I will be at MHA in Sacramento. I look forward to seeing you there.

The pictures accompanying the story bring back a lot of memories for me. I was glad that they added a lot to the account from your perspective as well. The stunning layout of the JBMS is always done so well by Bjorn Pendleton, a very talented independent designer.

As far as a computer printout in the Honors reading room of the BYU library is concerned, I spent a lot of time in that room, but I left BYU in 1970, before we had much in the way of computers. What this person may be remembering is a scroll of regular typing paper pages, that I taped together in 1969, about 10 feet long, with all of King Benjamin’s speech typed and consecutively layed out on it. Or, this person may be remembering someone else. There were other people in the late 1970s and 1980s who experiemented with a number of passages on large computer spreadsheets.

Thanks for asking.

Here’s a little catalog of the illustrations accompanying the article:

1. Jerry Thompson’s illustration of Jack meeting with Father Paul Gaechter in Austria.

2. Regensburg Cathedral from across the Danube.

4. Neal A. Maxwell and Robert K. Thomas at BYU circa 1968. I love the look he has on Jack’s face; a little apprehension mixed with anticipation for what the monk’s reaction is going to be. Very realistic.

5. A map of Bavaria locating Regensburg on the northern end of the Danube.

6. Medieval gate in the Regensburg city wall.

7. Jack and his companion Elder Barrus. (So young!)

8. Cloister inside the Regensburg Priester Seminar.

9. The cover of the Gaechter book, and the page with the analysis of a chiasm in Mt. 13.

10. The cover of Jack’s German BoM (as I wrote in the OP, I loved the funky yellow image of Izapa Stela 5), and the page from Mosiah with his original notes.

11. Graphic analyses of the first two chiasms found in the BoM.

12. Domplatz, Regensburg.

13. An extract from his first letter home after the discovery.

14. Elder Welch (again, very young looking!) sitting at his typewriter (no word processing or computers in the 1960s, folks).

15. A picture of Nibley in the stacks circa 1968.

I of course have followed your substantive work on chiasmus over the years with great interest, and so was familiar with your various articles and the other material you mention at the end of your article. And I knew a little bit about the discovery (and I had seen that painting of you at the monastery before).

But to see the whole story laid out in such detail and in such a personal way was tremendously fun for me. We really could grasp from it the excitement and passion and the sense of discovery. (I remember having feelings like that–on a smaller scale–on my own mission about various things I was learning.)

I particularly enjoyed all of the pictures. I recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it the print version with its illustrations.

If you’re at MHA next week, I’ll say “hi” in person.

First, Kevin, thanks for taking the time to present the heart of this story, and thanks for mentioning your own significant contributions to Book of Mormon studies. It is gratifying, now that I am of AARP age, to see which seeds have borne fruit in the minds and lives of others. Two minor corrections in your otherwise top-notch abstract: Robert Thomas taught me Book of Mormon in second semester at BYU (not his class on the Bible as Literature); and Barnes and Noble had purchased all the remainder from the UNC Press, but the books were still new.

On Helaman Halls! Well, in my day, not only was Stover Hall a guys dorm, but two floors were unofficial honors floors, thanks to Sister May, a Senior Resident without peer. David Whittaker was my roommate. I owe much to David, who loved books more than any person on the planet. He has had a spectatular career managing the Mormon collection in the Harold B. Lee Library. As young undergrads, we talked long into the night, and as friends afterwards have coauthored and shared many academic experiences. So, yes, I guess something good can come from HH, which still stands (unlike DT).

Gillsyk, thank you for sharing your memory of when you first learned about chiasmus. Whatever one may think long-term about this literary form, it is remarkable how many people can recall in precise detail where they were and how they first encountered it. Dozens of people have shared with me their stories. In a way, my story is not just my story. I am happy to share it, in more ways than one.

I probably would not have publically shared my story in such detail except for two reasons. A few years ago, a general authority asked me to tell him how I first noticed chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. After I had given him a fifteen-minute version of the story, he said, “You must write and publish your story.” Perhaps he was just being polite, but he died not too long afterwards, and I felt that I should do what he had requested.

But more than that, as I began writing the story, I went back into my old mission papers, appointment books, scriptures, and letters home. I contacted companions. I was struck by how much of the story was historically documentable. On my way home from my mission, one of my suitcases was stolen, but these papers were in another place. Seeing that the story was based on not just my memory of things 40 years ago, I decided it might have some publishable merit.

Zinka, we still live in the same house. I hope to hear from you. Some days I think I’ve said too much about chiasmus; but other days, maybe not enough. Thanks for your personal note.

Carol F. and Brad, it is an interesting question, what does the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon prove? I notice that many people ask this question and perhaps aren’t aware of three articles I have written along this line that might be helpful. In case you might not know of them already: one uses that question as its title, in Noel Reynolds, Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited; another is entitled “Criteria for Evaluating the Presence of Chiasmus,” and the third, “The Role of Evidence in the Nurturing of Faith,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon. In the chapter about evidence, I draw on my legal background to discuss the complex process of interpreting evidence. From all this, I would suggest that it is an overstatement to say that chiasmus says nothing at all about the possibility of the Book of Mormon being an ancient book. I would also point out that all chiasms are not created equally, just as all paintings in Paris are not of equal quality. Significant differences can be found between ladies chatting on a park bench, Homer having Odysseus answer his mother’s eight questions in their opposite order, and Alma explicitly equating his pain and joy as one intentional element in Alma 36. What one makes of those differences is a matter of personal judgment, but noticing those difference along with similarities is the first step in forming a sound judgment.

Thanks again to all of you.

I’m really worried about school for next year.
*Did you hear that a bunch of teachers are leaving?
**There was a fifth grade teacher looking at porn on the school computer!
***Not only that, but fundraising has totally taken over the school.
****I love Cold Stone Creamery but I’m not going every other week for a fundraiser.
*****Although I could eat ice cream every night.
******I should go on the South Beach diet.
*****But man I would miss ice cream.
****A diet is not going to happen with Cold Stone just around the corner.
***The next fundraiser there is next week. I might go.
**Still I think there are too many fundraisers and too many scandals at school.
*I don’t know who will be left to teach the kids.
I am really worried about school. My kids deserve good teachers.

Happens all the time!

Thanks, Kevin, for the summary of these fascinating details. I especially love the spirit of inquiry and study on his mission — not sure that would happen as readily today.