What do you think?
Reexploring the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
John W. Welch
118 books16 followersJohn W. Welch is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, where he teaches various courses, including Perspectives on Jewish, Greek, and Roman Law in the New Testament. Since 1991 he has also served as the editor in chief of BYU Studies. He studied history and classical languages at Brigham Young University, Greek philosophy at Oxford, and law at Duke University. As a founder of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, one of the editors for Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of Mormonism, and codirector of the Masada and Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition at BYU, he has published widely on biblical, early Christian, and Latter-day Saint topics.
from http://deseretbook.com/auth/420/John_...
from http://deseretbook.com/auth/420/John_...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2022
This book had many interesting insights to the Book of Mormon. This is the beauty of the Book of Mormon, there is so much to learn from this set of scripture. The chapters are short and to the point. I like that.
September 13, 2026
THE FIRST COLLECTION OF UPDATES FROM F.A.R.M.S.
Editor John Welch wrote in the Introduction to this 1992 collection, “In December 1984, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (F.A.R.M.S.)… issued its first monthly Update… Since that first Update, researchers have written and circulated a steady stream of innovative findings and insights. This book collects all those Updates, together with similar studies from the F.A.R.M.S. newsletter. Encapsulated here is a decade of exciting the fruitful exploration about the Book of Mormon. The Updates are brief, readable reports of new research on the Book of Mormon, aimed at a general audience…
“In many ways the Updates have changed the face of Book of Mormon research. No longer are new scholarly insights into the Book of Mormon held in remote corners of cluttered file cabinets. Approaches taken and discoveries made by Hugh Nibley and others a generation ago have expanded in type and number. Respect for the Book of Mormon has grown because of FARMS research and publications like the Updates… These Updates will interest all people who want to know what’s new in Book of Mormon research…”
An Update notes that the story of Alma’s conversion in Alma 36:22 and 1 Nephi 1 are worded identically: “The impressive thing about these two passages (separated by hundreds of pages) is that they were translated independently by Joseph Smith. It is highly unlikely that Joseph Smith asked Oliver Cowdery to read back to him what he had translated earlier so that he could get the quote exactly the same. If that had happened, Oliver Cowdery would undoubtedly have questioned him and lost faith in the translation.” (Pg. 21-22)
Another Update explains, “The Book of Mormon provides only fragmentary information about the voyage of Lehi’s party from Arabia to America. But external sources help us grasp what might have been involved. If one were to sail across the Indian Ocean and then across the Pacific to Central America (which seems to have been Lehi’s most likely route), what combination of winds, current, times, and distances would make the voyage feasible under the normally prevailing conditions?” (Pg. 53)
An Update reports, “In 1834, Professor Charles Anthon vehemently denied that he told Martin Harris that the Book of Mormon characters resembled Egyptian. A different story, of course, is found in the Pearl of Great Price… Who is telling the truth?… Anthon’s side of the story breaks down in [several] ways, as has long been pointed out. For example, on whether he gave [Martin] Harris a written statement, Anthon’s 1834 letter to Eber D. Howe says that he DID NOT, while his 1841 letter to T.W. Coit says that he DID. On how convincing he had been, Anthon’s 1834 letter says that Harris ‘took his leave,’ but his 1841 letter claims that Harris left with the ‘express declaration’ that he would not mortgage his farm or have anything to do with the printing the golden book. In fact, in light of Harris’s subsequent conduct (which was totally supportive of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon), Harris clearly left Anthon fully satisfied” (Pg. 74)
Another argues, “Although [B.H.] Roberts had an ‘unshaken and unshakable’ faith in the Book of Mormon… he knew that as a debater and researcher he had asked questions that might cause some people to wonder about his views. He spoke to this … issue at October Conference in 1929, saying: ‘...[if] I have caused any of you to doubt my faith in this work, then let this testimony and my indicated life’s work be a correction of it.’ In sum, it seems plain, the evidence … is quite overwhelming. There is no significant evidence… of ‘late-in-life’ doubts.’ Questions, yes; but doubts? This man, who gave 54 years of his life in full-time service to his church and to his God, remained firm and true in his testimony of the antiquity and divinity of the Book of Mormon.” (Pg. 90)
An Update argues, “Joseph Smith repeatedly testified during his lifetime that he translated the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God… [in] the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith is identified as ‘Author and proprietor’… The wording of the [copyright] statute did not require him TO BE the author, but simply to claim ‘the RIGHT whereof… as author.’ … Where he had a choice, he followed the statutory language and called himself BOTH ‘author and proprietor’ … perhaps to prevent any other person… from claiming an assigned copyrightable interest in it as a proprietor.” (Pg. 154-155)
