Category: Book of Mormon Project

1 Nephi 17:5-6

5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters.
6 And it came to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of its much fruit.

Brown and his associates give us this description of the richness of this little spot of fertile land tucked away at the edge of that great desert.

The steep mountain cliffs on either side of the alcove had natural caves etched into them where, the locals informed us, bees stored honey. The abundance of date palms, edible plants, grapes, melons, and fish further testified to why Lehi called this place Bountiful and why local herdsmen have been coming to this place for millennia. Our first view of Wadi Sayq revealed a place that would have been a great joy and blessing to Lehi’s family after their long and wearying journey through the parched and threatening heat of the Arabian desert.{1}
—————————————

FOOTNOTE

{1} S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006), 136-37.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 17:4  

4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.

If we read this verse only in its immediate context, it might suggest that they remained in the desert between Nahom and Bountiful for a full eight years. However, that reading would not take into account the fact that Nephi had always used the word “wilderness” to describe the area through which they traveled.{1} So we may safely understand him to say that it had taken them eight years to travel from Jerusalem to Bountiful.

Nephi’s story began during the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, that is, in 598 B. C.{2} It is reasonable to assume that they left not long after that. Zedekiah reigned only eleven years, until 587 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. The city apparently had not yet been destroyed when Lehi’s party arrived at Nahom. At least it appears so, for their knowing nothing of the Babylonian invasion probably accounts for why the boys were so intent on returning to their homes and property. However, they may have learned of it soon after the older sons’ rebellion.

Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem began “on the tenth day of the tenth month of Zedekiah’s ninth year.”{3} In Babylon, preparations for that campaign would have taken some time, as would the army’s march toward Jerusalem. It is possible that the reason Lehi and his party left Nahom when they did, with apparently little or no resistence from the brothers who had been dissenters, was because they had learned of Nebuchadnezzar’s attack on Jerusalem

—————————————

FOOTNOTES

{1} Nephi begins his story by writing that Lehi “left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 2:4).

{2} Here, I am using the dates given in the LDS Bible dictionary, under “chronology.”

{3} The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1:569.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 17:1-3  

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.
2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.
3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

Here is another “incidental proof” that Joseph Smith could not be the author of the Book of Mormon. In back country New York, Joseph had no access to this information, but the author was very precise in the details of his description of this geography. After Ishmael’s burial at Nahom the travelers made a sharp turn toward the east— into the desert and away from the Red Sea. Their destination, which Lehi and his people called “Bountiful,” is directly east of Nahom. However to get there, the party had to cross the deep, unforgiving, trackless sand of the Arabian desert.{1}

This desert was an horrendous place, where strangers were not welcome and where, we learn later, Lehi and his party were prohibited by the Lord from even building a fire so the light or the smoke would not be seen and expose their hiding places. Notwithstanding the difficulty of this leg of the journey, it is not the place in his story where Nephi calls attention to their hardships. Indeed, he gives this desert crossing only three verses, and those are a celebration of the goodness of God. He speaks of an unidentified sense of urgency, or else of their confidence in the Lord.

—————————————

FOOTNOTE

{1} For descriptions and photos of the Arabian desert through which they passed, see, S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006), 124-29.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:36-37

36 And thus they did murmur against my father, and also against me; and they were desirous to return again to Jerusalem.
37 And Laman said unto Lemuel and also unto the sons of Ishmael: Behold, let us slay our father, and also our brother Nephi, who has taken it upon him to be our ruler and our teacher, who are his elder brethren.

Laman’s motives may have been more complex than a simple desire to return to Jerusalem. He was the oldest son—his was the legal birthright. As long as his father lived, Laman had to obey him, and could not claim his rightful inheritance. His father listened to Nephi, and between them they had determined to go on this seemingly absurd journey. Ishmael was now dead, so his sons could also inherit if they were to return to the city and their estates. If Lehi and Nephi were dead, then Laman and the others could return and claim the wealth of which they had been deprived. The rationale seemed simple enough, and there were none to challenge either its execution or its intended outcome.

