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Book of Mormon Studies
(1992 — 2016)
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Full Issues
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 1 (1992)
Introduction to the first issue of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
A number of statements in the Book of Mormon text indicate the presence in Lehi’s promised land of peoples other than those descended from Lehi’s party. Reasons the topic is not addressed more explicitly in the record include a focus on the Nephites (and not on other people), a generic treatment of Lamanites, an a desire not to waste space on something obvious or insignificant. Clear evidence for the presence of others in substantial populations is present in the Book of Mormon. The demographic or cultural history of Lehi’s literal descendants must take into account these other groups.
Economic systems are distinguished by their emphasis on equity and efficiency. Market controls are justified because of the need for equity. Free markets are justified because of the need for private incentives and efficiency. Most countries of the world today have adopted a combination of controls and free-market incentives. The Book of Mormon teaches that only through caring can equity and efficiency be simultaneously achieved.
Analysis of comparative data and historical background indicates that the quotations in Mosiah 7–22 are historically accurate. Further examination of the quotations of Limhi shows that they depend heavily on other sources. This implies some things about the character of Limhi and provides as well attendant lessons for our own day.
Ancient texts are too often approached using modern assumptions. Among those assumptions obstructing an understanding of ancient texts is the modern emphasis on originality and on writing as intellectual property. Ancient writers relished repetition—stories that were repeated in succeeding generations—over originality. The Bible is full of repeated or allusive stories, and the Book of Mormon often reinscribes this biblical emphasis on repetition. One such biblical reverberation in the Book of Mormon is Nephi’s ocean voyage, which evokes biblical stories of origination: creation, deluge, and exodus. These three stories of beginnings are carefully alluded to in Nephi’s own foundational story, exactly as we would expect to find in an ancient Hebraic text.
Nephite kings were expected to fulfill the same roles that kings played in other ancient civilizations— commander of the military forces, chief judicial official, and leader of the national religion. A king’s success depended not only on the extent to which he performed each role, but also on the motives behind his service. Selfless rule by Benjamin-type kings commanded the respect and praise of the people, while King Noah’s quest for personal gain roused Old World disdain for the monarch. The Nephite experiment with kingship confirms that between “kings and tyrants there’s this difference known; kings seek their subject’s good; tyrants their own” (Robert Herrick, 1591–1674).
This article marshals ancient legal evidence to show that Nephi’s slaying of Laban should be understood as a protected manslaughter rather than a criminal homicide. The biblical law of murder demanded a higher level of premeditation and hostility than Nephi exhibited or modern law requires. The terms of Exodus 21:13, it is argued, protected more than accidental slayings or unconscious acts, particularly where God was seen as having delivered the victim into the slayer’s hand. Various rationales for Nephi’s killing of Laban include ancient views on surrendering one person for the benefit of a whole community. Other factors within the Book of Mormon as well as in Moses’ killing of the Egyptian in Exodus 2 corroborate the conclusion that Nephi did not commit the equivalent of a first-degree murder under the laws of his day.
We construct a detailed geographical model of the Nephite homeland areas of Manti, Zarahemla, and the river Sidon using the Book of Mormon text of around 80 BC. This model assumes that these areas are located in Mesoamerica, that the names of their surrounding seas do not necessarily correspond to local compass directions, and that the directions stated in the text are to be understood in the nontechnical normal English sense. We then describe the southern end of the Grijalva river basin, located across the southern part of the Mexico–Guatemala border. We nominate this area as a possible candidate for the ancient Nephite homeland because it corresponds to the text’s topography from the most general to the most detailed parts of the description. Furthermore, significant geographical and climatic changes in this area over the last 2,000 years are unlikely. The number and detail of the topological matches encourage further careful study.
The wide-ranging sermon of Samuel the Lamanite, spoken from the top of the city wall of Zarahemla, exhibits poetic features in a censuring passage—features that bear similarities to laments found in the Bible, most notably in the Psalms. Like the laments in the Bible, those in Samuel’s speech show contacts with worship. In distinction to the biblical laments, but like the Thanksgiving Hymns of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the poetic pieces in Samuel’s sermon reveal a set of prophecies that find fulfillment in later periods, including the days of Mormon, the compiler and editor of the Book of Mormon.
The prophetic language in the writings of Samuel the Lamanite includes the messenger formula, proclamation formula, oath formula, woe oracle, announcement formula, and revelations formula.
The claim that the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon are merely a reflection of nineteenth-century Masons, who were referred to in the late 1820s as “secret combinations,” is false since an 1826 use of the phrase establishes that those words were not used exclusively to describe Masons.
The name Nephi is attested as a Syro-Palestinian Semitic form of an Egyptian man’s name dating from the Late Period in Egypt.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 2, No. 1 (1993)
Summary of current issue.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
This article suggests that contemporary near-death research casts light on several episodes in the Book of Mormon. Alma’s conversion while “nigh unto death” fits a common pattern of experience. Modern researchers have noticed distinctive aftereffects among those who have experienced a near-death experience (NDE). In the Book of Mormon, both Alma and the resurrected Christ demonstrate these aftereffects. Lehi’s dream invites comparison with the otherworld journey literature of many nations. Nephi’s interpretation of Lehi’s dream casts light on the tension between the literal and the symbolic elements of visionary experience. Finally, just as accurate out-of-body observations made by NDErs argued for the reality of their experiences, so the testable aspects of the Book of Mormon give Joseph Smith a significance apart from others who may have experienced similar visions.
This article discusses the significance of major scriptural personalities, contrasting the lessons we can learn from the positive and negative experiences of such individuals with the role models set for us in Christ and little children. Internal textual sources relate to the composition of the book of Mosiah within the context of a particular literary tradition and style. According to one argument, the text employs a “dialectical” style or stylistic device based on the “law of opposition in all things,” which juxtaposes individuals, such as righteous and wicked kings, to illuminate gospel principles. Several Old World and Book of Mormon perspectives give insight on royal treasures, symbolism, and iconography (including objects such as the Liahona and the sword of Laban). The article also contrasts views of religious freedom, taxation, and agency and responsibility, and compares duties of parents and kings.
Swords often symbolize divine authority and kingship. Numerous examples from the mythology, literature, and history of the world attest to distinct patterns. The sword of Laban from the Book of Mormon fits these patterns and can be compared to the sword of Goliath. The sword of Laban can also be traced as part of the royal regalia that provides authority throughout Nephite history and later as it appears in the restoration. The sword of Laban as associated with Joseph Smith came to be an additional witness of his authority and of the divine sanction for his work.
The sword of Laban plays a prominent role in the Book of Mormon narrative as a Nephite national treasure. Scholarly analysis of this regal heirloom has primarily concentrated upon its physical construction in relation to ancient Near Eastern metallurgical technology. However, when examined within the cultural milieu of the ancient world, along with data from church history, the scriptures, and Jewish tradition, the sword of Laban takes on new significance. Though the Book of Mormon reveals that the sword of Laban served as an ancestral and hereditary sword of the ancient Nephite prophets, evidence suggests that the weapon may have been the birthright sword of biblical tradition, a sacred heirloom that may have been wielded by the patriarchs up until the time of Joseph of Egypt. Laban, being a descendant of Joseph, inherited the birthright sword and the plates of brass, both treasures eventually coming into the possession of Nephi, who was both a prophet and a descendant of Joseph, as was Joseph Smith Jr.
The mortal Savior was not man, not human (Alma 34:10). Infinite and eternal, he received his physical life not from a son of Adam but from the Father of Adam, God. He took upon himself the image of man, but in truth he was the model, not the copy. Though mortal, he was still God, able to suffer and to redeem as only a god could. He was Son, because he received physical life from his Father, and Father, because he used his divine powers to give eternal life to others. Though not man, he experienced mortality, which allowed him to understand and love mortals.
Throughout history in many cultures, man has looked to the tree of life as a symbol of eternal life. The form of the tree of life varies according to a culture’s perception of the universe. Many early Christians saw the tree of life as a personification of Jesus Christ. It may be that the tree of life vision in the Book of Mormon was presented to introduce the Savior and his ministry. We may learn much about the Lord’s calling and personality by combining a study of various cultural ideas of the tree of life with the testimonies of the prophets contained in the scriptures.
Aspects of the three days of darkness following the three-hour period of intense destruction described principally in 3 Nephi include: (1) the strange absence of rain among the destructive mechanisms described; (2) the source of the intense lightning, which seems to be unaccompanied by rain; (3) a mechanism to account for the inundation of the cities of Onihah, Mocum, and Jerusalem, which were not among the cities which “sunk in the depths of the sea”; and (4) the absence in the histories of contemporary European and Asiatic civilizations of corresponding events, which are repeatedly characterized in 3 Nephi as affecting “the face of the whole earth.”
The simile curse is a type of curse that appears in ancient Near Eastern, Old Testament, and Book of Mormon texts. It consists of two parts: (1) an event (e.g., “Just as this wax is burned by fire”) and (2) an application of that event to the subject of the curse (e.g., “so shall Arpad be burned”). In ancient Near Eastern texts, simile curses appear in written treaties and were often part of a ritual acted out during a treaty ceremony. In the Old Testament, simile curses appear primarily in prophetic writings as literary devices. In the Book of Mormon, simile curses appear in the context of treaties, religious covenants, and prophecies, and in several instances were acted out. These curses were probably part of the oral tradition of ancient Near Eastern, Old Testament, and Book of Mormon peoples.
In the Book of Mormon, despised outcasts, such as the Lamanites or the poor, often have a special aptitude for spirituality, and the richer, civilized, and more overtly religious Nephites are often declining in righteousness. This phenomenon, with some characteristic specific themes, such as being excluded from a religious edifice, is found in ancient and contemporary cultures and religions. This theme points up the complexity of the Book of Mormon, which is not simple cowboys-and-Indians melodrama.
Anti-Mormon criticisms of the Book of Mormon are frequently based on a questionable set of assumptions concerning the nature of historical and archaeological evidence, the role of governing presuppositions, and the nature of historical proof. Using arguments found in a recent anti-Mormon critique by Luke Wilson as a foundation, this article analyzes difficulties of reconstructing ancient geographies, problems with the discontinuity of Mesoamerican toponyms, the historical development of the idea of a limited geography model, and challenges of textual and artifactual interpretation when trying to relate the Book of Mormon to archaeological remains.
Korihor makes use of language to cast doubt in the minds of his listeners and to tear down the power of God. Language is used for both good and ill.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 2, No. 2 (1993)
Summary of current issue.
The historicity of the Book of Mormon record is crucial. We cannot exercise faith in that which is untrue, nor can “doctrinal fiction” have normative value in our lives. Too often the undergirding assumption of those who cast doubt on the historicity of the Book of Mormon, in whole or in part, is a denial of the supernatural and a refusal to admit of revelation and predictive prophecy. Great literature, even religious literature, cannot engage the human soul and transform the human personality like scripture. Only scripture—writings and events and descriptions from real people at a real point in time, people who were moved upon and directed by divine powers—can serve as a revelatory channel, enabling us to hear and feel the word of God.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Lehi’s dream of the tree of life is well known in Latter- day Saint circles. Its relationship to the vision of Nephi (1 Nephi 11–14), however, may not be so well known. This paper examines the proposition that Nephi’s vision was an expansive, prophetic interpretation of Lehi’s dream of the tree of life; gives an alternate interpretation of Lehi’s dream as a guide to the afterlife; and links Lehi’s dream, the Garden of Eden, and the temple.
In the text of the Old Testament Yahweh is described as the Redeemer of Israel. A redeemer in Israelite society was a close family member who was responsible to help his enslaved kinsmen by buying them out of bondage. A comparable family relationship is created between the Lord and individuals by the making of covenants and the giving of a new name. The adoptive covenant becomes the basis for the Lord’s acts of redemption. This pattern of adoptive redemption can be seen in both the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon identifies Yahweh, the God and Redeemer of the Old Testament, with Jesus Christ. It further explains that redemption from spiritual bondage comes through the ransom price of his blood and is available to those who enter into adoptive covenants, which create a familial relationship and allow the Lord to act as their redeemer.
Old Testament Topics > Jesus Christ, the God of the Old and the New Testament
Old Testament Topics > Types and Symbols
A certain combination of temperament and upbringing can lead to a sense of alienation from the scriptures’ meaning. This paper considers the role that types might play in overcoming that alienation as they mediate between scriptural understanding and human experience, permitting deeper insight into both. The difficulties and possibilities inherent in such an approach shed light on a typological analysis of the figures of Abinadi and the brother of Jared.
From 1830 to the present those who find it difficult to accept “angelic visitations in the age of railroads” have searched Joseph Smith’s nineteenth-century environment for sources of the subject matter of the Book of Mormon. For example, in 1990 Susan Curtis explains the economic subthemes of the book as Joseph Smith’s commentary on “market capitalism.” But the economic conditions of Joseph Smith’s time and place are not reflected in the Book of Mormon. Its economic descriptions are consistent with our vast knowledge of the economic conditions of the ancient Middle East and not inconsistent with the little known of the economics of Mesoamerica of the relevant time period. Those more comfortable with Joseph Smith as universal commentator on the issues of his day would be well advised to ignore economics or limit that topic to the Doctrine and Covenants. Those who accept him as translator of ancient scriptural documents can gain additional reassurance from the economics of the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon contains various colophons and source indicators that signal documents or authors that Mormon and the writers of the small plates used, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized in composing the final text. Some of these headers have been italicized and separated out by the printer; others form an integral part of the text but could as well have been separated and italicized. Mormon’s extensive notation of sources is another set of evidence for the intricate and complex nature of the text and, simultaneously, of the magnitude of Mormon’s work as an ancient editor and historian.
Joseph Smith received the golden plates on the Israelite Day of Remembrance (or Rosh ha-Shanah). Biblical references and interpretation by Jewish sages through the centuries set this day as the day God would remember his covenants with Israel to bring them back from exile. Also called the Feast of Trumpets, this day features ritual trumpet blasts to signify the issuance of revelation and a call for Israel to gather for God’s word of redemption. The day, which is set at the time of Israel’s final agricultural harvest, also symbolizes the Lord’s final harvest of souls. Furthermore, it initiates the completion of the Lord’s time periods, the Days of Awe, and signifies the last time to prepare for final judgment and the Messianic Age. The coming forth of the Book of Mormon is literally fulfilling such prophecies of the day.
This paper shows that the account of Moses’ brazen serpent as taught by the Nephite leaders parallels the symbol and name of the Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl. It further shows that the term flying, used in the Nephite but not in the biblical account of the fiery serpent, has parallels in the Old and New Worlds.
Beginning in the 1960s, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) has modified its understanding of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s prophetic charisms. Where the RLDS were earlier permitted to do this, they are now encouraged by their leaders to read the Book of Mormon as nineteenth-century fiction, though they are still permitted to find in it, if they wish, some inspiring passages. These changes have been resisted by a conservative minority that has lost the battle for control of the Reorganization and now tends to worship outside RLDS congregations. A few Latter-day Saints have also begun to read the Book of Mormon as fiction. Their efforts to turn the Book of Mormon into nineteenth-century fiction have been opposed by competent Latter-day Saint scholarship, though not without resistance from those who control “independent” and “liberal” publishing ventures.
Critics of the Book of Mormon frequently claim that some of the Book of Mormon witnesses later doubted or denied their testimony of the Book of Mormon. They also claim that the activities of the Three Witnesses while out of the church cast doubt upon the reliability of their earlier written testimony. I review evidence for these claims and also discuss the issue of what may constitute a witness of the Book of Mormon and whether the witnesses ever doubted or denied their testimony of the Book of Mormon. Evidence for later disbelief in the Book of Mormon by the witnesses is unpersuasive. I detail several miscellaneous issues relating to Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s criticisms of the Book of Mormon.
A three-foot sword excavated at Vered Jericho, likely dating to 620 BC, lends credence to the description of the sword of Laban in the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon name Sariah does not appear as a female name in the Bible but has now been identified in a reconstructed form in an Aramaic papyrus. A Jewish woman living at Elephantine in Upper Egypt during the fifth century BC was identified as Sariah daughter of Hoshea.
The process used by Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon from the plates involved both human effort and divine assistance through the seerstone and interpreters.
Revisions of Nephite chronology in the Book of Mormon occur as scholarship on various issues improves.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (1994)
Introduction to the current issue.
Anthropological perspectives lend insight on names and on the social and literary function of names in principle and in the Book of Mormon. A discussion of the general function of names in kinship; secret names; and names, ritual, and rites of passage precedes a Latter-day Saint perspective. Names and metonymy are used symbolically. Examples include biblical and Book of Mormon metonymic naming, nomenclature, and taxonomy. Biblical laws of purity form the foundation for a pattern of metonymic associations with the name Lamanite, where the dichotomy of clean/unclean is used to give name to social alienation and pollution.
The original text of the Book of Mormon contains complex, Hebrew-like constructions that have been subsequently removed from the text because of their non-English character.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Repetition appears purposefully within Book of Mormon narratives as a principle of reinforcement and confirmation. It seems that every important action, event, or character is repeated in the Book of Mormon. These repetitions emphasize the law of witnesses at work within the book (e.g., “in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established”; Ether 5:4). Further, they underscore the relevance of one character or action to people living in a different time, and they link narratives together with what Robert Alter calls “type-scenes.” Analyzed in detail as particularly striking are threefold repetitions in Nephi’s task to retrieve the brass plates and repetition of the word “power” in the missionary endeavor of the sons of Mosiah. Larger repeated narratives treat escape and travel to a promised land; repentance; and the nature, rise, and effect of secret combinations.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Most scriptural references to dissent are in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon teaches that dissension is a cause of evil, suffering, and destruction; some dissenters undergo a hardening, while others may be reclaimed; preaching the gospel is the best way to reclaim dissenters; after patient endurance, compulsion may be necessary to stop dissenters from causing severe harm to the innocent, but compulsion should be avoided when possible; both spiritual and civic responses may be used to quell dissent; responding to dissent is not the task of leaders only; dissent is inevitable in our society and the church; and the Lord blesses the faithful who endure the trials and temptations of dissent.
In an article criticizing the historicity of the Book of Mormon, David Wright described critical scholarship and traditionalist modes as contrasting paradigms used to approach the scriptures. This article explores the nature of paradigm debate in general, in that context points out weaknesses in Wright’s critical approach, and discerns crucial flaws in his definition of believing paradigms.
The title page of the Book of Mormon acts as a historiographical introduction to the editorial guidelines followed by Mormon in his work of compilation and redaction. These guidelines defined what was important for Mormon to incorporate in his historical record and included the themes of genealogy, covenants, and the teaching and testifying of Christ.
The application of some techniques of literary analysis to the Jaredite exodus narrative in Ether 1–3 and 6 reveals that it is more than just a historical account. The author or editor of the narrative uses imagery and dialogue to help the reader look beyond the historical facts and see elements of the creation, Christ, and temples, among other things.
Thomas W. Brookbank long ago suggested that enallage, meaning the substitution of the singular for the plural or vice versa for rhetorical effect, is present in the Book of Mormon. Enallage does appear to exist as a prominent, meaningful rhetorical figure in the Bible, but its presence in the Book of Mormon is more difficult to demonstrate given the pronominal variation found in the Book of Mormon, a factor that Brookbank did not account for in his study. Nevertheless, a careful reading of contextual and verbal clues reveals that enallage does indeed appear to exist in some passages in the Book of Mormon. An awareness of this usage is important for a full understanding of such passages.
According to the Book of Mormon, men must obey the commandments of God in order to gain eternal life. And yet men are incapable of yielding full obedience to God because of the carnal nature they inherit from the fallen Adam and Eve. To overcome this carnal nature, God has provided a way, through the atonement of his Son, whereby men may be redeemed from the carnal state to a spiritual state. If men are to be redeemed, they must call upon the Lord in the spirit of true humility, faith, and repentance. If they do so, God will redeem them by the power of the Holy Ghost. A covenant of obedience is frequently associated with the redemption process.
To the nonbeliever, the wide variety of destructive forces unleashed in the New World at the time of Christ’s crucifixion seems preposterous or, at the very least, unscientific. The account in 3 Nephi 8–9 mentions the simultaneous occurrence of earthquake, fire, strong winds, extensive flooding, the complete burial of cities, and thick darkness. An examination of known great natural disasters in historical times reveals that the Book of Mormon in no way exaggerates. All of the destructive forces mentioned in 3 Nephi 8–9 can be readily explained in terms of the tectonic forces that result from the encounter of the plates on which the continents and the oceans lie. The complex variety of destructive forces that we normally consider to be separate phenomena of nature is, in reality, strong evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon account.
Lehi’s exodus to the promised land is only the first of a series of exoduses occurring throughout the Book of Mormon. Indeed, Lehi’s exodus becomes mere precedent for later flights into the wilderness by Nephi, Mosiah, Alma1, Limhi, and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. For the Nephites, continuing exodus is not merely historical fact. Understanding the biblical exodus as a type and shadow, the Nephites come to see their wandering as a metaphor of their spiritual condition. Thus, even centuries after Lehi’s arrival in the promised land, Nephite prophets recognize their status as “wanderers in a strange land” (Alma 13:23). As did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Nephites also looked beyond their temporal land of promise “for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Jacob
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Mosiah
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Old Testament Topics > Book of Mormon and the Old Testament
The discovery in Jerusalem of two inscribed silver strips, dating from the seventh century BC, support the Book of Mormon claim of writing on metal plates.
Lehi may have viewed Jacob (“my first-born in the wilderness”) and Joseph as replacement sons for the disobedient Laman and Lemuel. Scriptural parallels include Manasseh and Ephraim as replacements for Reuben and Simeon, and Seth for Abel.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 3, No. 2 (1994)
The Liahona was given by the Lord as a communicationsdevice for Lehi to determine the appropriate direction of travel. This device contained two pointers, only one of which was necessary to provide directional information. But the Liahona was more than just a simple compass in function, for it additionally required faith for correct operation. Since a single pointer always "points" in some direction, the additional pointer was necessary to indicate whether or not the first pointer could be relied upon. This proposed purpose for the second pointer conforms to a well-established engineering principle used in modern fault-tolerant computer systems called "voting," in which two identical process states are compared and declared correct if they are the same, and incorrect if they are different. Hence the second pointer, when coincident with the first, would indicate proper operation, and when orthogonal, would indicate nonoperation.
Civilizations fall due to complex pressures, but the Book of Mormon points to one sin which assisted if not drove the demise of both the Nephite and Jaredite peoples. This sin was pride. This essay ties pride to the Old World concepts of hubris and at? as a means of revealing the dynamic nature of this sin and exploring its deadly character. It shows that pride leads to hubris, the attempt by individuals and nations to become a law unto themselves, and that the consequence of hubris is at?, a spiritual blindness that impels the individual or society toward its doom. The paper warns the Latter-day Saint about this vice.
Lehi, though unable to convince his older sons to follow the Lord, was very successful with both Nephi and Jacob. The speeches and writings of Jacob clearly show that he remembered the admonitions given to him by his dying father and that he shared Lehi’s teachings—including some of his verbiage—with other members of the family. Jacob’s life and his teachings found in the Book of Mormon stand as a memorial to his father’s faith and parental love.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Enos
Some authors have claimed that Lehi’s teachings on the fall of Adam are so similar to teachings prevalent in nineteenth-century America that they must be the source for 2 Nephi 2. However, this paper demonstrates that the bulk of well-recognized scholarly authority attributes teachings very similar to those in 2 Nephi 2 to preexilic and exilic biblical writers such as Hosea and Ezekiel. Thus, Lehi’s teachings are more consistent with a preexilic/exilic Israelite context than with a nineteenth-century American context.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
During his visit to the Nephites, the Savior instructed Nephi to add to their records a missing scripture concerning the resurrection of many of the dead immediately following his own resurrection, as well as their appearance to many people. Good evidence suggests that it was Samuel the Lamanite’s prophecy of this resurrection that was missing. Aspects of the manner of recording, abridgment, and translation of the text of the Book of Mormon are elucidated through this missing scripture as it appears in the English text.
Although chapters 8 and 9 of the book of Moroni (Mormon’s epistles to Moroni) were placed with Mormon and Moroni’s abridgment by Moroni sometime between the years ad 401 and 421, these chapters were not written at that time. The insertion into the text of these epistles was done for doctrinal reasons; however, mixed in with the doctrinal message are certain facts and phrases that deal with their historical-chronological setting. By analyzing the specific chronological clues contained within Mormon’s epistles and comparing them with his abridged record of the final years of the Nephite nation, we can create a set of chronological time frames which then can be compared to construct a reasonable historical setting of ad 375 to 376.
Alma’s definition of faith as “hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21) serves as a pattern for the juxtaposition of faith and truth throughout the scriptures. Faith in the atoning power of Jesus is the truth that will save us.
The reading schedule of the Law and the Prophets in the Jewish synagogue at the time of the Feast of Dedication relates Old Testament prophesies in Ezekiel 37 to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.
Two additional parallels to the exodus pattern include death and burial in the desert and the transfiguration of Nephi and Moses.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 4, No. 1 (1995)
Introduction to this special issue of Sidney B. Sperry’s Book of Mormon writings.
Brief biography of Sidney B. Sperry.
Personal reminiscences about Sidney B. Sperry.
Personal reminiscences about Sidney B. Sperry.
Personal reminiscences about Sidney B. Sperry.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Personal reminiscences about Sidney B. Sperry.
The records of the Nephite, Jaredite, and Mulekite peoples comprise the Book of Mormon, of which Mormon is the principal editor. Four divisions are evident—namely, the small plates of Nephi, Mormon’s explanatory notes, the literary labors of Mormon, and the literary labors of Moroni. The first division, the small plates of Nephi, is analyzed in this chapter.
An analysis of the Words of Mormon to Helaman, including Mormon’s abridgment between the small and large plates of Nephi. The teachings of Benjamin, Mosiah, Abinadi, Alma, and his son, Alma the Younger. Helaman’s and Shiblon’s writings in the book of Alma are set forth. Alma the Younger is to the Book of Mormon as Paul is to the New Testament. The book of Helaman covers fifty years of Nephite history.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Mosiah
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Helaman
An analysis of the text of 3 Nephi to Moroni. Third Nephi was written by Nephi, the son of Nephi, the son of Helaman. Fourth Nephi in turn was written by the son of Nephi3, also called Nephi, and Nephi’s son Amos and grandsons Amos and his brother Ammaron. The book of Mormon was principally inscribed by Mormon and Moroni. The book of Ether exposes the terrible end of a people persisting in wickedness. The book of Moroni shows his love for his enemies.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 3 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 4 Nephi
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
What constitutes great literature? What is it about the literature of the Book of Mormon that has such a profound effect upon its readers? Although perhaps not beautifully written, the Book of Mormon’s message or theme justifies its classification as great literature and accounts for its profound effect on the lives of millions.
The American Gospel, found in 3 Nephi, differs from the Gospels of the New Testament in that Jesus is teaching as a resurrected, glorified, and exalted person. It includes details of the cataclysmic events at the time of the crucifixion and of the multiple appearances of the Savior to the Nephites. Jesus delivers sermons to the Nephites in general and also to the Nephite twelve. He heals the sick and institutes the sacrament. The depiction of prayer is perhaps the most powerful in all scripture. The Savior quotes the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah with regard to the New Jerusalem and the Gentiles. He emphasizes the importance of record keeping for the church, which should be called in his name.
The Book of Mormon contains nine epistles—two pastoral, one prophetic, and six dealing with war. The “Psalm of Nephi” is the only psalm in the Book of Mormon, called such because it is a song of praise, betraying deep religious feeling. A good example of lamentation literature occurs in Mormon 6.
Historical narrative in the Book of Mormon is written by laymen and is the truth as they see it. Of emphasis is the doctrine that blessings follow those who keep the commandments; they will prosper in the land. More than autobiography, the words of the writers could be described as memoirs. Benjamin delivered a wonderful oration that deserves detailed study and can be divided into three parts.
The patriarchal blessings that Lehi bestows upon his children and grandchildren are filled with important doctrinal and historical details and contain many prophetic elements. Lehi and Nephi share the vision of the tree of life, a fine example of symbolic prophecy. Perhaps the finest example of prophetic literature in the Book of Mormon deals with the coming of Christ. The prophetic dialogue in the Book of Mormon can be divided into five parts.
The most significant allegory in the Book of Mormon is the allegory of the tame and wild olive tree, which appears in Jacob 5. Six different types of prayers are found in the Book of Mormon. Perhaps the best example of a true song is “The Song of the Vineyard,” actually a quotation from Isaiah. There is only one example of an extended genealogy, that of Ether, the last Jaredite prophet.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Many critics deny that the first five books of the Old Testament were written by Moses and consider them to be childish myths. However, when Nephi and Lehi examined the brass plates, they found them to contain “the five books of Moses.” And in the Book of Mormon, the Savior himself confirms their authorship. The book of Ether also offers confirmation of the Tower of Babel story.
