, cities, and religious language.
But they no longer have one heart.
B — Chapters 15–18: The Heart Is Revealed
At the center of the Lamentation, the tone changes.
The record stops concentrating primarily on everything the people did wrong and begins teaching:
how the Creator loves.
The center contains four closely connected teachings:
Chapter 15 — The Creator Loves All His Children
The chapter begins with the community praying for its little children.
Parents seek blessings upon their children because they have first received love from heaven.
It declares that the Heavenly Parents love all Their children, and that a community acts in the Peacemaker’s name when it extends that same love and care toward its little ones.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 15:1–7
The first lesson at the heart of Zion is therefore:
Love every child as heaven loves them.
Chapter 16 — The Creator Loves All Creation
The record then expands the circle.
It asks whether the stone, earth, trees, animals, air, and other works of creation are loved less simply because they are not human.
It answers that the Creator’s love reaches through all creation.
The trees and grass bear witness of that love.
The rocks, soil, animals, and elements belong within the sacred work of creation.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 16:1–7
The second lesson is:
Zion cannot love God while carelessly injuring His creation.
Chapter 17 — The Creator Esteems All Equally
The people had suffered terrible loss.
Some might interpret their suffering as proof that God valued them less than other peoples whose cities still stood.
The record rejects that conclusion.
It teaches that the Creator makes no division among the works of His hands and does not cease loving His children when they suffer.
Even when human pillars fall, the Creator continues in His love.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 17:1–7
The third lesson is:
Success does not prove greater divine favor, and suffering does not prove lesser divine worth.
This cuts directly against the pride that destroys Zion.
Chapter 18 — The Love of the Creator
The center then reaches its most practical teaching.
Human beings often respond to injury with vengeance, rejection, humiliation, or punishment.
But the record says:
“The Creator’s love is not like unto the love of men. It is constant. Yea, it stays.”
It asks how repentance could exist without forgiveness and teaches that people should seek to emulate the Creator’s love.
The sinner is not to be hated.
Correction may still be necessary.
Recompense may still be just.
But vengeance is not the rule, and punishment is not the purpose of the councils.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 18:1–7
The fourth lesson is:
Zion is not restored by punishment alone. It is restored through repentance, justice, mercy, forgiveness, and continuing love.
💎 What Stands at the Center?
Here is the heart of this Nemenhah chiasm:
Heaven loves every child.
The Creator loves all creation.
God does not rank His children according to power or prosperity.
Divine love remains constant.
Repentance must be met with forgiveness.
Community correction should restore rather than destroy.
Zion must learn to love as the Creator loves.
The structure does not place political power at the center.
It does not place hierarchy at the center.
It does not place wealth, cities, buildings, or religious status at the center.
It places:
the character of God.
And Christians know the fullest earthly revelation of God’s character through:
Jesus Christ.
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
— John 14:9
Christ healed rather than dominated.
He forgave sinners while calling them to repent.
He received children.
He ate with the rejected.
He washed His disciples’ feet.
He laid down His life for His enemies.
The center of the Nemenhah lamentation describes the kind of love Jesus Christ embodied.
🌱 Chapters 19–36 — How Zion Is Rebuilt
After teaching the heart of the Creator, the Lamentation begins moving outward again.
Now the record describes how a people must live if they wish to restore what was lost.
The second half addresses principles such as:
equality,
stewardship,
accountability,
care for the earth,
all things in common,
family responsibility,
mercy,
humility,
and being satisfied with sufficient.
For example:
Stewardship Instead of Dominion
The record teaches that dominion does not mean license to conquer or consume.
Authority creates accountability.
Humanity was commissioned to care for creation rather than destroy it.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 26:1–7
All Things in Common
The following chapter turns toward shared stewardship and the communal care necessary to prevent poverty and abandonment.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 27
Being Satisfied with Sufficient
Near the close, the lamentation describes how the people once prospered while living according to the Peacemaker’s teachings.
But “enough” stopped being enough.
They sought greater cities, greater possessions, and visible signs of importance.
Their desire for more consumed the peace they once enjoyed.
— The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts 35:1–7
The pattern is powerful:
Collapse comes when people forget the Creator’s love.
Restoration begins when they remember it and embody it.
🔁 A Simple View of the Nemenhah Zion Chiasm
This broad diagram is our interpretive study outline of the thirty-six chapters—not a claim that every chapter pair has been mathematically proven:
A — Chapters 1–14: The collapse of a covenant society
Pride, competition, gain, injury, dominion, neglect
B — Chapters 15–18: The heart of the Creator
Love, equality, forgiveness, care for children and creation
Aʹ — Chapters 19–36: The restoration of Zion principles
Stewardship, mercy, accountability, common care, sufficient living
The beginning asks:
How did we lose Zion?