Laman’s argument took into account all the miraculous things they had experienced, but claimed they were performed by “cunning arts,” and therefore were of no real consequence. However, the Lord had promised Lehi and Nephi that they would have the power to fulfill their assignments, just as he made that promise to each of us.{1} Now, as Lehi’s sons and sons-in-law plot his assassination, the Lord himself asserted his power to fulfill his covenants with his prophets and to help them fulfill theirs.
—————————————

FOOTNOTE

{1} For a discussion of the “covenant of invulnerability” see Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord, first edition, 285-89; second edition, 201-04.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:34-35 — LeGrand Baker — “Ishmael died”

34. And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place that was called Nahom.
35. And it came to pass that the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly, because of the loss of their father, and because of their afflictions in the wilderness; and they did murmur against my father, because he had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, saying: Our father is dead; yea, and we have wandered much in the wilderness, and we have suffered much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and after all these sufferings we must perish in the wilderness with hunger.

Nahom is the only city mentioned by Nephi as he traveled from Jerusalem to Bountiful. The southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, where Nahom is located, was a hub of the ancient frankincense trails. Nahom still has the ancient name (written anciently NHM), but now the spelling is Nahm. It also has a very large and very ancient cemetery where the desert people brought their dead to bury them. It is significant that Nephi reported that Ishmael was buried at Nahom, but he does not say that he died there. If one looks at a map of the Arabian peninsula as a boot with the toe pointing toward the east, Nahom is located near the Red Sea at the indent that would be the top of the heel of the boot. If one draws a line from there almost due east (just as Nephi says), one will end the line very near the place that was likely Nephi’s Bountiful.

The location of Nahom was first proposed by Ross T. Christensen, a BYU professor of archaeology, in a letter published in the Ensign in August, 1978.{1} Prof. Christensen had discovered, on a 1763 map, a place called “Nehhm” about twenty-five miles northeast of the Yemen capital Sana’a. Some years later, Warren P. Aston read the Ensign article and determined to investigate.{2} About that same time, the Hiltons, who had lived in the Near East for many years, visited the city and reported their findings.{3} Since then, several LDS scholars have pursued the question of Nahom and the trail followed by Lehi and his party.{4}

When Brown and his associates visited the burial sites, they reported:

We were fascinated at the way these mummies were wrapped in leather with their knees pulled up in a kind of prenatal position. Long slabs of rock were formed into a coffin for the body, and then the mound of rock was built over it. They were not small mounds, and there were thousands of them.{5}
—————————————

FOOTNOTES

{1} Ross T. Christensen, “The Place Called Nahom,” Ensign (August 1978): 73.

{2} The product of their work was: Warren P. Aston and Michaela Knoth Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi: New Evidence for Lehi’s Journey across Arabia to Bountiful (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994).

{3} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Utah, Cedar Fort, 1996).

{4} For additional insights on the location and importance of Nahom, see: Warren P. Aston and Michaela Knoth Aston, “The Place Which Was Called Nahom,” In the Footsteps of Lehi: New Evidence for Lehi’s Journey across Arabia to Bountiful (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1994), 5, 19.
See also:
Eugene England, “Through the Arabian Desert to a Bountiful Land: Could Joseph Smith Have Known the Way?” in Noel B. Reynolds, ed., Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1982), 148 – 154.
Mark J. Johnson, “The Exodus of Lehi Revisited.” FARMS Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (Fall 1994), 123-26.
Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), 92.
“Book of Mormon Near Eastern Background” in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1-4 vols.,(New York: Macmillan, 1992), 187-90).
Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, edited by John W. Welch with Darrell L. Matthews and Stephen R. Callister (Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 76.
Hugh Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon–Semester 1: Transcripts of Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988-1990 (Provo: FARMS, 219.
Daniel C. Peterson, “Shall We Not Go On in So Great a Cause?” in Susan Easton Black, ed., Expressions of Faith: Testimonies of Latter-day Saint Scholars (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book and FARMS, 1996), 127-37.
John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne, eds., Rediscovering the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book and FARMS, 1991), 92).
Sidney B. Sperry, Book of Mormon Compendium (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968), 124.
John W. Welch, “Lehi’s Trail and Nahom Revisited,” in John W. Welch, ed., Reexploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992),47-49.
S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006), 19.

