Samuel The Lamanite

In Helaman 13: 32-33 Samuel the Lamanite uses a poetic structure known as "parallelism of specification" that is a very common form of biblical poetry.  It states "O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them and cast them out."  Its obvious that Samuel was influenced by Nephi's earlier description of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, only he did his in reverse order.

Biblical scholars have recently recognized this literary device used in times of old to draw attention.  So litteraly samuel as well as writers and biblical poets of old hoped that the reader would recognize the obvious error, thus causing the reader to pay more attention to the text as a whole. 

Samuel the Lamanite

Were the Jaredites and the Olmecs the same people?

Were the Jaredites the "first Americans"?  The Jaredites fit in the Book of Mormon timeline roughly 1500-400B.C.  This timeline fits nicely with the Olmec civilization commonly known by their giant rock head sculptures.   So were the Jaredites non other than the Olmecs?

If the Jaredites were infact the Olmecs then what can we gather about the Olmecs that corresponds with what we know about the Jaredites?  Carlos De Siguenza y Gongorra (1645-1700) gave us some interesting information abut the original settlers of Mexico.  Gongorra said that he "arrived at the curiously definite results that the original settlers descended from Naphtuhim, son of Mizraim and grandson of Noah, who left Egypt for Mexico shortly after the confusion of the tongues."  Naphtuhim is the plural form of "Nephet" which means honeycomb.  It means honeycomb people or beekeepers, or people of deseret.  In Ether 2:3 speaking of Jaredite preperation it states "and they did also carry with them deseret, which, by interpretation, is honeybee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees."

Jaredite and Olmec Territory

King Benjamin's Address

A list of features associated with the Feast of the Tabernacles that are also found in connection with the Nephite assembly  and address under King Benjamin.
- The people assemble at the templs
- King or political leader reside on a raised platform
- Special sacrifices are offered
- Exhortations addressed to the adults specifically excludes children
- The law is read (specifically the paragraph of the king)
- Gods mercy and salvation are mentioned
- Recitations are made of Gods dealings with his people, his commandments, cursings and blessings of the law.
- People are exhorted to love and serve God , and promised prosperity if they do
- Sometimes the coronation of a king is involved and he blesses the people
- These and many more correlations exist between the address of Benjamin and the Feast of Tabernacles.

King Benjamin Addressing his people

Nephi's Bow

When Nephi broke his bow (and his brothers bows lost their spring) he didn't break the arrows.  Why does he specifically mention making a wooden bow and arrows in (1 Nephi 16:23)?  If the bows draw weight and the arrows stiffness are not matched then the arrow will stray off course.  Nephi's steel bow would have used heavier arrows thus the need to make new arrows.

The weakening of Nephi's bow would have been compounded by changing ecology.  Composite bows were blued together and bound in certain ways.  Moisture in the air can cause expansions and contractions which weaken the bow.  So one assumes Nephi's bow is a metal inforced composite bow rather than 100% metal.  If this is the case it would have broke along major stress points.

-William Hamblin

Nephi and his bow

Cumorah's Hill

Know one doubts that the hill where Joseph Smith received the plates is known as Cumorah but is the hill where the final battles between the Nephites and Lamanites took place another Cumorah?  The Book of Ether tells us that Omer traveled to this place of the last battles of the Nephites, and that the relatively short duration of this journey would not account for 3000 miles from middle America to New York.  A similar journey was undertaken by Lemhi's men, of equally short duration.  The description of the geographical features around the final battle site is also at odds with the topography of present day Cumorah. 

For many years now a number of Book of Mormon students have held that the Cumorah of the Book of Mormon, the one in which Mormon originally hid the records of his people (Mormon 6:6), and the one around which the final battles between the Nephites and Lamanites took place (Mormon 6:8-15), was located somewhere in the area of Mexico and Guatemala, not in New York.

The Hill Cumorah