4 Ancient Book of Mormon-ish Texts Joseph Smith Didn't Know About!
The
gold plates are long gone – placed back into a heavenly repository. You can’t
look at them – lots of others did though. Reading the plates' translated scripture (the
Book of Mormon) and praying is the best way you can really know of their
scriptural validity. But, and this is
very interesting, you can also compare their content to other ancient texts from
the same claimed era, and see if it sits comfortably among them.
Hint
– it sits very comfortably among them!
Below
are four old texts that show how and what ancient middle easterners used to
write. Some have content very, very like the BOM and some have structure very,
very like it. For starters – there’s The
Autobiography of Kai:
1)
“[Hugh] Nibley has pointed out the same
kind of self-definition [as found in 1st Nephi] in The Autobiography of Kai, an Egyptian text which Nibley
explains is from “a short time before Nephi.” …Nibley translates Kai’s opening
statement as, “I, Kai, was the son of a man who was worthy and wise.”
((Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon,
1:11. In the actual text, Nibley leaves “worthy” (neḫet) and “wise” (sʿḥ) untranslated, adding his translation in brackets.
Interestingly, Kai also refers to himself as nfr bi·t, which
Nibley renders as “excellent of character.” Notice the use of nefer in his self description, proposed above as
the origin of the name Nephi and possibly underlying “goodly” and “goodness” in
the text.)) Hence when Kai introduces himself, he first establishes the
greatness of his father, just as Nephi seeks to establish his own credentials
through his “goodly parents.””(https://interpreterfoundation.org/blog-nephi-the-good-a-commentary-on-1-nephi-11-3/)
Kai opens talking about his ‘worthy
and wise parents,’ because apparently that’s what people did back then. Nephi
opens talking about his ‘goodly parents,’ because apparently that’s what people…
you get it.
Here’s
an old Hebrew story that deals with familiar Old Testament personalities –
Joseph and Judah. It has a story, though, that escaped Biblical pages. Keep in
mind that the Book of Mormon has Lehi & Co as descendants of Joseph of
Egypt. Already a strong tie there – and then we have this:
2) “The recently discovered Hebrew version of the Testament
of Naphthali (one of the Twelve) tells of the contest between Joseph and Judah.
In it Naphthali sees Israel as a ship at sea, "the Ship of Jacob."
"As long as Joseph and Judah got along together the ship sailed calmly and
well, but when quarreling broke out between Joseph and Judah she would not sail
in the right direction but wandered and was wrecked." The Book of Mormon
student will of course think immediately of the quarreling of the brothers on Lehi's
ship, which accordingly was driven off its course and nearly foundered; and he
is licensed to do so, because Alma hundreds of years later discusses this as a
type and an image…” (https://archive.org/stream/improvementera6904unse/improvementera6904unse_djvu.txt)
Next comes the story of Zosimus.
Zosimus was entirely unknown in Latter-Day Saint circles until Stephen Robinson and John Welch got assigned homework.
They were studying under Professor James Charlesworth, of Princeton Theological
Seminary. He was not of their faith, and thought nothing of it. Welch and
Robinson did think something of it.
Here is a Zosimus summary:
3)
“According to
the Narrative of Zosimus, a righteous man named Zosimus, dwelling in a cave in
a desert, prays to the Lord and obtains spiritual passage to a land of
blessedness. In order to arrive at this land of promise, Zosimus must wander in
the wilderness without knowing where he is being led. He is pushed to the point
of exhaustion but attains his destination by constant prayer and divine
intervention. Zosimus eventually arrives at the bank of an unfathomable river
of water covered by an impenetrable cloud of darkness. Catching the branches of
a tree, Zosimus is transported across the water where he sits beneath a
beautiful tree, eating its fruit and drinking of the life-sustaining water
which flows from its root. Zosimus is then met by an angelic escort, who asks
him what he wants, shows him a vision in which he thinks he beholds the Son of
God, and ultimately introduces him to a group of righteous sons of God. These
elders tell Zosimus of their history and instruct him in their ways of
righteousness. Their history is engraved upon soft stone plates. It explains
how the group, led by their father, escaped the destruction of Jerusalem at the
time of Jeremiah and how as a nation they survived the scattering of Israel.” (https://www.deseret.com/platform/amp/2015/4/9/20562332/the-narrative-of-zosimus-and-the-book-of-mormon)
The wandering in the desert is familiar. The
elders being led by a father in the end there is incredible. Clearly righteous
men were fleeing just prior to Jerusalem’s fall – specifically because God told
them to. We’re not done with this theme just yet.
