Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 17: "Brotherhood of the Traveling Jews"
Chapter Summary:
Nephi is commanded to build a ship--His brethren oppose him--He exhorts them by recounting the history of God’s dealings with Israel--Nephi is filled with the power of God--His brethren are forbidden to touch him, lest they wither as a dried reed. About 592–591 B.C.
The merry band of traveling Jews continue to wander around in a generally eastward direction, presumably via magic 8-ball.
Verse 2 offers an odd and possibly misogynistic description of their women: "...while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings."
There you have it; women who eat raw meat will become strong like men, produce lots of milk for babies to drink, and they will complain less. And if this were The Lord of the Rings they would have grown beards and become indistinguishable from dwarven men. Eat up, ladies!
That’s quite enough of Joseph Smith's wishful thinking and female preferences.
I don't know much about vagabonds in the Middle East around 600 BCE, but I don't understand why they had to eat raw meat. They were traveling around the wilderness of Yemen, which I understand to be mostly arid desert. It seems to me that if they were unable to find supplies to make fire then they would probably also be unable to find animals large enough to feed the 50 or so people in their group.
It seems to me that Joseph is trying to draw parallels to the bible to further borrow upon its authority (for Christians), without explicitly spelling it out or directly copying miraculous circumstances. This would make it too easy to point out the plagiarism, after all.
The eating of raw meat, I assume, is a parallel to the story of the Exodus where the Israelites ate mana which had fallen from heaven. In both instances, a group of Jews is ordered by god to wander around the desert for several years. To survive the harsh conditions, god provides them with a miraculous means to obtain food (so long as no one complains about the harsh conditions which were also provided by god).
There is, in fact, another parallel between the Exoduses of the two groups: we have no archaeological evidence that either of the two migrations occurred. None.
After wandering for eight years, Lehi and his family find a wonderful land of fruit and honey. It is not specified whether the women, now able to eat food other than raw meat, became weak and whiney like regular women once again. It is in this land of plenty that we have another magical parallel to a famous and totally legit bible story: god commands Nephi to build a giant boat.
Interestingly, Nephi asks god how he should go about building the boat (smelting metal, using bellows and other primitive tools and techniques, etc.) and then Nephi strikes two stones together to make a fire. Why didn't he do this when they were eating raw meat?
Some Mormon apologists speculate that Nephi did not want the smoke to be detected by Laban's guards. If you recall from Chapter 4, the voice inside Nephi's head told him to kill Laban so he could steal the brass plates. If Laban was as powerful and influential as suggested in the Book of Mormon, surely someone would look for his murderers. Maybe this was the case, but it seems like a stretch to me and an attempt to force the pieces to fit.
If they were really in danger of detection from guards who worked for a man they had killed years earlier, why did they spend so much time camped close enough to go back to Jerusalem multiple times and take eight years to get where they needed to safely build a giant boat with which to escape to America? If they were in imminent danger, they should have had a greater urgency to escape.
Besides, if god was protecting them and coming up with miraculous ways to keep them alive, then he could have just as easily kept the guards at bay. That's the thing about omniscience--danger is not really danger, but a facade put on by choice. This was all god's choice. He chose to have the story play out this way. So why does it seem so deliberately and clumsily constructed?
True to form, Laman and Lemuel murmur against Nephi for trying to build a boat. Nephi explains that they do this for two reasons: First, they don't want to help him build the boat (aka: they are lazy); Second, they don't believe god told Nephi to build a boat. Why is the first reason mentioned? If they don't believe god told Nephi to build a boat, obviously they would not want to help build it. This seems to be at once redundant and yet another attempt by Joseph to have it both ways with Laman and Lemuel.
They believe, and then don't believe. They see an angel and then murmur. They see the magic 8-ball work based on faith and that their meat can be eaten raw and then want to kill Nephi and return to Jerusalem. They ask Nephi the meaning of Lehi's dream and humble themselves and accept everything Nephi says, and then they question whether god told him to build a boat. Laman and Lemuel flip-flop more than Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. I can't take them seriously and I certainly can't believe they were real people.
Nephi explains away their wishy-washy behavior as "hardening their hearts" or being spiritually stubborn so as to not be receptive to god talking to them. They believe, but occasionally are in denial.
As an unbeliever, myself, I find this to be an over simplification of the issue. I am not suppressing a belief in god. I genuinely do not believe in god because I have seen no compelling evidence of his existence. I have not had even one spiritual experience comparable to any of the proposed spiritually confirming experiences of Laman and Lemuel. I do not know any one personally who even claims to have had experiences like theirs--not even the most devout Mormons I know.
And none of this addresses the fact that if the Mormon god exists, he chose this version of this universe before he created us and knew in advance everyone that would make to heaven and everyone who would not. And he deliberately chose to create those whom he knew would not make it to heaven, thereby guaranteeing their eternal punishment. He could have created a universe where I believe in his existence, and he knows what it would take to convince me of his existence right now. Yet, he chooses not to. Therefore, god made me an atheist.
Nephi confirms that nothing is done without it being god's will after he draws the same parallels between the Exodus and their plight that I did: "...according to his word he did destroy them; and according to his word he did lead them; and according to his word he did do all things for them; and there was not anything done save it were by his word."
Continuing to bolster god (which seems silly; Why does omnipotence need bolstering?), Nephi defends various atrocities described in the bible and attributed to god as being justified. God made us; he can destroy us. We are unworthy and fail so often that we deserve whatever calamities god hurls at us. Such primitive self-loathing for humanity's sake is unbecoming of a modern, thinking and self-respecting person. Thinking in this way was a crutch for ignorant men to explain natural catastrophes at a time when natural scientific explanations were unavailable:
Why does the earth quake? We have sinned against god.
Why do storms rage and lightning burn our crops? God is angry with us.
Why do we lose our wars and battles? God has abandoned us.
This is tribalism at its most basic: Our god can beat up your god.
Nephi continues rebuking Laman and Lemuel and when they try to lay hands on him he tells them: "In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh; and whoso shall lay his hands upon me shall wither even as a dried reed; and he shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite him."
Understandably, Mormons love this verse, and I will admit it is powerful, but not because of anything supernatural. It is commanding in a way that a great line from a movie or play grabs you and draws you into the story. And if the Book of Mormon stopped at that, as entertainment only, I would have no problem with it. The claims of historicity and divine authenticity are what scowl my brow.
Taken aback by Nephi's posturing, Laman and Lemuel avoid Nephi for several days for fear that something might happen to them. Then god tells Nephi to stretch out his hand and shocks Laman and Lemuel. After this incredible and completely untestable occurrence, Laman and Lemuel pronounce: "We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee, for we know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken us."
No explanation is given as to how they know of a surety that it was the power of god that shocked them. They just assert this to be the case. And in true Mormon fashion, Nephi accepts their confession at face value, without any verification of how they know anything supernatural of a surety, just as he has done every other time they have made similar admissions of faith. And just like every other time they have repented and humbled themselves, in coming chapters they will fall away and become super-duper wicked.