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Nephi’S Good Inclusio, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

As John Gee noted two decades ago, Nephi is best explained as a form of the Egyptian word nfr, which by Lehi’s time was pronounced neh-fee, nay-fee, or nou-fee. Since this word means “good,” “goodly,” “fine,” or “fair,” I subsequently posited several possible examples of wordplay on the name Nephi in the Book of Mormon, including Nephi’s own autobiographical introduction (1 Nephi 1:1: “I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents … having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God”). It should be further pointed out, however, that Nephi also concludes his personal writings on …

“They Were Moved With Compassion” (Alma 27:4; 53:13): Toponymic Wordplay On Zarahemla And Jershon, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

As in Hebrew biblical narrative, wordplay on (or play on the meaning of) toponyms, or “place names,” is a discernable feature of Book of Mormon narrative. The text repeatedly juxtaposes the toponym Jershon (“place of inheritance” or “place of possession”) with terms inherit, inheritance, possess, possession, etc. Similarly, the Mulekite personal name Zarahemla (“seed of compassion,” “seed of pity”), which becomes the paramount Nephite toponym as their national capital after the time of Mosiah I, is juxtaposed with the term compassion. Both wordplays occur and recur at crucial points in Nephite/Lamanite history. Moreover, both occur in connection with the migration …

“My People Are Willing”: The Mention Of Aminadab In The Narrative Context Of Helaman 5-6, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Aminadab, a Nephite by birth who later dissented to the Lamanites, played a crucial role in the mass conversion of three hundred Lamanites (and eventually many others). At the end of the pericope in which these events are recorded, Mormon states: “And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words” (Helaman 6:36), whereas he “began to withdraw” his Spirit from the Nephites “because of the wickedness and the hardness of their hearts” (Helaman 6:35). The name Aminadab is a Semitic/Hebrew name meaning …

“Idle And Slothful Strange Stories”: Book Of Mormon Origins And The Historical Record, Neal Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

From the very beginning, Joseph’s story about the origins of the Book of Mormon seemed wild and unbelievable. Today, however, Joseph’s account enjoys a high degree of corroboration from (1) eyewitness accounts confirming Joseph’s possession of actual metal plates and other artifacts, with some even corroborating the involvement of an angel in providing access to the record; (2) eyewitness reports on the process of producing the text; and (3) evidence from the original manuscript. This evidence is reviewed here, and the implications it has for the Book of Mormon’s origin are considered.

Reading A Pentecostal Reads The Book Of Mormon, Stephen O. Smoot

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In recent years the Book of Mormon has enjoyed increased attention from the scholarly world.1 This is entirely welcomed by the Latter-day Saints, especially when such attention comes from a place of fairness and open-mindedness. A praiseworthy example of how non-Mormon academics can fruitfully engage the Book of Mormon is John Cristopher Thomas’s new volume A Pentecostal Reads the Book of Mormon: A Literary and Theological Introduction.2 Thomas is well-equipped to approach the Book of Mormon on a literary and theological angle. He is, after all, an erudite biblical scholar whose work on New Testament text and theology has appeared …

Reading 1 Nephi With Wisdom, Taylor Halverson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi is the prototypical wise son of the Wisdom tradition. As Proverbs advocates that a wise man cherishes the word of God, so Nephi cherishes the words of the wise. Nephi’s record begins with a declaration of his upbringing in the Wisdom tradition and his authenticity and reliability as a wise son and scribe (1 Nephi 1:1–3). His is a record of the learning of the Jews — a record of wisdom. If the Wisdom tradition is a foundation for Nephi’s scribal capabilities and outlook, perhaps the principles and literary skills represented by the scribal Wisdom tradition constitute the “learning …

On The Dating Of Moroni 8-9, Joseph M. Spencer

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Students of the Book of Mormon who have attempted to establish a rough (internal) date for the composition of Mormon’s two letters in Moroni 8–9 have come to different and inconsistent conclusions. Nonetheless, there seems to be evidence enough from the text to arrive at reasonably certain conclusions as to when the letters are supposed to have originated. At the same time, the fact that the text never bothers to state the exact circumstances under which the letters were produced is theologically suggestive. What might be the interpretive and especially theological implications that follow from the establishment of rough dates …

From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation And Publication Of The Book Of Mormon, Steven L. Olsen

BYU Studies

Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat. From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon.

Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015.

The Gospel According To Nephi, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

2 Nephi 31 was written by Nephi as a grand finale to his small plates and was placed at the end to signal its premier importance. It is the centerpiece of his concluding sermon as signaled by a series of inclusios. It is presented as a flashback to the great vision received by both Lehi and Nephi in the first camp in the wilderness—over forty years earlier. But only here are we told for the first time that when Nephi witnessed the baptism of Jesus Christ in that early vision, he was simultaneously team-taught the gospel of Jesus Christ by …

The Treason Of The Geographers: Mythical “Mesoamerican” Conspiracy And The Book Of Mormon, Matthew Roper

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The claim that God revealed the details of Book of Mormon geography is not new, but the recent argument that there was a conspiracy while the Prophet was still alive to oppose a revealed geography is a novel innovation. A recent theory argues that the “Mesoamerican theory” or “limited Mesoamerican geography” originated in 1841 with Benjamin Winchester, an early Mormon missionary, writer, and dissident, who rejected the leadership of Brigham Young and the Twelve after 1844. This theory also claims that three unsigned editorials on Central America and the Book of Mormon published in the Times and Seasons on September …

Heartland As Hinterland: The Mesoamerican Core And North American Periphery Of Book Of Mormon Geography, Mark Alan Wright

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The best available evidence for the Book of Mormon continues to support a limited Mesoamerican model. However, Alma 63 indicates that there was a massive northward migration in the mid-first century bc. I argue that these north-bound immigrants spread out over the centuries and established settlements that were geographically distant from the core Nephite area, far beyond the scope of the text of the Book of Mormon. I introduce the Hinterland Hypothesis and argue that it can harmonize the Mesoamerican evidence for the Book of Mormon with Joseph Smith’s statements concerning Nephite and Lamanite material culture in North America. Archaeological …

John Milton, Joseph Smith, And The Book Of Mormon, Robert A. Rees

BYU Studies

In my Introduction to Mormonism class at Graduate Theological Union in 2013, among other topics we discussed the Book of Mormon and its possible provenances. The assignments for the class included my article “Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the American Renaissance,” in which I compare Joseph Smith with his illustrious contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman in terms of their respective literary imagination, talent, authorial maturity, education, cultural milieu, knowledge base, and intellectual sophistication. In that article, I attempted to demonstrate that each of these authors enjoyed a much greater …

John Bernhisel’S Gift To A Prophet: Incidents Of Travel In Central America And The Book Of Mormon, Matthew Roper

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The claim that God revealed the details of Book of Mormon geography is not new, but the recent argument that there was a conspiracy while the Prophet was still alive to oppose a revealed geography is a novel innovation. A recent theory argues that the “Mesoamerican theory” or “limited Mesoamerican geography” originated in 1841 with Benjamin Winchester, an early Mormon missionary, writer, and dissident, who rejected the leadership of Brigham Young and the Twelve after 1844. This theory also claims that three unsigned editorials on Central America and the Book of Mormon published in the Times and Seasons on September …

Book Of Mormon Minimalists And The Nhm Inscriptions: A Response To Dan Vogel, Neal Rappleye, Stephen O. Smoot

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Biblical “minimalists” have sought to undermine or deemphasize the significance of the Tel Dan inscription attesting to the existence of the “house of David.” Similarly, those who might be called Book of Mormon “minimalists” such as Dan Vogel have marshaled evidence to try to make the nhm inscriptions from south Arabia, corresponding to the Book of Mormon Nahom, seem as irrelevant as possible. We show why the nhm inscriptions still stand as impressive evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon

The Book With The Unintentionally Self-Referential Title, Brant A. Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Earl M. Wunderli has written a book that works through the reasons he fell out of belief in the Book of Mormon. These are combined with issues that he has added to his original reasons. His presentation is clearly intended to suggest that what he found compelling will also be compelling to other readers. Should it? This review looks at how his arguments are constructed: his methodology, the logic of the analysis, and the way he uses his sources. Although he argues that it is the Book of Mormon that is the imperfect book, his construction of the arguments makes …