The center answers:
We forgot how God loves.
The ending teaches:
Learn to live that love again.
That is why the center matters.
📖 Two Records—One Christ-Centered Pattern
The Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon brings us to the resurrected Christ.
He declares His doctrine.
He rejects contention.
He gathers the people.
When they live His teachings, they become one and have no poor among them.
The Nemenhah Sacred Records
The Lamentation describes how a people lost Zion and places the Creator’s constant love at the heart of the remedy.
It then moves outward into practical teachings about rebuilding a peaceful covenant community.
The Shared Witness
The Book of Mormon shows us:
Come unto Christ.
The Nemenhah Lamentation asks:
Will we learn to live as He lives?
One record introduces the Savior at the center of the history.
The other places His kind of love at the center of Zion.
Different records.
Different settings.
But the pattern points in the same direction:
Jesus Christ.
⚠️ What Chiasmus Does—and Does Not—Prove
Chiasmus is meaningful, but we should not ask it to prove more than it can.
A literary pattern by itself does not establish:
the date of a text,
the location where it was written,
the identity of its author,
or the divine authority of a record.
Modern writers can also use chiasmus.
Readers can sometimes over-map texts and see patterns that may not have been intended.
But that does not make chiasmus meaningless.
When a text openly identifies its chiasmic form, and when its mirrored structure reinforces a coherent spiritual message, it becomes worthy of careful study.
The greatest value is not:
“This pattern proves my position.”
The greatest value is:
“This pattern helped me see Jesus Christ more clearly.”
❤️ My Personal Reflection
Years ago, when I marked all those passages about Christ, His sacrifice, and His Atonement, I did not know where that study would lead.
Later, as I studied chiasmus, I began noticing how often the center brought me back to the very passages I had marked.
That affected me deeply.
Then I encountered the Nemenhah Sacred Records and found many more mirror patterns.
The most powerful patterns did not lead me toward the greatness of the writers.
They led me toward:
the love of God,
the mercy of Christ,
repentance,
forgiveness,
equality,
and Zion.
I do not need chiasmus to make me believe in Jesus Christ.
But chiasmus has helped me see how carefully some scriptural writers arranged their witness of Him.
The structure seems to whisper:
“Do not become lost in the outer arguments.”
“Do not make the record itself your destination.”
“Look at the center.”
And at the center, I keep finding Him.
📚 Study These Scriptures Yourself
Bible
John 5:39 — The scriptures testify of Christ.
Luke 24:25–27 — Christ explains the scriptures concerning Himself.
John 14:6–11 — Christ reveals the Father.
Matthew 5–7 — The character and way of a kingdom people.
Book of Mormon
2 Nephi 25:23–26 — The record’s Christ-centered purpose.
Alma 36:1–30 — Alma’s chiasmic conversion account.
Alma 36:17–20 — Calling upon Jesus at the turning point.
3 Nephi 11:10–11 — Christ identifies Himself.
3 Nephi 11:29–40 — His doctrine and rejection of contention.
3 Nephi 17 — Christ heals and blesses the children.
4 Nephi 1:1–18 — The fruit of living Christ’s teachings.
4 Nephi 1:24–49 — The return of pride, division, and collapse.
Nemenhah Sacred Records
The Lamentation of Mehnipahsihts
1:1–5 — Maynehminispah introduces the lamentation and its ancient poetic form.
5:1–4 — Competition and injury destroy communal peace.
15:1–7 — The Creator loves all His children.
16:1–7 — The Creator loves all creation.
17:1–7 — The Creator esteems all equally.
18:1–7 — Constant love, repentance, forgiveness, and restorative justice.
19:1–7 — Equality and the danger of elevating ourselves above others.
26:1–7 — Dominion means accountable stewardship.
27 — All things in common.
35:1–7 — The loss of peace when sufficient is no longer enough.
🕊️ Come and See
Do not study chiasmus merely to win an argument.
Study it to discover what the writer treasured enough to place at the center.
Read Alma’s testimony.
Read Christ’s ministry in Third Nephi.
Read the peaceful society of Fourth Nephi.
Read the daughter’s lamentation in the Nemenhah Sacred Records.
Then ask:
What is at the center?
For me, the answer has become increasingly clear.
Jesus Christ.
His Atonement.
His mercy.
His way of loving.
And the Zion that begins when we place our lives around Him.
Come and see.
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