Come Follow Me: Book of Mormon Intro and Tidbits

This is a grab-bag of sorts; I’ve been sick for a few days, without full dedicated brainpower to revise/expand. Still, there’s a lot of good stuff here, food for thought.

Readings for this lesson

• • Gospel Topics essay on Book of Mormon Translation.
  • Gospel Topics essay on DNA and the Book of Mormon
  • Joseph Smith’s Seerstone and the translation process- See here for my post, pictures, and some useful links about the role of the seerstone, why it has been less well known, and my experience teaching it at BYU. Also here for a post about how culture affects the channels of revelation we believe in, and how our day is different from Joseph Smith’s as well as that of Genesis. Relevant section is down at the bottom, starting with “Beyond the story itself”
  • Mormon Women Project Lesson 1
    • Highlights women who were witnesses to the translation and coming forth.
  • BYU Studies helps, aids, and articles for Lesson 1
  • Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited  with some very good basic articles by Richard Bushman and others about the coming-forth of the Book of Mormon, the various theories trying to account for it, etc.  A free PDF is here.

• Kevin Barney highlights some things he learned here, from one of the books on my suggested reading list.

I’ll repeat and expand on my comment to Kevin’s post, which you should read. Martin Harris literally bet the farm ($3000) on the publication of the Book of Mormon, and technically lost. I’ve sometimes led up to this story in class with several stories about Martin testing Joseph.

• The seerstone-testing story, (here in The Ensign, for one). Martin switched rocks on Joseph when he wasn’t looking.
• The Charles Anthon story. Again, Martin tests Joseph.
• 116 pages story, also involving Martin Harris.

Martin Harris tested Joseph Smith, and he passed every time, which is why Martin was literally willing to bet the farm. Even though he lost it, and was disaffected from Joseph Smith and the LDS Church for roughly 50 years, he testified consistently and constantly of the Book of Mormon, to his death.

On that note, I’d recommend reading this 1994 CES talk by Elder Holland on the Book of Mormon.  Like Elder Kearon’s recent BYUH talk, the talk was assigned, then the Apostolic call came, then the talk was given.  He talks about his call.

Some Things about the Book of Mormon You Might Not Know 

Below are some points of interest, potential to talk about in lesson 1 or thoughts for later on.

1. 1. Nephi’s “goodly” parents comment probably indicates socio-economic standing, not moral goodness.
      • This is a long-standing argument among a few bloggers, including me. In the first few verses, Nephi explains that, because his parents were “goodly,” he was taught not just to read (very unusual in the ancient world) but to write (even more unusual), and moreover, to write in two scripts or languages (depending on how we understand the “Egypt” reference). That degree of learning is much more dependent upon Lehi’s financial status than his goodness. Context thus favors the meaning of “well-off.” The (weaker, in my view) counter-argument comes from dictionaries, which don’t list something like “well-off” as a meaning, so it would be fairly idiomatic usage there in 1Ne 1:1.
   2. Nephi wrote the small plates 30 years after the events they depict, largely with religious/political purposes in mind. (2Ne 5:28ff)  It’s not his as-it-happened journal. I expand on this here.
   3. The small plates (1 Nephi-Omni) were translated last. Maybe.
      • This is a useful summary.
   4. The Book of Mormon doesn’t depict a capitalist democratic society like many modern Americans think.
      • See (loosely) Richard Bushman, here.
   5. The Book of Mormon doesn’t depict a church structured like ours today.
      • Heck, the Church in 1830 wasn’t structured like it was today.
   6. Joseph Smith never preached a sermon based on a Book of Mormon text.
      • Or, at least, we have no records of Joseph Smith preaching a sermon based on the Book of Mormon. Most early saints took it as a sign of Joseph Smith’s prophethood, that the heavens were open, and as confirmation of the Bible, not as something that needed independent study and reading. This is probably what leads to D&C passages like this, telling the early Saints to start paying more attention to it.
      • … that’s what I wrote a few years ago, anyway. I seem to recall a recent update to this, perhaps from Janiece Johnson’s work on 19th century reception of the Book of Mormon.
   7. The first two chapters of Mosiah are missing.
      • Mosiah 1-2 (original numbering) disappeared as part of the 116 pages JS gave to Martin Harris. We know this because in the Printer’s Manuscript (the hand copy made for EB Grandin to print from), our current Mosiah chapter 1 is labeled Mosiah chapter 3. See Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon, 20-21, or the critical-text work of Royal Skousen.
   8. It’s not much of a prophesy for Lehi to speak of the Babylonian captivity. (1 Nephi 1:13 and 10:3)
      • I’m not suggesting that Lehi wasn’t prophetic, just that this one was no-brainer. The Babylonians had been in control of Jerusalem since 605. There were several episodes between 605 and 587/88 of hauling Jews off to Babylon. While politically and religiously “incorrect” to say that Babylon was going destroy the city (remember Laman and Lemuel’s disbelief on this point, shared with many Israelites), it was not much of a leap to see that was the way the wind was blowing. Lots of this covered in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem (Amazon link. Download that particular chapter at this link.)
   9. Jesus appeared to the Nephites almost a year after the three days of darkness, not immediately.
      • The two primary texts are 3 Nephi 8:5 (which states that the destruction took place in year 34, month 1 day 1) and 3 Nephi 10:18 (which states that in the *end* of the 34th year, Jesus showed himself to them.) See Kent Brown and John A. Tvedtnes. “When did Christ appear to the Nephites?” (FARMS paper, don’t know if it’s still available) and Kent Brown, “When did Jesus Visit the Americas?” in From Jerusalem to Zarahemla, 146-156.
   10. Book of Mormon prophets probably drank wine and didn’t know about three degrees of glory and similar doctrines many today consider central to Mormonism.
       • Many critics from a different religious worldview are surprised not to find much “Mormonism” in the Book of Mormon, and it’s true. You don’t go to the Book of Mormon to find explicit teachings of not drinking alcohol or coffee (that’s D&C 89), the premortal existence (that’s mostly Abraham, though implied in Alma 13), eternal marriage (D&C again), or becoming like God (that’s actually the Bible, ironically enough see here for a summary and  here and here for more detail), AND D&C. Although, see 3 Nephi 28:10). This is from reading the text, and the principles of line-upon-line; the implication of line-upon-line is that what is known today wasn’t necessarily known or practiced in the past.
       • The “fulness of the gospel” thing doesn’t mean it’s an all-inclusive compendium; moreover, given our doctrine of progressive revelation and line-upon-line, we shouldn’t expect it to contain everything we have now.

As always, you can help me pay my tuition here, or you can support my work through making your regular Amazon purchases through the Amazon links I post. *I am an Amazon Affiliate, and receive a small percentage of purchases made through these links. You can also get updates by email whenever a post goes up (subscription box below). You can also follow Benjamin the Scribe on Facebook. If you friend me on Facebook, please drop me a note telling me you’re a reader. I tend not to accept friend requests from people I’m not acquainted with.