What might construction at a massive stone building look like in Nephi’s day?
With Nephi, Sam, Zoram, Jacob & Joseph, and the kids working on the temple every day, year after year, that leaves little time for anything else such as hunting food, raising crops, building homes, and attending to all their other needs.
There is no way a temple built
after the manner of Solomon’s was erected by the struggling Nephites who would have of necessity spent all their energy building habitations and keeping themselves alive as they battle the forces around them and strive to survive. A massive building such as this could have only been built by highly trained organized labor already existing or living off of civilized city accommodations. But the Book of Mormon claims that Nephi built it himself with a little help from his ragtag family and friends.
Go figure.
Over there, Sam!
Please note that the oldest man in the photo could well be bald Sam, because he was the eldest. Suppose that’s Nephi on top of the block with him to the left and standing alongside them is their younger brothers, Jacob & Joseph and shirtless Zoram bowed down with a hurt knee. So, who are the men down on the lower level sending up the stone?
When Nephi and his brother Sam left Jerusalem they were young men. Jacob & Joseph were born in the wilderness during the 8 year sojourn prior to Nephi building his ship and sailing the ocean blue. Also, consider the story about how the Ishmael family partied hard on the ship while coming across the ocean and that both of Ishmael’s sons were rebellious against Nephi, it stands to reason they went with Laman & Lemuel.
So, by the time Nephi got to the Americas he was probably in his mid-20’s or thereabouts. The next marker in the Book of Mormon is 2 Nephi 5:28, wherein Nephi notes 30 years had passed since having left Jerusalem which accounts for little more than 20 years in the New World. At that point, Nephi had already appointed his younger brethren to be priests, mentions how the Lamanite skins had turn dark with
blackness, and Nephites were industrious and in constant labor, more especially in completing their most important project, the temple.
How is it that these young families accomplished so much when they were so few in number? The Book of Mormon reads more like a fairy tale! Smith should have allowed several generations to grow and build a civilization before introducing the Solomon temple story. It simply came too early. The characters in the story were not ready to cut, transport, and lay stone on that kind of scale.