Doubts as to the literary unity of the book of Isaiah are fairly recent. The late nineteenth century saw a division of Isaiah into three parts by critics, who categorized only 262 of the 1292 verses as the genuine product of Isaiah. These critics deny the prediction element of prophecy and highlight different literary forms and theological ideas. The Book of Mormon attributes two of these three sections to Isaiah by quotation; ancient scriptures as well give no hint of a division. Christ and the apostles themselves attribute the book to Isaiah. Internal evidences of the unity of the book include imagery, repetition, expressions peculiar to Isaiah, and song. Changes in style can be attributed to mood. The differences between the Book of Mormon and the King James Version support the authenticity and literary unity of Isaiah.
The Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi parallels the accounts in Matthew and Luke, although it is closer to Matthew. The sermon was addressed partly to a general audience and partly to the twelve disciples exclusively, although the crowd heard it. In many cases the account in 3 Nephi clarifies the New Testament accounts; in particular, the Joseph Smith Translation and Book of Mormon explain the Lord’s Prayer.
The literary problem caused by the parallels between Moroni 7–10 and 1 Corinthians 12–13 can be explained if one realizes that Moroni had access to the same teachings of Christ as Paul, and that both received revelation, so that the Lord himself might be the author of both dissertations. Different prophets might have had similar inspiration in dealing with the same topics.
The text of the Book of Mormon contributes to the understanding of the Pentateuch and to a confirmation that Moses was indeed its author. The Book of Mormon also helps confirm that Isaiah was the author of the book of Isaiah. The Isaiah chapters quoted in the Book of Mormon are a better translation than the King James Version, as they are undoubtedly from an older version. The Book of Mormon quotes Micah and Malachi with clarification and augments selected New Testament scriptures.
Most contemporary Old Testament scholars question whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch, but the Book of Mormon affirms Moses’ authorship. Questions arise as to how Jeremiah’s prophecies appeared on the brass plates and what the nature of the Book of the Law was. According to the brass plates, Laban and Lehi were descendants of Manasseh. How then did they come to be living in Jerusalem? The brass plates, on which may be found lost scripture, may have been the official scripture of the ten tribes.
Nephi quotes from the book of Isaiah because of its relevance to his people and to all men. He highlights the message of Christ’s appearance and atonement. The latter-day prophecies, both those which have been fulfilled and those that are yet to be fulfilled, are cited and explained. Israel will be restored in the latter days, but warnings accompany this glorious prophecy. The enemies of Zion will be confounded.
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
The Book of Mormon is a translation, containing details of the original language in which it is written. Very few of the writers would have had a working knowledge of Egyptian; the writing would more likely be a Hebraized Egyptian. The Book of Mormon contains many passages from Isaiah, more correctly translated than in the King James Version. Various examples of the Hebrew construct state are evident in Joseph Smith’s translation, together with direct translations of Hebrew idioms.
Literal translations of Hebrew idioms are prevalent in the Book of Mormon, as are literal renditions of compound Hebrew prepositions. Parallels can be found in the Old and New Testaments, especially in the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament.
A universal element is a succinct concept with comprehensive spiritual appeal to humanity; the Book of Mormon is itself a universal element. Among universals found in the Book of Mormon are concepts (1) that truth is given of God to all peoples; (2) of faith, in which good and evil are clearly defined in terms of opposition; (3) of the purpose of man’s existence in mortality; and (4) of the importance of service given to men and God.
Although the beginning of Nephi’s record only mentions sons, Joseph Smith says the record of Lehi in the 116 missing manuscript pages refers to at least two of Ishmael’s sons marrying Lehi’s daughters. Nephi himself mentions his sisters at the end of his record. As no mention is made of further births to Lehi and Sariah after Jacob and Joseph, the assumption can be made that these sisters are the daughters who married Ishmael’s sons.
The Book of Mormon exhibits the intimate relationship between God and his people. The brother of Jared’s experience is a fine example. The driving force of the prophets was moral and religious, rather than economic and political. Social injustice was condemned by Nephi, Jacob, Alma, and Captain Moroni. Although little is said about the status of the family, respect for women and family affection are standard. Workers were well treated and friendship was promoted between Nephites and Lamanites. The Book of Mormon displays a high caliber of personal religion and brotherhood.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
The Lamanites in the Book of Mormon are descendants of the Nephite, Mulekite, and Lamanite peoples. They were a scourge to the Nephites to keep them faithful to the Lord. They survived because they observed the Lord’s commandments regarding marriage. When the elder Mosiah and his followers left, the remaining body of Nephites were probably either destroyed or became Lamanites. Once the Lamanites understood the Lord’s word, they were very faithful and renounced their previous living style. Out of this milieu came Samuel, the Lamanite prophet.
Moroni wandered alone for sixteen years before adding to the abridged record of his father. When he did make his additions, he also wrote the title page of the Book of Mormon, but in two stages, each stage necessitating a return to the Hill Cumorah. The second paragraph clearly follows his decision to abridge the book of Ether.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
No one doubts that the hill where Joseph Smith received the plates is known as Cumorah, but is the hill where the final battles between the Nephites and Lamanites took place another Cumorah? The book of Ether tells us that Omer traveled to this place of the last battles of the Nephites, and that the relatively short duration of this journey would not account for the three thousand miles from Middle America to New York. A similar journey was undertaken by Limhi’s men, of equally short duration. The description of the geographical features around the final battle site is also at odds with the topography of present-day Cumorah.
The prophecies given by Moroni to Joseph Smith come from Malachi, Isaiah, and Joel. The Malachi prophecies deal with the rise and restoration of the church, preparation for the millennium, and the significance of the sons of Levi. The Isaiah prophecies, explained in the Doctrine and Covenants, give a direct explanation of the millennium and Joseph’s own role in the preparation for it. The Joel prophecies have to do with the events just prior to the “great and terrible day of the Lord.”
Bibliography of Sidney B. Sperry’s writings.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 4, No. 2 (1995)
This article defines fifteen criteria one can use to measure the strength or weakness of a proposed chiastic pattern in a given text. The need for rigor in such studies depends primarily on how the results of the proposed structural analyses will be used. Ultimately, analysts may not know with certainty whether an author created inverted parallel structures intentionally or not; but by examining a text from various angles, one may assess the likelihood that an author consciously employed chiasmus to achieve specific literary purposes.
Hebrew poetry is based on various patterns of parallelism. Parallel lines are in turn created by the use of parallel words, that is, pairs of words bearing generally synonymous or antithetic meanings. Since the 1930s, scholars have come to realize that many of these “word pairs” were used repeatedly in a formulaic fashion as the basic building blocks of different parallel lines. The Book of Mormon reflects numerous parallel structures, including synonymous parallelism, antithetic parallelism, and chiasmus. As word pairs are a function of parallelism, the presence of such parallel structures in the Book of Mormon suggests the possible presence of word pairs within those structures. This article catalogs the use of forty word pairs that occur in parallel collocations both in the Book of Mormon and in Hebrew poetry.
The failure of those who reject the historicity of the Book of Mormon to respond cogently to the increasing body of evidence and argument supporting historicity is becoming painfully apparent. Stephen E. Thompson’s recent review of Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6/1 (1994) is one of the most recent examples of this "straw man" approach.
This paper suggests the use of narrative criticism, a recent literary interpretive tool, as a favorable method of Book of Mormon interpretation. As an example of narrative interpretation, the narrative by Samuel the Lamanite in Helaman 13–16 is analyzed as a discrete narrative portion of the Book of Mormon for the exploration of the possibilities of a narrative critical approach to its text. Instead of focusing on the content of Samuel’s exhortations, lamentations, and prophecies in order to understand these passages, I interpret the surrounding narrative and find it serves as an impressive complement to the doctrinal content of Samuel’s discourse.
The book of Mosiah is a cultic history of the reign of Mosiah2, structured around three royal ceremonies in 124, 121, and 92–91 BC. On each of these occasions, newly discovered scriptures were read to the people, stressing the dangers of monarchical government and celebrating the deliverance of the people and the revelation of Jesus Christ. This book existed independently hundreds of years before Mormon engraved it onto the gold plates. The most likely occasion for the writing of such a book was in the aftermath of Mosiah’s death when Alma the Younger needed to undermine the Amlicite bid to reestablish the monarchy.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Michael D. Coogan identifies the silver plates found in a Jerusalem burial site as one of the ten most significant finds for biblical archaeology because “they are our earliest witness to the text of the Bible.”
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
The small detail of the “chief market” mentioned in the story of Nephi’s prayer on his tower (Helaman 7:10) corresponds well to what is known of marketplaces in ancient Mesoamerica.
Book of Mormon descriptions of defensive fortifications are not attributable to specific nineteenth-century sources but rather to the English vocabulary of the day.
The practice of naming lands by a chief city of the land correlates well with authentic Old World practices.
The events of 3 Nephi and 4 Nephi may foreshadow the events of the final days as witnesses of Christ are killed, are raised from the dead, and continue to instill fear in the hearts of the wicked.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 4 Nephi
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 5, No. 1 (1996)
The time-depth of the Romance language family (ca. 2,000 years) yields an abundance of similarities among languages descended from Latin: Spanish, French, Italian, and so forth. The time-depth of Lehi is not much greater (2,600 years), yet no similar abundance of accepted linguistic evidence for Lehi’s presence in the Americas has emerged. Is this because of a lack of evidence or a lack of looking? We cannot know until we look. The relative absence of effort in Native American languages relevant to Book of Mormon research is a huge void in Latter-day Saint scholarly endeavor. This paper discusses the value of and need to void this existing void, and presents from one Native American language family an example of the possibilities.
Positivist historiography has always maintained an impermeable boundary between history and literature. But positivism is itself a historical sediment whose time is now past. Recent literary theory and historiography emphasize the continuities between history and literature. Under the domination of historiography by a positivist epistemology (from about 1880 to 1960), history attempted to free itself from its literary heritage. More recently theorists from a number of disciplines have recognized that history, both ancient and modern, has been informed by literary motifs, themes, and strategies. The repetition of the exodus literary pattern, for example, through the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and Christian history does nothing to bring into question the historical status of the events. The exodus patterns evident in Mosiah do not force the Book of Mormon to surrender historical claims just because they also happen to be literary.
Alma’s sermon at Ammonihah includes a remarkable passage (Alma 13:1–9) that contains a main chiasm as well as four shorter chiasms and four alternates. It also uses synonymia, cycloides, repetition, and an important Nephite idiom (rest). In addition, this passage explains the doctrine of the priesthood and the eternal nature of Christ in conjunction with the priesthood, and introduces the doctrines of a preparatory redemption and the rest of God.
This paper explores several relationships between the texts in Moroni 2–6 and the words and deeds of Jesus in 3 Nephi 18. The opening chapters of Moroni contain the words that Jesus Christ spoke to the twelve when he ordained them to the high priesthood, the words used by the Nephites in administering the sacrament, and also a few words by Moroni about baptism, church membership, congregational worship, and ecclesiastical discipline. This study demonstrates that these instructions and procedures were rooted in the words and deeds of the resurrected Jesus in 3 Nephi 18 as he administered the sacrament, gave instructions to his disciples, and conferred upon the twelve the power to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost. Thus, one can appreciate the extent to which Nephite ecclesiastical procedures were based directly on the Savior’s instructions and ministry. Those practices, essential to the restored gospel, came from that divine source.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
Alma’s distinctive use of the word state in the Book of Mormon is present in his unique concentration of state, his tendency to reword with state, and his treatment of a shared topic involving state.
The Iliad features some battle clothing, battle tactics, reasons for fighting, and smiting off arms of enemies similar to those in the Book of Mormon, thus strengthening the links to an Old World culture.
Spanish chroniclers describe the use of various swords, including the macuahuitl, in Mesoamerican culture. The macuahuitl may fit the criteria for a Book of Mormon “sword.”
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Prophetic references to Christ appear not only in the Book of Mormon but also in other ancient Christian works.
Possible scripts for the “reformed Egyptian” referred to in the Book of Mormon include abnormal hieratic and carved hieratic.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 5, No. 2 (1996)
The Protestant Bible wars were fought between fundamentalists, who initially claimed for the Bible the same "truth" that Enlightenment claimed for science, and liberals, who denied that historical "truth" could be achieved at all. In the present Book of Mormon wars the opposite seems to be true: the liberal camp appears deeply rooted in the Enlightenment paradigm, while the orthodox (but not fundamentalist) position often uses postmodernist arguments, claiming that absolute objectivity is a "noble dream" never achieved nor obtainable in historical studies. The article reviews the present Mormon controversies by comparing them to the discussions on biblical interpretation in the Roman Catholic Church, as summarized in the semiofficial 1993 document "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church" by the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
In a 1991 BYU Studies article, I identified and analyzed three core Book of Mormon passages in which the gospel or doctrine of Jesus Christ is defined. Each of these passages presents the gospel as a six-point formula or message about what men must do if they will be saved. In the present article I go on to examine all other Book of Mormon references to the six elements in this formula. Faith is choosing to trust in Jesus Christ in all that one does. Repentance is turning away from the life of sin by making a covenant to obey the Lord and remember him always. Baptism in water is the public witnessing to the Father of that covenant. The baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost is a gift sent from the Father in fulfillment of his promise to all his children that if they will repent and be baptized, they will be filled with the Holy Ghost. It brings the remission of sins with its cleansing fires. The recipient of these great blessings must yet endure to the end in faith, hope, and charity in order to obtain salvation, or eternal life.
Prophesying of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, Nephi foretold that an unlearned man would be asked by God to read the words of a book after a learned man had failed to do so. The unlearned man was initially unwilling, claiming, “I am not learned” (2 Nephi 27:19). One interpretation of Nephi’s account is that Joseph Smith could not translate the Book of Mormon before the meeting of Martin Harris and Charles Anthon. Early historical accounts are consistent with this interpretation. However, according to Joseph Smith—History 1:64, Harris did take a translation to Anthon. Although this translation has not been found, evidence exists of similarities between this document and documents produced during the preliminary stages of the translation of the Book of Abraham. These similarities suggest that the document taken to Anthon was a preliminary and unsuccessful attempt to translate the Book of Mormon, during which Joseph Smith studied the translation problem out in his own mind as he qualified himself to receive the revealed translation from God.
Book of Mormon language frequently contains lengthy structures of rather awkward English. Some may consider these to be instances of poor grammar, weakness in writing (Ether 12:23–26), or the literary ineptness of a fraudulent author; however, I see them as potentially significant support for a translation from a Near Eastern language in an ancient American setting. Many of these examples of awkward, lengthy structures in English parallel Semitic (and Egyptian) patterns, particularly the circumstantial or hal-clause. In response to critics of my previous proposal to that effect, this article is a lengthier treatment of these lengthy structures found in the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon annals open in an ancient Near Eastern context. The archaeological-historical context is carefully outlined here within a systematic chronology that is tied to fixed, absolute dates of recorded astronomical events—particularly those from cuneiform eponym calendars. The resultant matrix allows those early Book of Mormon events to be understood in a rational, familiar, and meaningful way—that is, in a biblical context. In addition, an excursus is devoted to understanding the Arabia of the Book of Mormon as the Lehite exiles must have known it. Throughout it is clear that the world depicted by the Book of Mormon dovetails remarkably well with what we know of the ancient Near East.
The rod or staff, as well as the sword, symbolize power and the word of God.
An Egyptian script was possibly used to write Hebrew text on the Nephite record. Documents from the correct location and time period have texts and languages in varying scripts that lend credence to this scribal phenomenon.
Nephi’s older brother Sam was a holy and just man who experienced and witnessed many events in early Nephite history.
The Lord preserves his prophets until they have delivered their messages; examples include Abinadi from the Book of Mormon, Jeremiah in 4 Baruch, and Jesus in the New Testament.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 6, No. 1 (1997)
Introduction to current issue.
Sacred trees, representing the power of life to grow from the underworld realm of the dead, are a common motif in the art and literature of the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica. Such trees are similar in concept to the tree of life described in the Book of Mormon, as well as to the mythic traditions of many other contemporary world cultures. Hieroglyphic inscriptions and sixteenth-century highland Maya texts describe a great world tree that was erected at the dawn of the present age to stand as the axis point of the cosmos. In its fruit-laden form, it personified the god of creation who fathered the progenitors of the Maya royal dynasty.
Participle adjuncts in the Book of Mormon are compared with those in the other writings of Joseph Smith and with English in general. Participle adjuncts include present participle phrases, e.g., “having gained the victory over death” (Mosiah 15:8); present participle clauses, e.g., “he having four sons” (Ether 6:20), and a double-subject adjunct construction, known as the coreferential subject construction, where both subjects refer to the same thing, as in “Alma, being the chief judge . . . of the people of Nephi, therefore he went up with the people” (Alma 2:16). The Book of Mormon is unique in the occurrences of extremely long compound adjunct phrases and coreferential subject constructions, indicating that Joseph Smith used a very literal translation style for the Book of Mormon.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
In previous articles I have discussed the nature and prominence of certain linguistic structures in the Book of Mormon that are typical of hal-clauses translated from Hebrew or Egyptian. This article compares the frequencies of those structures in three works produced through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, only the first of which is a translation from an ancient Near Eastern language. The results of this preliminary investigation into styles and these linguistic structures as found in these three works are worth noting.
Over the last twenty years, various objective author-attribution techniques have been applied to the English Book of Mormon in order to shed light on the question of multiple authorship of Book of Mormon texts. Two methods, one based on rates of use of noncontextual words and one based on word-pattern ratios, measure patterns consistent with multiple authorship in the Book of Mormon. Another method, based on vocabulary-richness measures, suggests that only one author is involved. These apparently contradictory results are reconciled by showing that for texts of known authorship, the method based on vocabulary-richness measures is not as powerful in discerning differences among authors as are the other methods, especially for works translated into English by a single translator.
Two Egyptian shawabti-figurines, reputedly discovered in Acajutla, El Salvador, in 1914, are likely forgeries. Had they been authentic, they might have helped to establish cultural contact between Egypt and Mesoameria.
The story of the Jaredites being plagued by “poisonous serpents” at a time of “great dearth” makes sense when one realizes that drought causes rodents and then serpents to migrate.
The War Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls describes magnificent swords, whose workmanship may parallel that of the sword of Laban. Israelite leaders may well have carried precious swords.
The idea that King Noah’s life was to be valued “as a garment in a hot furnace” is a type of simile curse. He would suffer death by fire, which was a just punishment for the wicked.
Five-year citation index.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Five-year subject index.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 6, No. 2 (1997)
Introduction to the current issue.
Hugh Nibley’s correspondence reveals a lifelong fascination with the Book of Mormon. This is significant for two reasons: First, Nibley has taken the book seriously longer than we have as a church, and second, the private Hugh Nibley is as devoted to the Book of Mormon as is the public man.
Nibley’s interest in the book is threefold: he recognizes the striking similarities it shares with other ancient Near Eastern texts; acknowledges its witness to Joseph Smith’s divine calling; and, most importantly, perceives the relevance and accuracy of the book’s prophetic warnings. In his letters, Nibley also addresses criticism raised against his methodology. “The potential power” of the Book of Mormon, writes Nibley, “is something to move mountains; it will only take effect when everything is pretty far gone, but then it will be dynamite. That leaves room for optimism.” Hugh Nibley’s words make that optimism contagious.
“Something to Move Mountains: Hugh Nibley’s Devotion to the Book of Mormon” (2001)
“Something to Move Mountains: Hugh Nibley and the Book of Mormon” (2002)
Identifying the poetic forms in the Book of Mormon enables readers to appreciate its beautiful literary style and gain a better understanding of its message. The form-critical analysis of psalms, first outlined by Hermann Gunkel in 1926, demonstrates sharp similarities between Nephi’s psalm and similar psalms in the Old Testament. Nephi’s psalm plainly follows the format and substance of the individual lament as described by Gunkel and elaborated by numerous subsequent scholars. As in other instances of Hebrew poetic forms in the Book of Mormon, understanding and appreciating the psalm, more particularly the personal lament, can offer new insights into 2 Nephi 4:16–35 and make its message of hope and trust more powerful and personal.
Study of the varied metaphorical levels of the Book of Mormon continues to yield new insights into the message and meaning of that book. Several prominent typological readings of aspects of the Book of Mormon have been published, but despite calls for such an effort, little inquiry into its possible archetypal levels, or what has been called “the mythic dimension” of the book, has yet been undertaken. As an initial attempt at such an endeavor, I compare certain events described in 1 Nephi with the elements of one prominent mythic archetype, the hero’s journey, as elucidated by Joseph Campbell in his famous The Hero with a Thousand Faces. A strong correlation between the hero’s journey archetype and the events from 1 Nephi is intriguing and seems to demonstrate at least the presence of mythic patterns in the Book of Mormon. This leads to some preliminary conclusions about what the apparent presence of such patterns might signify.
One of the principal themes of Nephi’s writings on the small plates is his desire to convince others of Christ. A second, related theme is his desire to write plain and precious things on those plates. Some of the most plain and precious writings of Nephi are those instances in which he used the name Christ in chiasmus or other forms of poetry. Perhaps more than any other portion of his words, Nephi intended these plain and precious writings to convince both Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the one true Messiah.
One of the great miracles of the Book of Mormon occurred when the brother of Jared asked the Lord to touch some clear stones so they would provide light inside the barges that would take his people across the ocean to the New World. To some modern readers, the story seems implausible. This article surveys a number of ancient and medieval accounts of glowing stones, including some said to have been used in Noah’s ark and the “fish” the Lord prepared to swallow Jonah. The parallels to the Jaredite story are remarkable and suggest an ancient milieu for the book of Ether.
The publication of the Book of Mormon brought forward the first of many comparisons between the restorational work of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his surrounding environment, including Freemasonry. One point of comparison has been the lambskin apparel mentioned in 3 Nephi 4:7. A possible connection exists between this item of apparel and ritual clothing that was worn in ancient Israel, Egypt, and Mesoamerica. I suggest a possible reason for the use of this item of clothing among the secret combinations in the Book of Mormon and discuss the lambskin apron used in Freemasonic ritual.
Old Testament Topics > Temple and Tabernacle
The Book of Mormon describes a great division in mankind between the few who walk in the way of life and the many who walk in the way of death. This division results from the response of each individual to Christ or to the voice of God during probation. Men either hearken to the voice of Christ and progressively acquire spiritual life or they hearken to the voice of the devil and progressively descend into spiritual death. Nine Book of Mormon texts reveal detailed teachings on life and death. A diagram illustrates the ideas of each text. The conception and portrayal of spiritual reality in terms of two mutually exclusive, progressively diverging, and correspondingly opposite ways of life and death are clearly demonstrated. This dualistic conception of reality underlies the entire Book of Mormon. An understanding of this paradigm is critical, in order both to assimilate the essential message of the Book of Mormon on life and death and to understand its theological relationship to the Doctrine and Covenants.
The lengthy sojourn of Lehi’s family in the Arabian desert invites the almost inevitable question whether circumstances forced family members to live in the service of tribesmen either for protection or for food. In my view, enough clues exist in the Book of Mormon—they have to be assembled—to bring one to conclude that the family lived for a time in a servile condition, a situation that apparently entailed suffering and conflict.
Since the late 1960s RLDS “liberals” have argued that the Book of Mormon should not be read as an authentic ancient history. This novel reading of the Book of Mormon has been part of a sustained effort by the RLDS hierarchy to make the Reorganization conform more closely with Protestant liberal approaches to the Bible. I demonstrate that the RLDS hierarchy has encouraged changes in the way the Book of Mormon is read by RLDS intellectuals. I then examine the arguments of Roger Launius, currently the foremost RLDS historian, who has recently insisted that the Book of Mormon ought to be read as “inspiring” frontier fiction. I also describe and criticize his claim that any concern with the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon is not serious historical scholarship, which he wants focused on issues currently fashionable among secularized historians.
A follow-up on a previous article on enallage provides further strength for a pattern of a speech to a prophet in which later verses seem to be addressed to both the prophet and his posterity by use of the plural ye.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
The fragmentary text on a stele erected at Karnak seems to be connected with the volcanic eruption on Thera. The phraseology in many instances bears uncanny resemblance to the Book of Mormon account of the destruction in the Americas at the time of the crucifixion.
Expressions similar to “that which is to come” (Mosiah 3:1) refer specifically to Christ. Numerous prophets prophesy of Christ and the good news of his atoning influence in our lives.
A Jewish custom of blessing God after eating one’s fill at a meal is reflected in passing in Amulek’s household and when the resurrected Christ blesses the sacrament for the Nephites and thereafter instructs them to pray. They “gave glory to Jesus” on this occasion.
Old Testament Topics > Customs, Culture, and Ritual
The place-names Cumorah, Jershon, and Zarahemla have possible Hebrew origins.
Lehi’s visionary powers are manifest when he “dreamed a dream” or has “seen a vision.” This cognate accusative construction in which the verb is followed by a noun from the same root lends authenticity to the antiquity of the Book of Mormon.
Word groupings, which tend to fall in certain categories, are an authentic means of expression in Hebrew poetry. Such groupings may reveal ties between the Book of Mormon and the biblical world.
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon consistently use such phrases as “Book of Lehi,” “plates of Lehi,” and “account of Nephi” in distinct ways.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 7, No. 1 (1998)
Introduction to this issue.
According to the Book of Mormon, a land named “Bountiful” was a fertile site on the Arabian Peninsula with timber, fresh water, and ore where Nephi built a ship to carry Lehi’s group to the New World. In the seemingly barren land of the southern Arabian peninsula, a site that appears to correspond to the description in Nephi’s record has been identified on the remote southern coast of the country of Oman. Kharfot may not be the exact location of Bountiful, but its discovery does show that a place matching the criteria for Bountiful does exist.
In February 1998, five Brigham Young University professors spent more than a week together in southern Oman to collect data for future research projects in the area, which seems to correspond to the end of Lehi’s trail in the Old World. Future research must be performed in a professional manner and seek to reconstruct that part of the world in 600 BC. Botanical, archaeological, chronological, mineralogical, geological, and inscriptional studies in the area would depend on acquiring sponsors in Oman and on the availability of resources.
Details of the translation process Joseph Smith used for translating the Book of Mormon from the plates can be adduced from statements of witnesses and from evidence in the original and printer’s manuscripts. According to witnesses, Joseph Smith often translated without the plates being present and used the interpreters to receive the revealed text. Evidence from the manuscripts themselves shows that the original manuscript was written from dictation, that Joseph Smith was working with at least twenty words at a time, that Joseph Smith could see the spelling of names, that the scribe repeated the text to Joseph Smith, and that the word chapter and the corresponding chapter numbers were not part of the revealed text. The manuscripts and text show that Joseph Smith apparently received the translation word for word and letter for letter, in what is known as “tight control.”
In 1 Nephi 13–14, Nephi describes major characteristics of the great and abominable church: it persecutes and slays the Saints of God; it seeks wealth and luxury; it is characterized by sexual immortality; it has excised plain and precious things from the scriptures; it has dominion over all the earth; and its fate is destruction by a world war. Nephi’s vision, known as an apocalyptic vision in biblical literature, corresponds well to features of Babylon as described in the apocalyptic Revelation of John (Revelation 17). Clearly, the earliest apostate church and the great and abominable church are the same. A suggested description for this phenomenon, avoiding a denominational name, is hellenized Christianity.
Third Nephi 22 (quoting Isaiah 54) addresses a desolate woman who will be redeemed in the latter days. The desolate woman represents Zion, which itself signifies the city of Enoch in ancient times, the hill where the temple was built in Jerusalem, the celestial city of God, the kingdom of God on earth, and a covenant community of temple-worthy Saints. The Lord promises to relieve the desolation of Zion felt through barrenness, lack of a permanent home, and being forsaken and persecuted. The destiny of Zion parallels the pattern of Noah—both remain faithful to their covenants and witness a cleansing of the earth. The Savior serves as Zion’s husband. The servants of the Lord are equated with Zion—the Lord will not allow oppressors to be successful against Zion. The Lord promises to redeem Zion as he sings a song of redeeming love.
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
Old Testament Topics > Book of Mormon and the Old Testament
Old Testament Topics > Women in the Old Testament
Nephite record keepers were very meticulous in monitoring the passage of time. Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah marks the beginning of one formal reckoning of time. The prophesied 600-year window to the birth of Christ could well have been measured in lunar years. Lehi must have drawn on familiar Israelite calendrical practices to establish his calendar. Lehi’s descendants likely used twelve lunar months for their calendar without adding an occasional thirteenth month to adjust for the length of a solar year, which would solve the chronological problem of dating Lehi’s departure 600 years before the birth of Christ.
Concepts from the Book of Mormon contributed to how the church was built up and conducted. Oliver Cowdery was instructed to draw upon the Book of Mormon in formulating his vision of how the restored church should be organized and regulated. His 1829 Articles of the Church of Christ were a precursor to Joseph Smith’s 1830 Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ (now known as Doctrine and Covenants 20). Three key aspects of church organization that originated in the Book of Mormon include baptism and priesthood authority, the ordination of priests and teachers, and the administration of the Lord’s supper.
The name Alma appears more frequently in the Book of Mormon than any other name besides Nephi. The name has a logical derivation from a Hebrew root that means “youth” or “lad.”
Responses to the following questions appear here: “Is the ‘fulness of the gospel’ in the Book of Mormon?” and “What is the meaning of ‘familiar spirit’ in Isaiah 29?”
