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Narrow and Small Things
This article will analyze all 17Ā occurrences of the word "narrow," all 10 occurrences of the word "strait" and all 50 occurrences of the word "small" in the Book of Mormon text in an attempt to deduce...
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Another Geographic Neck
We have looked at everyĀ occurrenceĀ of the terms "narrow," "strait," and "small" in the text of the Book of Mormon in an attempt to deduce meaning based on Nephite usage. See the article "Narrow and...
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The Narrow (Small) Neck of Land
The 3 most recent articles in this blog:"Another Geographic Neck""Narrow and Small Things""Isthmuses"have laid important groundwork that will now allow us to establish the textual requirements and...
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The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage
The last post entitled The Narrow (Small) Neck of LandĀ showed why many Book of Mormon students think a) the narrow (small) neck of land, b) Lib's city, c) the east-west Bountiful/Desolation line, d)...
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The Narrow Strip of Wilderness
The Book of Mormon makes a single reference to the narrow strip of wilderness Alma 22:27 but this natural feature on the Nephite/Lamanite landscape looms large in any attempt to correlate the text with...
View ArticlePlainness
Nephi set a high standard for clarity and precision in his oral communication "I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err" 2 Nephi 25:20. He wanted his words to communicate effectively "my soul...
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Things Near and Far
I was in north central Tennessee years ago looking for a gravel pit operated by one of my customers. Slightly disoriented, I stopped by a farmhouse where an older couple sat on the front porch. I asked...
View ArticleGenerations
It is sometimes hard to keep everyone straight in the Book of Mormon. This article is a chronological outline of key people in the Nephite portion of the text whose names are often sub scripted. It...
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Some Questions and a Rule
My friend, John W. (Jack) Welch, is fond of quoting the German proverb "a good question is half an answer." This proverb harks back to Socrates (ca. 469 B.C. - 399 B.C.) "understanding a question is...
View ArticleProblematic Passages
The 1981 LDS edition of the Book of Mormon in English contains 268,158 words if you count only content from the plates and ignore modern accretions such as chapter summaries. The word count comes from...
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Mormon's Codex Available
John L. Sorenson, Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book, Salt Lake City: The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship & Deseret Book Company, arrived on bookstore shelves along the...
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190th Anniversary of Moroni's Visit
The ancient American prophet Moroni (ca. AD 350 - ca. AD 420), now a glorified being, visited the boy prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. on the evening of Sunday, September 21, 1823, on the Smith farm just...
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French Connection
My wife, Shannon, and I took our summer holiday this year in France. It was her seventh or eighth trip to the place, my second (she teaches high school French). We traveled for 17 days in a grand...
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New edition of Book of Mormon Model on Google Earth
A new version of the Book of Mormon Model is available for download from Google Drive. This is a 10 MB kmz (Google Earth) file with several thousand geo-coded data points and many external linkages....
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Test #1 Ups and Downs
Several Book of Mormon maps, advocated by impassioned proponents, currently circulate in LDS and Restoration Branch circles. John L. Sorenson has just made a major contribution to this effort with his...
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Test #2 One Half of Nephite Lands
Helaman chapters 4 and 5 describe a curious situation ca. 31 B.C. in which the greater land of Zarahemla was partitioned into 2 roughly equal halves Helaman 4:10, 4:16 with Nephites re-establishing...
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Test #3 Cultural Boundaries
The Nephite greater land of Zarahemla was bounded on the east by the sea Alma 50:13, 51:26. Its west boundary was also the seacoast Alma 52:11, 53:22, On the south, the boundary was the narrow strip of...
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BMAF 2013
The 11th Annual Book of Mormon Archaeological Form (BMAF) Book of Mormon Lands Conference was held on Saturday, October 19th, 2013 at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, Utah. Approximately 200...
View ArticleTemple Conference 2013
On Wednesday, October 23, 2013, an all-day conference was held in the Eccles Event Center on the Utah State University campus. Co-sponsored by the Academy for Temple StudiesĀ and the Utah State...
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Test #4 Ecological Boundaries
The Book of Mormon text describes at least three abrupt boundaries between different ecological zones. The first is the border between the populated local land of Zarahemla to the south and east and...
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