Lucifer's Lantern

   As we continue on to the next page, we see the world that Smith is building begin to grow. Lehi's role as a parallel to the prophet Jeremiah becomes even more defined. The Book of Mormon, pg 7 ~~~~~The Book of Mormon~~~~~~      "Therefore, I would that ye should know that after the Lord had shewn marvellous things unto my father Lehi, yea, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, behold he went forth among the people and began to prophesy and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard. " (pg 7) ~~~~~The Old Testament ~~~~~~      7 So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord . ( Jeremiah 26:7 ) ~~~~~The Book of Mormon~~~~~~      "And it came to pass that the Jews did mock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their wickedness and their abominations; and he testified that the things which h...

     Let's think back to the idea of re-contextualization. We should expect to find a mash-up of pre-existing events, people, and ideas as we read. We will see themes being pulled from the Bible, removing their original context, and then being inserted into this new narrative.   This is evident as the entire first chapter sets the stage for the rest of the Book of Mormon. Before Joseph Smith can establish a Native American scripture, he first needs to give an explanation as to how a tribe of Israel ended up in the Americas in the first place. Think of it as his method of worldbuilding .      Joseph Smith gives the narrative voice of the story to Nephi, who represents himself as a sort of parallel to Christopher Columbus. This voice will eventually become more clear. However, as Nephi begins to describe the visions of his father, we might not immediately see the American influence.       He begins by placing us in Jerusalem whe...

     As we dive into the First Book of Nephi, I wanted to address my approach to this work for the sake of full transparency.      One of the biggest hurdles I have faced as I have prepared to share my thoughts on the Book of Mormon, is coming up with its presentation. I want to be able to help you see the narrative through a different lens, but I also want to avoid taking things out of context or unintentionally misinterpreting the text.    To my first point, I have determined that the best course of action is to analyze the book using the original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. This is for two reasons.      1. It is the original presentation of the book, there are no verses, and the chapters are the original lengths. It is the exact formatting and style that initially converted thousands of saints.      2. I will not be referring to the Book as scripture. It is going to be presented as a historical fiction ...

     John Leacock’s, The First Book of the American Chronicles of the Times 1774-1775   probably comes as close to a contemporary of the Book of Mormon as I could find. As luck would have it, the first version I read was the 1987  edited version, which gave me a breakdown of the work and the literary methods used from 1774-1775. Title Page of the 1987 reprint .      Here is the introduction:      "The First Book of the American Chronicles of the Times, a parodic satire written as a six-chapter pamphlet series , is clearly one of the most humorous works of  patriot  propaganda to have come out of the events just preceding the Revolutionary War. A conflation of the political events of 1773 and 1774 in a "biblical" narration , the American Chronicles targets both New England and old in a sometimes scurrilous attack on tyranny, militarism, Catholicism, Puritan millennialism, and extremes of all forms. Clearly and consiste...

     It's important to note that biblical influence  in American writing has been around since the puritans first settled the Americas. This trend was particularly evident in works that sought to connect the American experience with the grand narratives of ancient history or biblical prophecy. We may not see direct satire of the Bible like we do in works of psuedo-biblicia, but we see a lot of writings that carry this religious tone.    One significant to serve as an example is Cotton Mather’s " Magnalia Christi Americana : or Ecclesiastical history of New-England, from its first planting in the year 1620. unto the year of Our Lord, 1698. In seven books " (1702).  Title page of Magnalia Christi Americana     Yeah, that's quite the title. And if you're going to judge a book by its cover, this is it. It is dense.  This contains a very detailed, over 800 page, narrative of the Ecclesiastical history of New England.  As such, it carrie...