We are still dealing with Hamer's claim that:
"The Book of Mormon is far simpler than it first appears".
We will consider another argument he uses to back up that claim:
"Although
the text includes many characters and places, the author
only had to have a few
of each in his mind at any given time as
he tells individual stories"
If I
understand his argument correctly, Hamer is saying that it really doesn’t
matter that there are 200 personal names, 100 geographical names and other
intricate details in the Book of Mormon, because the text only uses a few of
them at a time and the stories are disjointed in a way that the author can
forget about these details after one story is finished.
I have
previously created a document listing examples of internal consistency in the
Book of Mormon where we see one part of the text referring to another. If what
John Hamer is saying is true, then we wouldn’t expect these references to be
very far apart and primarily be kept within a single story. To test this, let us
go to a certain point in Joseph Smith’s dictation and see what he needs to
remember at this point to provide a consistent text. I.e. what details are included in the text before this snapshot in Joseph's dictation that are in onw way or another referred to at some later poin and needs remembering. For this purpose, we assume that Joseph Smith has just finished dictating Alma 54 and is about to start dictating Alma 55.
At the end
of Alma 54 we are in the middle of a long war between the Nephites and
Lamanites, initiated by Nephite dissenters. At this point in the dictation,
Joseph Smith needs to remember names and details which have been introduced
prior to chapter 55 and will be referenced from chapter 55 and on. This
includes:
·
The
Nephite chief captain is Moroni
·
Helaman
is the ecclesiastical leader, but in these times of war has also taken command
over an army in another part of the land
·
Two
other Nephite captains in this war are Lehi and Teancum
·
The
Lamanite chief captain is Ammaron
·
The
former chief captain and Ammaron’s brother was Amalickiah. He died in chapter
51 but must still be remembered because he is referred to later, in Alma 62:35.
·
The
chief judge is Pahoran. He was introduced in chapter 50 but must be kept in
mind as he returns to the narrative at the end of the war in Alma.
Although
these are strange and unusual names for someone in 19th century New
York, you could argue that remembering these few names and details is
manageable even without notes. This is probably what John Hamer has in mind
when he says: “Although the text includes many characters and places, the
author only had to have a few of each in his mind at any given time as he tells
individual stories”. But to the observant reader, there is more details to this
story that Joseph Smith must keep in mind. He needs to remember the following:
·
Alma
51:26 lists several cities which the Lamanites conquer. Since the recapturing
of all of these except for one are described specifically later in the text,
Joseph Smith must remember which those are. For instance, Alma 55 describes the
recapturing of Gid and preparations to recapture Morianton, both cities listed
in Alma 51:26.
·
It
is not enough to remember Helaman and the 2000 stripling warriors. The
background is given in Alma 53:13-15 (Helaman fearing for the souls of the
people of Ammon as they almost break their covenant and their sons stepping up
to the challenge because they have not covenanted). These details must also be
remembered because they are repeated in the letter from Helaman to Moroni in
Alma 56:7-8.
·
In
Alma 51:24, when the Lamanites conquer the land of Moroni, they flee to the
city of Nephihah and the people in the city of Lehi also gather there. This
detail must be remembered, including the names of the cities involved because
Alma 59:5 reminds the reader that the people in Nephihah are gathered from
Moroni and Lehi.
·
In
Alma 51:19, the king-men (Amalickiah’s followers) are “taken and cast into
prison”. These dissenters are the reason for the war in the first place. But
they are not brought up again until Alma 62:9, which contains a very subtle
reference to the “king-men who had been taken and cast into prison” even
though the war is over.
·
In
Alma 50:34, the land Desolation is located in the north by the narrow pass.
This is something the author must keep in mind because it is consistent with
Alma 63:5 and Mormon 3:5.
·
Alma
22:27 and Alma 17:1 indicates that Manti is close to Zarahemla. This is also
the case when Joseph Smith later dictates Alma 58.
·
In
Alma 45:21, after the previous war, Helaman proclaimed the word of God because
it was expedient “that a regulation whould be made throughout the church.” In
Alma 62:44, after this next period of war, Helaman proclaimed the word of God
because “it had become expedient that a regulation should be made again
in the church.” The “again” in Alma 62:44 clearly refers to Alma 45:21.
These are
all details related to the ongoing war in Alma 54 that the casual reader might
miss but that Joseph Smith needs to remember while trying to dictate a coherent
text with his face in a hat. I don’t think this is a trivial task at all. By
the time he gets to the chapters referring to previous details, he has already
introduced new details which need remembering. The stories are intertwined, not
disjointed. For instance, chapters 56-58 contain an epistle by Helaman in the
southwestern part of the land before we return to Moroni and his men in the
eastern parts again. In the letter, several cities that the Lamanites conquer
are listed in Alma 56:14 and the recapturing described later for some of them,
which means those city names must be remembered too and cannot be mixed up with
the cities in the eastern parts. In addition, new people like Antipus, Gid and
Teomner are introduced.
