Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 5: "The Great Schism"
Chapter Summary:
The Nephites separate themselves from the Lamanites, keep the law of Moses, and build a temple--Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cut off from the presence of the Lord, are cursed, and become a scourge unto the Nephites. About 588–559 B.C.
Laman and Lemuel become increasingly angry with Nephi, who keeps insisting that he should be in charge of the whole group. Laman and Lemuel attempt to kill Nephi, but Nephi is warned by god (who else?) and takes his family, along with several others, in to the wilderness. I thought they were already in the wilderness. Finally the great schism between the Lamanites and the Nephites takes place with essentially a bolt in the night.
Nephi's crew wanders for a few days and settles in a new land which they call "Nephi." Naming places and groups of people in this fashion is a common trend in the Book of Mormon. Get used to it.
They build a society around agriculture and farming, and they follow all the rules of the Law of Moses as outlined in the brass plates (which makes me wonder why Lehi never killed his unruly and apostate sons, Laman and Lemuel, as the Law of Moses commands). Nephi makes a bunch of swords after the sword of Laban, the guy Nephi decapitated. This is the first mention of swords in pre-Colombian America in the book, which outright contradicts the historical record of America at this time. Natives used clubs made of wood, stone and bone--not metal swords.
Nephi describes the land as having plenty of precious ores and he teaches his people to work with copper, brass, silver, gold, iron and steel, "which were in great abundance". Again, this contradicts what we know about ancient America. Some Native Americans worked in small quantities with copper and silver, but certainly not iron or steel.
This is a fact which Mormon apologists wrestle with, some times calling it a mistranslation (which makes no sense if Joseph Smith translated the book word for word through the inspiration of god), or that we have not yet found the iron and steel artifacts because god wants us to believe the Book of Mormon on faith, rather than reason. Right. And god made the geological record appear as though the earth is millions of years old and DNA evidence indicates that humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees because god wants us to believe literally the Genesis account of creation based on faith. Our god is a trickster god.
Solomon's temple is described in the bible as being massive (several stories tall, covering the top of a mountain) and filled with valuables--a feat on par with the pyramids of ancient Egypt, taking several years for hundreds of slaves to complete. Nephi's group attempts to build a replica of Solomon's temple almost immediately. This is problematic for a few reasons. First, Nephi's group is still rather small, at most 100 people, including children too young to help. How would they be able to build such a great and spacious building--or anything close to it--with so few workers?
Second, verse 15 describes all the plentiful precious ores and metals Nephi worked with. Why, then, does the very next verse say they did not include these valuables in their temple because they were in short supply? "I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land". Well, which is it, Nephi? Were precious ores "in abundance" or were they "not to be found upon the land"
Third, why would they need a replica of the largest and most expensive temple in ancient Jewish culture? A budding civilization like theirs would probably benefit just as much from a tent-temple (or a rock) and their resources could be spent on things like, oh, I don't know, FOOD!
The people of Nephi decide they want Nephi to be their king, which sounds like exactly the sort of thing Nephi wanted, what with the bossing around of his brothers and all. Nephi reluctantly accepts after saying that he does not want his people to have a king, but who is he to decline their request? So modest. So humble.
There are various passages in the Book of Mormon which sound kind of racist. Mormon apologists, true to form, have their ad hoc explanations. I generally don't like copying and pasting blocks of verses in my posts, as it usually detracts from the finer points I wish to discuss. But these verses, which describe a cursing upon the Lamanites similar to the curse of Cain, are so blatantly racist that I feel compelled to cite them in their entirety. How else would you, dear reader, believe that such racist ideas are contained in the Mormon holy book?
"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."
"And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities."
"And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done."
"And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey."
"And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction." [emphasis added]
You read that right. God made the Lamanites dark skinned so that Nephi's white children would not be tempted to marry them. A more racist idea I have not read in a "holy" text.
So, how do apologists handle this? They say that Nephi is referring to the demeanor and spirituality of the Lamanites, rather than their physical skin. In fact, the Mormon church has changed the words in some of the more damning verses to make them more palatable to progressive modern people. Yup. Mormons have edited god's most correct and divinely inspired and translated book, thereby changing the meaning and context of the text, for the sake of improving public relations. Too bad god didn't see that coming. These verses, however, have not been doctored (yet) and are just as racist and bigoted as Joseph Smith intended.
Nephi ends the chapter by referring again to the other plates and tells us to read them in order to understand more of the history of the Nephites. Ok. Where are they? I would love to read the historical record of the Nephites. Lemme at 'em!