Book of Mormon (er, -- of Solomon)

[_Benjamin McGuire]

Roger writes:

Having said that, I still see value in considering the thematic parallels and then noting similar word-strings within them--especially if they cluster or appear in similar chronology. At some point--IMO--these combinations become too overwhelming to be attributed to coincidence. I don't know if this can be measured very well by a computer, however.

This is a basic description of the methodology which I promote. You should read my essay (link somewhere above) in the latest Journal from the Maxwell Institute. It details my approach (probably more details than most people wanted) - as well as providing a detailed case study for my approach. To what you describe above, I also add the extra dimension of looking at intentions - the kind of thing Dale mentioned earlier - which I think can play a critical role in this kind of analysis.

[_MCB]

No need to worry. You are right. I have found several places in roman story where content reflects Book of Mormon or LDS theology. Creation theology and justification of polygamy, in particular. Evidently those things did not make their way into the final version. J. Smith was outvoted, and later had his way.

Also, the mystery of the accuracy of the dancing lamanite girls is Spalding's self-criticism of the flaws in his plot for the roman story.

Not to worry-- he did his research, and came upon a plot that worked.

Thanks for the guidance, UD. Ben, your article is a goldmine. Thank you, too. The Book of Mormon has to be studied in the context of the literature of the times in which it was written in order to be understood. And traditional LDS don't have access to that, because they think it was written within a different literary context. When you look at it in the context of Clavigero, the true meaning becomes obvious. Just like I have been trying to say for the past five years. <sigh>

[_Uncle Dale]

...the dancing lamanite girls
...

Old Sol wasn't all that great at depicting female characters. Either they faint for
hours on end (Lamesa, the Lamanite queen, Princess Papantzin), or they go dancing
(Spalding wife Matilda was described as a party-animal), and/or they get kidnapped.

I think old Sol was reading the wrong parts of the Bible -- where groups of girls
get kidnapped (by Benjamites) or individually dance, for notables' heads on platters.

Maybe he had fantasies of kidnapping a "Lamanite" dancer himself, but was too
afraid that she'd fight back and put his severed head on a platter, (tight like a dish).

???

UD

[_moksha]

Have the missing 116 pages ever been referred to as "manuscript lost or found"?

[_MCB]

I think old Sol was reading the wrong parts of the Bible -- where groups of girls
get kidnapped (by Benjamites) Maybe he had fantasies of kidnapping a "Lamanite" dancer himself, but was too
afraid that she'd fight back and put his severed head on a platter, (tight like a dish).

???

UD

Where is that(in red)?

Yeah- he was bad at romantic fiction, as in imitating Madoc, but an excellent hand at writing military tragedy. Definitely male. :)

[Bedlamite]

...
Where is that(in red)?
...

here:

http://mi.byu.edu/publications/books/?b ... chapid=861



Rediscovering the Book of Mormon

Chapter 7
The Stealing of the Daughters of the Lamanites
Alan Goff

A minor story in the Book of Mormon provides an example of how complex the task of reading the book can be. It also illustrates how much richer our understanding can be when we remember that the Book of Mormon is an ancient record with connections to other ancient records, particularly the Old Testament. In the book of Mosiah, a band of wicked priests hid in the wilderness and kidnapped some young women to be their wives (see 20:1-5). This story can be read as an adventure tale. If looked at carefully, however, it shows the kind of connections between the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament that demonstrate that the Book of Mormon is an ancient book.

The story of kidnapping by the wicked priests is a minor part of the record of the people of Zeniff. When King Noah, ruler over the Zeniffites, rejected the prophet Abinadi's message and had him killed, the priest Alma and his followers separated from the rest of the people. Soon thereafter, the Lamanites attacked the people of Zeniff. As they fled from the Lamanites, King Noah commanded them to abandon their families. Instead, they executed Noah and attempted to kill his priests (see Mosiah 17-19). These priests escaped into the wilderness, led by Amulon, one of their number, and later kidnapped some daughters of the Lamanites to be their wives. Angered by the kidnapping and assuming the Zeniffites were guilty, the Lamanites attacked them. Peace was restored when the Lamanites learned who the real kidnappers were (see Mosiah 20).

A Biblical Parallel

This story of the abduction of young Lamanite women is similar to a story in the Bible in which men from the tribe of Benjamin kidnap daughters of Israel at Shiloh. The end of the book of Judges contains three stories about the tribe of Benjamin. In the first, Benjaminites abused and murdered a Levite concubine (see Judges 20). In the second, the other eleven tribes gathered to punish the offenders, and a civil war resulted (see Judges 19). The third story tells of the kidnapping (see Judges 21).