Another explains, “A great deal of effort has gone into trying to correlate the cities and regions mentioned in the Book of Mormon with the geography of the Americas. The most widely accepted attempt currently is the ‘limited geography’ theory most extensively developed by John Sorenson. Some critics have claimed that Sorenson’s theory is incorrect because the lands he ascribes to the Book of Mormon are actually situated along a northwest/southwest axis rather than north/south as described in the Book of Mormon… the Hebrew orientation is shifted 90 degrees from the Egyptian. The Hebrew word for ‘west’ (rear) has the same basic meaning as Egyptian ‘north’ (back of the head)… Thus when Nephi or his descendants wrote in ‘the language of the Egyptians,’ they would conceptualize the ‘land westward’ in terms of the Hebrew word ‘back.’ But in writing the Hebrew ‘land backward’ in Egyptian characters, they would actually be writing the Egyptian word for ‘land northward'… In other words, the conceptual geography of the Hebrew universe must be ‘distorted’ in relation to the Egyptian vocabulary… If this way of translating directions did not bother the Egyptians, it may not have bothered their contemporaries, the Nephites.” (Pg. 183-185)
Another suggests, “The narrow neck of land is an important geographical feature in the Book of Mormon. For many years people have debated whether the narrow neck was the isthmus of Panama, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, or somewhere else. Some have argued that the neck must have been very narrow, because Alma 22:32 says that the distance across the ‘narrow neck’ … was ‘a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite.’ How wide could this distance have been? Recently analyzed information suggests that it could have been quite wide indeed…. The record for the greatest distance traveled on foot in 24 hours was set in 1973 by Ron Bentley… 161 miles… Moreover… we cannot be sure that the measuring point began … AT THE SEA… The journey may have begun some distance inland. Obviously, we do not know how wide the narrow neck was, but these figures show that it would have been a substantial distance. The width of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which is now accepted by many Book of Mormon scholars as the Nephite narrow neck of land, is 120 miles---an acceptable distance for the … journey.” (Pg. 187-188)
Another Update explains ‘wordprint’ studies that tend to refute the notion that the author of the Book of Mormon was someone other than as the book states: “The reports now available… conclude that people who pay attention to wordprint studies can no longer speculate that the Book of Mormon consists of writings by Joseph Smith, Solomon Spaulding, or Oliver Cowdery. Such a notion is now statistically indefensible.” (Pg. 223)
FARMS and their publications will be of great interest to LDS members looking for such ‘apologetic’ materials.
Editor John Welch wrote in the Introduction to this 1992 collection, “In December 1984, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (F.A.R.M.S.)… issued its first monthly Update… Since that first Update, researchers have written and circulated a steady stream of innovative findings and insights. This book collects all those Updates, together with similar studies from the F.A.R.M.S. newsletter. Encapsulated here is a decade of exciting the fruitful exploration about the Book of Mormon. The Updates are brief, readable reports of new research on the Book of Mormon, aimed at a general audience…
“In many ways the Updates have changed the face of Book of Mormon research. No longer are new scholarly insights into the Book of Mormon held in remote corners of cluttered file cabinets. Approaches taken and discoveries made by Hugh Nibley and others a generation ago have expanded in type and number. Respect for the Book of Mormon has grown because of FARMS research and publications like the Updates… These Updates will interest all people who want to know what’s new in Book of Mormon research…”
An Update notes that the story of Alma’s conversion in Alma 36:22 and 1 Nephi 1 are worded identically: “The impressive thing about these two passages (separated by hundreds of pages) is that they were translated independently by Joseph Smith. It is highly unlikely that Joseph Smith asked Oliver Cowdery to read back to him what he had translated earlier so that he could get the quote exactly the same. If that had happened, Oliver Cowdery would undoubtedly have questioned him and lost faith in the translation.” (Pg. 21-22)
Another Update explains, “The Book of Mormon provides only fragmentary information about the voyage of Lehi’s party from Arabia to America. But external sources help us grasp what might have been involved. If one were to sail across the Indian Ocean and then across the Pacific to Central America (which seems to have been Lehi’s most likely route), what combination of winds, current, times, and distances would make the voyage feasible under the normally prevailing conditions?” (Pg. 53)
An Update reports, “In 1834, Professor Charles Anthon vehemently denied that he told Martin Harris that the Book of Mormon characters resembled Egyptian. A different story, of course, is found in the Pearl of Great Price… Who is telling the truth?… Anthon’s side of the story breaks down in [several] ways, as has long been pointed out. For example, on whether he gave [Martin] Harris a written statement, Anthon’s 1834 letter to Eber D. Howe says that he DID NOT, while his 1841 letter to T.W. Coit says that he DID. On how convincing he had been, Anthon’s 1834 letter says that Harris ‘took his leave,’ but his 1841 letter claims that Harris left with the ‘express declaration’ that he would not mortgage his farm or have anything to do with the printing the golden book. In fact, in light of Harris’s subsequent conduct (which was totally supportive of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon), Harris clearly left Anthon fully satisfied” (Pg. 74)