Cracroft reviews the following books that can deepen one’s understanding of the Book of Mormon: Richard Dilworth Rust’s Feasting on the Word: The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon; Marilyn Arnold’s Sweet Is the Word: Reflections on the Book of Mormon: Its Narrative, Teachings and People; and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
This department gives news updates on various topics related to Book of Mormon studies: evidence of Chinese voyagers in Mexico, publicity on an ancient skull of a Caucasian male discovered in Washington, excavation of an ancient basilica in Jordan, Egyptian figurines from El Salvador shown to be fakes, and the establishment of a new journal, Pre-Columbiana: A Journal of Long-distance Contacts.
The Smithsonian statement about the Book of Mormon has been revised to indicate that the “Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific guide.” James E. Talmage correctly identified various Michigan relics as fraudulent.
Observations from Jakeman’s students honor this LDS scholar, who could be called the father of Book of Mormon archaeology.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 8, No. 1 (1999)
Introduction to the current issue.
The M?ori people read and understood the Book of Mormon from their own cultural perspective. Rather than examining particular verses for doctrinal content, the M?ori viewed the Book of Mormon as a moral story of a people with failings and strengths. They likened the stories to themselves, feeling they lacked the spiritual strength to stay on a righteous path for long. They saw a tragic story of families in conflict and subtribes and tribes quarreling with each other and bent on revenge for personal insults and factional quarrels. The kinship ties seemed particularly relevant to them. The Book of Mormon can be read in multiple ways and will be interpreted according to the cultural background of those reading it.
Stela 5, a large stone monument discovered in 1941 in Izapa, Mexico, was identified a decade later by M. Wells Jakeman as a bas-relief of Lehi’s vision of the tree of life. Scholars and laymen alike have both accepted and scoffed at this theory. This article provides a historical sketch of reactions to this claim and discusses some of the implications of accepting or rejecting Jakeman’s theory. Jakeman was the first to publish an LDS interpretation of Stela 5; later V. Garth Norman proposed a different interpretation based on a series of high-quality photographs of the monument. Suzanne Miles, a non-Mormon, postulated that Izapa Stela 5 presented a “fantastic visual myth,” and Gareth W. Lowe proposed that Stela 5 presents an original creation myth. Further criticisms and responses ensued over the years.
Excerpts from a letter written in 1962 reveal how Jakeman’s interpretation of Stela 5 quickly stimulated a body of folklore among some Latter-day Saints.
Aided by creative techniques, Ajáx Moreno carefully prepared more accurate, detailed renderings of the Izapa monuments, including Stela 5, with its complex scenes of gods and other supernatural creatures, royalty, animals invested with mythic and value symbolism, and mortals. The author raises relevant questions about reconciling Jakeman’s view with the new drawing: Are there Old World connections? Can Izapa be viewed as a Book of Mormon city? Did the Nephites know of Lehi’s dream? Are there name glyphs on the stela? The scene, if it does not depict Lehi’s dream, fits clearly in Mesoamerican art in theme, style, technical execution, and meaning. The basic theme of Stela 5 may be the king as intercessor with the gods on behalf of his people.
Roper examines the use of the terms sword and cimeter in a Mesoamerican setting as well as in the Book of Mormon text. The macuahuitl was a fearsome weapon consisting of a long, flat piece of hardwood with grooves along the side into which sharp fragments of flint or obsidian were set and glued. Our knowledge of this weapon comes more from written accounts than actual artifacts because few specimens have survived. The Book of Mormon sword of Laban was used as a model for making swords, but they were not necessarily made of the same material. The discussion in Alma 24:12 having to do with stained swords would make particular sense with wooden swords. Cimeters, or scimitars, differ from swords in having curved blades. Several kinds of swords and cimeters that were in use in ancient Mesoamerica are plausible candidates for Book of Mormon weapons.
Parallels between sickle swords and two-bladed knives in ancient Mesoamerica and the Near East may strengthen the possibility of some historical link between the areas. Similarities in weapons terminology may also lead to fruitful research.
Ammon, a Nephite missionary who chose to serve a Lamanite king as his servant, gained fame by cutting off the arms of the king’s enemies. The practice of smiting off arms of enemies as trophies fits a cultural pattern known among the later Aztecs and Maya in pre-Spanish Mesoamerica.
Literary analysis provides useful tools in the study of sacred texts, including the Book of Mormon. For the author, three transforming events that enhanced her study of the Book of Mormon included reading the book in earnest as a complex and masterful literary text, the entrance of the Spirit into her study of the book, and a prayerful desire to experience the great change of heart described by King Benjamin and Alma. Nephi begins his record with sincerity and honesty and serves notice that he intends to prepare a true record. The opposition between Nephi and his brothers Laman and Lemuel illustrates well Lehi’s teachings on the necessity of opposition in all things. More subtly, the reader notes a contrast between the characters and personalities of Nephi and Jacob. Jacob is portrayed as an empathetic and compassionate person who was tutored by exile and isolation.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
The author serendipitously discovered a stream east of the Gulf of Aqaba that seems to share the physical features of Lehi’s “river of water” that “emptied into the Red Sea” and was “continually running.” The river Laman ran through the valley of Lemuel, described as “firm, steadfast, and immovable.” The stream and the canyon seem to fulfill the conditions of the river of Laman and the valley of Lemuel.
Berrett discusses point by point reasons why an ancient burial complex at Khirbet Beit Lei, sometimes called “Lehi’s cave,” is unlikely to have Book of Mormon connections. Brown describes a carved altar inscribed to the tribe Nihm discovered in the southwest Arabian peninsula (Yemen)—this location may be the place Nahom where Nephi’s father-in-law, Ishmael, was buried, according to the Book of Mormon record. The characters on the Anthon transcript reportedly taken by Martin Harris to New York to show to Professor Charles Anthon bear resemblance to characters on two Mexican seals made of baked clay. Szink identifies another possible Semitic source for the name Alma in the tablets of Ebla uncovered in Syria.
Responses to the following questions appear here: “Did the Nephites have authority to sacrifice?” and “Did the Nephites sacrifice first-born animals contrary to the law of Moses?”
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Bell reviews the following books about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon: Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr.’s edited volume Joseph Smith: The Prophet, the Man; Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor’s edition of The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother; John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks’s edited volume King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom”; and Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch’s edited volume Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.
It is highly unlikely that an object found in Lake Michigan could be a Jaredite barge. Lee Siegel reports about an archaeological dig at Piedras Negras, Guatemala, conceived and run by Brigham Young University’s Dr. Stephen Houston. A bronze sword discovered in Texas may be an Old World artifact. A linguist documents convincingly that the Ket language in western Siberia shares cognates with the Na-Dene language family of North America, thus showing possible transcontinental linguistic links.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 8, No. 2 (1999)
Introduction to the current issue.
Marian Robertson Wilson recounts her memories of her father, Leroy Robertson, and of the creation of his masterpiece, the Oratorio from the Book of Mormon. The idea to compose an oratorio based on the Book of Mormon first came to Robertson when Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles casually suggested it to him one day in 1919. After his conversation with Elder Ballard, Robertson dedicated much of his time to studying the Book of Mormon and choosing sections of scripture to use in his compilation. The piece eventually received attention from LDS church leadership and from the renowned Maurice Abravanel. It significantly impacted missionary work, as well as the work of other LDS composers.
After Joseph Smith received the gold plates from the angel Moroni, he had to take great measures to protect them from people who wanted to steal them for their monetary value. Although Joseph did not leave much documentation of such experiences, the people who were closely associated with him at the time did. Using what records still exist, Hedges pieces together some of the stories of Joseph’s challenges in obtaining and protecting the gold plates.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and Book of Mormon prophet Lehi were contemporaries, and both preached repentance to the people of Jerusalem. Despite their common love for the truth, these men led very different lives because the first was commanded to remain in Jerusalem and the latter was commanded to leave. This article examines the lives and teachings of Jeremiah and Lehi and compares them to each other, suggesting that Jeremiah’s life symbolizes God’s justice and that Lehi’s life symbolizes God’s mercy.
This article addresses the seemingly misplaced discussion of weights and measures in the middle of Alma 11 in the Book of Mormon. Although the interruption initially seems strange, John Welch offers new insights to explain its purpose in the Book of Mormon. For instance, knowledge of the Nephite monetary system supplements a reader’s comprehension of the bribery and corruption that occurred in that society. Evidence of this monetary system also shows a link between Near Eastern civilizations and Book of Mormon civilizations, thus providing further evidence for the divinity of Joseph Smith’s work.
This table compares Nephite weights and measures with Egyptian values and gives possible equivalents in grams and ounces.
Ancient Mesoamericans used some systems of weights and measures; items in the market, though, were usually sold by volume. The Mesoamerican weights and measures may coincide with the weights and measures described in Alma 11 of the Book of Mormon, but more research is necessary in order to make conclusive claims.
Despite the emphasis that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints places on scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon, some members find it difficult to truly love the scriptures. This article claims that by pondering the scriptures often, members can better understand and appreciate the prophetic words. In order to find a deeper love for the scriptures, readers should consider the following details while reading: the setting of a passage; the meaning of various words and phrases; the author’s attitude when he wrote the passage; the possible comparisons between passages; the possible implied messages of the authors; the possible reasons for the inclusion of a specific passage; the organization of the scriptures; the repetition of ideas, words, and sounds; and the emphasis of certain words. By pondering each of these aspects, readers can gain a greater love for and appreciation of the scriptures.
Brigham Henry Roberts, a Book of Mormon scholar in the early twentieth century, was a pioneer in his field. He conducted research regarding the culture and the geography of the Book of Mormon peoples in an attempt to determine the setting of the Book of Mormon. His extensive work in this area has significantly influenced the progress of Book of Mormon research. Roberts also enthusiastically defended the book when others criticized it. He was able to do so effectively because of his study of and familiarity with the Book of Mormon. Roberts did, however, have a few limitations, the most detrimental being his unfounded assumption that “the narrow neck of land” in the Book of Mormon is the Isthmus of Panama. Yet, Roberts’s pioneering efforts remain today a crucial catalyst to modern analytical studies of the Book of Mormon.
In June 1834, members of Zion’s Camp discovered skeleton bones that Joseph Smith reportedly revealed as belonging to a “white Lamanite” named Zelph. Many Latter-day Saints have referenced this unearthing as evidence that the Book of Mormon took place in North America, rather than in Mesoamerica. This article explores the significance and reliability of the accounts concerning Zelph’s existence, and it claims that although such a discovery is exciting and insightful, many of the accounts are inconsistent and most of the details surrounding Zelph and his life remain unknown. The skeleton cannot, therefore, provide conclusive evidence for anything, and Latter-day Saints should remember that more important than identifying the location of Book of Mormon events is strengthening their belief in the book’s divinity.
This author requests help in compiling a list of useful reference books that readers can use when studying the Book of Mormon. Such a list would include dictionaries, encyclopedias, and atlases.
This article examines several interesting discoveries pertaining to the Book of Mormon.
Anthony W. Ivins suggests that the Jaredites may not have been completely extinct, that Coriantumr, the alleged last Jaredite, may have had children with Mulekite women after he discovered the people of Zarahemla.
A wooden vessel that was found in Lake Michigan turns out to be a prototype of a proposed “sea-going tow barge” developed in World War II for the Navy.
Arrowheads discovered in Israel show that steel was in use by about 1000 BC; the name Aha was engraved with steel on one arrowhead, thus giving a Hebrew-language source for this name found in the Book of Mormon.
Researchers have found similarities between the Anthon Transcript and Old South Arabian (Arabic).
Bell reviews the following books about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon: Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr.’s edited volume Joseph Smith: The Prophet, the Man; Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor’s edition of The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother; John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks’s edited volume King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom”; and Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch’s edited volume Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 9, No. 1 (2000)
Introduction to the current issue.
The Book of Mormon mentions synagogues in twenty-five passages. An important resource that may help us understand what the Book of Mormon means by the word synagogue is the body of research on biblical synagogues. This is especially true of research related to the years prior to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, which began in 586 BC, since this is the time period when Lehi left Jerusalem. We would expect, therefore, that the nature of biblical synagogues before the captivity would have greatly influenced the concept of the synagogue that Lehi and his family took with them to the New World. In this article, William J. Adams Jr. details the historical development, nature, and cultural function of synagogues of the biblical era and relates them to the history, form, and religious function of synagogues in the New World.
A church member who has loved the Book of Mormon since childhood and who takes it for granted that the Book of Mormon is central to LDS class instruction, general conference addresses, and missionary discussions is likely to be surprised that we have only six Book of Mormon hymns in our 1985 hymnbook. Early hymn writers turned to the Book of Mormon itself for their texts. Twelve Book of Mormon hymns were introduced into Mormon hymnody by Emma Smith’s first hymnal, but the Book of Mormon as a theme almost disappeared from later hymnals. Only one hymn relating to the Book of Mormon was among the forty-nine new hymns added to the 1985 hymnal. In this article, Book of Mormon hymns are listed, discussed, and categorized. Most of the Book of Mormon hymns that have been written are narrative, rather than devotional. Each new hymnbook must meet the needs of its age. Devotional hymns are likely to be more forthcoming as literary appreciation of the Book of Mormon continues to grow.
Over two hundred proper names of peoples or places appear in the Book of Mormon text. Although some of those names appear in the Bible, a large majority of them are unique to the Book of Mormon. Paul Y. Hoskisson leads the Onomasticon Project, which seeks to identify and interpret Book of Mormon names using standard principles and methods. This article introduces five subsequent articles that demonstrate to nonspecialists how this type of research can and should be applied to the Book of Mormon. Prepared scholars—Hoskisson, Jeffrey R. Chadwick, Dana M. Pike, John A. Tvedtnes—display the type of interchange that is required to clarify and settle the issues surrounding Book of Mormon proper names. This article also introduces two additional articles that complement the onomastic discussion.
Hoskisson begins the onomastic discussion with the names Lehi and Sariah. These are two Book of Mormon names that are close in time and space to ancient Jerusalem. Hoskisson suggests etymologies for these two names. He introduces his explanation of their names with a discussion of ancient names in general. He suggests that Sariah’s name is composed of common Hebrew and Semitic elements and probably means “Jehovah is my prince.” Lehi’s name has a few possible meanings, evidence that it is not yet possible to come to a firm conclusion about some names. Ambiguity reminds scholars that the study of onomastica does not always yield clear results, that conclusions cannot be dogmatic, that previous suggestions should always be reevaluated, and that new suggestions are welcome.
Unlike the Old and New Testaments, where a variety of Hebrew and Greek texts exist to aid us, for the Book of Mormon we have only the King James English translation produced by Joseph Smith. The languages of the Book of Mormon were hardly the same throughout the original composition. Chadwick continues the onomastic discussion of the names Lehi and Sariah by suggesting that the Book of Mormon name Lehi matches the spelling in the King James Bible in the place-name Ramath-lehi; therefore the two must necessarily represent the same Hebrew term. He agrees with one of Hoskisson’s meanings for Lehi’s name— “jaw”— and indicates this may be a nickname rather than a proper name. Sariah is attested as a female name in a Near Eastern document. Although not found as a female name in the Bible, it is well documented as a male name in ancient Israel. In this light, the name means “Jehovah is Prince,” meaning Jehovah is the son of a king.
In this article Pike responds to Hoskisson’s conclusions about the etymology of the names Lehi and Sariah. He agrees with Hoskisson that Sariah is a theophoric name, which was common in ancient Israel and means “My prince is Jehovah.” However he suggests that the name should be grammatically distinguished from the masculine biblical personal name Seraiah. Although he offers an additional possibility for the meaning of the name Lehi, he agrees with Hoskisson’s suggestion that the name means “cheek.” The remainder of the article discusses the challenge of doing onomastic analysis on ancient non-English names when only an English form is available and further mentions the frequency of giving newborns in ancient Israel names of a religious nature.
Tvedtnes adds to the onomastic discussion of the names of Lehi and Sariah in this article. He suggests that scholars should not be dissuaded by the fact that the name Sariah is found only for men. He discusses the difference between etymology and attestation of names. In the first article of this discussion, Hoskisson concluded that personal names containing parts of the body are rare in all the ancient Semitic languages. Tvedtnes, on the other hand, finds numerous examples of personal names derived from body parts. He concludes with his analysis that Sariah means “Jehovah is (my/a) prince” and that Lehi means “cheek, jawbone.”
Hoskisson responds to and elaborates on the comments about the names Lehi and Sariah that Chadwick, Pike, and Tvedtnes provided in this onomastic discussion. Where Hoskisson disagrees with their conclusions, he uses examples to defend his position. He acknowledges the contribution this discussion has provided to the study of Book of Mormon proper names. He welcomes further examples on the points suggested by these scholars
In recent years, a large number of ancient writings have been found in and around Israel. While many of these include names found in the Bible and other ancient texts, others were previously unattested in written sources. Some of these previously unattested names, though unknown in the Bible, are found in the Book of Mormon. The discovery of these Hebrew names in ancient inscriptions provides remarkable evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and provides clear refutation of those critics who would place its origin in nineteenth-century America. This article explores several Book of Mormon proper names that are attested from Hebrew inscriptions. Names included are Sariah, Alma, Abish, Aha, Ammonihah, Chemish, Hagoth, Himni, Isabel, Jarom, Josh, Luram, Mathoni, Mathonihah, Muloki, and Sam—none of which appear in English Bibles.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Nobody in the early days of the church attempted to define in print how the proper names appearing in the Book of Mormon—but not the Bible—were to be pronounced. Joseph Smith spelled out unfamiliar proper names to his scribes during the translation process, and he never formally recorded his pronunciations. Throughout the twentieth century, several church committees attempted to standardize the pronunciation and provided a printed guide for English-speaking church members. In studying the pronunciation guide’s evolution for English-speaking church members, one thing becomes clear: church members will probably never pronounce Book of Mormon proper names correctly until either the ancients themselves tell us how they said their names or the Lord reveals the proper pronunciations.
One approach to reconstructing the Prophet Joseph Smith’s pronunciation of the proper names in the Book of Mormon is to determine how his close associates in the early days of the church later pronounced the names. In the Deseret Alphabet we have a record of the pronunciation in vogue in 1869. It is plausible that pronunciation of the names did not change much between 1830, when the scripture first appeared in English, and the publication of the Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon in 1869. This article includes a table of pronunciation of eighteen names from the Book of Mormon according to the phonetic Deseret Alphabet characters compared with the sounds recommended in the “Pronouncing Guide,” which appears in all English-language editions today.
This essay analyzes examples of poetry in the Hebrew Bible and the Book of Mormon that do not conform to the standards to which prose is typically confined. Each of these poems contains a syntactic device that scholars have come to identify by the term enallage (Greek for “interchange”). Rather than being a case of textual corruption or blatant error, the grammatical variance attested in these passages provides a poetic articulation of a progression from distance to proximity.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Paul Henning was born in Germany in 1872 and passed away in 1923. He was the first Latter-day Saint to become a professional archaeologist and Mesoamerican scholar. He was also the first to bring his professional knowledge to bear on how to correlate the Book of Mormon record with the physical remains and history of the area now widely considered among church members as the core Book of Mormon location. While his ideas on these matters were never published, he deserves to be saluted as a pioneer of Book of Mormon studies. This biographical article includes information about his association with Benjamin C. Cluff Jr., president of Brigham Young University, and his contribution to the university.
Martin Raish suggests that although there are only two dictionaries of Mesoamerican archaeology and culture, both are quite good and can be augmented with some excellent travel guides and wall maps. Together they help readers better understand the terminology of art history and archaeology, become more conversant with the names of sites and cultures, and feel more confident about the general outlines of history in likely Book of Mormon lands. The author specifically recommends two dictionaries, a volume on Mesoamerican religions, an atlas, some traveler’s guides, and some National Geographic Society maps.
This article details three topics. First, Oliver Huntington was an early LDS pioneer who wrote or dictated numerous reminiscences, including on his association with Joseph Smith. On 16 February 1895, he wrote the names of the three Nephites who “do not sleep.” Historians find that some of what he recorded does not square with other reports. Without corroborating statements from other sources, we cannot know if he is correct. Second, Monument 6 near Palenque, Mexico, prophesies the descent of the god Bolon Yokte K’u. This monument allows confidence that the practice of prophesying future happenings was going on within a few centuries after the end of the Book of Mormon period. Third, two landmark publications raised the profile of the long-debated question about transoceanic contact. The article also briefly mentions a report about research that uncovers evidence of an Atlantic crossing.
Recent genetic studies indicate that Polynesians were connected to ancient America. Careful reading of native sources led European scholar Michel Graulich to conclude that pre-Columbian Americans held beliefs that may arise out of the Christian tradition. Whether he or those he opposes are correct, the caution to allow more than one interpretative stance remains appropriate. Interpretations of scriptural history are possibly “contingent upon the theoretical inclinations” of the investigators. The historical process of the Anufo people of the Ivory Coast territory suggests how “robbers” or “secret societies” could have grown to be players on the sociopolitical scene in Mesoamerica.
Recent genetic studies indicate that Polynesians were connected to ancient America. Careful reading of native sources led European scholar Michel Graulich to conclude that pre-Columbian Americans held beliefs that may arise out of the Christian tradition. Whether he or those he opposes are correct, the caution to allow more than one interpretative stance remains appropriate. Interpretations of scriptural history are possibly “contingent upon the theoretical inclinations” of the investigators. The historical process of the Anufo people of the Ivory Coast territory suggests how “robbers” or “secret societies” could have grown to be players on the sociopolitical scene in Mesoamerica.
In memory of John L. Hilton and his contribution to Book of Mormon word-print studies.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 9, No. 2 (2000)
The introduction to this issue is a discussion of the emphasis of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies as defined by the editors.
Insights can be gained by considering the eight-year wilderness sojourn of Lehi’s company through the eyes of the women who were there. Leaving the comforts of civilization for the difficulties of the desert would have been very challenging. While the record in 1 Nephi mentions nine women, Sariah was the only one identified by name. Nephi records Sariah’s struggles as well as her testimony. The record of the women in 1 Nephi communicates much about the need to seek and receive one’s own witness of truth.
Asherah was the chief goddess of the Canaanites. She was El’s wife and the mother and wet nurse of the other gods. At least some Israelites worshipped her over a period from the conquest of Canaan in the second millennium before Christ to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC (the time of Lehi’s departure with his family). Asherah was associated with trees—sacred trees. The rabbinic authors of the Jewish Mishna (second–third century ad) explain the asherah as a tree that was worshipped. In 1 Nephi 11, Nephi considers the meaning of the tree of life as he sees it in vision. In answer, he receives a vision of “a virgin, . . . the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.” The answer to his question about the meaning of the tree lies in the virgin mother with her child. The virgin is the tree in some sense and Nephi accepted this as an answer to his question. As an Israelite living at the end of the seventh century and during the early sixth century before Christ, he recognized an answer to his question about a marvelous tree in the otherwise unexplained image of a virginal mother and her divine child—not that what he saw and how he interpreted those things were perfectly obvious. What he “read” from the symbolic vision was culturally colored. Nephi’s vision reflects a meaning of the “sacred tree” that is unique to the ancient Near East. Asherah is also associated with biblical wisdom literature. Wisdom, a female, appears as the wife of God and represents life.
Lehi and his people understood their own times in terms of types and shadows from the past. God’s leading the family out of Jerusalem and reinstituting his covenant with Lehi in a new promised land can be understood only by comparison with the exodus and the roles of Lehi and Nephi in terms of Moses. This article identifies fourteen Mosiac themes and circumstances that Lehi invoked in his sermon recorded in 2 Nephi 1 and illustrates close parallels with these themes in Deuteronomy. Lehi may have compared himself to Moses as a rhetorical device to help his children see the divine direction behind his actions. In his final words to his children, Lehi invokes Moses’ farewell address to the Israelites. In so doing, Lehi casts himself in a role similar to that of Moses. Nephi portrays himself in similar terms on the small plates, apparently following the pattern set by his father.
Old Testament Topics > Moses
Old Testament Topics > Types and Symbols
For three weeks in February 2000, a team of BYU geologists worked in coastal Dhofar, focusing on geological formations that could have produced the metals needed by Nephi for making tools to build a ship. This article discusses the ores and processes that Nephi would have employed and considers the possibility that the coast of Dhofar may be a candidate for the location of Nephi’s shipbuilding.
Although Nephi’s tools were most likely made of iron or steel, bronze remains a possibility. The making of brass or bronze requires the creation of a copper alloy, and examples of such alloys are found in both the Old World and the New World. The nature of the alloys differed depending on the minerals available.
Warfare is a constant theme in the Book of Mormon. Conflicts with varying motivations erupted between the Nephites and Lamanites from the beginning of their sojourn in the New World. Ultimately, the Nephites as a sociopolitical group were exterminated in one climactic battle when hundreds of thousands died in a single day. Have Mesoamerican archaeologists detected an intensity and scale of warfare great enough to account for the extermination of a people like the Nephites? Yes, there is now good reason to believe that the period when the Nephites were being destroyed by their enemies was characterized in southern Mexico and Guatemala by widespread disruption rather than an orderly evolution in the Classic era that once was the standard claim of archaeologists. The process of the complete destruction of the Nephites and their culture agrees with a recurrent pattern in Mesoamerican history.
In an interview with John L. Sorenson, linguist Brian Stubbs discusses the evidence he has used to establish that at least one language family in Mesoamerica is related to Semitic languages. Stubbs explains how his studies of Near Eastern languages, coupled with his studies of Uto-Aztecan, helped him find related word pairs in the two language families. The evidence for a link between Uto-Aztecan and Semitic languages, or even Egyptian or Arabic, is still tentative, although the evidence includes all the standard requirements of comparative or historical linguistic research: sound correspondences or consistent sound shifts, morphological correspondences, and a substantial lexicon consisting of as many as 1,000 words that exemplify those correspondences.
Though the name Nephi conforms in some ways to common Semitic patterns, none of the possible consonantal roots that appear in Hebrew can be applied to the name. Other possible sources such as Ugaritic or Egyptian may be considered.
Over the last century, new techniques of scientific analysis have been developed that have been applied with the intent to clarify the course of human history. Immediately after World War II, blood group data seemed to provide a magic key to open up the history of the world’s populations, but by the 1960s such studies were shown to be unrealistic and misleading. The new tool in human biology and anthropology is DNA analysis. Despite cautions from the best scientists about the limits the new findings have for interpreting human history, some enthusiasts continue to claim too much for DNA study.
Archaeological discoveries that challenge previously accepted theories of the history of civilization are found all over the world.
It has been 100 years since George Reynolds published his massive work, A Complete Concordance of the Book of Mormon. Reynolds worked on this project, begun while serving a prison sentence for polygamy, over 21 years of his life. He tabulated virtually every word used in the Book of Mormon except a few of the most common words, and gave a portion of the sentence in which each cited word appeared. He himself paid all the printing costs.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 10, No. 1 (2001)
Introduction to the current issue.
When the prophet Abinadi preached repentance to the Nephites, the people were upset and turned him over to King Noah. While in the king’s presence, Abinadi explained to the king and to the priests the meaning of Isaiah’s messianic prophecies. Although they did not heed Abinadi’s teaching, modern readers of the Book of Mormon are now able to better understand the life of Jesus Christ and the key principles of the atonement through Abinadi’s teachings.
Old Testament Topics > Book of Mormon and the Old Testament
This article contains descriptions of the gold plates quoted directly from individuals who were closely associated with Joseph Smith Jr. Among those quoted are Martin Harris, Orson Pratt, and Emma Smith. The compiler also comments on the material of the plates.
Contrary to what some may assume, the plates were most likely made not of pure gold but rather of an alloy termed tumbaga by the Spanish.
Janne Sjodahl discusses how the Book of Mormon would have taken up less space on the plates than in its current translated and printed form. Because the plates were written in a language comparable to Hebrew, Sjodahl had fourteen pages of the English Book of Mormon translated into Hebrew and written out. This Hebrew text covered only one page. According to this finding, the Book of Mormon could be written using as few as twenty-one plates (or even forty-eight if written in larger characters). Sjodahl presents estimates of the size and weight of the plates.
Having studied Janne Sjodahl’s work on the number of plates required for the original Book of Mormon text, John Gee examines the potential drawbacks of Sjodahl’s experiment. He concludes that the size of Miller’s script suffices for Sjodahl’s test.
Arnold Friberg is arguably the most influential artist on Latter-day Saint scriptural art. His depictions of the people and the landscape of the Book of Mormon are well known to Latter-day Saints. This article explains the genesis and completion of Friberg’s series of twelve Book of Mormon paintings and gives the author’s own observations on each painting.
When the Book of Mormon was first published in 1830, there were 5,000 copies printed. It is unclear how many of those copies still exist today, but each was worth approximately $5,000 in the 1980s. One such copy, after being passed from one person to another for over a century, finally fell into the hands of Gerald E. Jones. Using a note left on the inside cover by a former owner, Jones was able to track the journey of the book and discover who many of its owners were.
This article discusses the evolution of book collecting, particularly by Latter-day Saints. Although the circle of book collectors used to be small, it has since expanded, probably because of the spread of the Internet. Latter-day Saints throughout the world are now able to locate and purchase old and rare books within minutes. While this innovation can be productive and beneficial, the easy access can be risky. Because people are so anxious to buy these types of books, they have the potential to be deceived by those who create fraudulent products, and unlike the older, more experienced buyers, newcomers often do not inspect books closely for authenticity and condition before purchasing them. Because of these potential mistakes, it is essential that book collectors be more aware of the risks and take the necessary precautions to avoid them.