Is Decrypting The Genetic Legacy Of America’S Indigenous Populations Key To The Historicity Of The Book Of Mormon?, Ugo A. Perego, Jayne E. Ekins

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon claims to be an ancient record containing a summary of a now-disappeared civilization that once lived in the American continent but originated in the Middle East. DNA studies focusing on the ancient migration of world populations support a North-East Asian origin of modern Native American populations arriving through the now-submerged land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska during the last Ice Age, approximately 15,000 years ago. The apparent discrepancy between the Book of Mormon narrative and the published genetic data must be addressed in lieu of generally accepted population genetic principles that are efficient in …

A Nickname And A Slam Dunk: Notes On The Book Of Mormon Names Zeezrom And Jershon, Stephen D. Ricks

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nicknames and Dysphemisms in the Bible and Ancient Mediterranean Even in the Bible, nicknames and dysphemisms— expressions whose connotations may be offensive to the hearer—are not rare and were equally so in other parts of the ancient and early medieval world. In 1 Samuel the ungenerous husband of Abigail rudely refused hospitality to the men of David, greatly angering them. David and his men were so incensed at his offense against the laws of hospitality that they intended to punish him for his boorish behavior before they were dissuaded from their plan by Abigail (1 Samuel 25:1-35). Shortly thereafter the …

Literacy And Orality In The Book Of Mormon, Brant A. Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon is a literate product of a literate culture. It references written texts. Nevertheless, behind the obvious literacy, there are clues to a primary orality in Nephite culture. The instances of text creation and most instances of reading texts suggest that documents were written by and for an elite class who were able to read and write. Even among the elite, reading and writing are best seen as a secondary method of communication to be called upon to archive information, to communicate with future readers (who would have been assumed to be elite and therefore able to …

The Fifth Principle Of The Gospel, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

With the 2004 publication of Preach My Gospel as the new handbook for LDS missionaries, the official explanation of Christ’s gospel incorporated a previously unrecognized fifth principle—enduring to the end. This article will review ways in which this principle surfaced occasionally in early Mormon missionary work and writings. It will also demonstrate that the principle is explicitly and consistently emphasized in Book of Mormon presentations of the gospel in passages that are now generally recognized as authoritative foundations for LDS gospel teaching.

Parallels Between Psalms 25-31 And The Psalm Of Nephi, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D., D. Bryce Baker

Faculty Publications

Chapter 18 of the 2013 BYU Sperry Symposium volume, "Parallels between Psalms 25-31 and the Psalm of Nephi," by Kenneth L. Alford and D. Bryce Baker, highlights numerous similarities in the structure and language of 2 Nephi 4 (also known as the Psalm of Nephi) to wording found in Psalms 25 to 31 -- opening the possibility that Nephi may have consulted those psalms on the brass plates prior to composing his psalm.

Ancient Affinities Within The Lds Book Of Enoch Part One, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David J. Larsen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In this article, we will examine affinities between ancient extracanonical sources and a collection of modern revelations that Joseph Smith termed “extracts from the Prophecy of Enoch.” We build on the work of previous scholars, revisiting their findings with the benefit of subsequent scholarship. Following a perspective on the LDS canon and an introduction to the LDS Enoch revelations, we will focus on relevant passages in pseudepigrapha and LDS scripture within three episodes in the Mormon Enoch narrative: Enoch’s prophetic commission, Enoch’s encounters with the “gibborim,” and the weeping and exaltation of Enoch and his people.

Written To The Lamanites: Understanding The Book Of Mormon Through Native Culture And Religion, Gary P. Gillum

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Latter-day Saints have always been encouraged to seek the truth wherever it can be found. With the Book of Mormon being written especially to the Lamanites, we can assume that the more we know about Lamanite and Native American culture, the more we can understand, appreciate and gain insights as we read that inspired scripture. In this article the writer has compared examples from Native American culture and history to what we read in the Book of Mormon and experience as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most importantly, as we read through the eyes of …

