“The major writings of the Book of Mormon
are introduced and concluded by ‘colophons,’ which have the purpose of
acquainting the reader with the … authorship of the material. Such colophons are found [in] Jarom 1:1-2,
Omni 1:1, 3-4; Words of Mormon 1:9 [and elsewhere]…. This [affirming] of one’s
reliability is a [feature] of any properly composed Egyptian autobiography of
Nephi’s time. . . .
“Strictly speaking, the Book of Mormon is
the history of a group of sectaries preoccupied with their own religious
affairs, who only notice the presence of other groups when such have reason to
mingle with them or collide with them.… [T]he idea of other migrations to the
New World is taken so completely for granted that the story of the Mulekites is
dismissed in a few verses (Omni 1:14-17). . . .
“In Israel the transmission of the sacred
records went hand in hand with the transmission of the crown [just as we find] in the Book of Mormon ([see, for example] Omni 1:11, 19-20).”
(From Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah.)
No comments:
Post a Comment