Many critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that there cannot be any scripture added to the Bible, thus making the Book of Mormon blasphemous. However, many scriptures refer to other books of scriptures, including the Book of Mormon and other records that are not currently available to the world. Monte S. Nyman discusses here the plausibility of receiving modern revelation and scripture from God. He also suggests that by studying the Book of Mormon and other scriptures in conjunction with the Bible, Latter-day Saints can better prepare for the day when lost records are restored.
After the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi left Jerusalem with his family, he built an altar in the wilderness and offered a sacrifice to God. This practice appears to contradict biblical law as outlined in Deuteronomy 12, which states that sacrifices should be made only on an altar within a temple. However, David Rolph Seely provides three possible explanations as to why Lehi was not breaking the law of Moses.
This article explains the benefits of studying specific words in the context of the Book of Mormon. Focusing on the origin of a word provides additional meaning and insight to a particular verse of scripture and helps the reader better understand the intended meaning of the author.
This article lists and discusses multiple texts that comment on the Book of Mormon and recommends them as supplements to Book of Mormon study.
Richardson Benedict Gill’s book The Great Maya Droughts: Water, Life, and Death provides substantial evidence of the natural physical events that occurred in Mesoamerica. These events are comparable to events recorded in the Book of Mormon.
Evidence suggests that ancient Mesoamericans may have had horses. Excavations have produced horse bones that archaeologists believe date to before the Spanish Conquest. The article also mentions an artifact found in Bolivia that may have characters in a Semitic script. Locals have asked for assistance in examining the piece, but it is not yet clear whether it is relevant to the Book of Mormon.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 10, No. 2 (2001)
Introduction to the current issue and the new editorial team.
Brigham Young studied the text of the Book of Mormon for approximately two years before he decided to be baptized. This article discusses how his family life prepared him to receive the teachings of the Book of Mormon and the influence his testimony had on him throughout his life, as second president of the church, and as the first governor of the state of Utah. Despite his conversion to the Book of Mormon, Brigham did not often refer to its teachings in his sermons. This seemingly strange practice was likely a result of the cultural dependence on the Bible at that time and of Brigham’s careful attention to the prophet Joseph Smith Jr.’s teaching style, which did not include a large number of Book of Mormon references. Even though Brigham did not incorporate direct references in his teachings, he was greatly influenced by the principles taught in the Book of Mormon.
This article has been adapted from the author’s book By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion. The author discusses three common understandings of the term revelation: (1) revelation as doctrine, (2) revelation as history, and (3) revelation as inner experience. He suggests that the Book of Mormon introduces a fourth type: revelation as dialogue. This form of revelation allows individuals to have direct contact with God, rather than only through the scriptures, and can be applied to our lives just as it was to the lives of those living in Book of Mormon times.
The title page of the Book of Mormon was most likely written by Moroni, but in recent years scholars have suggested that Mormon, Moroni’s father, may have written the first six lines of the title page, with Moroni writing the rest. However, a more in-depth analysis of the text on that page and the specific language that is used provides evidence supporting the notion that the title page was, in fact, written solely by Moroni.
The two spellings strait and straight are often considered synonymous; however, they come from different Middle English words and have different meanings. Strait means “narrow” or “tight,” whereas straight means “not crooked.” The difference in these meanings affects the interpretation of the scriptural phrase “strait/straight and narrow path” and others like it. Reynolds and Skousen explore possible meanings that the original Book of Mormon authors may have intended in their use of the two words.
The first line of Nephi’s Psalm (found in 2 Nephi 4:16– 35) matches perfectly the iambic pentameter of Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia, more commonly known among Latter-day Saints as the hymn Be Still, My Soul. Because of this coincidence, John S. Tanner decided to write lyrics based on Nephi’s Psalm, called I Love the Lord, after which he solicited the help of Ronald J. Staheli in composing a musical arrangement based on Finlandia. Tanner later wrote another adaptation of Nephi’s Psalm, called Sometimes My Soul, using the tune of an American folk song. He explains the process of writing these two songs and the accompanying challenges.
The serpent is often used to represent one of two things: Christ or Satan. This article synthesizes evidence from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Greece, and Jerusalem to explain the reason for this duality. Many scholars suggest that the symbol of the serpent was used anciently to represent Jesus Christ but that Satan distorted the symbol, thereby creating this paradox. The dual nature of the serpent is incorporated into the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Book of Mormon.
Ancient altars in Yemen bear the inscription Nihm, a variant of the word Nahom. According to the Book of Mormon, one of the travelers in Lehi’s group, Ishmael, was buried at a place called Nahom. Because the altar has been dated to about the sixth or seventh century BC (the time of Lehi’s journey), it is plausible that the Nihm referred to on the altar could be the same place written about in the Book of Mormon. This article discusses the discovery site, the appearance of the altars, and the process of dating the altars, as well as the place-name Nahom in its Book of Mormon setting.
The use of the word judge in the scriptures can cause confusion. By researching the etymologies and scriptural uses of the words judge and righteous, Cynthia Hallen observes that there is a difference between judging and judging righteously.
The timing of volcanic eruptions in the Veracruz area, where many scholars suggest the Book of Mormon may have taken place, is contemporary with events recorded in the Book of Mormon, thus providing further evidence of the authenticity of that book.
Reports of an underwater city off the island of Cuba have caused many Latter-day Saints to believe that the city is a remnant of a Book of Mormon city. However, archaeologists have not found any reason to support that idea.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 11, No. 1 (2002)
Summary of current issue.
Many scholars suggest that Quetzalcoatl of Mesoamerica (also known as the Feathered Serpent), the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ could all be the same being. By looking at ancient Mayan writings such as the Popol Vuh, this theory is further explored and developed. These ancient writings include several stories that coincide with the stories of Jesus Christ in the Bible, such as the creation and the resurrection. The role that both Quetzalcoatl and the Maize God played in bringing maize to humankind is comparable to Christ’s role in bringing the bread of life to humankind. Furthermore, Quetzalcoatl is said to have descended to the Underworld to perform a sacrifice strikingly similar to the atonement of Jesus Christ. These congruencies and others like them suggest that these three gods are, in fact, three representations of the same being.
Despite the establishment of Christ’s church in the New World by the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi, many dissenters during its thousand-year history attempted to thwart the church and preach alternative theologies. This article first discusses the doctrine that Nephi taught to his people concerning Jesus Christ. Historical context then provides further understanding of the society in which Nephi and his descendants lived. Having come from Jerusalem in the Old World, the Nephites were still accustomed to the law of Moses, which certainly would have influenced their view of a Messiah. This, along with the political circumstances of the Nephite people, facilitated the dissension of many. The experiences of the Anti-Christ Sherem, the priests of Noah, and the Zarahemla dissidents demonstrate these points. Lastly, those who altered Nephi’s teachings appeared to do so for five specific reasons, which are discussed in this article, thus showing how the dissenters erased the doctrine of a Redeemer from their theologies.
Introduction to the following four articles on early translations of the Book of Mormon into French, German, Italian, and French.
When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was first organized in the year 1830, the Book of Mormon had been published in only one language: English. But the church was growing quickly and spreading to other parts of the world. One of the first publications of the Book of Mormon in another language was in French. This article gives an account of the French translation from 1850 to 1852, when Elder John Taylor, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, presided over a newly opened mission in France. Elder Taylor oversaw the translation process, which was done primarily by recent French converts Mr. Wilhelm and Louis Bertrand and one of Elder Taylor’s counselors, Elder Curtis E. Bolton. While these men were translating, Paris was in the midst of political unrest and was wary of unfamiliar social, political, and religious organizations. In fact, both Elder Taylor and Brother Bertrand had to hide from government officials. Despite all the complications that came about during this process, the work was ultimately a success.
While on assignment from the LDS prophet Joseph Smith to visit Jerusalem in 1840, Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles suggested opening a mission in Germany and translating the Book of Mormon into German. By April 1852, the new prophet, Brigham Young, had sent Daniel Carn to Germany to be the mission president and to help with the translation, and by May of the same year, Das Buch Mormon had been published. However, when East Germany was created and placed behind the “Iron Curtain,” matters grew worse for the Latter-day Saints. Because they were unable to print anything themselves, they relied on missionaries and members of the church in West Germany to smuggle copies of Das Buch Mormon into East Germany so they could have the scripture that was so central to their beliefs. Members still had to burn all manuals and church material that had been published after 1920 to avoid arrest, but since Das Buch Mormon had been published in 1852, the Saints were able to keep their copies of that scripture.
In the year 1850, Elder Lorenzo Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles arrived in Italy as a missionary. He and his companions spent much of their time with a Waldensian community. Elder Snow soon began sending missionaries to Switzerland to preach the gospel to French speakers there and began publishing church materials into French. The new materials caused a lot of opposition from Swiss Protestants and Italian Catholics. Elder Snow then went to England, where he solicited the help of an anonymous translator, and together they completed the translation of the Book of Mormon into Italian. Elder Snow returned to Italy soon after, bringing copies of Il Libro di Mormon with him, but he and the other missionaries did not find much success. Because of the influence of the Catholic Church on the government, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not given much freedom in their preaching. Il Libro di Mormon similarly did not significantly help the missionary work. Almost all the Italian converts to the church were French-speaking Waldensians. Because of the lack of progress, the Italian mission was closed in 1867 and not reopened until a century later, in 1966.
In 1840, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established its first branch in Wales. The branch had been organized and converts baptized without the help of Welsh translations of the Book of Mormon and other church materials. In this specific area in Wales, English was widely spoken; thus translating the Book of Mormon into Welsh had not been a priority. However, after being sent to a different area of Wales by Elder Lorenzo Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, William Henshaw quickly realized that such a translation was imperative to the spreading of the gospel throughout the rest of Wales. In 1845, Captain Dan Jones arrived in Wales as a new missionary. Elder Jones used a press belonging to his brother, a Welsh clergyman, to print church pamphlets that he had translated into Welsh. One of the employees who worked at the press, John S. Davis, eventually was baptized. In 1850, Davis translated the Doctrine and Covenants into Welsh. The next year, he asked the Welsh Saints to subscribe to the official Mormon periodical, which would publish a part of the Book of Mormon each week. The subscriptions would provide the funds necessary to do so. The Saints responded enthusiastically, and as a result, the Welsh translation of the Book of Mormon was eventually all published.
In the Book of Mormon, two records (a large engraved stone and twenty-four gold plates) contain the story of an ancient civilization known as the Jaredites. There appears to be evidence of an unpublished third record that provides more information on this people and on the history of the world. When the brother of Jared received a vision of Jesus Christ, he was taught many things but was instructed not to share them with the world until the time of his death. The author proposes that the brother of Jared did, in fact, write those things down shortly before his death and then buried them, along with the interpreting stones, to be revealed to the world according to the timing of the Lord.
The Book of Mormon culture is found to be strikingly similar to that of the Middle East. An Arab Latter-day Saint tells his experience with the Book of Mormon and how he is able to relate to the stories within its pages because of his cultural origins. Among the congruities discussed are the structure of the family, the concept of taking oaths, the behavior of women, and the danger of the desert. Together, these points demonstrate the worth of the Book of Mormon and show how each reader is able to draw from his or her own cultural background in order to infer different messages.
Feminist readers, particularly, have argued that biblical writing is sexist because the majority of the text was written by men who seem to place little significance on the role of women. This observation has become a serious concern among some because it calls into question the nature of God: does this supposedly perfect being love men and women equally? This study delves into the text of the Book of Mormon and its female characters to suggest that women were not considered lower than men in Book of Mormon times; likewise, women are not considered lower than men in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today.
Editors of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies interview renowned Book of Mormon scholar John L. Sorenson to discuss his experience in doing Book of Mormon research for more than fifty years. Sorensen tells of becoming interested in the Book of Mormon and in Mesoamerican anthropology and archaeology. He also articulates how to be a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while conducting objective and scholarly research on the Book of Mormon. Sorenson explains how this approach has helped people throughout the world better understand the Book of Mormon and how it will continue to help.
Faulconer discusses the evolution of his testimony of the Book of Mormon; years passed before he recognized the importance of that book to his life as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After reading an article explaining the tree of life that is written about in 1 Nephi, he gained a deeper understanding of the purpose of the Book of Mormon—that the book prepares members of the church to enter into covenants with God in the temple and explains what those covenants are. In addition to that objective, the book testifies of and brings people to Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon was written in a language that was grounded in Hebrew and Egyptian; the people of the Book of Mormon most likely spoke this same language. It is interesting, then, that the Book of Mormon authors periodically included definitions for certain terms that they used in their writing, as if their audience did not understand them. This technique, known as a gloss, suggests that those terms may not have been a part of that ancient language. In an attempt to uncover the true origin of such words, this article dissects the Book of Mormon term Irreantum and delves into its linguistic characteristics to determine whether the term could have originated from Hebrew, Egyptian, ancient South Semitic, or another language.
The word tender is used repeatedly throughout the Book of Mormon, but the modern connotations of the term may skew readers’ understanding of what Book of Mormon authors intended to convey when employing it in their writing. By examining the etymology of tender and the etymologies of similar words, readers can better comprehend the intended meaning of the ancient Book of Mormon authors.
Two critics evaluate the book By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion. Raish opines that Givens’s book effectively explains why a person might accept the Book of Mormon and facilitates a reader’s desire to better understand the Book of Mormon. Bennett adds that Givens approaches his discussion of the Book of Mormon as a scholar, resulting in a more accepting readership. Givens also studies the Book of Mormon with respect to its role in promoting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a worldwide religion.
The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi received a vision commonly referred to as the tree of life. Within that vision, he observes a building that he describes as “strange.” A possible reason Lehi labels it this way is that the architecture of the building was dissimilar to the architecture popular in Jerusalem at the time. The building in Lehi’s dream was plausibly structured similar to the buildings found in south Arabia during Lehi’s time. By studying the architectural styles of Jerusalem and south Arabia, one can better evaluate and understand the vision of the tree of life.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
A recently discovered ossuary with the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” may be the resting place of the bones of James the Just, the brother of the Lord, from the New Testament. Analyses of the carving, the language, and the history of Israeli ossuaries are being undertaken in an attempt to unveil further information on this ossuary. If this ossuary is authentic and corresponds to the correct time period, it can be more strongly proposed that the bones that used to rest inside the ossuary did, in fact, belong to James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 11, No. 2 (2002)
Introduction to the book.
Royal Skousen details the history of the critical text project of the Book of Mormon. He describes that project, including his work with both the original manuscript and the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon. After six years of pursuing this venture, Skousen was asked by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to temporarily resign as a professor at Brigham Young University and focus primarily on the project. Skousen agreed, and for the following seven years he continued his work on the Book of Mormon text, often collaborating with the Church Scriptures Committee. In this article, Skousen shares several discoveries that have surfaced because of his research and the meaning that those discoveries have had in his life.
Robert Espinosa was approached by Royal Skousen in 1991 with a request for him to join Skousen on the critical text project of the Book of Mormon. Espinosa shares his experience working with Skousen and the developments that they were able to make. After meeting with the owners of some fragments of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, Espinosa and Skousen were able to conserve, examine, and photograph the fragments. They also carefully analyzed the physical characteristics of the printer’s manuscript.
Ronald Romig, archivist for the RLDS Church (now renamed the Community of Christ), played a significant role in Royal Skousen’s critical text project. Romig was responsible for overseeing the handling of the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon, which was made available on two different occasions for Skousen to examine for his research. Skousen also examined over twenty copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon belonging to the Community of Christ. Romig explains his responsibilities and the process of assisting Skousen in the project and also mentions how Skousen’s work has improved the relationship between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints and the Community of Christ.
Royal Skausen gives information about the history, corrections, and the use of the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon.
Larry Draper describes his role in providing Royal Skousen with copies of various early editions of the Book of Mormon for use in the critical text project. Draper also describes the printing process of the Book of Mormon, which process was made clearer because of Skousen’s project. Draper explains the stereotyping method of printing that was used for the 1840 Cincinnati/Nauvoo edition and the 1852 Liverpool edition of the Book of Mormon.
Royal Skousen explains in detail the internal consistency of the original text of the Book of Mormon. He references several verses of the Book of Mormon to discuss five main points: consistency in meaning; systematic phraseology; variation in the text; conjectural emendation; and revising the text. By examining these five aspects, Skousen shows that neither the message nor the doctrine of the Book of Mormon loses credibility as a result of textual changes. Skousen also mentions that the consistency in the manuscripts suggests that Joseph Smith did not receive the text as a concept but rather received it word for word.
According to the traditional account, when Joseph Smith translated the gold plates into what is now known as the Book of Mormon, he did not create the text himself or copy the text from another existing manuscript. Rather, he translated the text through an interpreting device, which only worked when Joseph was spiritually and emotionally prepared. The article supports this claim by including several stories of the translation process as told by eyewitnesses.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 12, No. 1 (2003)
Introduction to the current issue.
Editor’s introduction to a four-part series on the relationship of DNA studies to Book of Mormon origins.
Critics of the Book of Mormon often cite genetic evidence in their attacks on the historicity of the text, saying that the lack of any Near Eastern–American Indian DNA links conclusively proves that no emigration ever occurred from the Near East to the Americas. Their simplistic approach—that the Book of Mormon purports to be a history of the entire American Indian race—is not supported by archaeological or Book of Mormon evidence. The authors pose and respond to questions about the geographical scene, the spread of Book of Mormon peoples, Latter-day Saint traditions about the scenes and peoples of the Book of Mormon, the terms Nephites and Lamanites, the possible presence of others in the land, ocean travel, Mesoamerican native traditions, languages of the Western Hemisphere, Old World peoples coming to the Americas, archaeological evidence, and ethnically distinct populations in ancient American art. These questions set out the social, cultural, and geographical contexts that are necessary for geneticists to understand before reaching major conclusions.
This paper debunks the myth that the Book of Mormon has been proved false by modern DNA evidence. Critics have tried to apply American Indian DNA-based research to the Book of Mormon without designing a study specifically for that purpose. It is extraordinarily difficult to use DNA sequence information to track the lineage of any group with such a complex lineage history as the Nephites and Lamanites. Possible hypotheses about the populations from the Book of Mormon include the global colonization hypothesis (in which the three colonizing groups came to a land void of humans) and the local colonization hypothesis (in which the land was already occupied in whole or in part by people of an unknown genetic heritage). The latter hypothesis, generally viewed by Book of Mormon scholars as a more accurate interpretation, is much more difficult to investigate by way of DNA evidence. Issues such as genetic introgression, genetic drift, and the founder effect would seriously hamper any attempt to produce a funded, peer-reviewed study of Book of Mormon genetics.
The Book of Mormon does not give sufficient information about the background of Ishmael’s wife, the wives of Ishmael’s sons, and Nephi’s sisters to test the mitochondrial DNA of the group. Other problems for critics’ assertions include the uncertainty of Lehi’s possession of an Abrahamic Y chromosome and the complete disregard for the entire Jaredite population (remnants of which may have survived their final battle). Confident scientific conclusions are difficult to attain and cannot replace a spiritual witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
By covenanting with Abraham, God promised him that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed—his seed would be as leaven within bread. This metaphor can likewise be applied to the children of Lehi, who introduced the Abrahamic covenant to the much larger indigenous Mesoamerican population. The larger gene pool with which the children of Lehi assimilated makes it very likely that no genetic evidence will ever substantiate an American–Middle Eastern link, although Native American populations show a strong affinity with Asian populations. The assumption that all modern-day Native Americans are descended exclusively from Book of Mormon peoples is not required by the scriptures. The genetic link, however, may be less important than the nongenetic transmission of memes, including ideas, behaviors, information, languages, and divine kinship.
The term word of God is used in rich and varied ways in the Book of Mormon. The word of God is of great worth and is clearly identified with Christ, or the Logos. The word of God is often portrayed as a two-edged sword, is associated with creation and power, provides both comfort and discomfort, is nourishing and enlightening, and plays a role in the last days. The fundamental characteristics of the word of God are constant throughout scripture.
Some critics of the Book of Mormon claim that Joseph Smith drew certain terminology from his nineteenth-century environment. In particular, they suggest that terms such as secret society and secret combination may reflect anti-Masonic rhetoric from the period or even that the term flaxen cord has Masonic overtones. This article traces many varied uses of secret combination in nineteenth-century writings that have nothing to do with the Masons. The appearance of these terms in the Book of Mormon does not weaken the historical claims of the Book of Mormon.
Third Nephi 8 preserves a written account of a natural disaster at the time of Christ’s death that many assume to have been caused by volcanic activity. In a modern-day science quest, the author examines research done on glacial ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. Ice-core records can reveal volcanic gases and ashes that are carried throughout the world—the gases are detected by measuring the acidity of the ice at various layers. Many factors influence the findings and the proposed datings of the volcanic events. The ice-core records offer some evidence, though not conclusive, of a volcanic eruption around the time of Christ’s death.
Moroni, the final writer and compiler of the Book of Mormon, provides three endings to the book. His first ending, in Mormon 8–9, can be called a “signature ending”—the primary purpose here is to state that the writing is finished and to identify the author and his father and nation. Moroni, yet alive, provides a second ending, a “farewell ending,” in Ether 12. This type of ending both concludes the work and wishes the reader well but then warns or rejoices that the narrator will meet the reader at the final judgment. In the final farewell ending (in Moroni 10), Moroni, the lone survivor of his people, expresses joy and hope. The three endings remind latter-day readers to acknowledge the destruction of the Nephite and Jaredite nations and provide doctrinal, logical, and scriptural arguments in defense of the Book of Mormon and its doctrines.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
Dadson shares his experience of gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon while a young teenager at boarding school in Ghana. He was blessed through clean living, studying the Book of Mormon, and paying his tithing.
Scriptural records are important in preserving the words of prophets as well as the language of our ancestors. An etymological study of the important words in scriptures can link us to the thoughts and feelings of people who lived in the past. An example is the word heart, which has meaning both as an essential body part and as a metaphor for one’s thoughts and feelings.
This review enthusiastically endorses Boyd Petersen’s biography of his father-in-law, Hugh Nibley. Petersen intersperses narrative chapters with thematic ones in Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life.
The account of the journey of Lehi’s family through the wilderness mentions one local name, Nahom, where Ishmael was buried. The discovery of the tribal name NHM on three altars from the seventh and sixth centuries BC provides a likely location for that stopping point on their trip. This site is located at the bend of the incense trail that went in the opposite direction of Lehi’s group—westward to NHM and then turning northward.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 12, No. 2 (2003)
Introduction to the current issue.
Moroni prophesied on 21 September 1823 that Joseph’s name, and by implication the book he would eventually translate and publish, should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues. Many current criticisms of the Book of Mormon trace their roots to the antagonistic critiques by 19th-century authors, beginning with Abner Cole, Alexander Campbell, and E. D. Howe. Campbell in particular was responsible for introducing the environmental theory: that Joseph Smith introduced 19th-century elements into his story. Travelers to Salt Lake City published their exposés, which were mostly critical of the Latter-day Saints and their book of sacred scripture. Mark Twain’s dismissive treatment of the book forged lasting popular misconceptions of the book. Fiction writers of the 19th century contributed to suspicion of and ignorance about Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. In more recent times, Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas O’Dea, and Robert V. Remini perpetuated environmental claims about the book. Recent Latter-day Saint scholars— Hugh Nibley, Richard Bushman, and Terryl Givens— represent those who speak good of the book and try to correct misperceptions about it.
The Book of Mormon appears replete with examples of verbal and dramatic irony, something unlikely to have been produced intentionally by Joseph Smith with his level of rhetorical and expressive skills. Dramatic irony occurs when an exceeding young Nephi, who is large in stature, admires the exquisite sword of Laban and then grapples with the distasteful command to kill Laban with that sword. Having passed the test, Nephi has matured into a man large in stature. Dramatic irony also occurs in Abinadi’s experience with King Noah and in the similar experiences of Alma and Korihor with the power of speech and silence. Verbal irony is apparent in Lehi’s expectations for Laman to be like a river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness, and for Lemuel to be like a valley, firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord. Nephi also refutes his older brothers’ false knowledge by reminding them of what they already know.
The literary richness of the Book of Mormon is attested by the appearance of word pairs, in both parallel and conjoined pairs. On occasion, combinations of three, four, or even more words appear together more than once. Possible reasons for the scriptural use of word pairs include literary functions, echoes of the law of Moses, theological terms, universals (or merisms), repetition, and mnemonic function. Duke builds on previous studies of word pairs in the Book of Mormon by Kevin Barney and John Tvedtnes. The frequency of word pairs and other combinations of words witnesses to the Hebrew roots of the language of the book.
The regular occurrence of things occurring ten times in the scriptures tends to relate to perfection, especially divine completion. Welch approaches this phenomenon through ten topics: perfection, worthiness, consecration, testing, justice, reverence, penitence, atonement, supplication, and ascension into the holy of holies or highest degree of heaven. The significance of the number ten in the ancient world relates to the tenfold occurrences in the Book of Mormon.
Confusion between the use of strait and straight existed in Joseph Smith’s day and continues to persist today. This confusion is manifest in the spelling of the term in the original manuscript (strait preserved in 10 of 11 existing occurrences), the printer’s manuscript (all 27 instances spelled strait), and the 1830 edition (in which the compositor changed all 27 instances to straight). Through close examination of meanings, comparison to Hebrew words and usage, and analysis of poetic form, Hoskisson examines each instance of strai(gh)t in the Book of Mormon and recommends a spelling for each one.
A small stamp seal bearing the inscription belonging to Malkiyahu, son of the king, arguably belonged to Mulek, son of Zedekiah, who accompanied one of the Israelite groups that settled in the New World. Jeremiah 38:6 mentions Malchiah the son of Hammelech, which could also be a reference to this same Mulek. Discussion centers on similar seals, the meaning of Ben Hamelek, the possible age of Malkiyahu, and Book of Mormon claims about Mulek. This seal could conceivably have been left behind in Jerusalem and found centuries later, thus representing an archaeological artifact of a Book of Mormon personality.
While imprisoned in Liberty Jail in Missouri in 1839, the Prophet Joseph Smith directed the church members to gather statements and affidavits about the sufferings and abuses put on them by the people of Missouri. Of the surviving affidavits, five speak directly about the Book of Mormon as a test of faith. Several were offered their lives, property, and safety if they would deny the Book of Mormon and denounce the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Those who refused to recant were robbed of their property, whipped, beaten, slandered, and jailed.
Robert J. Matthews was influenced by the Book of Mormon to pursue his studies of the Joseph Smith Translation. He was intrigued by what the Book of Mormon said about the Bible. To further one’s understanding of the Book of Mormon, Matthews recommends further study on the Near East and an analysis of the internal structure of the book. Royal Skousen’s work on the comparative text, Hugh Nibley’s Book of Mormon writings, and articles in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism on the Book of Mormon are sources for increasing one’s knowledge of that book.
A two-pronged approach to studying the scriptures emphasizes language as well as doctrine. Some typical syntactic structures that appear in 19th-century Book of Mormon English include word-order variation, interruption, parenthesis, ellipsis, fragment, conjunctions, and parallel structure.
Carole Mikita York shares the story of the conversion of her mother first and then the rest of her family. As a young child, Carole gained a testimony that the Book of Mormon was true even before she read it.
Both Hansen and Lawrence review Grant Hardy’s The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition. Not meant to replace the 1981 edition published by the church, this edition appears in a reader-friendly format and provides additional notes and appendices.
Hardy hypothesizes that the misplacement of Alma 13:16 (which, he proposes, actually belongs three verses earlier) is an example of a mistake in handwriting and copying known as homoeoteleuton.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 13, No. 1 (2004)
Introduction to the current issue.
Since time immemorial, humans have found meaning and purpose in revering sites because of events that transpired there. Such sites offer an opportunity for pilgrims to visit sacred places. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ have tried not to create shrines or pilgrimage sites per se, but they often experience deep religious attachment to sacred places where significant events occurred. In the early 19th century, however, relatively few people traveled for tourism or pleasure. The few who were able to visit sites associated with the early years of Mormonism provided word pictures or visual presentations for those who did not have the opportunity to visit the sites. This article explores the visual images of the Hill Cumorah, from a woodcut printed in 1841 through photographs taken in 1935 when the Hill Cumorah Monument was dedicated.
After nearly three-quarters of a century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sought to reestablish its presence in the Palmyra area by sending Willard W. Bean and his family to live in the newly acquired Joseph Smith Sr. home in Manchester, New York. Bean soon discovered he had a difficult task set before him because Joseph Smith and Mormonism were held in derision in Palmyra. During the twenty-four years that the Bean family lived in the home, they overcame ostracization through cultivating friendships and preaching the gospel. Willard Bean was instrumental in the acquisition of additional properties of historical significance, including the Hill Cumorah. He restored and improved the Hill Cumorah and nearby acreage. Having completed their assignment to make friends for the church in Palmyra and to build up the church there, the Beans were released from their mission in 1939.