Another argues, “Although [B.H.] Roberts had an ‘unshaken and unshakable’ faith in the Book of Mormon… he knew that as a debater and researcher he had asked questions that might cause some people to wonder about his views. He spoke to this … issue at October Conference in 1929, saying: ‘...[if] I have caused any of you to doubt my faith in this work, then let this testimony and my indicated life’s work be a correction of it.’ In sum, it seems plain, the evidence … is quite overwhelming. There is no significant evidence… of ‘late-in-life’ doubts.’ Questions, yes; but doubts? This man, who gave 54 years of his life in full-time service to his church and to his God, remained firm and true in his testimony of the antiquity and divinity of the Book of Mormon.” (Pg. 90)
An Update argues, “Joseph Smith repeatedly testified during his lifetime that he translated the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God… [in] the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith is identified as ‘Author and proprietor’… The wording of the [copyright] statute did not require him TO BE the author, but simply to claim ‘the RIGHT whereof… as author.’ … Where he had a choice, he followed the statutory language and called himself BOTH ‘author and proprietor’ … perhaps to prevent any other person… from claiming an assigned copyrightable interest in it as a proprietor.” (Pg. 154-155)
Another explains, “A great deal of effort has gone into trying to correlate the cities and regions mentioned in the Book of Mormon with the geography of the Americas. The most widely accepted attempt currently is the ‘limited geography’ theory most extensively developed by John Sorenson. Some critics have claimed that Sorenson’s theory is incorrect because the lands he ascribes to the Book of Mormon are actually situated along a northwest/southwest axis rather than north/south as described in the Book of Mormon… the Hebrew orientation is shifted 90 degrees from the Egyptian. The Hebrew word for ‘west’ (rear) has the same basic meaning as Egyptian ‘north’ (back of the head)… Thus when Nephi or his descendants wrote in ‘the language of the Egyptians,’ they would conceptualize the ‘land westward’ in terms of the Hebrew word ‘back.’ But in writing the Hebrew ‘land backward’ in Egyptian characters, they would actually be writing the Egyptian word for ‘land northward'… In other words, the conceptual geography of the Hebrew universe must be ‘distorted’ in relation to the Egyptian vocabulary… If this way of translating directions did not bother the Egyptians, it may not have bothered their contemporaries, the Nephites.” (Pg. 183-185)
Another suggests, “The narrow neck of land is an important geographical feature in the Book of Mormon. For many years people have debated whether the narrow neck was the isthmus of Panama, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, or somewhere else. Some have argued that the neck must have been very narrow, because Alma 22:32 says that the distance across the ‘narrow neck’ … was ‘a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite.’ How wide could this distance have been? Recently analyzed information suggests that it could have been quite wide indeed…. The record for the greatest distance traveled on foot in 24 hours was set in 1973 by Ron Bentley… 161 miles… Moreover… we cannot be sure that the measuring point began … AT THE SEA… The journey may have begun some distance inland. Obviously, we do not know how wide the narrow neck was, but these figures show that it would have been a substantial distance. The width of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which is now accepted by many Book of Mormon scholars as the Nephite narrow neck of land, is 120 miles---an acceptable distance for the … journey.” (Pg. 187-188)
Another Update explains ‘wordprint’ studies that tend to refute the notion that the author of the Book of Mormon was someone other than as the book states: “The reports now available… conclude that people who pay attention to wordprint studies can no longer speculate that the Book of Mormon consists of writings by Joseph Smith, Solomon Spaulding, or Oliver Cowdery. Such a notion is now statistically indefensible.” (Pg. 223)
FARMS and their publications will be of great interest to LDS members looking for such ‘apologetic’ materials.
July 20, 2020
Published in 1992, this book summarizes the first ten years of research since the F.A.R.M.S. was founded by John Welch (now called Maxwell Research Institute). Generally, quite technical but all research highlights the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Horses, barley, Semitic languages similarities to some Indian languages, and many other topics. I liked this book summary. I would like to see a book that summarizes research in the last 20 years.
May 29, 2018
A hodge-podge, consisting of findings and parallels, plus a surprisingly large numbers of questions asked, with hopes of future answers. Worthwhile for the occasional insight, but not crucial by any means.
March 12, 2010
Some pretty indepth scholarly material. It is a followup after 10 years of a book called Exploring the Book of Mormon. A lot of material you will not find elsewhere. (Happy me birtday)
November 6, 2011
A fabulous book for those who want scientific or other approaches to this amazing book of scripture!
July 5, 2023
Essays.
October 10, 2010
Not as good as class with John Welch, but pretty amazing.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews