John Woodland "Jack" Welch (born 1946) is a scholar of law and religion. Welch is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

and currently teaches at the

J. Reuben Clark Law School The J. Reuben Clark Law School (BYU Law or JRCLS) is the graduate law school of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1973, the school is named after J. Reuben Clark, a former U.S. Ambassador, Undersecretary of State, and ...

(JRCLS) at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

(BYU) in Provo, Utah, where he is the Robert K. Thomas University Professor of Law. He is notable for his contributions to LDS (Mormon) scholarship, including his discovery of the ancient literary form

chiasmus In rhetoric, chiasmus ( ) or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek , "crossing", from the Greek , , "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of wor ...

in the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude ...

Biography

Welch was founding director of Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and, prior to August 2018, was the Editor-in-Chief of the periodical

BYU Studies Quarterly ''BYU Studies Quarterly'' is an academic journal covering a broad array of topics related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon studies). It is published by the church-owned Brigham Young University. The journal is abstracted a ...

. Welch was director of publications for the

Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History The Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History (later renamed to Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History) was an academic research organization at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1980 to 2005 that sought to promo ...

. While serving as a young

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

in Germany, Welch discovered many instances of the

literary form in the

. His finding, published in BYU Studies as "Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon" in 1969, and subsequent publications have shaped scholarly inquiry into the linguistic aspects and historical origin of the Book of Mormon. Welch received

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

and

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s from BYU (B.A. in History, M.A. in Latin and Greek). He then studied at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

as a

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

Fellow. Welch received a J.D. from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

. He is the Robert K. Thomas professor of law in the JRCLS. In 1979, Welch founded FARMS while working as a lawyer in southern California. He was a member of the board of editors for the

Encyclopedia of Mormonism The ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'' is a semi-official English-language encyclopedia for topics relevant to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, see also "Mormon"). The five-volume texts have been digitized and are available ...

. Welch was a co-author of ''Religion and Law: Biblical-Judaic and Islamic Perspectives'' () He is a contributing scholar for the Joseph Smith Papers Project.

Bibliography

*''Reexploring the Book of Mormon'' (1992) *''The Allegory of the Olive Tree'' (1994) *''Chiasmus in Antiquity'' (1998) *''Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and Sermon on the Mount'' (1998) *''Isaiah in the Book of Mormon'' (1998) *''King Benjamin's Speech'' (1998) *John W. Welch, and J. Gregory Welch, ''Charting the Book of Mormon'' (1999) *''Chiasmus Bibliography'' (1999) *''King Benjamin's Speech Made Simple'' (1999) *''Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon'' (1999) *Daniel H. Ludlow, S. Kent Brown, and John W. Welch, ''To All the World'' (2000) *''Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon'' (2002) *''Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem'' (2004) *''Apostles and Bishops in Early Christianity'' (2004) *''Oliver Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness'' (2006) *''The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon'' (2008) *''The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount'' (2010) *''The Tree of Life'' (2011)

References

External links

*
Howard W. Hunter Law Library Page of Welch
has a listing of at least a portion of Welch's published works.
John W. Welch Chiasmus Papers
MSS 3776; L. Tom Perry Special Collections; Harold B. Lee Library; Brigham Young University.
BYU Studies
journal, of which John W. Welch is the editor in chief.
Chiasmus Resources
a Chiasmus index site maintained by BYU Studies. {{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, John W. 1946 births 20th-century Mormon missionaries Alumni of the University of Oxford American Latter Day Saint writers American Mormon missionaries in Germany Brigham Young University alumni Brigham Young University faculty Duke University School of Law alumni Editors of Latter Day Saint publications Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement Living people Mormon apologists Mormon studies scholars American expatriates in the United Kingdom Latter Day Saints from Utah Latter Day Saints from California Latter Day Saints from North Carolina Book of Mormon scholars