This is one post in an A-Z series of 26 where I am writing about living as a Mormon in the wilderness of Kuantan
We have this remarkable book, an ancient record of scriptural proportions. The Book of Mormon confirms our Biblical link to the Jews. The opening of the Book of Mormon occurs in Jerusalem around 600BC with a group of Jews going on an epic voyage through desert and sea which went unknown to the general population of Jerusalem, and unrecorded in the Holy Bible.
The Book of Mormon, therefore, would be of particular interest to Jews and Christians alike. To Jews due to this particular migration to the ancient Americas. To Christians as this record makes continuous mention of Jesus Christ throughout its 1,000 years of history, including a ministration of the Saviour on the ancient American continent after his resurrection.
Content aside, the Book of Mormon carries additional value as a testament to Joseph Smith's seership skills as the translator of an ancient document, and not the author of a fictional work. Don't get me wrong, there are many who cling to the belief that Mr. Smith made the whole thing up. Even if that was the case, it would still be an incredibly amazing feat to produce a 500-page, 1,000-year story in around 65 days! At worst, he is a master author; at best, an instrument in the hands of God.
Former BYU Professor, Hugh Nibley, offered this challenge to his students:
"Since Joseph Smith was younger than most of you and not
nearly so experienced or well-educated as any of you at the time he copyrighted
the Book of Mormon, it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end
of the semester (which will give you more time than he had) a paper of, say,
five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred book if you will, and
give it the form of a history. Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient
times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all
sorts of public and private vicissitudes; give them names--hundreds of
them--pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names of circa 600
b.c.; be lavish with cultural and technical details--manners and customs, arts
and industries, political and religious institutions, rites, and traditions,
include long and complicated military and economic histories; have your
narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps; keep a number of
interrelated local histories going at once; feel free to introduce religious
controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting;
observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and
transmission of your varied historical materials.
"Above
all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to the really hard part
of this little assignment. You and I know that you are making this all up--we
have our little joke--but just the same you are going to be required to have
your paper published when you finish it, not as fiction or romance, but as a
true history! After you have handed it in you may make no changes in it (in
this class we always use the first edition of the Book of Mormon); what is
more, you are to invite any and all scholars to read and criticize your work
freely, explaining to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If
they seem over-skeptical, you might tell them that you translated the book from
original records by the aid of the Urim and Thummim--they will love that!
Further to allay their misgivings, you might tell them that the original
manuscript was on golden plates, and that you got the plates from an angel. Now
go to work and good luck!
"To date no student has carried out this assignment, which,
of course, was not meant seriously. But why not? If anybody could write the
Book of Mormon, as we have been so often assured, it is high time that
somebody, some devoted and learned minister of the gospel, let us say,
performed the invaluable public service of showing the world that it can be
done."
