The literary quality of the Book of Mormon

Back in the old college days (longer than I like to think about now) as an education major I had to take a class called History and Philosophy of Education. The instructor was one of the more charismatic of the bunch and despite a rather dry textbook made the class somewhat interesting. Long story short and condensing the part of the class that applies here, free and appropriate education as we know it today is a relatively recent construct. Likewise, 1810s-20s education in the US was not at all like what we see portrayed on TV in shows like Little House on the Prairie with Miss Crabtree (50-60 years after JS). I know we get this “uneducated farm boy” narrative (even from current apostles) but the truth is Joseph was probably of at least average education in his day when the only schools that existed in the US were in larger cities and were tuition based (often Catholic). Joseph’s education (and he was educated, he could read and write and do math, that’s never debated) likely took place at home with the King James Bible as the reading text, probably very similar to his neighbors’ education.

Point number 2: There is a difference between intelligence and education. There are intelligent and educated people; there are intelligent uneducated people (sometimes not under that person’s control); there are unintelligent educated people (we’ve all encountered them); and there are unintelligent uneducated people.

Point number 3: The English language of Joseph’s day tended to be much more wordy and “flowery” than English today. One need only read some older literature see the evidence of this (Charles Dickens, one of my favorites, is an good example).

I believe Joseph Smith was a genius, or at least very intelligent. As stated I believe as a youth he was of average education but there is also evidence he sought further education and that he did benefit from that learning over his lifetime.

What do (I) think of the overall literary/writing quality of the Book of Mormon?

I don’t believe the Book of Mormon is a history of ancient American people, and I don’t believe there were Nephites, Lamanites, Jaredites, or anything else. I do believe in the possibility of Joseph being “inspired” or the BoM being revealed to him by God. In that regard, similar to Amy, I believe Joseph thought he was more inspired than he actually was. I believe Joseph was trying to write a book that looked, acted, and sounded like scripture (even though the chapter and verse divisions we know were not present in the first editions). Combining the general wordy language of the day, the desire to create new scripture, and Joseph’s intellect (possibly supplemented by that of Emma, Oliver Cowdery and others), I believe the Book of Mormon to mostly be a construct of Joseph’s own.

One final side note, and this was brought back to mind by Elder Rasband’s “flood the earth with the BoM” GC talk: Today missionaries tend to lead with Joseph and the first vision (we always did in the days of my flip book mission). The church’s first missionaries did not – they led with the Book of Mormon (and most of them were probably unaware of the first vision). Despite any misgivings or doubts I might have about the BoM, I do believe it is a good book about God and Jesus Christ and that it can and does bring people closer to God and Christ.

Roy — and everyone else — what do you believe about the Bible — is it the Word of God, given by inspiration?

Roy — and everyone else — what do you believe about the Bible — is it the Word of God, given by inspiration?

This is something I have mildly struggled with for a long time, even prior to being a church member. I do not believe the Bible (or Book or Mormon, PoGP or D&C) to be the “word of God” as in being directly from the mouth of God. It is all filtered through men and is their interpretation/understanding.

My personal experiences with revelation has never been words, it’s more of impressions. I can’t put those impressions into words, there just aren’t words for it. I think that is the major difficulty for scripture writers (including Joseph Smith) – there aren’t words for their impressions/feelings.

My personal experiences with revelation has never been words, it’s more of impressions. I can’t put those impressions into words, there just aren’t words for it. I think that is the major difficulty for scripture writers (including Joseph Smith) – there aren’t words for their impressions/feelings.

I would add that in some circumstances, the full “message” is being multiplied from previous statements and experiences that are hard to shortcut. I have a funny example.

BACKGROUND

I am the “family translator” for my youngest daughter – I can usually connect the dots that others can’t because I take her seriously and have observed how she thinks for a very long time. NOTE: I don’t feel that I get “bonuses” in this area because I am her mother. I don’t think it is “intuition” at all – I worked really hard setting up conversational environments to learn about my daughter.

STORY

1. I brought up “Christmas” tentatively (because I am a part-time Christmas Elf volunteer in my family).

2. My daughter told me about Halloween.

3. I explained that “Santa doesn’t care about Halloween, we are talking about Christmas”.

4. She told me she wanted to wish Santa a “Happy Birthday”.

These sound entirely disconnected and should be dismissed out of hand… but…

In the world of a 6 year old (especially my 6 year old), here is how they are connected.

Halloween = Candy

Christmas = Presents and Candy

Birthday = Presents

MORAL OF THE STORY

My daughter recently celebrated a birthday with presents and candy, and wanted Santa to have the same pleasant experience (she would prefer that it is a shared experience with her so that she gets more candy/treats and association).

To get that level of translation, it required years of working teaching her that she could tell me things, reviewing what is important to her in terms of her age and experiences, and what she values (shared experiences, helping others, treats).

To put it another way, I believe that religious texts can give a picture of God even if they are not historically accurate.

I think we decide what texts to prioritize as “religious” – and that it has moved far beyond (and still includes) texts these days – especially non-religious ones.

1. I had a conversation with my very active sister-in-law about my expanded view of scripture (we make scripture by ascribing meaning to words and not the other way around where the words are innately scripture-worthy). Under my definition, Western culture has made quite a few stories to be scriptural variations – including stories like “Lord of the Rings”, “Star Wars”, and “The Matrix”. My sister in law agreed with me (which was shocking) and added that she always includes at least 1 movie quote from “The Lord of the Rings” in her talks at church.

