President Joseph Smith delivered the following discourse before about twenty thousand Saints at the April conference of the Church, 1844, being the funeral sermon of Elder King Follett. The sermon was reported by Willard Richards, Wilford Woodruff, Thomas Bullock and William Clayton. Although this discourse was first published in the Times and Seasons of August 15, 1844, the version in general use today is an “amalgamation” made in 1855 by Jonathan Grimshaw.
The King Follett text is comprised of five pairs of parallel elements, i.e., macro structures, symmetrically arranged around a central “F” element, i.e., A-B-C-D-E-F-E-D-C-B-A. These larger themes impart unity to the text as a whole.
Each element exhibits a point of beginning and ending. The function of each element is to introduce an overriding theme or topic.
The text within each macro element contains additional chiasmus or parallelisms which provide cogency to its counterpart verses as a way of amplifying the theme and unlocking hidden messages.
Using Davidic Chiasmus as a template or interpretive key, the text may be analyzed according to a tri-fold exegesis inherent within Davidic construction; namely, (1) the Lord’s (Davidic) servant, (2) eschatological (last days) imagery, and (3) temple (endowment) imagery.
The text may be further analyzed by performing micro and inter-micro analysis.
The Davidic Chiasmus within the center “F” macro structure serves as the Table of Contents for the entire King Follett Sermon.
With no notes in front of him, the speech was masterfully conceived, crafted, and delivered as spontaneous as his rebuke to the prison guards at Richmond – nothing short of staggering the human imagination. In the end, the King Follett discourse plainly manifested that Joseph Smith had a prodigious memory, a remarkable capacity for style and technique, and an seemingly effortless mastery of Davidic theory – further testifying to his “noble boldness and independence of character.” (Autobiography of P.P. Pratt, p. 32) Although there are scores of indelible images in this speech, yet nothing is borrowed, nothing is imitated. He truly mastered Davidic technique without making the technique the end.
A summary of the macro elements is presented above. The full text within each section may be found by clicking on the specific macro element heading.
* Text supplied from “A Newly Amalgamated Text” by Stan Larson (BYU Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 193-208). Lined out text indicates that duplication, created by (*), has been eliminated.
** Macro Analysis provided by Scott L. Vanatter. Micro Analysis provided by Jared R. Demke.
*** Text from “A Newly Amalgamated Text” by Stan Larson (BYU Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, p.193-208).