Nephi mentions many prophets coming to
Jerusalem, preaching repentance or destruction. Many other stories, apparently,
talk of those prophets having to get out of Dodge or die. This next bit is
interesting because Nibley includes tons of detail, and because the record here
was (at the time) evidence in an upcoming legal trial against a man who apparently
tipped off a wanted prophet that fled to Egypt. The prophet isn’t named here,
but his story and flight pattern is familiar:
4)
“The city’s [Lachish’s]
strategic importance down through the years is reflected in the Babylonian,
Assyrian, Egyptian, and biblical records. These describe a succession of
intrigues, betrayals, sieges, and disasters that make the city’s story a
woefully typical Palestinian “idyll.” Its fall in the days of Jeremiah is
dramatically recounted in a number of letters found there in 1935 and 1938.
These original letters, actually written at Jeremiah’s time, turned up in the
ruins of a guardhouse that stood at the main gate of the city—two letters a
foot beneath the street paving in front of the guardhouse, and the other
sixteen piled together below a stone bench set against the east wall. The wall
had collapsed when a great bonfire was set against it from the outside.
The bonfire was probably set by the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar
because they wanted to bring down the wall, which enclosed the gate to the
city.
Nebuchadnezzar had to take the city because it was the strongest
fortress in Israel and lay astride the road to Egypt, controlling all of
western Judah. Jeremiah tells us that it and another fortified place, Azekah,
were the last to fall to the invaders. (See Jer.
34:7.) An ominous passage from Lachish Letter No. 4:12–13 reports that the
writer could no longer see the signal-fires of Azekah—that means that Lachish
itself was the last to go, beginning with the guardhouse in flames.
The letters survived the heat because they were written on
potsherds.
They were written on potsherds because the usual papyrus was
unobtainable.
It was unobtainable because the supply from Egypt was cut off.
The supply was cut off because of the war.
The letters were in the guardhouse because they were being kept as
evidence in the pending trial of a military commander whose name was Hoshacyahu.
He was being court-marshalled because he was suspected of treason.
He was suspected of treason because someone had been reading
top-secret dispatches sent from the court at Jerusalem to the commander at
Lachish, whose name was Yaush.
Hoshacyahu was a likely suspect because all the mail
had to pass through his hands.
It had to pass through his hands because he was in command of a
fortified town on the road between Jerusalem and Lachish, probably Qiryat
Ye’arim. His duty, among other things, was to forward the king’s mail—not to
read it.
That the confidential letters had been read was apparent because
somebody had tipped off a certain prophet that he was in danger.
He was in danger because the king’s soldiers had been put on his
trail.
They were on his trail because he was fleeing to Egypt.
He was fleeing because he was wanted by the police in Jerusalem.
He was wanted by the police because he and other prophets were
considered by the king’s supporters to be subversives.
They were considered subversives because they were opposing the
official policy and undermining morale by their preaching. As Jeremiah puts it:
“The princes [the important people] said unto the king: We beseech thee, let
this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war
that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such
words unto them.” (Jer.
38:4.) As Lachish Letter No. 6:6 puts it: “The words of the [prophet] are
not good [and are liable] to loosen the hands.” The Book of Mormon adds another
reinforcement: “In that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto
the people that they must repent, or the great city of Jerusalem must be
destroyed” (1
Ne. 1:4)—disheartening news, indeed.
All
in all – there are some incredible similarities to the Book of Mormon in those
four cited examples. That’s pretty good for a twenty-something farm
boy with his face in a hat. Just as good as any of these big beautiful bullseyes! Or any of these accurately-predicted angel encounters!
The Book of Mormon
is either exactly what it claims to be, or a super, super lucky fraud.
My
vote is for the former.
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