According to Potter and Wellington, it was not until 1854, twenty four years after the first publishing of the Book of Mormon, with the publication of John Forbes’ The Symmetrical Structures of Scripture that the complicated and sophisticated nature of biblical chiasmus was appreciated. Chiasms in the Bible were only discovered when the original, ancient texts were read. This was because English translations had altered the word order sufficiently to rearrange the elements and destroy the chiasms.
The Book of Mormon contains large and extremely complex chiasms of many elements and layers. This would lead one to believe that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon line by line. This manner of translation has the disadvantage of making the passages flow less well upon reading but retains the structure. Thus when Latter-day Saints repeat the claim that the Book of Mormon was translated correctly and is the “most correct” of any book on earth, we are more literally correct than we often appreciate. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 262]
“I Make a Record in the Language of My Father - Chiastic Structure”
Chiastic structures are words or thoughts which are put forth in a specific order and then are repeated in reverse order. Clay Gorton writes:
The book of First Nephi is composed of layer upon layer of chiastic structures. There are two astounding global chiasma overlying one another, one literal and one conceptual… . Embedded in these global chiasma are 107 additional chiastic structures! …
Ascribing the authorship of the complex chiastic structures in First Nephi to Nephi is akin to attributing the authorship of the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith. A viable alternative to the individual authorship of chiasma in the Book of Mormon would be that the chiastic structure may have been imposed by the Lord as part of and as a mark of the Divine inspiration under which it was written… .
The global literal chiasmus contains an astounding 164 elements repeated in reverse order, extending from “the Lamb of God” (1 Nephi 14:3) as the central element [see illustration]… .
The global conceptual chiasmus has been identified by Wallace B. King. It has as its central element the phrase, "the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto [Christ] (1 Nephi 10:18).
Since 1 Nephi is composed of chiasma that image the concepts and words near the first of the book with their parallel counterparts near the end of the book, it could not have been started until after the concluding events had taken place. Thus the book was written no sooner than some 12 to 30 years or more after the colony arrived in the promised land. [H. Clay Gorton, A New Witness for Christ: Chiastic Structures in the Book of Mormon, pp. 23, 24, 29, 82] [See the commentary and illustrations for 1 Nephi 10:18]
1 Nephi 1:2 I make a record in the language of my father ([Chiastic Structure] Global Literal Chiasmus of 165 Repeated Elements in 1 Nephi. [H. Clay Gorton, A New Witness for Christ: Chiastic Structures in the Book of Mormon, pp. 24-27]
1 Nephi 1:2 I make a record in the language of my father ([Chiastic Structure] Global Conceptual Chiasmus in 1 Nephi. [H. Clay Gorton, A New Witness for Christ: Chiastic Structures in the Book of Mormon, pp. 29-31]