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Some of the most important Book of Mormon scholars from antiquity include the familiar prophets Lehi, Nephi I, Jacob, Mosiah I, Benjamin, Mosiah II, Alma I, Alma II, Helaman I, Helaman II, Nephi II, Nephi III, Nephi IV, Mormon, Ether, and Moroni. Their words are fundamental primary sources. Joseph Smith, Jr., is in a class by himself. He translated The Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God - an awesome miracle scarcely equaled in the whole of human history. But, as Jack Welch has famously observed, the prophet Joseph Smith seems never to have read The Book of Mormon after its publication in 1830 when he was 24 years old. (Comments by Terryl L. Givens and John W. Welch at "Mormonism in Cultural Contexts: A Symposium in Honor of Richard L. Bushman on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday," June 18, 2011, Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah.) Some of the most important Book of Mormon scholars from The Dispensation of the Fullness of Times include Hugh W. Nibley, John W. (Jack) Welch, John L. Sorenson, and V. Garth Norman. In my experience, these men have exercised the scholarly discipline necessary to be source-critical, and I recommend their insights.
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Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844) translated the text of the current Book of Mormon (there is more to come when we truly appreciate what we already have) with divine help from ancient metal plates into English. He was familiar with Book of Mormon peoples and life ways through visions he had received that helped prepare him for his prophetic calling. Once he got his hands on John Lloyd Stephens' classic 2 volume work Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841), the sumptuous Frederick Catherwood illustrations reminded Smith of the cultures he had seen in vision. The prophet and his inner circle (John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff) began publishing articles in the official LDS periodical of their day (Times and Seasons, Nauvoo, Illinois) about the relationships they saw between Book of Mormon civilizations and ancient Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and northern Central America).
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Hugh W. Nibley (1910 - 2005) was educated at UCLA and UC Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. in 1938. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book & FARMS, 1986 - 2010) run to 19 volumes. The last several volumes appeared posthumously. This corpus, one of the most significant in all of Mormon letters, includes 4 volumes dedicated to The Book of Mormon:
- Lehi in the Desert, The World of the Jaredites, There were Jaredites: Vol. 5
- An Approach to The Book of Mormon: Vol 6
- Since Cumorah: Vol. 7
- The Prophetic Book of Mormon: Vol. 8
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John W. Welch (1946 - ) was educated at BYU, Oxford, and Duke where he received his J.D. in 1975. Welch's classic BYU Studies article "Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon" (Volume 10:1, Autumn 1969) continues to be one of the most important Book of Mormon studies pieces ever published. Jack created the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) in 1979 (now the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU). He was one of the editors of the 4 volume Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992). Jack has been Editor-in-Chief of BYU Studies since 1991. He was General Editor of the 19-volume The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book & FARMS, 1986 - 2010). Author or editor of more than 300 scholarly works, a recent tour de force is his very important The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo: BYU Press & The Maxwell Institute, 2008).
Welch taught us to read The Book of Mormon as ancient Hebrew literature, and to pay attention to the significance of every word in the text.
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John L. Sorenson (1924 - ) was educated at USU, BYU and UCLA where he received his Ph.D. in 1962. Soon after John L. Sorenson met John W. Welch (at Delbert Palmer's home in Provo in 1979), FARMS achieved critical mass and the modern era of Book of Mormon studies began. Sorenson's seminal An Ancient American Setting for The Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1985) established Mesoamerica as The Book of Mormon homeland. Author of more than 200 scholarly articles and books, Sorenson is one of only a handful of LDS scholars honored with a festschrift. He is a leading authority on transoceanic cultural diffusion. His anxiously awaited magnum opus, Mormon's Codex, details hundreds of points of congruence between Book of Mormon and Mesoamerican civilizations.
Sorenson taught us to read the Book of Mormon as a Mesoamerican record.
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V. Garth Norman (1934 - ) was educated at BYU. He may be the only Book of Mormon scholar with advanced degrees in both Ancient Scripture (MA, BYU, 1975) and Archaeology-Anthropology (MS, BYU, 1980). He is a leading authority on Izapa, birthplace of the Maya calendar and a key transitional site linking Olmec with later Maya civilization. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, Number Thirty, Izapa Sculpture, Part 1: Album & Part 2: Text (Provo: BYU NWAF, 1973, 1976) and The Parowan Gap: Naure's Perfect Observatory (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2007) are significant. Norman has presented at The Palenque Roundtable, Dumbarton Oaks, The International Congress of Americanists and many Society for American Archaeology conferences.
Norman has produced the best Book of Mormon Lands map yet published.
