Carl J. Cranney has published a useful study of Hebrew parallelisms in the Book of Mormon, dividing the text into categories of writing to see which are most likely to use parallelisms.
http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=3179&index=7
His conclusion: "This paper has demonstrated only the following: not only do parallelistic structures exist in the Book of Mormon (deliberate or not, Parry has demonstrated their existence), they also significantly occur precisely where they contextually should occur and are absent where their presence would be surprising. The results of this analysis clearly indicate that these parallelisms are not accidental. If the parallelisms were accidentally generated, we would expect them to show up randomly. They do not."
I agree with him, of course. I also think chiasm and parallelisms are not only literary, but a way of thinking, which is why I find the parallelisms in Alma 22 so fascinating and revealing.
http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=3179&index=7
His conclusion: "This paper has demonstrated only the following: not only do parallelistic structures exist in the Book of Mormon (deliberate or not, Parry has demonstrated their existence), they also significantly occur precisely where they contextually should occur and are absent where their presence would be surprising. The results of this analysis clearly indicate that these parallelisms are not accidental. If the parallelisms were accidentally generated, we would expect them to show up randomly. They do not."
I agree with him, of course. I also think chiasm and parallelisms are not only literary, but a way of thinking, which is why I find the parallelisms in Alma 22 so fascinating and revealing.
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