After destroying most of the tribe of Benjamin, the Israelites realized that this tribe was in danger of extinction. To preserve the tribe, the Benjaminites needed wives. But the Israelites had vowed not to allow their daughters to marry the Benjaminites. To get around their vow, they instructed the Benjaminites to kidnap the daughters of the Israelites who lived at Shiloh while the young women danced in the vineyards. As the daughters of Shiloh gathered, the Benjaminites lay hidden. The girls danced, and the Benjaminites stole them to be their wives.

The Stealing of the Daughters of the Lamanites

The similarities between the stories in Mosiah and Judges are complex and carefully stated:

[Judges:]
Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin (Judges 21:19-21).

[Mosiah:]
Now there was a place in Shemlon where the daughters of the Lamanites did gather themselves together to sing, and to dance, and to make themselves merry. And it came to pass that there was one day a small number of them gathered together to sing and to dance (Mosiah 20:1-2).

The Bible clearly mentions the incident as a yearly ritual. The Book of Mormon mentions it as a regular occurrence, not telling us how often ("one day"). In both stories the kidnapped virgins became the wives of the abductors. The record says that the priests of Noah, "being ashamed to return to the city of Nephi, yea, and also fearing that the people would slay them, therefore they durst not return to their wives and their children" (Mosiah 20:3), so they watched the dancers and kidnapped substitute wives. When the narrative returned to the story of Amulon and his fellow priests, the daughters of the Lamanites were then called "their wives" (Mosiah 23:33).

In both stories, the abductors, like peeping toms, waited and watched the spectacle. The Benjaminites lay in wait in the vineyards watching the dancing. The wicked priests also found the place where the girls danced, then "they laid and watched them" (Mosiah 20:4). We know that the priests hid because in the next verse they "came forth out of their secret places" and abducted twenty-four of the dancing maidens. Not only is the watching stressed in both stories, but also the lying in wait. These were not crimes of passion, but ones of premeditation.

The Meaning of Parallels

Some Book of Mormon critics have seen the parallels between the two stories and concluded that Joseph Smith merely copied the story from Judges..........

UD

[_MCB]

Yep, I just found it. blush.

[_Uncle Dale]

Yep, I just found it. blush.

Like the "borrowing" of Paul's conversion, to supply a Book of Mormon story for Alma's conversion,
the "borrowing" of the story in Judges, supplies another account for the Book of Mormon. This sort
of thing occurs throughout the Book of Mormon.

I believe that these instances of borrowings were crafted by Solomon Spalding as
a sort of anti-biblical parody. That is, he was testing his readers to see if they were
gullible enough to accept the borrowed narratives, without realizing (or caring) that
they were re-worked biblical themes.

Could anybody be that stupid? Could anybody accept these blatant plagiarisms of the
KJV Bible as ancient American events?

At least one person is that stupid:

The Book of Mormon story of the stealing of the Lamanite daughters cannot be accounted
for by the simplistic claim that it was just copied from the Bible. The Book of Mormon
makes sophisticated use of the story to make its own point.

Critics of the Book of Mormon believe that the author of the text used the earlier story
from Judges, and I agree.

But unlike them, I believe that the parallel enhances the book and reveals it to be an
ancient document rather than a modern imitation.

The power of ignorance, coupled with fanaticism, never ceases to amaze me.

UD

[_MCB]

Yeah, that is why I am writng this book. sigh

I note another woman has died in Utah, with her husband suspected.

e-mail coming.

I intentionally do not cover all parallels, just to give readers the opportunity to do their own thinking.

[_Uncle Dale]

Have the missing 116 pages ever been referred to as "manuscript lost or found"?

If you do a Google search for "lost manuscript pages," a whole bunch of LDS sources
will turn up --

Not so much for "found manuscript pages."

My theory is that the "Book of Lehi" told a rather different story from what we now read
in 1st Nephi, 2nd Nephi and Jacob.

I think that the story we see there was excerpted from some other spot in Spalding's
"Nephite Record," and is essentially its missing Mulekite migration, etc., dressed up to
provide an opening account for the somewhat changed Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon, prior to that change, I think included two migration stories, and the one
in the "Book of Lehi" concerned the wandering of some of the "ten tribes" of Israel.
When the "Book of Lehi" was lost, Joseph Smith and his associates revamped the
Mulkeite migration story to serve as the book's introduction.

Actually, there never were any Mulekites -- so my using that term here is a bit
confusing. The builders of Zarahemla were the "ten tribes" migrants, whose story
had to be mostly excised from the Book of Mormon, when the Book of Lehi was lost.

Zarahemla is discovered by the Lehites/Nephites -- but in Spalding's original story,
its builders were northern Israelite tribes, not a royal colony headed by a prince of
Judah. Their migration story is missing because the Book of Lehi is missing.

The changed Book of Mormon story thus has no account for a Mulekite migration. The account
that would have served that purpose (had the Zarahemla people been Mulekites)
is the story found beginning in 1st Nephi 1:1. THAT story was originally somewhat
different and came in the Book of Mormon narrative AFTER the lost "Book of Lehi."

Confusing enough?

UD