This bibliographic article identifies descriptions of the Hill Cumorah that go beyond Joseph Smith’s account. The author includes firsthand reports of the hill’s appearance at the time the sacred events took place and accounts by visitors who focus on emotional, spiritual, poetic, or nostalgic aspects of their experience. Some of the featured descriptions are written by James Gordon Bennett, Oliver Cowdery, Orson Pratt, George Q. Cannon, Susa Young Gates, photographer George E. Anderson, and Anthony W. Ivins. Taken together, the accounts enrich our understanding and appreciation of the Hill Cumorah and the role it played in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. This article includes recommendations for post–World War II studies on the hill and a sidebar that discusses a clue to the history of the name Cumorah being associated with the hill near Palmyra.
The significance of the Hill Cumorah in the restoration of the gospel goes beyond its identification as the ancient repository of the metal plates known as the Book of Mormon. In the second half of the 19th century, a teaching about a cave in the hill began surfacing in the writings of several leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In their view, the hill was not only the place where Joseph Smith received the plates but also their final repository, along with other sacred treasures, after the translation was finished. This article cites ten different accounts, all secondhand, that refer to this cave and what was found there. The author includes a comparison of the accounts that discusses additional records in the cave, God’s dominion over Earth’s treasure, miraculous dealings of God, and the significance of the presence of the sword of Laban.
Almost every summer since 1935, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has staged a pageant at the Hill Cumorah. This article starts with the history of the pageant from its beginnings in the 1920s as a Cumorah Conference of the Eastern States Mission convened by mission president B. H. Roberts and held at the Smith Family Farm. Details about the pageant’s move to the Hill Cumorah as well as scripts, directors, music, costumes, props, set design, lighting, and choreography are included. The author concludes with the details of retiring the original script after 50 years of use and of the challenges of producing and revitalizing the new pageant while maintaining its purpose as a missionary tool.
As a missionary in the Eastern States Mission, Crawford Gates participated in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in 1941. Although he loved the music and considered it appropriate to the Book of Mormon scenes of the pageant, he thought then that the pageant needed its own tailor-made musical score. Twelve years later he was given the opportunity to create that score. Gates details the challenge of creating a 72-minute musical score for a full symphony orchestra and chorus while working full time as a BYU music faculty member and juggling church and family responsibilities. When that score was retired 31 years later, Gates was again appointed to create a score for the new pageant. He relates further experiences arising from that assignment.
The costume design for the Hill Cumorah Pageant reflects a strong understanding of the physical and artistic needs of the production as well as a good grasp of the historical setting of the Book of Mormon. Through a rich blending of theatrical techniques, the pageant dramatically re-creates scriptural episodes to underscore the wisdom of human agency based on moral choice—a message made poignantly relevant by the historical realism conveyed in large part by authentic costuming. This article explores the physical challenges of creating costumes for an outdoor drama and the historical research that influences the costume construction while staying true to the message of the script.
Harold I. Hansen directed the Hill Cumorah Pageant from 1937 to 1977 (excluding the years 1943–47 when the pageant was suspended for the duration of World War II). He passed away in 1992. This article is an excerpt from his unfinished history of the pageant. His narrative includes details of his efforts to revive the pageant in 1948 and mentions the assistance of Bishop Thorpe B. Isaacson of the Presiding Bishopric, who visited the pageant in 1949. Because of his visit and recommendation to the First Presidency, the pageant was again established as an annual event and moved from an Eastern States Mission activity to a church-recognized production. Hansen includes a statement of support from President David O. McKay and reminiscences of Elder Richard L. Evans, the missionaries, and Harris Cooper, who provided lighting for the production for many years.
A varied body of musical works inspired by the Hill Cumorah’s prophetic history attests to the dramatic and emotional appeal of this great landmark of Mormonism. The author surveys a variety of musical works, including compositions, anthems, hymns, oratories, plays, operas, and musicals, that show a wealth of musical potential in the Hill Cumorah’s history. Despite the variety and quality of works composed thus far, the author considers the potential largely untapped and hopes that the music of Cumorah has only just begun.
Robert Hughes collected eighteen poems about the Hill Cumorah from 170 years of church magazines and periodicals. Author Louise Helps presents these poems in their entirety in this article and discusses the themes, images, and techniques of the poets. The poems give insight into the feelings and attitudes of the poets as well as the then-current fashions in poetry.
From the time the church acquired the property comprising the Hill Cumorah, artist and sculptor Torleif S. Knaphus had often spoken to the Brethren about creating a monument on that hallowed hill. His testimony of the restoration of the gospel created a desire to honor in a tangible way the sacred event of the angel Moroni’s visit to Joseph Smith and Moroni’s eventual transfer of the gold plates to Joseph for translation. This article chronicles Knaphus’s upbringing, artistic development, and conversion to the church. The design and creation of the Hill Cumorah monument were his consuming passion for five years and a rare opportunity to add his testimony to the great latter-day work. He was commissioned to create many statues and bas-reliefs for the church, some of which are featured in a sidebar to this article.
This article discusses the geologic processes that occurred to form the Hill Cumorah and surrounding lands that would have made that area attractive to the Smith family and other early settlers and also presents reasons the hill was a suitable location for storing the golden plates for hundreds of years. The causes of glaciation, the definitions and types of glaciers, and the origin and characteristics of drumlins are explored.
The archaeology of New York—and specifically the Hill Cumorah—is persuasive evidence that Book of Mormon peoples did not live in that region. By implication, the Cumorah of the golden plates is not the Cumorah of the final battles—Mormon’s hill and Moroni’s hill are not one and the same. These conclusions follow from a few basic points and assumptions that the author explores in this article.
Cynthia Hallen invited students in her History of the English Language course to search for conjoined word pairs in the scriptures as a term project. They searched for pairs of words linked with conjunctions in order to better understand the meaning of selected set expressions in the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon. Hallen summarizes and comments on their research.
Unlike the case of some place-names in the Book of Mormon, the book does not explain how the land and the hill Cumorah received their designation in the Nephite record. The name Cumorah lends itself to several possible etymological explanations, which Hoskisson discusses in this article.
Both Norton and Taylor review the volume Book of Mormon Reference Companion, edited by Dennis L. Largey and published by Deseret Book.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 14, No. 1 (2005)
In the past, experts have assumed that primitive sailors would have found it impossible to cross the oceans between the Old World and the New. However, John Sorenson here concludes that the evidence for transoceanic contacts now drowns out the arguments of those who have seen the New World as an isolated island until ad 1492. Sorenson’s arguments are based on evidences from Europe, Asia, and Polynesia of the diffusion of New World plants and infectious organisms. His research identifies evidence for transoceanic exchanges of 98 plant species, including tobacco and peanuts. The presence of hookworm in both the Americas and the Old World before Columbus also serves as evidence to establish transoceanic contact.
Skeptics have misused some historical sources as they attempt to reverse the Eight Witnesses’ statements about their physical contact with the Book of Mormon plates. The Eight Witnesses speak of viewing the plates themselves with unobstructed vision. They left 10 specific statements of handling the plates. This article provides an overview of the statements and experiences of the Eight Witnesses and the arguments of their critics, both then and now. Their unequivocal testimonies resist revisionists’ attempts to portray their experience as mere illusion or deception.
The complete Book of Mormon has been translated into Japanese no fewer than three times. The first translation was done by a young American missionary, Alma O. Taylor, the second by Sat Tatsui, the first native Japanese person to undertake the challenge, and the third after World War II by a committee appointed by the First Presidency. The challenges of translating concepts such as God, Spirit, or atonement into a language that shares no linguistic or cultural commonalities with the language of the inspired translation of the Book of Mormon are overwhelming. When attempting to communicate in a culture that does not acknowledge supreme deity or the kinship connection between God and man or life after death, a simple concept such as damnation can be challenging to convey. In addition, dramatic changes have occurred in the Japanese language over past century. The written Japanese language has changed with a rapidity that is unfathomable in English.
Ancient Near Eastern treaties and Old Testament covenants exhibit many of the same literary elements. Of particular interest is the use of the Hebrew word y?da? ,“to know,” when it signifies “to enter into a binding agreement.” The use of this word in both treaties and scriptures supports the notion that prophets spoke of holy covenants using language that framed responsibilities between God and his people in legal terms. The Book of Mormon usage of to know reflects similar intent. This article discusses the background of the word to know, compares treaties with covenants, discusses to know in connection with ancient Near Eastern treaties and biblical covenants, and assesses to know in Book of Mormon covenants.
When Christ was with the Nephites, the Savior felt it was important to take the time to call children around him, bless each of them one by one, and pray to the Father for them. Christ’s actions provide an example of loving, blessing, and instructing children. We must not overlook the children among us. The children that the Savior blessed were to become the second generation of the Zion people that he was forming; as such, their preparation was vital.
The Zoramites’ transformation from quiescent dissidents to aggressive enemies of their former brethren and mother culture is a powerful study of human nature. The Book of Mormon does not delineate the reasons that the Zoramites separated themselves from the larger population at Zarahemla, but they obviously felt a great deal of animosity toward their former brethren. Perhaps they had been marginalized in Nephite society because of their ethnicity. They constructed a culture that deliberately differed in many ways from that at Zarahemla, and they expelled all who were converted by Alma. Because of their extreme hatred of the Nephites, the Zoramites ultimately joined with the Lamanites as fierce enemies of the Nephites.
One way that those who love God and others demonstrate their love and “at-one-ment” (the state of being one) and thereby qualify for blessings, is by imparting of their substance to the poor. When a people become of one heart and mind, there are no poor among them. The Book of Mormon describes two stages of at-one-ment that lead to a general economic equality: Complete at-one-ment (perfect observation of the laws resulting in no contentions or disputations with “all things common among them” 4 Nephi 1:3), and at-one-ment as evidenced by equality before the law (the ability to form and be governed by equitable and just laws wherein all status and social discrimination is eliminated). The love of riches and status increases divisions and separations among the people and brings poverty and iniquity.
The brass plates were essential to Lehi’s posterity since they contained the teachings that would lead them to righteousness; there are quotations from the brass plates throughout the Book of Mormon. We do not know what language or languages were used on the plates that came from Laban’s trove. Alma’s rendering of an unattributed Isaiah quotation is closer to the Hebrew text than are the versions found in the Septuagint and King James Bible. But when this same quotation appears a second time in the Book of Mormon and is attributed to Isaiah, it follows the KJV rendering. This curiosity offers a clue to the riddle of the language of the brass plates—it is very possible that at least some of the writings were in Hebrew.
The Book of Mormon provides many good examples to Latter-day Saint writers of how to magnify their work. By following the patterns of the Book of Mormon, writers can understand what to emphasize and how to include the Spirit in their writing.
In Alma 21 a new group of troublemakers is introduced—the Amalekites—without explanation or introduction. This article offers arguments that this is the same group called Amlicites elsewhere and that the confusion is caused by Oliver Cowdery’s inconsistency in spelling. If this theory is accurate, then Alma structured his narrative record more tightly and carefully than previously realized. The concept also challenges the simplicity of the good Nephite/bad Lamanite rubric so often used to describe the players in the book of Mormon.
Daniel H. Ludlow, formerly the director of Correlation Review for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, answers questions about his understanding and testimony of the Book of Mormon.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 14, No. 2 (2005)
Summary of current issue.
The familiar narrative of how Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to pay the printing cost of the first five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon overlooks details that make possible a fuller appreciation of his key role in the restoration of the gospel. Financially and otherwise, Harris was uniquely situated to secure the publisher’s note and relieve the financial tension that imperiled the book’s publication. Details of his family background, land ownership, business enterprises, and generosity are reviewed. Despite his pattern of vacillating in his religious commitments, his loss of 116 pages of translated manuscript, his exposure to public ridicule, and his fracturing marriage, Harris proved willing and able to honor the mortgage agreement and the Lord’s directives to him in Doctrine and Covenants, section 19. He did so at great personal cost when all attempts to recoup the publication costs failed and the shared financial responsibility unexpectedly fell solely on him. The view is expressed that Harris was raised up by the Lord to assist the Prophet Joseph Smith by securing and then personally financing the first publication of the Restoration.
Some Latter-day Saint commentators deem a phrase that appears in 2 Nephi 12:16 but not in the parallel passage in Isaiah 2:16—“and upon all ships of the sea”—as evidence that the Book of Mormon preserves a version of this verse from the brass plates that is more complete than the Hebrew or King James readings. One scholar’s conclusions in this regard are reviewed and then critiqued for ignoring the complexities of the ancient Hebrew and Greek versions of the Bible. The authors examine Isaiah 2:16 in its broader literary context, noting that the 2 Nephi reading alters a pattern of synonymous couplets; analyze the Greek and Hebrew texts of the verse; and relate their findings to the Book of Mormon reading. They discuss the inherent limitations of textual criticism in this kind of study and conclude that LDS and non-LDS scholars are open to different interpretive possibilities owing to the role that faith plays in one’s approach to and interpretation of textual evidence.
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
Trained to accept only material evidence, professional historians since the late nineteenth century have avoided writing “providential history”—history that acknowledges the hand of God in shaping human events. Even believing historians, lacking prophetic insight and revelation, have been at a loss to determine God’s role in the historical process. In Latter-day Saint tradition, the Book of Mormon, and especially the sweeping visions of prophet-historian Nephi, is seen as a welcome corrective. In defining God’s plan for the salvation of humankind, identifying specific instances of divine providence (e.g., the discovery and colonization of the American promised land), and outlining the principles governing such intervention (e.g., the higher purposes behind God’s ongoing covenant relationship with the house of Israel), Nephi’s writings greatly inform the modern LDS understanding of providential history.
Archaeology has much to offer as a scientific means of gathering independent evidence of the Book of Mormon’s authenticity. But one must look in the right place. A cautionary tale is the failed Cluff expedition of 1900, which, assuming a “hemispheric model” of Book of Mormon geography, traveled from Provo as far as Colombia looking for the city Zarahemla. Yet in 1842 the Times and Seasons (under Joseph Smith’s editorship) had printed excerpts from a popular book on Mesoamerican archaeology that demonstrated a surprisingly high level of civilization, implying that Nephite lands did not extend into South America, thus supporting the theory of a ”limited” geographic model. Both sides believe that archaeology is on their side. Book of Mormon critics also claim that archaeology is on their side, but decades of archaeological investigation in Mesoamerica and in the Old World has shown a pattern of increasing convergence that favors Book of Mormon authenticity. Evidences discussed include, among others, metal records in stone boxes, ancient writing, warfare, the tree of life and other metaphors, Old and New World geography, and cycles of civilization. In a sidebar article, the findings of an amateur archaeologist challenge a popular assumption that the hill was the scene of the final battles depicted in the Book of Mormon.
Landon Smith gives an account of artifact hunting in the fields surrounding Hill Cumorah, near Palmyra, New York. He presents evidence that the archaeology of New York does not support the idea that Book of Mormon peoples lived in that region of that New York’s Hill Cumorah was the scene of the final battles between the Nephites and Lamanites.
One of the more striking and significant passages in the Book of Mormon is Lehi’s vision of the tree of life. It is often studied in terms of its content alone, with clarifying details illuminated by Nephi’s similar vision. However, exploring this vision against the backdrop of ancient visionary literature can lead to greater appreciation of its literary richness while affording insights into its interpretation. Many narrative components of Lehi’s vision match the characteristic elements of visionary literature identified by biblical scholar Leland Ryken, including otherness, reversal of ordinary reality, transcendental realms, kaleidoscopic structure, and symbolism. The relationship between symbolic aspects of Lehi’s vision and specific historical events more clearly recognized in Nephi’s account (e.g., Christ’s mortal ministry, the apostasy, Nephite history) is discussed. In addition, identifying the man in the white robe in Lehi’s vision as John the Revelator provides a natural narrative and structural link to Nephi’s vision that emphasizes the relatedness of the two accounts. Most elements of the vision point to Jesus Christ. Lehi’s vision comports well with the genre of ancient visionary literature, a form that biblical scholarship has shown to be worthy of serious scholarly attention.
A short sword was unearthed in the ancient Philistine city Ekron, which was destroyed in 604 BC and lay twenty-two miles south of Jerusalem. Israel seems to have been initially dependent on the Philistines for metallurgy. In 2003, a seventh-century BC Etruscan gold book was discovered in Bulgaria. Recently, another gold book was found in Iran dating from around the sixth century BC.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 15, No. 1 (2006)
Summary of current issue.
Some critics of the Book of Mormon have suggested that Joseph Smith produced the book through a process known as “automatic writing,” a rapid flow of language claimed to be generated through paranormal means such as trance-like states or claimed communications with spirits. This paper presents an overview of some prominent claims of automatic writing and examines the historical and scientific evidence for the authenticity of at least some of these cases. After discussing the similarities between these works and the Book of Mormon, the paper outlines a number of features in the Book of Mormon that clearly differentiate it from any known case of automatic writing, features such as the presence of Near Eastern and Mesoamerican geographic, cultural, and linguistic details that were unknowable to anyone in 1830. Based on this and other evidence, the Book of Mormon does not fit the profile of automatic writing but is best explained by Joseph’s own account of its ancient and divine origins.
Utilizing techniques adapted from literary criticism, this paper investigates the narrative structure of the Book of Mormon, particularly the relationship between Nephi’s first-person account and Mormon’s third-person abridgment. A comparison of the order and relative prominence of material from 1 Nephi 12 with the content of Mormon’s historical record reveals that Mormon may have intentionally patterned the structure of his narrative after Nephi’s prophetic vision—a conclusion hinted at by Mormon himself in his editorial comments. With this understanding, readers of the Book of Mormon can see how Mormon’s sometimes unusual editorial decisions are actually guided by an overarching desire to show that Nephi’s prophecies have been dramatically and literally fulfilled in the history of his people.
Bradford introduces reviews of Royal Skousen’s work on the critical text project.
Royal Skousen’s endeavor to recover the original text of the Book of Mormon is more complicated than it seems because it involves more than simply reproducing the original manuscript. Rather, what Skousen means by “original text” is the very language that appeared on the Urim and Thummim. Every subsequent step, such as Joseph’s reading, his scribes’ understanding and transcribing of that utterance, and Oliver Cowdery’s copying of the manuscript for the printer, exposed the text to the possibility of human subjectivity and error. This paper explains the nature and scope of Skousen’s monumental undertaking and presents some of the methods and reasoning he employs to resolve disputed textual variants in search the Book of Mormon’s original text.
Photographic presentation of Book of Mormon editions in English.
Royal Skousen’s most significant contribution to Book of Mormon scholarship, this paper states, is in openly and systematically detailing the thousands of variants that occur across two manuscripts and twenty editions and showing that these variations do not affect the message or validity of the book as a witness of Jesus Christ. Skousen’s work also offers new insights into the process of translating and publishing the Book of Mormon. Though the work of translation appears to have involved a number of different methods, we can nevertheless be sure that the Book of Mormon was translated by the “gift and power of God.”
Until now, nearly all commentaries on the Book of Mormon have focused mainly on issues of doctrine rather than beginning with the text itself. Royal Skousen’s critical text project does the opposite by treating the text itself on the word and phrase level. Skousen weighs nearly all possible evidence to deduce the events that may have led to the variations seen in the texts and to draw conclusions about which readings are most likely original. Some conclusions may surprise readers, but Skousen is more interested in candidly documenting what the texts reveal than in interpreting all the implications. Several lengthy excerpts from Skousen’s work show the scholarly depth and rigor of his analysis. In the end, Skousen may have produced the seminal work of Book of Mormon textual criticism that scholars and students will still be using hundreds of years from now.
Royal Skousen’s work on his Book of Mormon critical text project demonstrates that he is an able textual critic who employs sound judgment and proven methods to uncover the original text of the Book of Mormon. In many cases, these decisions seem counterintuitive to untrained readers, but Skousen correctly applies the principle that a more awkward reading is most likely original. He also shows his ability to make conjectural emendations for which no direct textual evidence is available. In every case, Skousen clearly lays out his reasoning so that readers who disagree with his inferences can examine the evidence for themselves to reach their own conclusions. This paper goes on to speculate that Skousen’s work may in time bring the LDS and RLDS editions of the Book of Mormon closer together textually. In the end, the critical text project is a superb work of scholarship on par with the standard works of biblical textual criticism.
In his effort to correct and preserve the original text of the Book of the Mormon, Royal Skousen has also increased our understanding of and appreciation for this volume of sacred scripture. Skousen’s close examination of the use of words and phrases throughout the book highlights its intertextuality and demonstrates that Book of Mormon authors were aware of and influenced by the words of previous authors. Moreover, restoring the original text helps clarify some vague constructions and should also caution us against putting too much emphasis on the exact wording of the present Book of Mormon. Skousen’s analysis of how such changes occurred during a relatively modern transmission process can also further the understanding of more ancient textual transmission. Finally, Skousen’s work reveals that the original Book of Mormon may have been even more strikingly Semitic than the present text and that some characteristically Hebrew constructions have been edited out over the years, though many still remain.
A previous report characterized a metal blade discovered at the site of biblical Ekron in Israel as a steel short sword dating from the late seventh century BC, shortly before Lehi left Jerusalem, thus corroborating the much-criticized account of Laban’s steel sword in the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, these assertions are incorrect. Jeffrey R. Chadwick, who is personally acquainted with the excavators who unearthed the blade, explains here that the blade is not a short sword but probably a ceremonial knife. Additionally, the knife is likely from the eleventh century BC and cannot properly be described as steel. Though this artifact does not support the Book of Mormon account of seventh-century steel swords, much better archaeological parallels do exist. Chadwick mentions a meter-long steel sword discovered in Jericho that dates to around 600 BC. This genuinely steel sword from the proper time period makes Nephi’s description of Laban’s sword entirely plausible.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 15, No. 2 (2006)
Summary of current issue.
Thirty years after publishing In Search of Lehi’s Trail, Lynn M. Hilton looks back at the progress of research on the journey of Lehi and his family from Jerusalem to Bountiful. Hilton starts by briefly reviewing the known aspects of the party’s travel, such as the location of Jerusalem and their initial “south-southeast direction.” Following their trail, he gives an overview of the discoveries that have helped identify and describe potential sites for several key locales mentioned in Nephi’s narrative of the journey: the Valley of Lemuel, Nahom, and Bountiful. In the past thirty years, many important discoveries have expanded our understanding of the real-life setting of Lehi’s travel through the Arabian Peninsula.
Utilizing techniques adapted from literary criticism, this paper investigates the narrative structure of the Book of Mormon, particularly the relationship between Nephi’s first-person account and Mormon’s third-person abridgment. A comparison of the order and relative prominence of material from 1 Nephi 12 with the content of Mormon’s historical record reveals that Mormon may have intentionally patterned the structure of his narrative after Nephi’s prophetic vision—a conclusion hinted at by Mormon himself in his editorial comments. With this understanding, readers of the Book of Mormon can see how Mormon’s sometimes unusual editorial decisions are actually guided by an overarching desire to show that Nephi’s prophecies have been dramatically and literally fulfilled in the history of his people.
Bradford introduces reviews of Royal Skousen’s work on the critical text project.
Royal Skousen’s endeavor to recover the original text of the Book of Mormon is more complicated than it seems because it involves more than simply reproducing the original manuscript. Rather, what Skousen means by “original text” is the very language that appeared on the Urim and Thummim. Every subsequent step, such as Joseph’s reading, his scribes’ understanding and transcribing of that utterance, and Oliver Cowdery’s copying of the manuscript for the printer, exposed the text to the possibility of human subjectivity and error. This paper explains the nature and scope of Skousen’s monumental undertaking and presents some of the methods and reasoning he employs to resolve disputed textual variants in search the Book of Mormon’s original text.
David A. LeFevre analyzes the studies done by Warren Aston (see page 8), Richard Wellington and George Potter (see page 26), and Kent Brown (see page 44) and compares them, using the text of the Book of Mormon as a guide. These three studies take liberty in interpreting Nephi’s usage of specific terms; LeFevre, however, insists that such interpretations are unnecessary and inaccurate. He analyzes other phrases in a more conservative way in order to find additional information regarding Lehi’s trek. He specifically discusses Lehi’s life in Jerusalem, the route Lehi took from Jerusalem to the Red Sea, the Valley of Lemuel, the route from Shazer to Nahom, the route from Nahom to Bountiful, and the building of the ship at Bountiful.
Seasoned archaeologist Jeffrey R. Chadwick responds to studies done by Warren Aston (see page 8), Richard Wellington and George Potter (see page 26), and Kent Brown (see page 44) pertaining to the trail that the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi took after fleeing Jerusalem. Chadwick uses his archaeological, historical, and scriptural knowledge to comment on the claims made by the other scholars. He specifically analyzes Lehi’s life in Jerusalem, the route Lehi took from Jerusalem to the Red Sea, the Valley of Lemuel, the route from Shazer to Nahom, the route from Nahom to Bountiful, and the building of the ship at Bountiful.
Many Book of Mormon scholars have attempted to determine the course that Lehi and his family took when they fled Jerusalem to travel to the promised land. In his record, Nephi provided place-names and geographical descriptions, but that information is not sufficient to make conclusive claims. This article draws on the experiences and research of others to discuss the possible locations of the Valley of Lemuel, Shazer, the area where Nephi’s bow broke, Nahom, and Bountiful.
When Carr traveled to the Middle East, he observed the local birds. In this article, he suggests the possibility that the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi and his family relied on birds for food and for locating water. Carr discusses the various birds that Lehi’s family may have seen on their journey and the Mosaic law pertaining to those birds.
In his effort to correct and preserve the original text of the Book of the Mormon, Royal Skousen has also increased our understanding of and appreciation for this volume of sacred scripture. Skousen’s close examination of the use of words and phrases throughout the book highlights its intertextuality and demonstrates that Book of Mormon authors were aware of and influenced by the words of previous authors. Moreover, restoring the original text helps clarify some vague constructions and should also caution us against putting too much emphasis on the exact wording of the present Book of Mormon. Skousen’s analysis of how such changes occurred during a relatively modern transmission process can also further the understanding of more ancient textual transmission. Finally, Skousen’s work reveals that the original Book of Mormon may have been even more strikingly Semitic than the present text and that some characteristically Hebrew constructions have been edited out over the years, though many still remain.
Nancy Goldberg Hilton shares her experiences growing up in the Jewish religion. Although she felt close to God while reciting verses from the Old Testament, she was confused about God’s true nature and current role. Hilton eventually abandoned her belief in God until she had a miraculous experience at Rainbow Bridge on Lake Powell in Utah. This experience helped her to feel the reality of God and of Jesus Christ, and she soon began to search for further information about their doctrine. When a business contact gave her a Book of Mormon, she read it and was delighted to discover how the book connected the life of Jesus Christ to her Jewish heritage and to the life she was now living. Hilton agreed to meet with missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she was baptized shortly thereafter.
During the 19th century, critics of the Book of Mormon claimed that steel was not known in the Near East or ancient America during the appropriate Book of Mormon times. This assertion, if true, would discredit the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. However, in more recent decades, proof that Mesopotamian peoples used steel has been revealed. This discovery means that steel was used well before the oldest Book of Mormon people lived. Further research regarding steel in ancient America is still necessary; however, it appears that five Mesoamerican proto-languages have a word for metal, suggesting that the people who spoke those languages were familiar with some form of metal.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 16, No. 1 (2007)
Shortly after arriving in New York and beginning employment as a schoolteacher in 1828, Oliver Cowdery first learned about Joseph Smith and the gold plates through rumors and gossip. Through the sincere investigations of Oliver and his newfound friend, David Whitmer, and his time as a boarder with the Joseph Smith family in Palmyra, Oliver continued to learn about Joseph and the plates. He received a personal witness and traveled with Samuel Smith to visit Joseph in Harmony. Several events involving Martin Harris, David Whitmer, Joseph Knight Sr., and the Smith family all played a role in Oliver’s conversion, and on April 7, Joseph and Oliver began the translation of the Book of Mormon.
Between 1830 and 1981, all printed editions of the Book of Mormon contained the phrase ” straight and narrow path [or course]” in four verses. The change in 1981 to “strait and narrow path [or course]” has been supported by several arguments, including the lack of the phrase “straight and narrow” in the King James version of the Bible. Welch counters this argument with the history of the introduction and rise of the phrase “straight and narrow” among Western authors. Working through each of the other arguments and offering his own counterarguments and evidences, he delivers his opinion that these phrases should not have been changed and should still read “straight and narrow path [or course].”
The slaying of Laban has been a stumbling block for many readers of the Book of Mormon. Although Laban appeared to have legally merited the execution, any explanation of the act is unsatisfactory if Nephi is considered to be acting as an individual. Larsen illustrates that Nephi was acting as a sovereign, with a clear political purpose. When Lehi offered a sacrifice in the Valley of Lemuel, his family became a separate people, with Nephi repeatedly promised the role of ruler. Nephi’s symbolic and literal assuming of this sovereign authority through the act of killing Laban is explained through six different layers: (1) substitutional sovereignty, (2) the assumption of Mosaic authority, (3) the assumption of Davidic authority, (4) private and public motives, (5) the Nephite constitutional order, and (6) explicit declarations of Nephi’s reign. Nephi did not formally assume the role of king for many years, but by slaying Laban he proves that he will be a dutiful king.
