long ago ideas

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago." - Friedrich Nietzsche Long ago, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery conquered false claims that the Book of Mormon was fiction or that it came through a stone in a hat. But these old claims have resurfaced in recent years. To conquer them again, we have to return to what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Building out of wood

There was an overview of the Moundbuilder culture in today's Deseret News here. It included this statement: "The eastern United States and the greater Mississippi River valley are a beautiful land with widespread forests. Unfortunately for archaeologists, this means that the region’s ancient Indians mainly built using wood, which inevitably decays, leaving, at best, marginal archaeological evidence."

That reminded me of Mosiah 11:9. "And he [King Noah] also built him a spacious palace, and a throne in the midst thereof, all of which was of fine wood and was ornamented with gold and silver and with precious things."

This is the only palace described in the Book of Mormon, and it was made of wood. That's exactly what we would expect to find in a North American setting.

Verse 8 is also interesting. "And it came to pass that king Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings; and he ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper."

From what I can find in the text, the only thing the Nephites built out of stone were "walls of stone to encircle" their armies, their cities, and their borders. (Alma 48:8). 

1 comment:

  1. Helaman Chapter 3:9-11 " 9 And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings.

    10 And it came to pass as timber was exceedingly scarce in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way of shipping.

    11 And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement."

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