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 Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

and currently teaches at the J. Reuben Clark Law School (JRCLS) at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(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 supposed discovery of the ancient literary form

chiasmus In rhetoric, chiasmus ( ) or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek , "crossing", from the Ancient Greek, Greek , , "to shape like the letter chi (letter), Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses ...

in the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

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. Welch was director of publications for the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History. While serving as a young

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...

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 Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

and

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate 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 prac ...

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

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

as a

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

Fellow. Welch received a J.D. from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

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

Joseph Smith Papers ''The Joseph Smith Papers'' (or Joseph Smith Papers Project) is a documentary editing project to collect, research, and publish all documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805–1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint m ...

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