{5} S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006), 119.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:32-33  

32 And it came to pass that I did return to our tents, bearing the beasts which I had slain; and now when they beheld that I had obtained food, how great was their joy! And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord, and did give thanks unto him.
33 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey, traveling nearly the same course as in the beginning; and after we had traveled for the space of many days we did pitch our tents again, that we might tarry for the space of a time.

Again the reference to his tents, this time following their acceptance to the instructions they received through the Liahona and their finding food. Nephi reported that they stayed in this new campsite ”for the space of a time.” He does not report the cause for this delay or even suggest that it was an unwelcome delay. Perhaps they stopped because they were near the city Nahom, and they sought provisions there. Perhaps it was to do missionary work among those people. Perhaps it was because Ishmael was too ill to travel. Perhaps all three reasons played into their decision.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:25-31 

25 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came unto my father; and he was truly chastened because of his murmuring against the Lord, insomuch that he was brought down into the depths of sorrow.
26 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord said unto him: Look upon the ball, and behold the things which are written.
27 And it came to pass that when my father beheld the things which were written upon the ball, he did fear and tremble exceedingly, and also my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and our wives.
28 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them.
29 And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.
30 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did go forth up into the top of the mountain, according to the directions which were given upon the ball.
31 And it came to pass that I did slay wild beasts, insomuch that I did obtain food for our families.

Nephi has brought us to the critical turning point in his story. We are now at the time of apparent defeat in the chiasmus we described earlier He patterned the entire book of First Nephi after the cosmic myth, that is, after the same pattern as the Feast of Tabernacles temple drama.{1}

As in the cosmic myth, after reaching the point when success seems impossible, Nephi presents us with two critical elements that are the turning point toward their ultimate triumph and victory. Those two are their receiving of the Liahona and Nephi’s finding food at the mountain top to sustain his family. In the subtext, he has also brought us to the top of the cosmic mountain where we find the tree of life and can partake of its fruit. Having the assurance one receives at the tree does not portend an easy time from there, just as the food did not for Lehi’s family in the desert, but it does give the assurance that failure is no longer looming as a possible conclusion of the journey.
—————————————
FOOTNOTE

{1} As already observed, when written as a chiasmus, a pattern of 1 Nephi looks like this:
.    A. Nephi and his family must leave home
.         B. They are given a seeming impossible task
.             C. They receive all necessary empowerment
.                 D. Rebellion and starvation in the wilderness
.             C. Liahona directs him to mountain top for food
.         B. They travel to Bountiful to complete their task
.    A. They arrive at the promised land

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:23-24 

23. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said unto my father: Whither shall I go to obtain food?
24 And it came to pass that he did inquire of the Lord, for they had humbled themselves because of my words; for I did say many things unto them in the energy of my soul.

It is probably true that no one has read this account without noting that Nephi did not presume to himself the prerogative of asking the Lord, but rather he went to his father to seek instructions. Nephi’s deference to his father calls into question the whole argument that his writing is for his own self-justification or self-aggrandizement.

The Hiltons have also given us important insights about the wood that could have made an effective bow. They wrote,

This, then, [the broken bow] was the problem facing Nephi. He records that he found wood to build a new bow in 1 Nephi 16:23. Our friend Salim Saad enthusiastically pointed out that the pomegranate tree, that grows around Jiddah, would make good bows. These trees grow throughout the Middle East, even in brackish water. Pomegranate is a relatively straight and close-grained fruitwood that is remarkable lumber and tough. Until a decade ago, Arab teachers kept a pomegranate rod handy for disciplinary purposes, and one friend told us that being struck once across the knuckles caused such severe pain that he reformed and became a model pupil. This made us wonder if, in addition to Nephi’s possible use of pomegranate wood as a bow, he might have suffered from its other uses earlier when his brothers beat him ‘with a rod’ (1 Nephi 3:28).{1}

—————————————

FOOTNOTE

{1} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Ut., Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1969), 114-15.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:19-22 

19 And it came to pass that we did return without food to our families, and being much fatigued, because of their journeying, they did suffer much for the want of food.
20 And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael did begin to murmur exceedingly, because of their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness; and also my father began to murmur against the Lord his God; yea, and they were all exceedingly sorrowful, even that they did murmur against the Lord.
21 Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, having been afflicted with my brethren because of the loss of my bow, and their bows having lost their springs, it began to be exceedingly difficult, yea, insomuch that we could obtain no food.
22 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren, because they had hardened their hearts again, even unto complaining against the Lord their God.