Even though
this is already getting complex, there is much more. There is still a list of
things Joseph Smith has dictated prior to this war, but still need to be remembered
because they are referred to at some later point. The list is based on the
assumed order of Joseph Smith’s dictation after the loss of the 116 pages,
where he started from Mosiah, dictated to the end of Moroni and then 1st
nephi to Words of Mormon.
·
Mosiah
1:10: “the people of Mosiah”. This refers to Mosiah I, who we learn about in
Omni 1:12-19. (Note the same reference to “the people of Mosiah” in Omni 1:17).
But Omni had not been dictated yet. This means that Mosiah I and his people
were briefly referred to in the beginning of the dictation and then described
in more detail at the very end of the dictation.
·
Mosiah
25:2: Mulek is mentioned for the first time. There is no mention of him again
until a reference later in Helaman 6:10
·
Mosiah
28:19: “And this account shall be written hereafter”. Refers to the account of
the Jaredites which is not given until the Book of Ether.
·
Mosiah
29:46: “making in the whole, five hundred and nine years from the time Lehi
left Jerusalem.” This is the start of the reign of the judges. But this little
detail must be remembered because it is needed for 3rd Nephi 1:1 to
add up: “Now it came to pass that the ninety and first year [since the start of
the reign of the judges] had passed away and it was six hundred years
from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem”. 509+91=600, which is also consistent
with the 600-year prophecy given later when Joseph Smith dictated 1st
Nephi 10:4.
·
Alma
3:6 talks about Nephi, Sam, Jacob and Joseph, the righteous sons of Lehi. Only
Nephi is mentioned again in the rest of the BoM. Keep in mind that Joseph Smith
started dictating from Mosiah. When Sam, Jacob and Joseph are introduced later
in 1st Nephi, their names had been mentioned only once, more than
100 chapters ago, and had to match.
·
Alma
6:7 indicates that the cities of Zarahemla and Gideon are close to each other.
Joseph Smith must remember this when he later dictates Alma 61:5 and Helaman
13:12-15.
·
Alma
33:15: The prophet Zenock is mentioned for the first time in the dictation. He
must be ‘remembered’ at Helaman 8:20, which is the second time he is mentioned.
·
Alma
37:21: Alma is talking about the 24 plates that Limhi’s people found. This
detail must be remembered later in Ether 1:2, because another reference is made
to the number of plates there
·
Helaman
5:9 refers to something specific that King Benjamin said in Mosiah 3:17
·
Helaman
5:10 refers to something that occurred many chapters earlier in Alma 11:34. If
Joseph Smith is inventing this, he must remember the names of those involved
(Amulek and Zeezrom), where it occurred (the city of Ammonihah) and what was
said (Christ would not save his people in their sins)
·
Helaman
5:21: “even in that same prison in which Ammon and his brethren were cast by
the servants of Limhi”. This refers to an event in Mosiah 7.
·
Helaman
6:25: Mormon comments on one of Alma’s specific commandments to his son. This
is a reference to Alma 37:21-29.
·
Helaman
14:12 contains a word for word quote of King Benjamin by Samuel the Lamanite: “Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth,
the Creator of all things from the beginning” is the exact same
wording as in Mosiah 3:8
·
3.Nephi
5:12 is referring to the land of Mormon, which has not been mentioned since
Alma 21:1. We are used to this name of course, but at this point in the
dictation, there has not been one instance of the personal name, Mormon yet. In
this verse, Mormon who abridges the records, introduces himself for the first
time and makes a reference to the land of Mormon by saying he is named after
it.
·
3.Nephi
12:26: The English translation of the corresponding verse in Matthew 5:26
(Sermon on the Mount) is usually using penny, farthing or similar depending on
the translation. In this verse, Jesus is using the Nephite currency, senine.
This was introduced in Alma 11 and has only been used once since then, in Alma
30:33. As explained in Alma 11, a senine is the lowest value (smallest piece of
gold) and it therefore makes sense as a Nephite substitute for “penny”.
·
Ether
1:3: The first part of the Jaredite record contains the creation account and
the history from Adam to the tower of Babel. This detail was also described in
Mosiah 28:17
·
Ether
12:13-17 refers to several previous people and events in the Book of Mormon,
several of them prior to Alma 55 (the point in Joseph Smith dictation which is
our starting point for this list)
·
Ether
15:33 talks about the people of Limhi finding the Jaredite records. This detail
is found in Mosiah, but has not been mentioned since Mosiah 28:11
·
1.Nephi
1:8: Lehi sees “God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless
concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God”. Notice
the exact same wording in Alma 36:22 when Alma says he saw the same as Lehi.