The Book Of Mormon: A Biography, Paul C. Gutjahr, Tod R. Harris

BYU Studies

There is something of a paradox prevalent in academic religious studies: in order to consider a community and its traditions objectively, one should not be a member of that community; yet the only way to understand fully and appreciate and therefore faithfully report about the community is to be a member. Many times this contradiction leads to the unfortunate situation where "outsiders" do not report their findings objectively or accurately and thus disappoint those hoping for fair and informative treatment, and where the work of members attempting serious scholarly analysis of their own community is viewed with suspicion and distrust …

This Is The Way, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The limited objective of this paper is to clarify some of the key terminology used by Book of Mormon writers. In particular, I will show that they used such terms as gospel, doctrine, way, and word interchangeably, but that the plan of salvation should be distinguished from these. It is probably inevitable that Latter-day Saint scholars will bring assumptions from their academic studies of the Bible and Christian theology to their study of the Book of Mormon. While the Book of Mormon obviously has a great deal in common with the Bible, I am increasingly convinced that Book of Mormon …

When Pages Collide: Dissecting The Words Of Mormon, Jack M. Lyon, Kent R. Minson

BYU Studies

Careful readers of the Book of Mormon have probably found verses 12-18 of the Words of Mormon to be a bit of a puzzle. For stylistic and other reasons, they do not really fit with verses 1-11, so commentators have tried to explain their presence as a sort of "bridge" or "transition" that Mormon wrote to connect the record of the small plates with his abridgment from the large plates. This paper proposes a different explanation: Rather than being a bridge into the book of Mosiah, these verses were originally part of the book of Mosiah and should be included …

Textual Similarities In The Words Of Abinadi And Alma's Counsel To Corianton, John Hilton Iii

BYU Studies

John Hilton examines textual similarities between two texts found in the Book of Mormon: the words of Abinadi in Mosiah 12–17 and the words of Alma the Younger in Alma 39–42. Hilton used both human-based and computer-based techniques to search for textual matches.

A History Of Nahom, Warren P. Aston

BYU Studies

Around 700 BC, a wealthy man in southern Arabia donated three limestone altars to a temple dedicated to Ilmaqah, the moon god. Inscribed on each altar was a text identifying him as the grandson of Naw'um of the Nihm tribe. The three altars were unearthed in 1988 by German archaeologists amid the ruins of the Bar'an temple near Marib, in modern Yemen. They provide the earliest known reference to the Nihm, who today, nearly three millennia later, retain the name and are one of Yemen's largest tribes.

Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture, Andrew C. Skinner, Gaye Strathearn

Maxwell Institute Publications

If the Book of Mormon is considered the keystone of the Latter-day Saint religion, then perhaps Third Nephi could be considered the pinnacle of the Book of Mormon. Third Nephi provides a glimpse into those glorious moments when the Savior ministered to a group of Nephite people who trusted in his prophesied appearance. This collection of essays is compiled from lectures given during a two-day symposium on the book of Third Nephi held at BYU in 2008. The chapters investigate a variety of topics from both academic and doctrinal perspectives. The articles include discussions on what Jesus taught and did, …

"There Arose A Mist Of Darkness": The Narrative Of Lehi's Dream In Christ's Theophany, Dan Belnap, Daniel Belnap

Faculty Publications

The events surrounding Christ’s theophany as recounted in 3 Nephi describe the creation of a new world, both physically and socially. In particular, chapters 8–18 depict a series of events that are reminiscent of the creation of the earth as described in Genesis and elsewhere. From the all-pervasive darkness experienced during the cataclysmic destruction to the glorious, light-filled arrival of Christ and the institution of new laws and ordinances delivered during his first day among the people, the Book of Mormon text reflects this biblical narrative. Yet the manner in which it is presented echoes a creation narrative unique to …

Who Uses The Word "Resurrection" In The Book Of Mormon And How Is It Used?, John Hilton Iii, Jana Johnson

Faculty Publications

While there are only a handful of primary speakers in the Book of Mormon, many voices are heard within its pages. The fact that multiple people speak in the text provides the opportunity to investigate whether these people have varying patterns of speech. The purpose of this study is to report on the word resurrection, which has unusual usage patterns by individual speakers in the Book of Mormon. For example, there are curious patterns in terms of who in the Book of Mormon employs (or does not employ) resurrection, how individuals in the Book of Mormon use this word, and …