EVIDENCE: Pray Unto Him Continually by Day, and Give Thanks Unto His Holy Name by Night

Ed J. Pinegar, Richard J. Allen

This construct is an example of what is called a “synonymous parallelism”—where the substance of one line is repeated or echoed with a variation in the second. This kind of poetic construct appears frequently in the Old Testament and was first articulated in 1898 by E. W. Bullinger, a clergyman and biblical scholar. Types of parallelisms include synonymous, synthetic, antithetic, alternate, repeated alternate, extended alternate, and chiasmus. Donald W. Parry points out that “the Book of Mormon contains numerous examples of each of the seven types of parallelism presented in Bullinger’s work” (Echoes, 160–161). The fact that no one had articulated the various types of parallelisms at the time the Book of Mormon was translated is yet another witness to the book’s authenticity. (See other examples in 1 Nephi 17:45 and 2 Nephi 25:2; see also Echoes, 106–161.)

Commentaries and Insights on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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