2. Controlling what is considered scripture defines a church organization (Roman Catholic vs Greek Catholic churches in a very broad sense), and what gets passed down to the next generation.

NOTE: I think that is part of the pushback about “Heavenly Mother”. If we talk about Her, we are going to sing and write about Her – which can be become “scriptural” in the sense of maintained and venerated writings about Her – which means the Evangelicals will have more reason to boot us from the “Religious Right” table to the “Other” table (that includes a variety of “Everyone Else” religious-wise).

The older I get, the more apt the quote by Mark Twain (I think he is the author) becomes:

“God made Man in His own Image, so Man decided to return the favor.”

It takes a lot of thinking and Stage 4 Angst to get to the point where you can say, “The way things are [the traditions/scriptures/protocols/doctrines/policies] are because I need/want/insist on/assume the things this specific way – without regard to of the perspectives of others, the handicaps/preferred way of being (extroverts vs introverts), or evidences from the physical realm around me.”

1) I see in the story a description of Nephi as an entitled, spoiled, insensitive, favorite young man – and it makes him more relatable to me than what I see as the standard caricature described most often in church. When Laman and Lemuel said the Lord “maketh no such things known unto us” (after Nephi asked if they had “enquired of the Lord” about Lehi’s vision, I see it as an honest response that they were not visionary people like their father and brother. Nephi then chastised them for something they could not control – which I see as a probable pattern in their relationship. As a social scientist by nature and training, I can empathize with Laman and Lemuel, since I also am not a classically visionary person. I wonder how I would have reacted if one of my younger brothers was my dad’s favorite and always criticized me for being honest about who I was.

Since I came to StayLDS I heard more than one person indicate that Nephi was a prig — an interpretation of the Nephi stories that I hadn’t heard before. I can relate to it. I have a younger brother who emerged as the family favorite given the way that he stepped up to help my parents in their old age. He bought their house like a reverse mortgage so they could continue staying there when they were running out of money. He was generous with his money in making it comfortable for them. They eventually changed their will, forgiving the debt on the house he bought from him, essentially reducing the inheritance of myself and my sister, both of whom are older than this favorite brother. We both resented this and were saddened that our parents would openly play favorites. I wouldn’t say we were jealous, but we were definitely not on the same page with my parents and were definitely dismayed by our parents’ behavior.

My brother has a double income, no kids, is a successful millionaire from his small business, and lives within driving distance (unlike me who is in a whole different country 24 driving hours away and not yet prepared for retirement in my late 50’s), and it was practical for him to manage the house at that close distance — not so for me.

He has routinely chastised me about things over the years. He gives me “spiritual advice” about my relationships with others in long texts. I don’t appreciate any of it. One is that he’s my younger brother. Maybe it’s wrong in our society (unlike Asian societies) to believe that elders deserve greater respect, but that was my gut reaction. It bothers me when my younger brother takes it upon himself to chastise me and talk down to me that way.

There is no way he should be telling me the difference between right on wrong on matters of opinion.

Therefore, I can understand this interpretation from Old Timer. I also think the story of Nephi has a lot in common with the story of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son.

It goes to show how even a fictitious narrative can be rich in topics for discussion.

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I think I told everyone years ago, I tried to write a couple of BOM chapters in the style of language of the Book of Mormon — my own attempt at scripture. Now STOP — I wasn’t serious about distributing it, or claiming it was inspired either, or in any way challenging JS as an inspired writer or anything that suggests I was going off the rails. I make no claims to the prophetic chair. Nor was it a precursor to starting my own religion.

But I wanted to see if I could feel the Spirit when I read it afterward. I thought I might also be putting myself in the position of JS to see what he might have thought or felt.

I put it in the same format as the Book of Mormon with the Chapter Name and Number, the preamble in hyphenated italics, columns, verse numbers, and a lot of “And it came to pass” and “Behold” statements. It was the story of an arrogant son/heir of a king who was unkind to others, self-absorbed, and narcissistic. Then he has an epiphany and changes to become righteous and service-minded to his people. It had a couple of quotable quotes I created — maxims about service and self-discovery — and then left it to sit for a while. I came back to it a while later and read it thoughtfully, and guess what — I felt the Spirit.

I feel the spirit in so many different situations — when in harmony with family members, hearing people speak, watching touching movies, during EMDR therapy — I realize that JS didn’t have a corner on the Spirit when he translated/wrote the Book of Mormon. So, it doesn’t have to be a literary work like Shakespearian works, it just needs to speak the truth and people will feel spiritual when they read it — like they do when they experience other things.

My extended family has an experience that mirrors Lehi’s family situation.

One of the older brothers regularly took care of the family homestead and his parents when they became too old, largely because the youngest brother had promised to do so, in exchange for some of the family land on which he built his house, but failed to do so. Upon the father’s death, the youngest brother, who already had a well-paying job, inherited all of the family land. He sold it, eventually, at a major profit. He didn’t share any of that profit with his siblings, most of whom were not as well off to begin with. I am certain the youngest brother didn’t see the injustice, especially to his brother who had spent so much of his free time away from his own family in order to help their parents, but the resentment among the siblings was real and powerful.

On the other hand, my extended family also has an experience where the oldest brother was given the family land when the father passed away. He ended up selling it when a population explosion hit the area – for a mind-boggling profit. The rest of the siblings were relatively poorer, and the oldest brother split his profits only among his own children – who now are much better off financially than their cousins.

The resentment hasn’t destroyed either family, completely, but it caused major issues at the time among the siblings that have continued in some way to this day.

The story of Nephi and his brothers is a common one, right down to the individual dynamics and self-justifications.