King Benjamin, in an attempt to establish and promote peace, created a form of government that may be understood as democratic. The political system is not a democracy in the way the term is understood today, but the democratic elements become especially clear when viewed next to its autocratic Lamanite counterpart. Davis demonstrates how a democratic system tends to bring more peace to a nation and, interestingly, also more victory when war does come upon them. The young Nephite state encountered the types of risks experienced in the modern progression to democracy, further illustrating how difficult a task it would have been for Joseph Smith to create this world. Although the democratic state played a role in the Nephite nation, the most important lesson in the Book of Mormon’s politics is that God makes all the difference.
The Bible does not explicitly state on which day of the week the Savior was crucified, and the passages describing the length of time he spent in the tomb can be interpreted in multiple ways. Depending on how days were measured and on what Sabbath the day of preparation preceded—whether the weekly Sabbath or the Passover Sabbath—the crucifixion could plausibly have occurred on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. The Bible and history have not been able to determine on which day of the week the crucifixion occurred, but the Book of Mormon gives additional information to establish the day. Based on a comparison of the passages in the two texts and an examination of time differences between the two hemispheres, Thursday appears to be the most plausible solution.
A canyon in northwestern Arabia, Wadi Tayyib al-Ism, appears to be a strong candidate for the Valley of Lemuel in the Book of Mormon. Although its rare year-round stream seems to confirm this site as the valley, other locations must be considered. Brown gives arguments both in favor of and against three other propositions, all of which are within a few dozen miles of Wadi Tayyib al-Ism. The aspects of the river and the Red Sea, the drainage areas of wadis, and the character of the valley are all evaluated. Despite his one serious objection to Wadi Tayyib al-Ism—the difficulty Lehi’s family would have experienced in reaching the site from the north end of the Gulf of Aqaba—Brown argues that it is the most viable candidate for the Valley of Lemuel.
An announcement made in Jerusalem—claiming that parts of the text found in the pyramid of Wenis were ancient Semitic and not Egyptian—could have implications applicable to the Latter-day Saints. If the claim proves to be true, these spells would be one of the oldest attestations of any Semitic language. Egyptologists have tended to reject the possibility of influence from non-Egyptians, but the existence of these Semitic lines would force them to reconsider that possibility. The reverse would also have to be considered, supporting the Book of Mormon’s suggestion that the Hebrews adopted Egyptian script to write Hebrew. However, the assertion has only been made and has yet to be proven.
The Pawnee people endured many hardships through the years, but EchoHawk explains that out of that pain was born promise. During his childhood, EchoHawk and his family had no expectation of achieving a higher education, but he, along with all of his siblings, was able to attend college. Through a football accident in high school, he gained the personal testimony he hadn’t possessed when he was baptized at 14. His testimony and his football took him to Brigham Young University, where President Spencer W. Kimball influenced him to become a lawyer, and later the attorney general of Idaho, to help his people and to be an instrument in God’s hands.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 16, No. 2 (2007)
Summary of current issue.
Cannon’s examination of news articles and stories concerning the publication of the Book of Mormon helps provide a greater understanding of its initial reception. Most news coverage first appeared in Palmyra and the surrounding areas, but articles on the Book of Mormon appeared as far west as Missouri and Arkansas and from Maine to Georgia. Even with this seemingly wide range of coverage, the overall quantity of news articles on the topic reveals how few people knew about the book and the early LDS Church as a whole. Although the majority of the news articles concerning the Book of Mormon were negative, some assumed a neutral stance and a relatively small number were positive about the book and its publication.
The Book of Mormon is clearly a didactic text, with its narrators using plainness, explicitness, and repetition to keep the message clear and straightforward. However, Hardy offers a more in-depth analysis of the text’s rhetorical design that also reveals it as a literary text. The Book of Mormon is both a primer for judgment and a guidebook for sanctification. Parallel narratives are compared through clusters of similar narrative elements or phrasal borrowing between the multiple accounts. In Mosiah, Mormon tells the story of the bondage and delivery of Alma and his people after recounting the story of the bondage of the people of Limhi. Hardy explains that ambiguity, indirection, comparison, and allusions are all used to suggest the larger context of these two narratives. The ability to read the book as a guidebook for sanctification, rather than just as a straightforward didactic primer, will provide insight and guidance in the process of living a faithful life.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Prior to the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 BC, Lehi took his family into the wilderness. Around the same time, another group of Jews fled to Elephantine in Egypt. Ludlow evaluates the Nephite group, the Elephantine colony, and the Jews in postexilic Jerusalem to show how the Nephites compared religiously with other Jewish groups. Social relationships, the Sabbath and festivals, priesthood officials, and temples played important roles in all three communities, with the importance and function of each varying among the three. On the other hand, scriptural texts strongly aided the reformation of Jerusalem and played an important role among the Nephites, beginning with the retrieval of brass plates from Laban, but the Elephantine community lacked texts related to the Hebrew Bible. After comparing the three, Ludlow shows that the Nephites created their own religious community, separate and independent from the religious community they left behind.
King Benjamin’s speech focuses almost entirely on service, repeating four variations of the word—servants, serve, served, and service—fifteen times in only eighteen verses. Benjamin gave the discourse in such a manner that his audience could have understood service in multiple ways. Given the significant temple setting for the discourse and the references to temple service in the Old Testament, Parry seeks to highlight the emphasis on temple service. To further strengthen his focus on temple service, Benjamin links service to the concept of blood on garments and his need to wash his garments of his people’s blood, bringing to mind the priests with blood on their garments from temple rituals, who were required to wash their garments. The temple setting, where sacrifices were made under the law of Moses, and the focus on service point to Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice—the supreme and final act of service.
Adding to three previous sites proposed as Nephi’s Bountiful, Phillips argues in defense of another candidate—Mughsayl. He evaluates all the candidates and describes the corresponding areas. He proposes that Lehi and his family were not alone during their travels or time in Bountiful and lists ten reasons in support of his proposal of Mughsayl as the land of Bountiful. The merits of Mughsayl include its tributaries, its ability to sustain a large herd of camels and other domesticated animals, and its location on a trade route between Salalah and the Hadramaut region of Yemen.
The etymological meaning of the name Liahona has been touched on before, but Curci seeks to deliver a more plausible etymology than has previously been given. By transliterating the word back into the Hebraic idioms of the time of Lehi and evaluating the grammatical elements to form the name, he has settled on the meaning of “ direction of the Lord.” The name is broken into three parts, and Curci argues that each part is Hebraic in origin, including the meaning and interpretation of each part. The etymological evidence regarding the name Liahona strengthens the claim that the book was written by a group of ancient Hebrews and not Joseph Smith.
The attitude held by certain sectors of the anti-Mormon crowd has changed over the years, even to the point where some no longer deny the literary merit and beauty of the Book of Mormon. Although an assessment of the impact of Jack Welch’s work and writing on chiasmus may be premature, it is clear that his work on the subject incited the expansion of other literary analyses of the Book of Mormon and encouraged the publication of their results. Welch’s work influenced studies and analyses on chiasmus in Classic Mayan texts, and his publications have contributed much to the discipline of chiastic analyses.
On August 16, 1967, Welch discovered the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. Serving in the LDS South German mission at the time, in the city of Regensburg, Welch attended a lecture on the New Testament. He there learned of chiasmus and how it provides evidence of Hebraic origins. After reviewing a book dealing with literary art in the Gospel of Matthew, he began his analysis of the Book of Mormon for evidence of chiasmus. His first identification of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon was in Mosiah 5, but examples of chiastic style have since been found throughout the book. Welch wrote his master’s thesis on chiasmus and continued study on the subject. Though rational arguments cannot generate a testimony of the truthfulness of the book, the presence of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon gives credence to its origins.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture Vol. 17, No. 1 (2008)
The editor gives a brief history of the Journal and gives his vision for the future of the publication.
The seventh chapter of the Book of Moses portrays Enoch’s vision of the history and future of the world within a specific literary framework. The text, coming from the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, outlines three periods of time: (1) the days of Noah, (2) the meridian of time, and (3) the last days. The portrayal of each of these time periods contains five similar characteristics. Szink also compares this text with accounts in the Bible and other nonbiblical sources to further understand the vision and the significance of its framework. By presenting the three periods in a literary art form, the author has created a complex beauty that reflects and reinforces the content of the vision.
At the time Jacob gave his speech in 2 Nephi 6–10, the Nephites had already been driven from two lands of inheritance and felt an ongoing concern of being cut off from God’s promises. Belnap illustrates that Jacob’s speech answers these concerns through emphasizing and expounding on the covenantal relationship made possible by God acting as the Divine Warrior. Jacob quotes Isaiah passages in his discourse and in some instances makes his own additions to emphasize important aspects. He illustrates how the Divine Warrior provides the hardships, knowledge, and power for an individual to become a divine warrior, and he discusses the Divine Warrior’s defeat over the monster of Death. The promises made by the Divine Warrior can provide hope and assurance to all.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Jacob
Several maps from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries support details of Lehi’s journey as recorded in the Book of Mormon. In 1751, the renowned cartographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon D’Anville became the first to include Nahom (or Nehem), Ishmael’s burial place in the Book of Mormon, in his map of Asia. This map and a 1771 map of Yemen are the basis for most accurate maps of Arabia from 1751 to 1814. The spelling varies among the subsequent maps, with most using either D’Anville’s Nehem or Niebuhr’s Nehhm, but the location of Nahom does not differ between those maps that include Nahom. The mention of Nahom on the finest maps by the greatest cartographers of the times, in a location that corresponds to Lehi’s account, gives credence to Lehi’s travels.
Scholars have presented and defended different viewpoints concerning the Lehite journey and the location of Nephi’s Bountiful. Aston explains that some of these arguments contain factual errors, such as claims regarding fertility and timber for Nephi’s ship and a lack of accounting for all possibilities. Discrepancies in theories and differences in opinion do not lessen the worth of all that has been found in Arabia and the supported theories, but acknowledging the sometimes contrary data will aid the search for the best candidate for Nephi’s Bountiful.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture Vol. 18, No. 1 (2009)
Summary of current issue.
Many interpretations exist about who the “suffering servant” in many of Isaiah’s writings might be. Interpretations for this figure include Isaiah himself, the people of Israel, Joseph Smith, and Jesus Christ. Without arguing against these understandings of the servant, this paper claims that Christ, in 3 Nephi 20–23, personifies the servant as the Book of Mormon. Both the servant and the Book of Mormon are portrayed as filling the same “great and marvelous” works in the gathering of Israel, reminding the Jews of their covenants with God, and bringing the Gentiles to Christ.
Old Testament Scriptures > Isaiah
When authors use the rhetorical device of literary allusion, they not only teach through their own words but also attach to their own text meanings and interpretations from the alluded text. This is true of Nephi’s allusion to the account of David and Goliath in Nephi’s own account of his killing Laban, which allusion is generally of a thematic nature. A few of the main thematic parallels between the two accounts are that both unbelieving Israel and Laman and Lemuel are fearful of the main antagonist, both David and Nephi prophesy the death of their opponent, and both Goliath and Laban have their heads cut off and armor stripped. The implications of this allusion run deep. At a time in which the right to kingship was continually in dispute between Nephi and Laman, Nephi casting himself as David—the archetypal king of Judah, whose faith led to his supplanting Saul—could be seen as legitimizing his regal authority over Laman.
One of the most moving accounts in the Book of Mormon is of the people of Ammon, their covenant to bury and never use again their weapons of war, their faith to sacrifice themselves instead of fighting back against their Lamanite brethren, and their sacrifice to send their children to war to aid the Nephites. Some interpret the stance that the Ammonites took against war to be pacifist. Some indications point toward this conclusion: their burying their weapons, covenanting never to fight again, allowing themselves to be slaughtered twice, and being motivated in these actions out of love for their Lamanite kin. However, when the text is read more carefully, it can easily be seen that further actions would not necessarily have reflected a pacifist view toward war: not objecting to the Nephite war in their defense, providing Nephite soldiers with food and supplies, and sending their own sons into battle would surely indicate that their personal opposition to war stemmed from the covenants they made during repentance.
In our search for understanding, it is often instructive to determine what something does not mean. This is the case with the ending on some Book of Mormon names, -(i)hah. Because one of the most common names ending with -(i)hah is Moronihah, the son of Moroni, it might be tempting to understand these names as patronymic; however, of eleven names with the suffix -(i)hah, Moronihah is the only occurrence in which the father is known. The case of the brothers Mathoni and Mathonihah also casts doubt on this interpretation. The suffix -(i)hah can also be interpreted as a shortened form of Jehovah, yhwh. For this to occur, however, -i(j)ah would have to switch to -(i)hah through metathesis, which is extremely rare in Semitic languages. Among other arguments against this understanding are that there are no instances in the corpus in which -(i)hah is used as a shortened form of Jehovah and, with one possible exception, no geographical name compounds with yhwh, as -(i)hah does in the Book of Mormon. Although this leaves the question currently unresolved, the use of sound methodology has helped to settle what -(i)hah is not, which will ultimately aid in determining what it is.
A critique of Warren Aston’s “Identifying Our Best Candidate for Nephi’s Bountiful,” published in volume 17/1–2 of the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 18, No. 2 (2009)
Summary of current issue.
The Book of Mormon treats many topics that most nineteenth-century Christians would have been thoroughly familiar with: the fall, atonement, and resurrection, just to name a few. However, the Book of Mormon treats these subjects in a way that would have required such readers to rethink their relationship with the divine, their place in Christian history, and God’s relationship to history. Christ’s visit to the New World, the continuance of the scriptural canon, and abundant personalized revelation all create a text that is both familiar and radical.
The early twentieth century found the Japanese language in a state of flux—colloquial Japanese was very slowly beginning to replace classical written Japanese, whose grammar had remained relatively intact for centuries. At this time of change Elder Alma O. Taylor began his 1909 translation of the Book of Mormon. He choose initially to render the text into the colloquial style; however, prodded by his Japanese reviewers, Taylor quickly realized that no publicly praiseworthy translation could be made in colloquial Japanese. The choice to translate the Book of Mormon in the classical language, as well as to have successful Japanese author, Choko Ikuta, review and edit the translation, allowed the 1909 text to accurately portray doctrine as well as to be considered a major literary achievement.
Articles from early newspapers and other publications give rare insights into the way in which the original audience of the Book of Mormon, both believers and critics, viewed the document. A large-scale collection of these documents was not initiated until the 1930s by Francis Kirkham, with encouragement from President George Albert Smith. Kirkham later published his collection in two volumes. His work, while extensive, was not exhaustive. The 19th-Century Publications about the Book of Mormon (1829–1844), a project partnered by the Maxwell Institute and the Harold B. Lee Library, builds off of Kirkham’s original research and seeks to preserve every extant published text discussing the Book of Mormon. The collection includes more than six hundred publications related to the Book of Mormon—almost one million words of text.
The Journal of Book of Mormon Studies was founded in 1992 to be a forum through which faithful LDS scholars could highlight their research on the historical, linguistic, cultural, and theological contexts of the Book of Mormon. Since its founding by Stephan D. Ricks, four other scholars have served as editors of this publication: John L. Sorenson, S. Kent Brown, Andrew H. Hedges, and Paul Y. Hoskisson. Under these scholars’ stewardship, the Journal has developed into the flagship publication of the Maxwell Institute. This article features not only the history of the Journal but also perspectives from each of the editors.
Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, the second out of thirty expected volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers, reproduces in textual and photographic format two books used between 1831 and 1835 to record revelations given through Joseph Smith. This volume marks the first time that scholars and other interested readers will have broad access to these books of revelations. The text includes color-coded transcriptions of the various redactions made by Smith, Cowdery, Williams, and others. The revelations included in the volume consist of both canonical and noncanonical revelations; some of the noncanonical revelations give an intriguing glimpse into the early LDS Church. While this volume will be a great asset to any reader, its full potential may not be realized until the publication of later volumes, which will include a general index, contextual footnotes, and historical introductions to the revelations.
A well-defined trend over the past two hundred years in secular biblical scholarship has been to sunder spiritual from historical, relegating events such as miracles and the resurrection to the category of “sacred stories.” This trend has also crept into some circles of LDS Book of Mormon scholarship, with adherents claiming an “expansionist” view of the Book of Mormon. They contend that the core of the text is historical but that so-called anachronisms in the text—references to the fall, atonement, resurrection, or new birth prior to the time of Christ—are due to Joseph Smith’s own interpolations. Because Book of Mormon writers and Joseph Smith himself clearly state that the text is entirely historical, this logically leaves expansionist advocates in the precarious position of claiming either that Joseph did not know the truth or that he lied. In contrast to this view, certain well-defined truths such as the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the reality of the First Vision, and the atonement and resurrection of Christ must stand as the foundation of the LDS faith.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 19, No. 1 (2010)
Summary of current issue.
Reprinted in Hugh Nibley Observed.
Just as attorneys representing the church wouldn’t bear their testimonies in a courtroom, Hugh Nibley defended Joseph Smith through facts and scholarly dialogue, not testimony bearing. Although Nibley did, at times, discuss the Prophet specifically, his defense of Joseph came primarily through academic vindication of the Book of Mormon. When others made scholarly attacks against Joseph’s character, Nibley would move the debate to a discussion of the historicity of the book on its own terms. When Nibley did directly discuss the Prophet, he portrayed him as a humble, loving servant of God.
Hugh W. Nibley Topics > Hugh Nibley > Scholarship, Footnotes, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, CWHN, Editing > Book of Mormon
Hugh W. Nibley Topics > Hugh Nibley > Scholarship, Footnotes, Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, CWHN, Editing > Joseph Smith
Until the discovery of Ostracon 2071, dating from the fifth century BC, in the 1930s on the shores of the Red Sea, the name Lehi (l?y in the discovered text) had been unattested in any extant document outside of the Book of Mormon. However, Nelson Gluek, along with many other scholars, including Hugh Nibley, vocalized l?y as “La?ai,” which pronunciation would have south Semitic roots. Chadwick argues, instead, that a Hebrew context for the ostracon would be more plausible and that therefore the more likely pronunciation would be “l??y.” He also argues for a Hebrew origin of the compound name ?bl?y, found in the fourth-century BC Samaria Papyri. Both of these names, given their strong Hebrew context, seem to confirm that Lehi was a name in use in ancient Israel and its surrounding areas.
Many easily recognizable Hebrew words and names can be found in the Book of Abraham. One name that hasn’t had a concrete meaning attached to it, however, is Elkenah. In this article, Barney addresses whether Elkenah is a person, place, or name; what its possible linguistic structures are; and what it might mean. Most importantly, Barney links Elkenah with the Canaanite god El and the attending cult—a cult that practiced human sacrifice. This has significant ramifications for the Book of Abraham, which has been criticized for its inclusion of human sacrifice. Assuming a northern location for the city Ur and taking Elkenah as the Canaanite El resolve the issue of child sacrifice in the Book of Abraham.
Third Nephi and its account of the ministry of the resurrected Jesus to the Nephites has long been seen as the pinnacle of the Book of Mormon. This text can also be viewed as the Holy of Holies of the Book of Mormon. Everything in 3 Nephi, especially the ministry of the Savior, echoes themes related to the temple and the presence of the Lord in the Holy of Holies. Themes such as silence, timelessness, unity, awe, and consecration confirm this interpretation.
One of the largest theological issues throughout Christian history is the fate of the unevangelized dead: Will they be eternally damned? Will they be lesser citizens in the kingdom of God? Will they have a chance to accept Christ postmortally? These issues are related to the soteriological problem of evil. The belief of the earliest Christians, even through the time of the church fathers Origen and Clement of Alexandria, was that postmortal evangelization was possible. One of the origins of this belief is seen in apocalyptic Judaism, in which righteous gentiles are not left to suffer eternally but, however, are given a lesser status than righteous Jews. Early Christian doctrine goes even further through the belief of Christ’s preaching in Hades—all people have a chance, through accepting Christ, to be save in the same state. Later, however, many Christian theologians such as Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin rejected this doctrine and contended that righteousness and unrighteousness are fixed at death.
This short article was originally published in the journal Concilium: An International Review of Theology and as such is addressed to a non-LDS audience. Nibley begins by giving a brief historical and theological background to the Book of Mormon. He then makes the point that the Book of Mormon includes topics that leave it open to scholars in many different disciplines to study and to put on trial. Finally, he comments on the remarkable coherence with which the prophetic editors were able to compile the Book of Mormon.
The Journal of The Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 19, No. 2 (2010)
Summary of current issue and a letter to the editor.
On 25 March 2010, in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium, Brigham Young University, Marilyn Arnold presented this lecture as part of a series honoring Hugh W. Nibley on the 100th anniversary of his birth (27 March 2010).
In this lecture commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of Hugh Nibley’s birth, Arnold paints a picture of him by discussing not only his scholarship but also his very unique, and often humorous, writing and speaking styles and his consistent jabs at academia. According to Arnold, who read everything Nibley had written on the Book of Mormon, Nibley was never more eloquent or serious than when he defended that book. Often, Arnold notes, his defenses and other writings are illuminated by literary devices, including the use of parable, epistle, and Platonic dialogue.
To help mitigate the soteriological problem of evil, that one having had no chance to hear the gospel would be sent to hell, many early Christians practiced baptism for the dead. The only reference to this in the New Testament comes in 1 Corinthians 15:29, a scripture that some scholars attempt to reinterpret or repunctuate to dismiss baptism for the dead but that most scholars defend as a legitimate reference. Further strengthening the historicity of the practice are references by early writers such as Tertullian and Ambrosiaster. The quest for authenticating the practice of baptism for the dead should rest on these and other historical references, not on retroactively applied standards of orthodoxy.
The customary interpretation of 3 Nephi 11:1 has been that those around the temple in Bountiful were showing one another the “ great and marvelous change” that had taken place in the land. However, Jones argues that those people were discussing instead the change that had taken place in their hearts. By examining the context in which this scripture appears and by interpreting other scriptures, especially ones emphasizing the way in which most revelation is received, Jones shows that the atonement of Jesus Christ and the individuals’ subsequent change of heart would have been the main topic of their discussion and would therefore be an appropriate understanding of the scripture.
A practice that was eventually condemned by the church because of its Jewish affinities—being found, for example, in the Testaments of Abraham and Job and in the writings of Philo—the prayer circle has a long and complex history in Christian practice. This practice was considered one of the “ mysteries” and therefore was protected from all who weren’t initiated. For the initiated participants, this was a very sacred practice, which demanded unity between all those involved. The prayer circle, generally referred to as a “ dance,” often included hymns, prayers for the living and the dead, and gestures that would prepare the participants for heavenly visitations.
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle” (1978)
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle” (1987)
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle: Sidebar, Coptic Liturgical Text” (2010)
“The Early Christian Prayer Circle: Sidebar, Minutes of the Second Council of Nicaea in ad 787” (2010)
Patriarch Tarasius and various bishops and monks condemn the Acts of John, in which an account of the early Christian prayer circle is recorded.
This text, from a Christian “Book of Breathings,” highlights the importance of the prayer circle in early Christian worship.
The Journal of The Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 20, No. 1 (2011)
Letters praising the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture and responses to articles published therein.
Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, was the only witness to join the Saints in Utah. This journey was commenced only after missionaries passed through Kirtland for decades and attempted to convince Harris to make the journey to the Salt Lake Valley. Although each missionary over the course of decades was unsuccessful in his attempts to convince the impoverished, lonely Harris to go to Utah, each was spiritually renewed through the ever-present testimony of the witness of the Book of Mormon and “custodian” of the Kirtland Temple. This is the testimony Harris spread even as he traveled to Utah after a former acquaintance of his finally convinced him to make the trip at the age of eighty-seven. Finally in Utah, Harris enjoyed again the blessings of the church and continued to pronounce, even until he died, his powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Beginning with Paul’s reference to baptism for the dead and the early Christian practice thereof, many theologians—from Augustine and Cyril of Alexandria to Thomas Aquinas, Joseph Smith, and some of his contemporaries—have discussed the fate of the unevangelized dead. These authors have provided many ideas to solve this soteriological problem of evil; however, until the restoration, none could balance the three truths that God is all loving, one must accept Jesus Christ to be saved, and many have died without knowing about Christ. This article chronicles the thoughts of these and other theologians as well as the development, through revelation, of Joseph Smith’s own thinking on postmortem evangelization and baptism for the dead.
From God’s first creative act recorded in Genesis to the brightness with which the Savior will return in the second coming, light is ever present in scripture. Many instances in the scriptures record God’s use of light to further his purposes—the stones that provided the Jaredites light while crossing the ocean, the light by which the children of Israel were led in the wilderness, and the light that announced the Savior’s birth. None of these physical manifestations of light is without powerful symbolic meaning. At other points in scripture, light is used purely as a symbol—a symbol of truth, wisdom, power, and righteousness. More important than these, though, is that light can ultimately represent Jesus Christ himself, by whose light all can be saved.
Nahom, a proper name given as the burial place of Ishmael in 1 Nephi 16:34, compellingly correlates archaeologically, geographically, and historically to the site of Nehem on the Arabian peninsula. However, as this article exhibits, some of the linguistic and etymological evidence given to connect the Book of Mormon Nahom to the Arabian Nehem is somewhat problematic.
Responding to an inquiry from a member of a different faith about why the Book of Mormon was translated into the English of the King James Version of the Bible, Nibley discusses the use of biblical language in contemporary society, citing in particular the language of prayer and the use of King James English in the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This article also serves as a platform for Nibley to discuss other issues raised about the Book of Mormon, especially in reference to the King James version of the Bible.
The Journal of The Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 20, No. 2 (2011)
Letters praising the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture and responding to articles published therein.
How Mormon compiled Nephite records into the book that bears his name has never been carefully studied. This paper makes an attempt to understand that process as it details the limitations Mormon faced and the sources he would have used. Mormon’s framework depended primarily on the larger plates of Nephi, but this paper demonstrates that Mormon appears to have supplemented those plates with other sources from the Nephite archive of records. The restrictions of the plates of Nephi and the nature of the additional sources are discussed and evaluated.
Hugh Nibley cared deeply about creation and was passionate about our stewardship over the earth. His arguments in defense of the environment were informed by the disciplines he knew best: history, philosophy, and theology. From his study, research, and reasoning, Nibley drew several principles that seem to have directed his thoughts and crafted his sense of environmental stewardship. Four of these principles are discussed in this paper: (1) humankind has a divine mandate to properly care for creation; (2) humankind’s spiritual health and environmental heath are linked; (3) creation obeys, reverences, and provides for humankind, as humankind righteously cares for creation; and (4) humankind should not sacrifice environmental health for temporal wealth.
A review of Hugh Nibley’s thoughts and writings on the environment.
This paper probes the theories of the origin of the American Indian up to the time of the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon. It covers some three hundred years of development, looking at many different theories, including the predominant theory of the lost tribes of Israel, which was in decline among most leading scientific observers in the early nineteenth century. The paper covers new ground in showing that Professor Samuel L. Mitchill, formerly of Columbia College, had concluded that two main groups of people once dominated the Americas—the Tartars of northern Asia and the Australasians of the Polynesian islands. Furthermore, they fought one another for many years, culminating in great battles of extermination in what later became upstate New York. This New York theory has much in common with the Book of Mormon. While visiting Professor Charles Anthon in New York in 1828, Martin Harris also met with Mitchill, an encounter that lent support to Harris’s work on the Book of Mormon.
After Joseph Smith’s death, the Saints still had many questions regarding the soteriological problem of evil and the doctrines about redeeming the dead. This paper details what leaders of the church after Joseph Smith have said in response to these previously unanswered questions. They focus on the nature of Christ’s visit to the spirit world, those who were commissioned to preach the gospel to the departed spirits, the consequences of neglecting the gospel in mortality, and the extent and role of temple ordinances for those not eligible for celestial glory. This paper focuses on both the early and the late teachings of President Joseph F. Smith. It explains the doctrinal and historical contexts for his vision in 1918 and the further insights provided by this vision.
The plausibility of the attempted offering of Abraham by a priest of pharaoh and the existence of human sacrifice in ancient Egypt have been questioned and debated. This paper presents strong evidence that ritual slaying did exist among ancient Egyptians, with a particular focus on its existence in the Middle Kingdom. It details three individual evidences of human sacrifice found in ancient Egypt. Four different aspects of the attempted offering of Abraham are compared to these Egyptian evidences to illustrate how the story of Abraham fits with the picture of ritual slaying in Middle Kingdom Egypt.
Numerous differences exist between the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon and the corresponding passages in the King James Version of the Bible. The Great Isaiah Scroll supports several of these differences found in the Book of Mormon. Five parallel passages in the Isaiah scroll, the Book of Mormon, and the King James Version of the Bible are compared to illustrate the Book of Mormon’s agreement with the Isaiah scroll.
The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 21, No. 1 (2012)
Letters praising the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture and responding to articles published therein.
Much of what is done in Latter-day Saint temples is symbolic. Temple symbolism, however, extends well beyond the ordinances performed within the temples. From the Kirtland Temple’s pulpits representing the different orders of the priesthood to the stones on the Salt Lake Temple representing the universe and one’s relationship to God, exterior temple symbolism complements the principles learned within. The architecture within temples also provides insights into the ordinances. In many temples, murals depicting the different kingdoms of glory and stairs leading to higher areas remind participants of their ascent to God. This article chronicles, in detail, the meanings and development of these and other symbols incorporated into the architecture of modern-day temples.
