The Translation

The coming forth of the Book of Mormon is a modern day miracle. In fact, Rexxploring the Book of Mormon explains that “a marvelous work and a wonder” in the original Hebrew translates as “a miraculous miracle and a miracle.” Redundant? Maybe. Powerful? Definitely. One amazing fact that contributes to this miracle is the small length of time it took to translate the book.

Joseph Smith began to seriously work on the translation a few days after meeting Oliver Cowdery on April 5, 1829. (This of course is after the 116 pages transcribed by Martin Harris were lost.) The translating finished sometime in late June and Joseph and Oliver finally found someone to print the manuscript in August. By my calculation, that means that the entire 530 page (at least in the current edition) book was translated in between 70 and 80 days. Using 75 days as the estimate, my calculator says that Joseph and Oliver translated about seven pages per day. I wonder how many other 500 page books were written that quickly. Probably not many.

Another thing to think about is that during this time, they were not translating all day, every day. They went to Colesville, NY a couple times, received some sections in the D&C, did missionary work, and did many other things during that time. This just adds to the fact that they translated the record very quickly. Much quicker than someone making it up as they go along, and much more complex and historically correct as well.

Reexploring the Book of Mormon

I am starting to read the book entitled, Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch. This book is a collection of brief outlines addressing various aspects of Book of Mormon research. It was published in 1992, so it might be a bit dated, but I still feel that it will be worthwhile to read. Hopefully I will read some interesting things in this book that will enhance by understanding of Book of Mormon culture that I can share here on my blog.

Though books like these can be interesting to read and discuss, they cannot replace the actual scriptures themselves in our library of helpful books. In Elder Holland’s book about the Book of Mormon he says the following: “…this book is emphatically not a substitute for reading the Book of Mormon itself. In fact, one could make a persuasive argument that no book should be written about the Book of Mormon, particularly if reading such a secondary work became an alternative for becoming immersed in the scripture firsthand.”

So studying books about the Book of Mormon should never trump our study of the Book of Mormon. However, reading books about the Book of Mormon can supplement our study and can help increase our desire to study the Book of Mormon. That is what I hope comes about as I study this book.

The Beginning

So, I had a random thought today to start a blog about my thoughts on the Book of Mormon. I hope that this blog will help me be consistent in my study and force me to think more about what I am studying. Learning is more effective when you write it down and share what you learn with others, right? As a sub-reason for why I decided to start this blog, maybe someone will read it and learn something new.

I hope that by studying, pondering, and writing I will gain a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon and of my Savior. In fact, one of the major reasons the Book of Mormon was written was to convince all people that Jesus is the Christ (see the title page). I have seen that happen in my life and in the lives of many others.

This is a little awkward writing to myself, but if you are reading this, welcome to my blog and I hope you enjoy it.

JE