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Chapter 1: "My Three Sons"

 

Chapter Summary:

King Benjamin teaches his sons the language and prophecies of their fathers--Their religion and civilization have been preserved because of the records kept on the various plates--Mosiah is chosen as king and is given custody of the records and other things. About 130–124 B.C.

 

 

 

 

 

For all the bolstering of King Benjamin as a war hero, and the keeper of the plates, he sure didn't write a lot. In fact, he doesn't seem to have written anything.

 

It is unclear to me who the author of the book of Mosiah is. I assume it is Mormon, since he wrote the previous chapter. This makes me wonder if the "Words of Mormon" was originally intended to be an introduction to Mosiah, rather than a separate book, as it stands now.

 

This is consistent with the fact that the current format of the Book of Mormon (chapters, books, summaries, verses, etc.) was added after the book's first publishing. Joseph wrote it in novel form. As I understand it, the current layout of the book was implemented as an effort to make it similar to the format of the King James Bible (the source for much of the Book of Mormon). The motives for this change, to me, are suspect...

 

This is a minor point, however, as it doesn't really matter who Joseph claims to be the author. There is a much more pressing issue towering over this bit of confusion: Did Joseph Smith really have gold plates containing an ancient record? Unfortunately for those who wish that people like myself would accept that he did, no evidence exists and the issue will not be resolved in this chapter. Pity.

 

According to the author, probably Mormon, King Benjamin was successful in keeping peace and "there was no more contention in all the land of Zarahemla." This most impressive feat should be worth explaining further, but it is not. How is it that such a successful model of government is not dissected and analyzed thoroughly for the benefit of future readers? All we are told about Benjamin's successful reign is that he drove out the Lamanites by force and that presumably the Nephites all believed the same religion. This is insultingly vague.

 

As Mormon describes Benjamin's three sons, "and he called their names Mosiah, and Helorum, and Helaman," and his very specific words of fatherly advice for them, it occurs to me how odd this is. The various authors of the Book of Mormon repeatedly mention that the writing process for the plates is very time-consuming and cumbersome. For this reason, the plates were written in "Reformed Egyptian," which appears to be about as authentic a language as the made-up Star Trek language "Klingon," with one very important difference: people actually speak "Klingon."

 

According to the Book of Mormon, Reformed Egyptian is very concise and uses less space than Hebrew, but is limited in its descriptive and poetic capabilities. How an alphabetized version of a picture-based language could use less space than a language which was written without spacing, punctuation or vowels is beyond me (itwouldbelikereadingasentencelikethis).

 

Furthermore, the only sample of Book of Mormon text still in existence (a scrap of paper with some of the characters scribbled on it, the authenticity of which Martin Harris hoped to verify with Dr. Charles Anthon) has been analyzed by today's linguistic scholars and Egyptologists, who seem to all agree (a rare thing in academia) that it is gibberish. If the language used in the Book of Mormon has any ties with ancient Egyptian, as claimed, shouldn't modern scholars be able to point to the similarities? Yet, they do not.

 

It should be noted that at the time Joseph claimed to have the plates, Egyptian was a lost language, and no one could understand it. Convenient, eh?

 

The reason I bring this up is that in several places in the Book of Mormon, including a speech offered by Benjamin in the coming chapters, the lengthy words of various people are given with great detail. How is this possible with a space-saving language? Wouldn't the saving of space on the page result in some of the meaning being lost, or, at the very least, parts of the message being skipped or abbreviated? Yet, several speeches and blessings and visions in the Book of Mormon are conveyed in their entirety with incredible specificity.

 

This raises another question, how did they record these speeches? They didn't have recording devices, which means that either the person delivering the speech wrote it down later, or there was a scribe recording the message in real-time. Either way, some of the meaning would be lost, and the speeches recorded would be a paraphrase of the actual speech.

 

The fact that so many speeches are recorded with such detail and length causes me to suspect that Joseph was more concerned with writing a compelling message than translating an ancient record. In other words, this level of specificity is more conducive with religious charlatanry than an authentic ancient record. Not even the bible uses the kind of verbose, flowery language in the Book of Mormon. Frankly, when compared to other ancient writings, most speeches in the book sound like modern sermons.

 

Benjamin admonishes his sons to be faithful, and he reminds them that the brass plates (written in Egyptian) contain the commandments of god and explain god's mysteries. This is a reiteration of the importance of scripture, which comes across as a self-serving assertion.

 

In a strange way, Benjamin inadvertently cheapens the Book of Mormon, which modern readers are expected to take on faith:

 

"6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes."

 

Benjamin means to say that because his sons have the physical plates of Nephi--not a copy of a translation--they can know for a fact that the record is true. This level of evidence is rarely advocated in scripture, due to the elusive faith-based belief expected of adherents today. Although, I'm sure that if a religion had access to any original scriptural records, they would flaunt it to no end. That is, until someone points out that original records can still be exaggerated or even wrong.

 

This is the problem with scripture: even if it is accurate, it still needs to be verified by evidence before it should be believed. In and of itself, scripture is not evidence for supernatural claims.

 

At best, if one could verify that a source is original, one could only go as far as demonstrating that people believed these things--not that they are true. This is the same problem Christians have when claiming that the writings of the first-century historian, Josephus, confirm Jesus' existence and miracles and the whole New Testament. All Josephus can confirm is that people believed in Christianity--not that Christianity is true.

 

Benjamin notices that he is aging and will likely die soon. He tells his son, Mosiah, that the people should be gathered so he can confirm Mosiah as the new ruler. Benjamin also promises to bestow Mosiah with "the plates of brass; and also the plates of Nephi; and also, the sword of Laban, and the ball or director, which led our fathers through the wilderness." Quite the trove of treasures. These items will continue to be passed down for generations until Mormon's son, Moroni, buries them, and then, centuries in the future, directs Joseph Smith to them.

 

Oh yes! Treasure hunting extraordinaire (and convicted fraud), Joseph Smith, did not just claim to find a life-changing ancient record of Jewish Native Americans written on gold plates; with it, he also found a fancy steel sword, the brass plates (not yet translated, but supposedly the original bible), a magic 8-ball compass, and magic seer stones set in a gold breastplate (not mentioned in this verse). Unfortunately for Ol' Joe, Moroni took these items away when he took the gold plates to heaven, so no one can verify that Joseph ever had them. Oh, but what a treasure it must have been! 

 

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