Alma is of course the one referring to Lehi, but Joseph Smith first dictates
the reference, then the original event that is referred to.
·
1.Nephi
4:35: Here we are introduced to Zoram. However, in the process of Joseph
Smith’s dictation, this same Zoram has already been mentioned once in Alma 54:23.
Hence, just like Nephi’s brothers, Zoram and the story of him coming
along with Nephi out of Jerusalem must have been known about before Joseph Smith
dictated this part.
·
1.Nephi
16:10: This is where Lehi finds Liahona outside his tent. Following Joseph
Smith’s order of dictation, however, a reference to Liahona has already been
made in Alma 37. Consequently, Joseph Smith dictates the Liahona story long
after a reference to it.
·
1.Nephi
19:10-12: Nephi is quoting and paraphrasing the prophesies of Zenos about the
natural disasters and darkness at the time of Christ’s crucifixion. This is
consistent with 3.Nephi 10:14-16, which states that Zenos and Zenock in
particular “spake concerning these things”.
·
Omni
1:28-30: This describes two groups from Zarahemla going to the land of Nephi.
The first group was unsuccessful and returned to Zarahemla. As for the other
group, nothing was heard of them again in that generation from the perspective
of someone living in Zarahemla, like Amaleki. This is consistent with the
information we get in Mosiah 9, where we can read a more detailed account.
·
Words
of Mormon 1:12-13,18: Mormon talks about a period of contentions and wars in
King Benjamin’s days, after which he manages to establish peace. This ties in
neatly with Mosiah 1:1, a verse which Joseph Smith had dictated about 2.5
months earlier and completes the circle.
This is a
pretty long list, and even though there are many more internal references in
the Book of Mormon, this list is limited to what Joseph Smith needs to remember
at the end of Alma 54, because he has already dictated these things and will
later refer to them. The alternative is that Joseph Smith forgets about it and
instead studies the half-finished manuscript to find these details and bring
them up when he needs to refer to them. The problem with that argument is that
many of these details don’t need reference, i.e. the natural progression of
events does not force Joseph Smith to look these up at a certain point. Many of
them are subtle details whose existence the casual reader has long forgotten.
For instance, when Joseph Smith dictates Helaman 5:21, he doesn’t have to say
that the prison Lehi and Nephi were cast into was the same prison that Ammon
was cast into. Yet he does. So it is clear that this is a detail that the Book
of Mormon author is already aware of.
My personal
opinion is that those who think Joseph Smith made this up and kept all these
details straight and even argue that it’s not that difficult, do not understand
the complexity of the Book of Mormon and grossly underestimate the difficulty
of dictating a book in one single draft. In fact, I highly doubt that John
Hamer and those who agree with him are aware of all these details listed above.
Consequently, if Joseph Smith made this up, he knew the Book of Mormon text
much better than them already at the time when he first dictated it! How can
that be?
Keep in mind that this is still just a snapshot of Joseph Smith’s dictation at the time he had just finished Alma 54. At another time, say 3rd Nephi 19, the list would look different so he would have another set of details to remember, some overlapping with the Alma 54 list. One might argue that I chose Alma 54 because that is the most complex part resulting in the longest list of things to remember. I admit it might be one of the hardest ones because it is in the middle of a war with many city names etc to keep track of (I haven’t even listed all of them here), and I chose it to make a point of it. But I would argue that the most difficult part is not at this point in Alma but rather between Ether 1 and 6. Here Joseph Smith would need to remember the whole genealogy in Ether 1, that is 30 names, unfamiliar for the most part, in the right order, because he is telling the story of all these generations from Ether 6 and on and it is 100% consistent. Other details from the Book of Mormon dictated before Ether 6 and repeated after Ether 6 also come in addition, for instance several items from the list above would still apply.
In any case, it should be obvious that John Hamer’s claim that Joseph Smith would only need to have a few characters and places in his mind at any given time as he tells individual stories, does not hold up to scrutiny. In his presentation, this argument is made on the slide with the heading: “The Book of Mormon text is far simpler than it first appears.” Many of the items on my list of things Joseph Smith would need to keep track of, are definitely not something that easily “appear” upon the first reading. Hence, I would argue that it’s quite the opposite. The complexity of the Book of Mormon is there but you need to study it in-depth to see it. That’s why I would reverse John Hamer’s statement and argue that the Book of Mormon text is far more complex than it first appears.
