Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 13: "The Learning of Men Mingled With Scripture"
Chapter Summary:
Nephi sees in vision the church of the devil set up among the Gentiles, the discovery and colonizing of America, the loss of many plain and precious parts of the Bible, the resultant state of gentile apostasy, the restoration of the gospel, the coming forth of latter-day scripture, and the building up of Zion. About 600–592 B.C.
Chapter 13, which continues Nephi's vision, is a lengthy revisioning of basic American history as though it were prophesied centuries prior. Or, if you like, just more of the retro-fitting of history to appear as prophecy that we have seen throughout Nephi's vision. This time we get fragments of verifiable history, such as Christopher Columbus traveling to America. Although, it goes unmentioned that Columbus mistook America for India, and that other groups of people, including Vikings, Mongolians, and even America's name sake (Amerigo Vespucci) all discovered the American continent, and presumably the seed of Nephi's brethren, long before Columbus stumbled on to the scene.
The first several verses introduce a new theme to the Book of Mormon which will be brought up from time to time: the Catholic Church is an abomination and is headed by the devil. This concept is very important to Mormons as the apostasy of the Catholic Church from the “original Christianity” of the first century necessitates a restoration of Christ’s church, and gives way to the idea that the Mormon Church could be that restoration. Clever, no? And all of this was prophesied in an inaccessible book written centuries beforehand on a continent on the other side of the world! How useful!
Verse 9 states: "And also for the praise of the world do they destroy the saints of God, and bring them down into captivity." It is an interesting thought that the Catholic Church would destroy the saints in order to get praise from the world, and it plays nicely into the persecution complex so many believers cling to. I am curious what kind of praise, and from whom, the Catholic Church received during this time. I doubt the Mormon Church would be so bold as to answer my question unambiguously.
Going back to the idea of Columbus coming to America by the grace and direction of god, thereby setting into motion events which would save the seed of Nephi's brethren from god's wrath, verse 13 tells us that other men were similarly led by god to other areas on the open water.
It is not mentioned here, but later in the Book of Mormon some of Nephi's seed leave America in search of additional promised lands, presumably various Polynesian islands. That's right. The Book of Mormon teaches that not only are the Mongolian people (who we now know as Native Americans and who scientists tell us travelled to America via a land bridge connecting Alaska and Russia tens of thousands of years before Nephi and his family allegedly arrived in America) are of Jewish descent, but that Polynesians are Jewish as well! And they are even supposed to have written their own books like the Book of Mormon, which some Mormons are hoping will be discovered soon as they could offer pretty solid support for the veracity of the Book of Mormon, assuming god doesn't take the records up in to heaven before they can be verified by actual experts.
One can only wonder what ancient records Joseph Smith would have "found and translated" had he not been murdered. One can also only wonder why no one in the Mormon Church since Joseph Smith has claimed to have found an ancient record or to have a divine means of translating ancient languages.
One of the common criticisms of Columbus and those who came shortly after him is the decimation they wrought on the Native Americans. So strong is the criticism of intentionally infecting natives with small pox (via blankets used by infected), slaughtering entire tribes, and many other atrocities, that many people have stopped celebrating Columbus Day and instead celebrate a sort of Native American appreciation day. But the Book of Mormon, in its finite wisdom, claims that Columbus was in the right because as terrible and treacherous as the acts of violence may have been, they were done as god's judgment on the seed of Nephi's brethren:
"14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles [Europeans] upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten.
"15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.
"16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them."
In verse 15 we have yet another reference to skin color. White skin is fair and beautiful while dark skin is associated with laziness and filth and abominations.
Just as god helped the Europeans kill off the wicked Native Americans, god also helped them ward off their "mother" nations during the Revolutionary War. And then the coming forth of the bible (funny that it is mentioned in that order). Unfortunately the Book of Mormon description of the bible being written by "a Jew" and coming to the Gentiles by the twelve apostles, and then the formation of the Catholic Church, and their subsequent picking apart of the bible in order to take out "many plain and most precious" things which they don't like, doesn't really jive with anything I have ever heard any historians say about the formation of the bible or the Catholic Church.
We know that the Catholic Church formed long before the committee was assembled to decide which of the various first century documents should be included in their holy book (The New Testament). We know that many of the gospel writers are anonymous at best, and many parts in the gospels either contradict one another, were derived from one another, forged entirely, or inserted years later by overzealous monks. It seems that the over-simplified description of the process in the Book of Mormon got just about everything wrong.
The book claims that the bible and the brass plates are very similar, implying that at least some of the plain and precious things in the bible which were lost would be found in the brass plates, and by extension the Book of Mormon. But, much to the chagrin of seekers of unambiguous and demonstrable truth, it is impossible to verify that any of the proposed "plain and precious" lost truths purported to be re-revealed in the Book of Mormon are original to the bible.
Some think that such verification is possible through newly found ancient writings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in theory if the Book of Mormon contains lost truths from the bible it might be a way to at least support the claim (however, it still wouldn't prove it). But so far all attempts to prove the claim in this way have at best only been accepted by those interested beforehand in it being true. Even Mormon scholars like Stephen Robinson (a foremost expert on ancient writings, including the Dead Sea scrolls, and former professor at Brigham Young University) attest that nothing in the Dead Sea Scrolls has yet been found to support anything in the Book of Mormon in anything like a conclusive way.
Besides, to my recollection, and thus far in the book, nowhere in the Book of Mormon do they explicitly point out any lost "plain and precious" things. No surprise there. Ambiguity is a charlatan's best friend.
The following several verses are mostly platitudes, condemnations of Catholicism, and statements about how awesome America is because god helped the colonists kill a bunch of “savage injuns”.
Verse 39 (I know, this chapter is kind of long) goes back to the notion of other books similar to the bible and Book of Mormon being written and then coming out of obscurity to prove that the twelve apostles told the truth about Jesus. Let's ignore the fact that such books have yet to be discovered (very telling, indeed) and focus on the proposal that should such books come about that they would prove something in the bible. Multiplicity of anecdotal accounts of an extraordinary claim does not prove anything more than showing that multiple people believe the claim. Just as a mountain of bad evidence does not make it good evidence. Evidence is independently good or bad.
All of the arguments I have made about the possible fabrication of the Book of Mormon, the retro-fitted prophecies, etc. could be applied to other similar books coming to the surface. Books do not prove anything. There were many stories about the gods of the Greek pantheon, some of which were written in books, and none of them prove the existence of Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hades, or any other mythical character about whom the stories are based.
Joseph smith clearly intended to write and "discover" more books which he could then point to as corroborating evidence in support of the Book of Mormon--just as he did with the Book of Abraham, the Greek Psalters, the Kinderhook Plates, the transcript of Book of Mormon characters which Joseph's scribe Martin Harris wrote down for verification from Dr. Charles Anthon, and every other instance we have of Joseph Smith claiming to translate an ancient text. Upon scholarly inspection, every instance has shown that Joseph got every bit of every translation utterly and embarrassingly wrong. Every damn time!