Abstract
Latter-day Saints (Mormons) claim that the Book of Mormon is the scriptural history of three ancient peoples who travelled from the Near East to the New World, one at the time of the Tower of Babel and the other two around 600 BCE. One of these groups, who, according to this tradition immigrated from Jerusalem across the Arabian Peninsual and then by ship to the coast of the Americas, carried with them the Old Testament from Genesis to Isaiah. This paper examines the validity of this religious mythology and considers evidence of the Book of Mormon’s claim as an ancient sacred text with both Old and New World elements. Topics include chiasmus, parallisms, Hebraisms, Egyptian elements, linguistics, poetics, and stylistics. Consideration includes computer textual analysis.
Presenters
Robert ReesVisiting Professor and Director of Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies, Graduate Education, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Traveling Texts: From Traditions to Religions
KEYWORDS
Text, Mormon, Latter-day Saint, Ancient, Hebraisms, Old World, New World
