The book Joseph dictated abounds with examples of his poor grammar and Yankee dialect as well as his penchant for digression, redundancy, and wordiness. Rarely are his characters’ inner moral conflicts reflected. Most often we encounter flat, uncomplicated, two-dimensional heros and villains. Generally the plots are simple and frequently improbable. However, the point was notto produce a literary masterpiece, although there are occasional passages exhibiting the lyrical quality ofromantic writers of the era as well as the rhetorical style of the area’s preachers. In many instances, he created anachronisms by quoting biblical pas¬ sages his New World prophets could not have known about.
Abinadi seems to have an anachronistic moment. Abinadi explains that temporal salvation is universal, for all humanity will be resurrected but spiritual salvation is restricted. His discussion draws anachronistically on the New Testament where, for example, his proclamation that resurrection is Jesus’ gift to all humankind borrows from the apostle Paul and is stated in past perfect tense: “And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting ofdeath is swallowed up in Christ. … Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption” (16:7-8, 10; cf. 1 Cor. 15:53-57; Isa. 25:8). Likewise, Abinadi’s exposition on the first and last resurrections, which concludes his address to Noah’s priests (15:21-16:15), comes anachronistically from Revelation 20
Elephants/Cariots as anachronistic
For Isaiah 29.4
According to Vogel, Book of Mormon’s modalistic teaching that Jesus is God the Father and that God, particularly after the resurrection, is a corporeal being. Joseph Smith taught in Nauvoo that God the Father has a body like the Son’s.
Translation Crisis
Mormon described how the Lamanites will be scattered because of their unrighteousness and stated that they would “become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us.” Elsewhere, Mormon said that some Nephites “mixed with the Lamanites” and became “wicked, and wild, and ferocious, yea, even becoming Lamanites.”
Nephi wrote that the cursing of the Lamanites led them to become “an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety.”
Alma observed that the “skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren.”
Enos described the Lamanites as having an “evil nature” and as a “wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness.”
treasure hunting
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