As specified by revelation, one of the responsibilities given to Emma Smith was to select hymns for the church. However, almost immediately after the revelation was given, tension arose as to who should compile the hymnbook and what its nature should be. This eventually led to more than one “official” hymn book for the church—the 1840 hymnbook created by the Quorum of the Twelve during their mission in England and Emma’s 1841 hymnbook. Whereas the apostles’ hymnbook focused mainly on restoration, millennial, and missionary topics, Emma’s felt more Protestant, focusing in many instances on the cross, the blood of Jesus, and grace. With the departure of the Saints from Nauvoo and Emma’s choice to remain behind, however, it was ultimately the apostles’ hymn book that was in a position to shape the hymnody for the present-day church.
The abundance of skeptical theories about who wrote the Book of Mormon has led many scholars to seek scientific data to discover the answer. One technique is stylometry. Having first been developed in the 1850s, stylometry seeks to find the ” wordprint” of a text. Although these stylistic studies are not as accurate as a human’s fingerprint, they can give researchers a good idea either of differences in style between authors or of who might have written a text from a list of possible authors. Beginning in the 1960s individuals have completed four major stylometric studies on the Book of Mormon, studies that varied in both findings and quality of research. In addition to these four studies, this article presents a fifth study—using extended nearest shrunken centroid (ENSC) classification—that incorporates and improves on the earlier research.
Often overlooked in scriptural text, hand and arm gestures are often used to convey meanings that complement the verbal lessons being taught. This article discusses the meaning and significance of four specific gestures referred to in the Book of Mormon: stretching forth one’s hand(s), stretching forth the hand to exert divine power, extending the arm(s) in mercy, and clapping the hands to express joys. Beyond the fascinating meanings of these gestures in the Book of Mormon are the correlations that can be seen in the biblical text and in other Near Eastern cultures. Also insightful, specifically in reference to Moses’s hand movements at the Red Sea, is the way in which the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other extracanonical writings build on each other to give a fuller interpretive picture.
The question of where Joseph Smith received the text of the Book of Abraham has elicited three main theories, one of which, held by a minority of church members, is that Joseph translated it from papyri that we no longer have. It is conjectured that if this were the case, then the contents of the Book of Abraham must have been on what nineteenth-century witnesses described as the “long roll.” Two sets of scholars developed mathematical formulas to discover, from the remains of what they believe to be the long roll, what the length of the long roll would have been. However, when these formulas are applied on scrolls of known length, they produce erratic or inconclusive results, thus casting doubt on their ability to accurately conclude how long the long roll would have been.
In recent years the idea has been promoted that the Book of Mormon should be viewed as a great moral work but not as the actual history of peoples in the Americas. In this paper, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles defends the historicity of the Book of Mormon from the standpoint of faith and revelation. He demonstrates that scholarship cannot create faith and that secular evidence will never be able to prove or disprove the Book of Mormon. He also illustrates how the burden of negative proof lies squarely on the shoulders of skeptics, how God values the witness of revelation more than the witness of man, and how historians’ methodologies are unable to sufficiently account for the Book of Mormon.
The Journal of The Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 21, No. 2 (2012)
Letters praising the Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture and responding to articles published therein.
Royal sonship is a key theme of Mosiah 1–6, including King Benjamin’s seminal address at the temple in Zarahemla (Mosiah 2–5) on the occasion of his son Mosiah’s enthronement. Benjamin, however, caps this covenant sermon, not with an assertion of his son’s royal status and privileges, but with a radical declaration of his people’s royal rebirth (or adoption) as “ the children of Christ, his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7) and their potential enthronement at God’s “ right hand” (5:9). Similar to rhetorical wordplay involving proper names found in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other ancient texts, Benjamin’s juxtaposition of “sons”/“daughters” and the “right hand” constitutes a deliberate wordplay on his own name, traditionally taken to mean “son of the right hand.” The name of Christ, rather than Benjamin’s own name, is given to all his people as a new name—a “throne” name. However, he warns them against refusing to take upon them this throne name and thus being found “on the left hand of God” (5:10), a warning that also constitutes an allusion to his name. Benjamin’s ultimate hope is for his people’s royal, divine sonship/daughterhood to be eternally “sealed.”
The literary sophistication of the Book of Mormon is manifest at all levels of the text: vocabulary, rhetoric, narrative, and structure. A prime example of this craftsmanship is the concept of ethnicity, that is, how different social groups are defined and distinguished in the record. Nephi defines ethnicity by four complementary concepts: nation (traditional homeland), kindred (descent group), tongue (language group), and people (covenant community). While all four concepts are relevant to the Nephite record, people predominates. The term people is by far the most frequently used noun in the Book of Mormon and is the basis of a distinctive covenant identity given by God to Nephi. Following God’s law was the essential condition of this covenant and the basis of most of the sermons, exhortations, commentary, and other spiritual pleas of this sacred record. The covenant of the chosen people accounts for much of what befalls the Nephites and Lamanites, positive and negative, in this history. Mormon and Moroni follow Nephi’s covenant-based definition of ethnicity in their respective abridgments of the large plates of Nephi and the plates of Ether.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
The word resurrection is employed at varying frequencies in specific books and by individual writers in the Book of Mormon. Although Alma uses resurrection most often overall, Abinadi uses it more often per thousand words spoken. Some phrases in which resurrection is used in unique patterns by different speakers include power of the resurrection, first resurrection, and resurrection with the words time or with body. Some phrasal uses of resurrection in the Book of Mormon are not found in the Bible (such as resurrection and presence appearing together). This study of the usage of one individual word appears to show that individual voices are preserved in the Book of Mormon.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
Deflected agreement is a grammatical phenomenon found in Semitic languages—it is ubiquitous in Arabic and found occasionally in Classical Hebrew. Deflected agreement is a plausible explanation for certain grammatical incongruities present, in translation, within the original and printer’s manuscripts and printed editions in the Book of Mormon in the grammatical areas of verbal, pronominal, and demonstrative agreement. This finding gives greater credence to the plausibility of the authenticity and historicity of the Book of Mormon. Additionally, the implications of this finding on Book of Mormon scholarship are discussed.
In 1892, when John Gilbert was 90 years old, he made a statement about the process of setting the type for the Book of Mormon at the Grandin Print Shop. John was the compositor (or typesetter) for the 1830 edition of the book. He makes claims about the number of manuscript pages, the number of copies and the price, the number of ems (a measure of type width) per printed page, a comparison of manuscript versus printed pages, a description of the font, the process of receiving the pages to typeset, proofreading the title page, the decision not to correct grammatical errors, scribes for the printer’s manuscript, paragraphing and punctuation, capitalization in the manuscript, Gilbert’s taking work home to punctuate, and details about the signatures. In every aspect, Gilbert’s recollections are either precisely correct or easily explained.
The Journal of The Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 22, No. 1 (2013)
This is not an essay in the usual sense. Instead, it is a close reading of Moroni 10, looking verse by verse at what Mornoi might be teaching us. The overarching question is, to what does Moroni exhort us as he seals his book and writes his final words? Examining each of Morni’s eight exhortations, Faulconer shows one way to study scriptures and perhaps to think about them afresh. In addition to the importantadmonition to pray about the truth of the Book of Mormon, he sees in this chapter a message of God’s mercy and of our need for charity.
Throughout its history, ancient Egyptian religion showed a remarkable capacity for adopting new religious ideas and characters and adapting them for use in an already existing system of worship. This process continued, and perhaps accelerated, during the Groco-Roman era of Egyptian history. Egyptian priests readily used foreign religious characters in their rituals and religious formulas, particularly from Greek and Jewish religions. Religious texts demonstrate that Egyptian priests knew of both biblical and nonbiblical accounts of many Jewish figures--especially Jehova, Abraham, and Moses--by about 200 BC. Knowing this religio-cultural background helps us understand how the priest in Thebes who owned Joseph Smith Papyrus I would have been familiar with stories of Abraham.
Idrimi of Alalakh lived in Syria about a century after Abraham and left an autobiographical inscription that is the only such item uncovered archaeologically from Middle Bronze Age Syro-Palestine. The inscription of Idrimi and the Book of Abraham share a number of parallel features and motifs. Some of the parallels are a result of similar experiences in their lives and some are a result of coming from a similar culture and time.
The Zoramite narratives of Alma 31-35 and Alma 43-44 are richly symbolic accounts woven with many subtle details regarding the imporatnce of costly apparel and riches as an outward evidence of pride. This literary analysis focuses on how Mormon as editor structured the Zoramite narrative and used clothing as a metaphor to show the dangers of pride and the blessings afforded by humble adherence to God’s teachings and covenants. The Zoramite’s pride--as evidenced by their focus on costly apparel, gold, silver, and fine goods (Alma 31:24-25, 28)--competes with the foundational Book of Mormon teaching that the obedient will “ prosper in the land” (1 Nephi 4:14; Mosiah 1:7). The story deveops this tension between pride and true prosperity by employing the metaphor of clothing to set up several dramatic ironies.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Mosiah
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
In 1838 a group of Latter-day Sints passed through Randolph County, Missouri, on their way to join the Sains at Far West. A journal entry by Samuel D. Tyler, a member of the church who traveled with this group, has led some students of the Book of Mormon to conclude that the Prophet Joseph Smith revealed the location of the ancient city of Manti spoken of in the Book of Mormon. A careful examination of the Tyler journal an dother historical sources suggests that this conclusion is unwarranted.
In the spring and summer of 1838, the presidency of the Seventy in Kirtland organized Kirtland Camp to assist many of the poorer Church members living in Ohio to relocate to northern Missouri, a trek of more than eight hundred miles. Comprised of over five hundred individuals, including families, Kirtland Camp was the first Mormon company organized to assist in the migration of the Latter-day Saints in the history of the Church.
Jesus quoted key phrases, often in inverted order, from the Sermon on the Mount (3 Nephi 12-14) in subsequent Book of Mormon chapters (3 Nephi 15-28), thus demonstrating that the sermon was accepted as an authoritative text establishing and defning Jesus’s kingdom on earth. Although rarely considered in this light, Peter, James, Paul, and the gospel writers quoted from all parts of the Sermon on the Mount, similarly substantiating the authoritative functions of the sermon as a foundational text in early Chrsitiantiy. Literary analysis supports the ideas that these quotations were intentional, that an awareness of the sermon was widespread in the earliest decades of Christinaity, and that audiences to which Jesus and his apostles spoke were fmailiar with teachings and commandments found in the SErmon on the Mount.
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture Vol. 22, No. 2 (2013)
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica was populated by scores of distinctive cultural groups. Such groups are identified archaeologically by their stylistically unique material cultures, from small, portable ceramic objects to large-scale monumental architecture, as well as through distinctive artistic, religious, and linguistic evidence. Significant interaction took place between these distinctive peoples and cultures, and some major metropolitan areas were home to different ethnic groups. This paper offers a brief glimpse at some of the cultures that inhabited the major geographical regions of Mesoamerica throughout its threethousand-year history and explores the cultural diversity that existed within and between regions.
The Joseph Smith Papyri have been a hot topic among scholars, especially since the resurfacing of fragments of the collection in the late 1960s. The facsimiles in particular have received much attention in scholarly circles, especially in relation to their accompanying explanations given by Joseph Smith. This article contributes evidence of the accuracy of Smith’s explanations, despite his lack of knowledge concerning Egyptology. Specifically, this article discusses the relationship between “ the idolatrous god of pharaoh” in Facsimile 1 with the Egyptian crocodile god, Sobek (also known as Sebek, Sobk, and Suchos), and his connection to the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Amenemhet III. Evidence both from historical texts and from archaeology demonstrates the important role Sobek played in the Fayyum region during the reign of Amenemhet III. Sobek was thus a likely candidate for the “ idolatrous god of pharaoh” of Facsimile 1 in the Book of Abraham.
The Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price depicts the creation, including the motifs of the divine council, primeval chaos, and creation from preexisting matter. This depiction fits nicely in an ancient Near Eastern cultural background and has strong affinities with the depiction of the cosmos found in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts (especially Egyptian and Mesopotamian).
Remember is one of the most frequently used verbs in the Book of Mormon. It is consistently used by its authors in a covenant context—establishing or renewing an eternal relationship with God, expressing and realizing the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and preserving the distinctive identity of a covenant people. The present study examines the complex and profound ways that the complementary concepts of memory, identity, and covenants express the meaning of the sacred Nephite history through the vocabulary and narrative structures of the text and postulates how and why the Nephites preserved this official record for posterity.
While Jacob records 15,000 words in the Book of Mormon, he is often underappreciated, perhaps living in the shadow of his older brother Nephi. This study illustrates how Nephi, King Benjamin, and Moroni used Jacob’s words and expanded the influence of his literary legacy.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
This article discusses possible explanations regarding the procedures Joseph Smith and his associates used in mounting the Joseph Smith Papyri fragments and their reasons for doing so. The backing materials, some of which contain drawings of a temple plan and plat sketches of northeastern Ohio townships, provide a valuable historical artifact that helps historians answer questions associated with the papyri. The dimensions, gluing techniques, and cutting patterns of the backing paper and papyri also help explain the mounting process, as does an examination of the handwriting on the backing paper. Careful analysis suggests that a portion of the backing material came from several sheets of paper glued together to make a large sheet on which plans for a temple were drawn. Historical evidence suggests that in late 1837 or early 1838, pieces of papyri were glued to this and other papers and cut into smaller pieces, some of which were put under glass to preserve the papyrus fragments from further deterioration.
During the time the Latter-day Saints lived in Nauvoo, John Stephens and Frederick Catherwood published Incidents of Travel in Central America, an illustrated report of the first discovery of ancient ruins in Central America by explorers. These discoveries caused great excitement among the Saints, and subsequently five editorials appeared in the Times and Seasons commenting on what these meant for the church. Although the author of the editorials was not indicated, historians have wondered if Joseph Smith penned them since he was the newspaper’s editor at the time. We examined the historical evidence surrounding the editorials and conducted a detailed stylometric analysis of the texts, comparing the writing style in the editorials with the writing styles of Joseph Smith, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff—the only men involved with the newspaper during the time the editorials were published. Both the historical and stylometric evidence point toward Joseph Smith as the most likely author of the editorials. Even if he did not write them alone, he took full responsibility for the contents of the newspaper during his editorial tenure when he stated, “ I alone stand for it.”
The early and persistent claim that Joseph Smith quoted Shakespeare in the Book of Mormon fails to take into account the broader context of sources. Much closer parallels than Shakespeare are available in the Bible as well as in ancient Near Eastern literature. Indeed, the constellation of ideas about death expressed in 2 Nephi 1:13–15 fits that ancient Near Eastern context in several powerful ways—ways that belie the claim that Joseph Smith plagiarized Shakespeare.
News reports from 2013 identify the site of Oylum Höyük with both the city of Abraham and the ancient city of Ulišum. The latter has been identified with the Olishem of Abraham 1:10. While the preliminary reports are encouraging, the evidence upon which the archaeologists base their identifications has not yet been published. So while there is nothing against the proposed identifications, they are not proven either.
Excerpts from the Deseret Evening News of 25 May 1903 report on a convention at which Book of Mormon geography was discussed.
On 25 January 1928, President Heber J. Grant wrote a letter to a young woman in which he shares his love for the Book of Mormon and his testimony of its divinity.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 23 (2014)
Alma 32 is a learned text on the topic of faith. The account incorporates creation imagery from the opening chapters of Genesis. Alma’s sermon follows a theological pattern in the Hebrew Bible where creation is used to encourage audiences to exercise faith in the present by considering the primordial past.Alma compares the “word of God” unto a seed, telling his audience that they are to be involved with “planting.” Thus, Alma’s sermon combines the two distinct creation views in the Genesis narratives, for God speaks the divine word in order to create in Genesis 1, and he plants seeds and trees to create his garden paradise in Genesis 2–3. By invoking the miracle of creation in the past into a present context of seed growth and recreation, Alma encourages his readers to fulfill the measure of their own creation by experimenting upon the divine word. Obtaining the type of faith Alma describes is therefore the very purpose of human existence, and it has been from the beginning.
Third Nephi testifies to the fulfillment of Jesus’s eschatological prophecies, even though Mormon, the prophet-historian who records the remarkable events, was unaware of the content of Jesus’s mortal teachings. He nevertheless recognizes Christ’s postresurrection visit as both the fulfillment of Nephite prophecy and the reenactment of particular episodes of their sacred history by incorporating numerous scriptural allusions into his account. Mormon’s independent witness in which he recounts a day of divine judgment, the coming of the Lord, and the inauguration of the kingdom of God within the timeframe Jesus had prescribed validates Jesus’s prophecies in Galilee and Judea. Despite the ironic incongruity between what was expected and how it was fulfilled, Mormon’s narrative confirms the New Testament’s proclamation and thus serves to save the credibility of Christianity that has long been challenged by the problem of the delayed parousia—that is, that Jesus’s prophecies of an imminent theocratic kingdom seem to have failed.
A series of striking parallels between the vision of Arjuna recorded in the Bhagavad Gita and the vision of the brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon suggests the need for comparative work to be done on these two volumes of world scripture. This paper works through three interrelated points of contact between the two visions. First, it considers the epic context of each vision, context that provides conditions for the possibility of religious revolution. Second, it looks in detail at the respective religious revolutions produced by the two visions: the Hindu shift toward devotion and the Jaredite shift toward faith. Third, it outlines the theological significance of the principal difference such similarities bring into focus—namely, that between the conceptions of incarnation at work in Hinduism and Mormonism. Where the incarnational logic associated with Arjuna’s vision suggests that embodiment is temporary and instrumental for the divine, the corresponding incarnational logic associated with the brother of Jared’s vision suggests that embodiment is permanent and essential for the divine. The striking parallels between the visions of Arjuna and the brother of Jared thus help to highlight crucial but subtle theological differences between the respective religions associated with those visions.
In his work on poetic parallelisms in the Book of Mormon, Donald W. Parry has demonstrated that that book is replete with Hebrew poetry and parallelisms such as chiasmus. Through analyzing individual texts, this paper seeks to determine whether the patterns Parry points out are deliberately included in the Book of Mormon. Texts selected for the analysis include those that (1) are self-contained with regard to the larger narrative, (2) are explicitly included as embedded documents, and (3) whose authorship is clearly stated or implied; twenty texts totaling 884 verses meet those criteria. After analyzing the percentage of each texts that has parallelisms, it becomes clear that texts created for oral recitation (sermons) have a substantially higher percentage of parallelisms than those created for written circulation (narratives, proclamations, and letters). Since a major purpose of poetic parallelisms is to facilitate memorization for oral delivery, this means we find parallelisms precisely where we would expect them to appear in the Book of Mormon, thus lending credence to the hypothesis that these parallelisms are deliberate and not accidental.
Review of Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America (2011), by David F. Holland, and American Zion: The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War (2013), by Eran Shalev.
Review of The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon (2011), by Brant A. Gardner.
Alma 13:3 is occasionally cited by LDS commentators as evidence for the doctrine of premortal foreordination—an interpretation that unfortunately overlooks a key feature of the organization and terminology of Alma 13. This brief note begins to sort out this and other interpretive complexities by proposing that Alma 13:3b–9 be read as a clarifying expansion of Alma 13:3a.
Modern-day encounters with the Three Nephites (described in the Book of Mormon) are commonly referenced in LDS culture. While such accounts could stand as confirmations of Latter-day Saint scripture, they are regularly described as irrelevant to questions of salvation and exaltation and are relegated to the inessential realm of folklore. Closer anthropological analysis of LDS discourse surrounding the Three Nephites—from humor and its role in figuring Mormon sacredness to connections to Mormon narratives of Christ’s resurrection and millennial expectation—suggests that these accounts are richly significant, that things that seem to matter little can convey a great deal about the Mormon experience of the sacred.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 24 (2015)
This article puts forward a methodology for identifying and classifying phrases from the New Testament that are present within the Book of Mormon text at a phrasal level. The need for such a methodology has arisen because of a recent rise in close textual studies of the Book of Mormon and its relationship to the Bible. The methodology proposed by this study suggests that terms such as quotation, allusion, and echo—terms popular in biblical studies—be avoided because of the implication that the author of the Book of Mormon was consciously relying upon the language of the Bible. While this may be true, the use of language implying a reliance risks derailing useful textual studies in favor of debates over provenance. Additionally, because not all potential interactions with the New Testament are easily identifiable, this paper proposes a series of criteria that can be applied to potential phrases to determine the likelihood that a given phrase should be studied as a valid New Testament interaction. Finally, this paper proposes three levels of classification, based upon how well a given phrase meets the criteria laid out in the study
This paper puts 3 Nephi 1 in conversation with Helaman 14 in order to argue for a complex relationship between temporality and the fulfillment of prophecy. In addition to echoing Matthew 5:17–18 in order to place a structural emphasis on fulfillment, 3 Nephi 1 portrays a series of Nephite misunderstandings about the nature of time and fulfillment that are then counteracted by the cosmic signs of Samuel the Lamanite. What Samuel’s signs ultimately show is that fulfillment of prophecy is best understood as the beginning of a new era rather than as a conclusion, and that this temporal reorientation makes repentance possible. After discussing how Samuel’s signs implicitly correct Nephite temporality, the paper concludes with a brief reflection on the implications for the Book of Mormon as a whole, arguing that the Book of Mormon is intended to function as a sign that likewise orients readers to a new experience of time.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > 3 Nephi
The title of liberty fashioned by Moroni represented a rallying point for those who would defend the most cherished aspects of Nephite culture: families, religion, peace, and freedom. A key facet of the title of liberty incident is its deep-rooted martial setting, suggesting that the title of liberty functioned as a war banner. Numerous aspects of the title of liberty episode related to warfare and battle standards fit comfortably in an ancient Mesoamerican context. Additionally, various linguistic and poetic features in the details surrounding the title of liberty in Alma 46 closely correlate to Mesoamerican traditions, indicative of a common cultural origin.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
This article explores the connection between Alma’s mission to the Zoramites in Alma 31 and the mass Lamanite conversion in Helaman 5, which occurs in part because the Lamanites who are intent on killing Nephi and Lehi in prison remember the teachings of Alma, Amulek, and Zeezrom delivered to the Zoramites decades earlier. This reading demonstrates that Alma’s mission to the Zoramites is not a failure, as some commentators have suggested; in fact, the eventual positive impact of the Zoramite mission readily compares to the success enjoyed by the sons of Mosiah among the Lamanites. This article also suggests that Mormon’s lengthy war narrative at the end of the book of Alma can be read as a literary unit designed in part to show, as Alma hoped and predicted at the outset of his Zoramite mission, that the word of God (at least eventually) has a “more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else” (Alma 31:5).
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Helaman
Traditional interpretations of the various-colored or cursed skins in the Book of Mormon have asserted variations of two basic perspectives: first, the Book of Mormon describes God as darkening the flesh pigmentation of some wicked peoples as a mark of a curse; or alternately, the descriptions of “white” skins and “dark” skins in the Book of Mormon are only metaphorical descriptions and not necessarily descriptions of flesh pigmentation. However, a careful textual analysis of all the relevant terms and passages in the Book of Mormon (and its closest literary analog, the King James Version of the Bible) strongly suggests that the various-colored skins in the Book of Mormon can be understood more coherently as a kind of authoritative garment. The relevant texts further lend themselves to associating such garment-skins with both the Nephite temple and competing Lamanite claims to kingship. Ultimately, this exegesis suggests that such garment-skins (as the mark of the Lamanites’ curse) can be understood as being self-administered, removable, and inherited in the same way that authoritative vestments in the King James Version are self-administered, removable, and inherited.
This essay examines the shared literary approach to the Book of Mormon in recent essays by Elizabeth Fenton and Jared Hickman. These two scholars use the literary tool of deconstruction to investigate ways in which the Book of Mormon not only presents a narrative but also offers an implicit critique of its own narrative. Each sees this selfcritical or deconstructive aspect of the Book of Mormon as central to the volume’s historical and political force, a means by which the book could subtly but powerfully work against major assumptions in nineteenth-century American culture. Although they share this methodology, Fenton and Hickman use it for slightly different aims or go to slightly different lengths with it. These differences help to clarify both the usefulness of and the potential dangers or temptations inherent to the deconstructive interpretation of the Book of Mormon.
Despite the fact that the Book of Mormon contains frequent mentions of the Spirit by a variety of names and titles, little attention has been devoted to the pneumatology of the Book of Mormon. This study seeks to identify the broad contours of Book of Mormon pneumatology based on the claims of the book itself. The categories examined include the divinity, nature, and form of the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost and prophecy; the Holy Ghost and power; the Holy Ghost’s influence on individuals; the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues; the communication of the Holy Ghost; and the Spirit’s striving with “man”; as well as other dimensions of the book’s pneumatology.
Jacob 7:26 has often been noted for its pathos and nostalgia. A close reading of the verse finds that these effects result from the author’s own problematic family relationships, specifically Jacob’s troubled relationship with his older brothers, Laman and Lemuel, who have potentially hated him since his birth because of his position and alignment with Nephi. While Nephi seeks reconciliation with his brothers, Jacob seeks redemption as a healing of a preexistent family breach. In other words, Jacob seeks sealing. This emphasis on sealing can be seen in his temporal orientation, which simultaneously looks toward the past as the source of the family conflict and toward the future (through Enos) as the ongoing hope for the family’s eventual healing.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Enos
In Moroni 7:20, Mormon raises a question that deserves close attention in Book of Mormon studies: “How is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing?” In relation to questions of culture, space, mortal limitations, and time, Mormon’s question and the answers he poses are rich with potential for scholarly work and deeper understanding of discipleship. Close contemporary readings of Mormon’s sermon could challenge and enlarge spiritual perspective, sensitivity to God’s grace, and relationships in the world.
Nephi and Mormon, the two writers responsible for the largest amount of text in the Book of Mormon, both similarly used reference material and quotations in their work. Despite that basic similarity, the way each writer used those references and quotations is quite different.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 25 (2016)
This essay evaluates Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon, particularly assessing Hardy’s claim that narrative theory can allow readers from a variety of perspectives to (at least temporarily) sidestep the Book of Mormon’s controversial history and engage with the text as a literary artifact. The paper argues that Hardy’s approach facilitates a deeper understanding of the book’s complex deployments of narrative voice and temporality but ultimately cannot efface the interpretive differences that stem from such divergent positions as belief and unbelief.
In Understanding the Book of Mormon, Grant Hardy applies his unusual background in the history of historiography to the Book of Mormon, using the same techniques of literary analysis that are fruitfully employed in the study of classical Chinese, classical Greek, and other historical writing. He is able to identify very distinct historiographical approaches for Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. While he brackets the question of whether or not they were actually distinct historical persons, the most intuitively obvious reading of his work strongly suggests that they were—a proposition that has profound implications for the controversy surrounding the origin and authorship of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Moroni
Grant Hardy’s 2010 book Understanding the Book of Mormon changed the landscape of Book of Mormon studies by paying careful attention to the role of that scripture’s three primary editors, who were also narrators. Hardy teases out the specific personality of each one: Nephi, a theologian concerned with his legacy and place in history; Mormon, a historian whose choice and placement of primary sources often reveals as much as his own narration; and Moroni, the wandering survivor of one dying civilization who chose to focus his brief record on the fall of a previous one. Through detailed textual criticism, Hardy invites readers to better understand the complexity and richness of the Book of Mormon
The vibrant fields of narratology and biblical narrative criticism provide common ground from which scholars who either accept or reject the historical reality of the Book of Mormon may speak to one another. To encourage research that may speak across divisions, this article provides a theoretical overview of some of the major areas within the narrative-critical approach (i.e., the intricacies and subtleties of setting, plot, narrative time, characters, point of view, narrators, and implied readers). The applied analysis of select Book of Mormon passages that accompany these overviews illustrates how borrowing from more established fields may expose new considerations, explain different aspects of the text, make familiar narratives fresh, and stimulate greater appreciation for its literary design.
Grant Hardy responds to the six essays written about Understanding the Book of Mormon. He pairs up the authors and imagines conversations between them, as in a book club exchange. He acknowledges their comments and expresses interest in ongoing dialogues fostered by the ideas in his book.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 26 (2017)
In November 2014 Latter-day Saint children around the world participated in a ritual that would probably seem odd to outsiders-they buried some swords. These weren’t actual weapons, of course, only sketches of swords upon which the children were instructed to “write a wrong choice… such as ’fighting with my brother’ or ’telling a lie.’” They then “buried” these swords by “crumpling their papers or throwing them away.” Similarly, in February 2010 a small group of teenagers stood with their own paper swords around a freshly dug hole on their church’s property. “I had my class write down a behavior of theirs, if they had one, which might be considered an act of ’rebellion to God,’” recalled their teacher. “Their challenge was to pick one thing they were serious about stopping. I asked them to pick something they felt they could put aside… forever.”