Writing an autobiography is an exceedingly difficult task. When we begin, there is a tangle of motives and perspectives with which he must deal. Some people write to “set the record straight,” to tell one’s own story, to show how things came to be—but always from hindsight, knowing how the story ends. It is also a daunting task. If we are honest, if we do not deliberately seek to portray ourselves as something we are not, writing can be a soul-wrenching experience, as we remove the facades and expose our inner Self for everyone to see. Nephi’s task was complicated beyond that because what he was writing was autobiographical but not actually an autobiography. He and his family spent eight years on a trail that could have taken them as little as four months. The Hiltons have calculated,

It is 2,156 miles from Jerusalem to Dollar, Oman/Bountiful. This is less than a four-month journey. Lehi’s group took eight years to do it. Where were they camped for the seven years and eight months that remained?{1}

No doubt, Lehi and his family had spent most of that time either in camp or among the people who lived in the cities, but Nephi tells us almost nothing about those times. His intent was only to write “the things of God” (1 Nephi 6:3-6, 2 Nephi 5:29-34). He does that by avoiding the events that do not give context to the principles he wishes to teach. Notwithstanding his care in doing that, we are often inclined to read First Nephi as a travel narrative, rather than a doctrinal essay.

Nephi was a prophet who had been commissioned by God to write holy scripture. He knew that, as do we, but it is easy for his readers to lose sight of his intent when we come across stories like this one about the discontent of his brothers and brothers-in-law, and even the discouragement of his father. He seems to be making himself the hero of his own story when he writes, “I, Nephi, did speak much unto my brethren,” but those words can more accurately be read as an abbreviated memory of his intense sorrow and frustration. The Lord had promised him that his posterity would inhabit a new world. The conclusion of the journey was not the issue because, in his mind at least, it was not in doubt. What was in doubt was the salvation of his brothers’ souls through the exercise of their agency. The issue was whether they world obey God and be blessed accordingly.
—————————————

FOOTNOTE

{1} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Ut., Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1969), 32.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

1 Nephi 16:18  

18. And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, that was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food.

The Hiltons described the climatic situation that would cause Nephi’s bow to break.{1}

But despite the dreadful weather in this area along the coast of the Red Sea, we were excited, for it helped us realize how Nephi’s steel bow might have broken and how the wooden bows of his brothers might have lost their springs. (For biblical references to steel bows, see 2 Sam. 22:35 and Job 20:24.) The bow-breaking incident occurred after the party had traveled “for the space of many days” (Nephi repeats that phrase twice, both in 1 Nephi 16:15 and in 16:17) and had pitched camp to rest for a season. This would have been natural for a party traveling at a speed dictated by the presence of women and children. Since Nephi says they again traveled “for the space of many days” (1 Nephi 16:33) to reach Nahom after leaving this camp of the broken bow, it may have been halfway between Shazer and Nahom. If so, the incident may have been roughly in the vicinity of Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where the weather is a merciless combination of heat, humidity, sand, and salt–forces strong enough to destroy steel by rust. Between March and November the heat is pitiless. Even in late January the daytime temperature hovers around 85 degrees. Humidity averages about 60 per-cent year round, and in the more moist part of a fifteen-year cycle the humidity rises to a yearly average of 92 percent. Unpainted iron or steel simply cannot survive long in such conditions.

Might this also have happened to Nephi’s bow? Weakened by rust, it could have snapped in his hands when he drew it to its limit. The climate would also explain why his brothers’ bows lost their springs at or around the same time. Since they were wooden bows, they would have remained tensile and strong in the dry area around Jerusalem; but several years in the humid climate along the Red Sea’s coastal plain would inevitably have caused them to absorb moisture until they became as limber as saplings. In fact, acquaintances of ours reported moisture absorption in some of their wooden possessions.{2}

—————————————

FOOTNOTES

{1} For a discussion of ways Nephi’s bow might have been only partly steel see S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith, from Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, Utah, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, BYU, 2006),
66-67.

{2} Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi (Springville, Ut., Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1969), 114.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>