Typology is one of those words whose meaning shifts dramatically with the position of its user. For religious believers studying the scriptures, typology is a mode of history-the belief that certain events and people should be understood as both fully historical and fully allegorical at the same time. To the unbeliever (or the believer in different things), typology is a mode of rhetoric-a connecting strategy that writers use to create retroactive links between otherwise unrelated stories or that readers use to infer connections between otherwise unconnected things. Those in the first group see the repetition of key narrative elements from the Old Testament to the New Testament-say, birth narratives in which both Moses and Jesus escape from an infanticidal massacre ordered by a despot-as a fundamental part of how sacred history works ( see Exodus 1:22 and Matthew 2:16-18).
The following article by Susanna Morrill first appeared in Historicizing “Tradition” in the Study of Religion, ed. Steven Engler and Gregory Price Grieve (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2005), 127-44. We believe that it has, unfortunately, not received the attention it deserves for the light it sheds on the ways the Book of Mormon has been received by its readers. Morrill writes from the perspective that the Book of Mormon is a product of the nineteenth-century, but we feel that all stand to learn much from her analysis. We would like to express our gratitude to Professor Morrill, as well as to De Gruyter, for allowing us to reprint the essay. Similarly, she ruefully recounted her visit to Phoenix, a city originally settled and then given up by Mormon pioneers.
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2015 annual Society of Biblical Literature meeting, November 23, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia. 1. See Noel B. Reynolds, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ as Taught by the Nephite Prophets;’ BYU Studies 31/3 (1991): 31-50; and Noel B. Reynolds, “The Gospel according to Mormon;’ Scottish Journal of Theology 68/2 (2015): 218-34 doi:10.1017/ S003693061500006X. 2. Inclusio is a common technique used by biblical writers to mark off a text unit by repeating at the end of the unit a word or phrase or sentence used at the beginning. These three Book of Mormon passages are marked off with obvious inclusios featuring “the doctrine of Christ;’ “this is my doctrine;’ and “this is my gospel” respectively. While Nephi constructed the first, the second two are embedded in the material quoted from Jesus Christ. In “Chiastic Structuring of Large Texts: Second Nephi as a Case Study;’ publication pending, I demonstrate that 2 Nephi can be read as a series of thirteen inclusios arranged to provide a chiastic structure to the book that also communicates his principal thesis.
This paper looks closely and critically at how the Nephite prophets dealt with the records of the Jaredites as the text of the Book of Mormon itself presents these dealings. 1 It questions unspoken assumptions that often pervade discussions of these records and of how record keepers from King Mosiah2 to Moroni managed them. It asks, for example, whether Mormon could realistically have taken on the task of preparing the abridgment of Jaredite history found in the book of Ether. It also challenges the idea that Moroni wrote the book of Ether only because Mormon did not have time to do so, suggesting instead that Moroni’s role in preserving the Jaredite legacy was his own unique commission from the Lord. These questions are part of my appeal for a fundamental reconsideration of the roles played by the key actors who handled the Jaredite records.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Ether
In the Old World Jesus taught, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6), yet in the New World he says, “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:6). Attention, understandably, has been given to the differences, large and small, between the Sermon on the Mount as recounted in the New Testament and the similar sermon given in the New World. At times, we note slight shifts in emphasis (here in the New World, for example, Jesus makes this promise to “all”), more complete understandings (we are filled specifically with the influence of the Holy Ghost), and so on. And these differences raise compelling questions about the possibility that plain and precious truths were lost in translation in the Bible but are restored again in the Book of Mormon. The differences might also suggest the importance of a shifting context that moves Jesus to vary his speech. One wonders if one version is more authoritative than the other. But there is an additional question the two accounts of Christ’s sermon raise. What do readers make of the fact that in most cases the wording is exactly coincident? What might that signify?
THE BooK OF MORMON presented itself as a history of previously unidentified New World civilizations with origins in the ancient Near East. To defend its claims of historicity, believers pointed to the work’s correspondence with the Bible and their own spiritual witnesses. They also insisted that, independent of their supernatural access to this ancient world, archaeological discoveries had authenticated and would continue to authenticate the book’s historical claims. This article documents the all-but-forgotten Latter-day Saint use of Codex Boturini-a sixteenth-century Mesoamerican codex depicting the Mexica (i.e., Aztec) migration from their mythical homeland Atzlan to Tenochtitlan, the seat of the empire’s government-as physical evidence for Book of Mormon history. In the perspective of these Saints, the pictorial manuscript was an independent record of the Book of Mormon. For decades, Mormons published images from Codex Boturini (or described them) alongside commentary that translated the pictographs through a Mormon lens.
In his foreward to this book, Richard Bushman praises it for its meticulous attention to the historian’s craft. Michael MacKay and Gerrit Dirkmaat have served as editors on the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers Project-spending months documenting, annotating, and organizing the surviving historical material from the early years of Joseph Smith’s religious career-and their experience with those primary sources shines in this volume. They have tracked down scraps of information in archives from New York to Utah, from obscure nineteenth-century publications as far-flung as the Ohio Observer and the Milwaukee Sentinel, and even from much better-known sources like the Joseph Smith revelations, which they have reread with a keen eye for detail and often-missed nuance.
Latter-day Saint discussion of chastity often include Moroni 9:9 because of its suggestion that “chastity and virtue” constitute “that which is most dear and precious above all things:’ The verse also says, however, that people can be “deprived” of chastity and virtue by the violence of rape. For the prophet Mormon, the Nephites’ actions in Moriantum exceed “this great abomination of the Lamanites;’ which involved “feed[ing] the women upon the flesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers” (Moroni 9:8). Mormon’s strong language aims to condemn the rapists, not their victims. Using the verse to teach about chastity, though, invites interpretation from the perspective of the victims, which raises the question of what it means to understand chastity and virtue as something of which a person can be deprived, passively, by another. Such passive loss of virtue runs strongly contrary to LDS teaching about agency, including those rooted in Book of Mormon passages like 2 Nephi 2, with the consequence that victims of sexual abuse or assault can be made to feel guilty for sins that are not their own.
The term Christology refers to the presentation of the life and nature of Jesus Christ. The purpose of this essay is to explore King Benjamin’s Christology (see Mosiah 3), to consider its similarities to that found in the Gospel of Mark, and to explore some implications of Benjamin’s Christology. Christology is often described as being on a continuum from low (which emphasizes the human nature of Jesus) to high (which emphasizes his divine nature). It is definitely the case that Benjamin’s description of Jesus contains elements of a high Christology since he begins by describing Jesus as “the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity” (Mosiah 3:5). Yet the very next line describes Jesus as “dwell[ing] in a tabernacle of clay” (Mosiah 3:5), which reflects a decidedly low Christology. This emphasis on the mortal nature of Jesus continues as Benjamin relates at length Jesus’s physical suffering (see Mosiah 3:7).
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Mosiah
Since John Welch discovered Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon fifty years ago, students of the volume have paid attention to textual structures. Unfortunately, little attention has yet been paid to book-length structures, structures organizing larger stretches of the Book of Mormon. Analysis of whole books within the Book of Mormon has largely remained in a preliminary phase.3 In this note, however, I lay out what appears to be the intentional organizational structure of the book of Alma.
The Maxwell Institue is currently making efforts to update the work of Donald Parry, Jeanette Miller, and Sandra Thorne, who prepared the volume A Comprehensive Annotated Book of Mormon Bibliography (1996). This earlier work is now available at the Maxwell Institutes website (see http:/ /publications.mi.byu.edu/book/ a-comprehensive -annotated-book-of-mormon-bibliography/), and updates will also be made available on the Institute’s website. To assist in this effort, the editors of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies have decided to include in each issue of the Journal a bibliography of scholarly work published on the Book of Mormon during the previous year. We have therefore made efforts to discover all work of an academic nature published during 2016 for inclusion in the following bibliography. The work has been undertaken primarily by Matthew Roper and Alex Criddle.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 27 (2018)
Leather-bound copies of the first edition of the 586-page Book of Mormon were published and sold beginning March 26, 1830. Before there was a prophet, there was a translator-legally the “author and proprietor” of the Book. The title page told of the plates written “by the spirit of Prophecy and Revelation’’ from which the Book originated. Before the publication was complete, Joseph Smith had encouraged Oliver Cowdery that “a great call for our books” had already commenced. The Book emerged before there was any church to join. The rest would come later; initially individuals decided how they would respond to this “Golden Bible.” Was it counterfeit or divine? Was it the “greatest piece of superstition’’ or a “revelation from God”? What would it be to them?
The text of the King James Bible plays a significant role in the composition of the Book of Mormon. While there have been studies that have attempted to identify what biblical passages are present in the Book of Mormon, not nearly enough effort has been spent exploring how those passages are used throughout the text. For example, one can readily identify the textual parallels between Alma 5:48 and John 1: 14, due to the sharing of phrases such as “full of grace and truth’’ and “only-begotten son:’ This type of research is useful in and of itself. But simply identifying what passages the texts share in common without exploring how the Book of Mormon integrates the biblical text into its own textual composition leaves a great deal unexplored.
In 1831, Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), the founder of the Disciples of Christ Church and leader in the early nineteenth-century religious reformation known as the Restoration, published a short pamphlet entitled Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of Mormon: With an Examination of Its Internal and External Evidences, and a Refutation of Its Pretences to Divine Authority. In the pamphlet, Campbell argued that the Book of Mormon was a linguistic hodgepodge, “patched up and cemented with ’And it came to pass’ - ’I sayeth unto you’-’Ye saith unto him’-and all the King James’ haths, dids and doths-in the lowest imitation of the common version:’ He insisted that “it has not one good sentence in it, save the profanation of those sentences quoted from the Oracles of the living God:’ For Campbell, the seventeenth-century English in the Book of Mormon demonstrated that Joseph Smith was a fraud.
Elizabeth Fenton’s first book-Religious Liberties: Anti-Catholicism and Liberal Democracy in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature and Culture-appeared in 2011. The next year, she began presenting work on the Book of Mormon, first in a conference paper at the annual convention of C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, and then in an invited lecture at the University of Maryland titled “Why Americanists Should Read The Book of Mormon.” In 2013, she published her conference presentation from the previous year in J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists. The next year, Fenton organized a panel at C19 focused on the Book of Mormon, which drew the attention of Jared Hickman and opened the door to an important collaborative project, soon to come to fruition in the form of Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon, a collection of essays by various scholars forthcoming from Oxford University Press. In 2016, Fenton presented again at C19 on the Book of Mormon (this time in a comparative study involving The Anarchiad), and she also published in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies a review essay focused on Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon. The past five or six years have, for Fenton, been focused in a remarkable way on literary study of the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon, told by a variety of narrators over a period of hundreds of years, is deeply concerned with remembrance and the written production of memory. As each narrator grows old and finishes his time recording the events of his people, he hands down the plates to a son or other trusted, younger male companion to continue writing the history and preserving the memories of their people. In this paper, I’d like to argue that nineteenth-century visual art becomes a continuation of the concern for and production of memory so present in The Book of Mormon itself. The book’s proclamation of itself as Bible-“And because my words shall hiss forth-many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible”-establishes its reliance on its own participation in the production of memory and highlights its own limited ability (given its status as a completed text) to continue the process of memory generation. I will first examine how The Book of Mormon presents the recording of memory and then turn to C. C. A. Christensen as a case study on how visual art entered the Mormon religious sphere in the nineteenth century as a way of re-recording the stories.
Given the remarkable story of the discovery and divine translation of gold plates hidden in a hill by an ancient Amerindian prophet, nineteenth- century readers could be forgiven for expecting an exotic new set of doctrines in The Book of Mormon. Instead, what many readers found (when they bothered to read the book at all) was an often dull, frequently complicated narrative with the veneer of biblical language and themes. Where they expected to find a heretical “Gold Bible’’ designed to supplant and erase biblical authority, they instead found chapters lifted directly from the Bible itself. The Book of Mormon was a strange document indeed, having at once a “foundational role’’ in but also a “theological irrelevance’’ to a newly created religion, so that it was actually “the miracle the work embodied, not the doctrine it presented, that gave offense.”
In recalling his “First Vision” in 1820, Joseph Smith writes of the “anxieties” over the “contests of [the] parties of religionists” that drove him to seek solace in scripture and “attempt to pray vocally” for the first time in his young life. Smith describes turning to the Epistle of James, a reading that precipitated his calling out for an answer to his “anxieties.” The reply to Smith’s “vocal” prayer initiated a course of events that ultimately led to the publication of The Book of Mormon in March 1830. Since then, the story of the plates whose translation constitutes the text The Book of Mormon has provoked nearly as much-if not more-attention than the exceedingly complex narrative itself. The experience of reading the text poses challenges, though not because of its tedium (as Mark Twain suggested) or the demands it places on one’s willingness to suspend disbelief; instead, the challenges it poses derive, I will argue, from the way in which reading itself is figured in the text. This paper intends to take up the problem of reading and The Book of Mormon, which I believe the text presents but does not fully resolve.
The Book of Mormon presents a tale of the plight and flight of a family from biblical Jerusalem, stitched together through a variety of narrators. As the title page claims, this book contains the record of the Nephite people, descendants of Lehi, who was commanded by God to leave Jerusalem in order to save his family from destruction. From that command, the text becomes one of movement and escape, so that the Nephite race can avoid destruction. As this story is one about avoiding annihilation, it necessarily becomes one of reproduction: How do the Nephites reproduce the people of God to spread the word of God?
Walter Benjamin famously claimed that “only a redeemed mankind is granted the fullness of its past-which is to say, only for a redeemed mankind has its past become citable in all its moments. Each moment it has lived becomes a citation a l’ordre du jour. And that day is Judgment Day.” The Book of Mormon (1830) posits a pathway to redemption for believers and organizes all time around the coming of Christ. I aim to use Benjamin’s model of messianic time to interpret the complicated formal and narrative temporalities in The Book of Mormon and to offer a possible answer to the question, “Why did The Book of Mormon materialize when and where it did?” The Book of Mormon anticipates its own appearance in the nineteenth century. This temporal peculiarity authorizes my reading of the sacred text in its economic and historical context. I will argue that Joseph Smith’s discovery and translation of the plates he unearthed on a hillside in Palmyra, New York, presented a challenge to the capitalist perception of time that threatened to further disenfranchise Smith and others in the Burned-over District.
Scholars of Mormonism have seen a deluge of race literature on the Book of Mormon flow over the past five years. Compared to the robust scholarship on the use of biblical literature in constructing race, Mormonism strikes one as the particularly colorful character who showed up late to the party. For a faith system that has started to imagine itself in global terms, the implications of this recent increase are profound and invite commentary from a variety of disciplines ranging from literary criticism to forensic anthropology. This review essay holds humble aspirations for itself: to trace the basic contours of racialization and deracialization in the Book of Mormon’s historiographical record, illustrating how the contestedness of the racial narrative reflects a variety of needs for Mormon reception of the Book of Mormon text. To close, I will speak to the Book of Mormon’s relevance as a point of entry for undermining Anglo-Saxon knowledge control.
The unique role and function of the book of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon has rightly been of interest to a variety of readers, both scholarly and popular. A quick review of a portion of the literature reveals something of its ongoing appeal. For the most part, these studies have focused on explaining the reason for the extensive quotations of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon and/ or offering a rationale for the numerous differences between the text(s) of Isaiah cited in the Book of Mormon and the text(s) of lsaiah found in a variety of other places including the King James Version of the Bible. Often these studies have been related to the larger issue of Joseph Smith’s involvement in the production of the Book of Mormon. Though a number of these studies are fascinating and merit careful reading, what has been missing, in my estimation, is a sustained treatment of the topic from the perspective of a close theological reading of the text. In other words, most of these studies have focused on the production end of the question-What did Joseph Smith or Nephi use and what may be learned by the actions of the author?-while much less attention has been focused on the product end of the question-specifically, What theological role and function do the Isaiah quotes (and their variants) play in the Book of Mormon, and what might be learned by a careful literary and theological examination of them? Thanks to the work under discussion, considerable progress has been made toward filling this lacuna.
As a new faith’s purported “Gold Bible” began rolling off the presses at the E. B. Grandin print shop, the public was curious to know the nature of that faith. Protestant sects proliferated wildly during the Second Great Awakening, particularly in the fertile soil of upstate New York’s “Burned-over District:’ And restorationists, like the Christian primitivist Disciples of Christ, who aimed to restore the New Testament Church, were a familiar breed among them. Such sects provided the best model for what the public might expect Palmyra’s new faith to become, but actual information was still hard to come by.
Few verses in the Book of Mormon are as problematic and controversial as 2 Nephi 4:35 (LDS 5:21). Critics of the Book of Mormon have routinely pointed to this verse and its reference to Lamanites receiving a “skin of blackness” as evidence of racism and racist theology in Mormonism’s sacred scriptures. The verse has also failed to escape ridicule in pop-cultural depictions of Mormonism, as seen most recently in the hit Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon. The verse and its interpretation are of perennial interest to readers of the Book of Mormon, believing or not, since the racial stance of the volume seems to center around the interpretation of the passage.
In Alma 26:2, the Nephite Christian missionary Ammon asks his brothers, “What great blessings has [God] bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?” Having been quite successful in his endeavors, Ammon answers his own question by stating that he and his brothers “have been made instruments in the hands of God” (Alma 26:3). The phrasing seems self-explanatory: Ammon and his brothers are tools God uses to “bring about this great work’’ (Alma 26:3).1 Yet just a verse later, Ammon appears to confuse the metaphor when he commends his brothers: “The field is ripe and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might” (Alma 26:5). Here, it is not the missionaries who are instruments, but rather they are the ones who use instruments. Are Ammon and his brethren tools in the hands of God? Or do they use tools (sickles) to reap a harvest of souls? And what does it mean to be an “instrument”? Using this passage as a springboard, I will look more generally at the use of language concerning tools, instruments, and weapons in the writings attributed to Mormon in the Book of Mormon. Key, in my view, is a comparison, carefully woven, between the sons of Mosiah and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
The little book entitled Words of Mormon has long been a puzzle, including as it does a number of ambiguous passages and two seemingly distinct parts. In this brief note, I focus primarily on just one such ambiguity-Mormon’s use of “these” in verse 18-in an attempt to show that the whole of the book is much more complete and coherent than has been previously thought. It may be also that the Lord’s “wise purpose[s]” (Words of Mormon 1:7) are more expansive than has generally been supposed. In verse 18, Mormon notes three causes behind the establishment of peace among King Benjamin’s people: (1) “these;’ (2) Benjamin’s labor “with all [his] might…and… faculty,” and (3) “the prophets.” The most immediate question is, To what does “these” refer? One option is verse 16’s “the holy prophets.” However, given the specific mention of “the prophets” as the third cause, this first approach seems unlikely.
The Maxwell Institute continues to make efforts to collect bibliographical information for all writings of a scholarly nature focused on the Book of Mormon in a substantial way. The work for this year’s bibliography has been undertaken by Amanda Buessecker. The editors would again like to encourage readers of the Journal to send information regarding any publications of a scholarly nature focused on the Book of Mormon that have escaped our attention. These can be sent to jbms@byu.edu.
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Vol. 28 (2019)
Alma The Younger’s missionary journey to Ammonihah is one of the most disturbing episodes in the Book of Mormon: scriptures are burned (Alma 14:8); converted males are “cast out” and stoned by former friends (Alma 14:7); Amulek, a respected citizen, and Alma, high priest of the church and retired chief judge, are spit upon, mocked, imprisoned, stripped naked, humiliated, starved, and beaten (Alma 14:4-22); and innocent women and children are “cast into the fire” and burned to death (Alma 14:8). Alma and Amulek are “carried… forth to the place of martyrdom;’ and forced to “witness” (Alma 14:9) the “pains of the women and children’’ as they are “consuming in the fire” (Alma 14:10). These events, the Ammonihahite disregard for human life, and the fire are horrifying and extraordinarily cruel.
In June of 1830, the first Latter-day Saint missionary Samuel Smith journeyed through the backcountry of western New York hoping to find parties interested in the recently published Book of Mormon. Advertising the volume as “a history of the origin of the Indians;’ he attempted to sell copies of the book his brother Joseph claimed to have translated from golden plates given to him by an angel. An etiological tale of the ancient inhabitants of the continent, the Book of Mormon described the emergence of two tribes: the righteous Nephites and wicked Lamanites. After the Lamanites’ rebellion against their relatives, the Book of Mormon recounted how God afflicted them for their iniquity. Whereas they were once “white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome;’ they became cursed with “a skin of blackness.” In the ensuing ethnic conflict, the black-skinned Lamanites ultimately triumphed over their “white” kin, overrunning and annihilating the Nephites to become the ancestors of modern-day Native Americans.
The Book of Helaman is a segment of the Book of Mormon whose study is both imperative and complicated in underappreciated ways. The imperative behind the book of Helaman’s study lies in the text’s significance for the self-conception of the Book of Mormon as well as its mythmaking function for the early Saints in their imaginative mapping of the American West. Like the Book of Mormon, Helaman traffics in buried texts that disclose signs and covenants and makes explicit the latent Lamanite frame that undergirds the Book of Mormon as a whole. It presents, as well, the Book of Mormon’s most robust account of secret combinations-a group that then entranced the text’s earliest readers to such a degree that they used this characterization to imbue their landscape with religious significance, describing the mountains surrounding the Salt Lake Valley as “the abode of the spirits of Gadianton robbers.” To understand the Book of Mormon’s sense of itself as a material artifact, to clarify the theological status of the Lamanites, and to explore the way the Book of Mormon helped sculpt a sense of place for early Latter-day Saints, close attention to the book of Helaman is an unavoidable prerequisite.
For the Nephites, the sixteenth year of the reign of the judges was tremendously difficult. The arrival of the people of Ammon, in itself an incredible disruption of Nephite society, precipitated a battle, which Mormon describes as a “tremendous battle; yea, even such an one as never had been known among all the people in the land from the time Lehi left Jerusalem’’ (Alma 28:2). The dead, we are told, were not counted due to their enormous number. These events compounded the pre-existing struggles that resulted from the sociopolitical fallout from the reforms of Mosiah. Though Alma 30:5 suggests that all is well in Zarahemla during the seventeenth year of the reign of the judges, the events of the next year and half, the eighteenth year, belie this peace. Within this span, the Nephites exploded in two separate, but related, political conflagrations: (1) the secession of the inhabitants of Antionum from the greater Nephite community, and (2) the civil war spearheaded by Amalickiah. But prior to both of these events came Korihor.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Many would agree that the most disturbing narrative in all of the Book of Mormon is that of Nephi being commanded to slay Laban. Few encourage their friends to turn to that passage when introducing the book. It is the rather detailed account of what appears to be an unconscionable act. Its closest parallel elsewhere in scripture is the story of Abraham and Isaac, with the all-important difference that, for Nephi, there was no ram in the thicket. How can we justify a man coming upon another man lying in a street, completely helpless, incapacitated because he is passed out from being drunk, and that first man decapitating the second man, stealing his sword and clothing, and then impersonating him so he could steal a most precious item from his treasury and lead one of his servants away from his household? On the surface, this is what appears to be happening. The fact that Nephi feels led by the Spirit to commit this act may be of little comfort to us as members of society since “few, if any of us, would want to live in a society where individual citizens are free to kill drunken fellow citizens-however guilty the drunk may be-because the citizen feels he has been constrained by God to do so.”
Arno Schmidt (1914-1979) was one of the most important, prolific, and original of postwar German authors. His magnum opus, Zettels Traum (1970), appeared in 1,360 large-font, signed typescript copies that each weighed 12 kilos and resembled another intimidating modernist text, James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, in its experiments with genre, fascinating density, multilingual citations, jokey allusiveness, and mythic grandeur. Like Joyce, Schmidt pushed boundaries of all kinds and sometimes got into hot water with those who found his writings sexually and religiously indecent. As an author, his work is hard to classify; he is sometimes called an “avant-garde traditionalist:’ In personal belief, he was an atheist, though one who was curious about the many forms that belief can take; he opens his essay on the Book of Mormon, for instance, by confessing his soft spot for holy books. A fierce critic of both West and East Germany, he was politically neither a Marxist, nor a social democrat, nor a straight-up conservative, though his attacks on mass society and choice to live his last two decades in relative isolation in a remote hamlet in Lower Saxony have led some critics to detect conservative sympathies. But he was also a clear anti-Nazi and was disgusted at what his country had done. Perhaps by living in a remote spot with his wife, Alice, also a writer whose work was not appreciated until later, he simply wanted to maintain his artistic integrity and stay aloof from the cultural establishment. By any account, he was a lone wolf, anxious not to be pinned down.
The enigmatic relationship between the Book of Mormon and the Bible goes all the way back to one of its earliest reviewers, Restorationist Alexander Campbell, who noted inconsistencies between the two. Campbell addressed the Book of Mormon text’s conflation of the Old and New Covenants, differing on details such as Jesus’s birthplace and, in particular, how much the Book of Mormon’s pre-Christian peoples anticipated New Testament events. The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi, Campbell wrote, “developed the records of Matthew, Luke, and John, six hundred years before John the Baptist was born.” From the time of Campbell and into the present day, much of Book of Mormon scholarship has pivoted around this issue. How could a text that claims origins prior to the canonization of the New Testament interact so explicitly with the New Testament text? And what of the Old Testament content, in particular Isaiah, strewn throughout its pages? For many years, those who saw the Book of Mormon as purely the product of the mind of Joseph Smith interpreted these interactions as a sign of indirect influence at best and plagiarism at worst. In response, those who were willing to subscribe to divine origins developed several possible solutions, such as the ideas that Book of Mormon authors had access to “untainted” biblical manuscripts that have since disappeared; or that they had a level of prescience in writing. However, in recent years, this apologetic-or-critical sentiment of arguing why the Bible is present in the Book of Mormon has begun to wane in favor of further exploring how the Bible is present in the Book of Mormon. The intent of this literature review is to lay out the different scholarship trajectories related to the presence of the Bible in the Book of Mormon.
With fears of faith crisis and disaffection rising like seawater, Latter-day Saint apologetic discourse has gone forth, like Noah’s dove, in search of living branches in which the sap runs. Defenders of the faith, including those addressed here, have returned with new academic sophistication, new critical interpretations, and new methods to address doubt among Latter-day Saints. In this review essay, I propose a pair of critical terms, the semantic and the performative, with which to consider this new apologetic discourse. I open with a brief reading of chapters 8 and 11 of 1 Nephi-Lehi’s dream of the tree and Nephi’s messianic vision-which, I’ll argue, offer a neat bifocal lens with which to consider these two modes of religious expression.
Different approaches to reading The Book of Mormon have influenced the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ teachings from 1830 to the present day. Scholars have long recognized that the definition of “Lamanites,” one of the primary groups described in the book, has shaped missionary work, Church policy, and public outreach. Indeed, in the Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith received a revelation sending four missionaries to preach “among the Lamanites,” perhaps the first justification for preaching among Indigenous peoples. Recent teachings have expanded the definition of Lamanite to include Native and Indigenous peoples on both American continents as well as Polynesians
The purpose of this piece is to review the long-distance genetic linguistic relationship between languages of the Afro-Asiatic language family and the Uto-Aztecan language family suggested in Stubbs’s Exploring the Explanatory Power of Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan and Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now. While such a suggestion is not novel, a linguistic connection between the New World and the Old World is especially appealing to readers of the Book of Mormon. Such a connection can potentially provide a way to determine specific cultural and social facts about the peoples and civilizations described throughout the Book of Mormon. Nevertheless, when not established by rigorous methods and scientific principles, such proposals lead to the incorrect identification of genetic linguistic relationships and unfounded extra-linguistic conclusions.
Latter-day Saints affirm that “the Book of Mormon was… written for our day.” For the believer, it is no wonder that the book contains numerous accounts of inequality. Without exception, the dynamic force in these accounts is pride, which in most cases is manifest in cultural pretentiousness and exhibitionism. While the various faces and consequences of pride and its relationship to culture in the Book of Mormon have been the subject of Latter-day Saint literature, there has, to date, been no reading of the Book of Mormon that attempts to provide a structural account of pride and its relationship to culture-that is to say, no analysis of the systematic relationship between the two. To do so would require reading the Book of Mormon with a sociological lens, an approach that, at least for the purposes of this paper, might be regarded as complementary to a theological interpretation.
King Benjamin’s address is well known to readers of the Book of Mormon and is often quoted in devotional contexts. The address marks the transition between two great kings of Nephite history: Benjamin and Mosiah. It is also a moment of teaching and of testimony for the old king. From that point on, the people are officially called by the name of Christ. Another moment of teaching and of popular commitment occurs in the Book of Mosiah, although it receives less attention: the address given by King Mosiah and Alma the Elder when the latter’s people arrive in Zarahemla (reported in Mosiah 25). The aim of this brief research note is to underline commonalities between Mosiah’s address and King Benjamin’s address and to suggest that both form part of a larger trend in Nephite institutions, a trend that changes the depth of Nephite religious and political institutions.
Book of Mormon Scriptures > Alma
Balli, Tyler. “LDS Hispanic Americans and Lamanite Identity.” Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 19/3 (2018): 92-115. Belnap, Daniel L. “The Abinadi Narrative, Redemption, and the Struggle for Nephite Identity:’ In Abinadi: He Came Among Them in Disguise, edited by Hopkin, 27-66.