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Utilizador:InProgress/Reinventing Lamanite Identity
Index to claims made in Reinventing Lamanite Identity, by Brent L. Metcalfe
This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIRwiki. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible.
Page 20
Claim
Author's sources
- "Introduction," Book of Mormon (1981 edition).
Responses
- This is based upon a phrase added in the 1981 introduction to the Book of Mormon.
- The 1830 Book of Mormon contains no such claim.
- Are the Lamanites the principal ancestors of the American Indians?
Claim
Response
- The author argues that LDS scholars or apologists are "shrinking and diluting" their view on the Book of Mormon because they are being driven back in a rear-guard action by science. But, in fact, some LDS leaders and scholars have argued for a restricted geography and small numeric contribution of Lehites for over one hundred years. These beliefs were not held because of scientific "pressure," but because of their reading of the Book of Mormon text.
- See: Limited geography theory
Author's sources
- The author quotes a number of genetic studies.
Claim
Author's sources
- Michael F. Whiting, “DNA and the Book of Mormon: A Phylogenetic Perspective,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 28, 31. off-site
Response
- The fragments quoted by the author in context:
If we grant that the global colonization hypothesis is the correct lineage history...the above hypothesis is indeed incorrect. To this point all we have shown is that the global colonization hypothesis appears falsified by current genetic evidence. But is the global colonization hypothesis the only hypothesis emerging from the Book of Mormon? This is the crux of the matter....if the above description of the lineage history in the Book of Mormon is oversimplified, then these genetic results demonstrate only that this oversimplified view does not appear correct. But Book of Mormon scholars have been writing about certain complicating factors for decades, so this conclusion about oversimplification really comes as no surprise. (emphasis added)
Page 21
Claim
Author's sources
- 2 Ne. 1:8–9; see also John C. Kunich, “Multiply Exceedingly: Book of Mormon Population Sizes,” New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, ed. Brent Lee Metcalfe (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993), 261–62.
Response
- The author quotes from 2 Nephi. Note that there are several uses of the word "land" in the passage:
- "this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations."
- "those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem."
- The "land of Jerusalem" is a very small geographical area, yet Lehi's promised land is completely undefined in scope. The author applies the term "land" to mean the entire North and South American landmass. Is it really reasonable to assume that there would be "no place for an inheritance" on two continents for Lehi's people if anyone else was inhabiting the America's at the time?
Claim
Author's sources
Response
- The author seems to be assuming that this refers to other nations coming across the ocean to scatter and smite Lehi's people. Yet, this passage is completely consistent with others outside the land occupied by Lehi's people coming to take away the Nephites' lands when they became wicked. The Book of Mormon certainly describes many times that the Nephites descended into wickedness. Each time they were "scattered and smitten" by the Lamanites. If the descendants of Laman and Lemuel joined others who were in lands outside of Lehi's "promised land," this promise would be completely and adequately fulfilled. The "other nations" referred to in the scriptural passage could easily have existed on the American continents.
Claim
Response
- This passage is often interpreted to mean the arrival of Europeans and their subsequent scattering of existing Native American populations.
Claim
Author's sources
- 1 Ne. 13:12–42; 3 Ne. 20:13–14, 22; 21:2–7, 22–24; Ether 13:2–11; D&C 10:48–51; 19:27; 84:2–5;
- see Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004), 407–09.
Response
- 1 Nephi 13:12-42: Gentiles to be brought across "many waters" to inherit the land.
- 1 Nephi 20:13-14: The "remnant of Jacob" to inherit the land from the Gentiles.
- Ether 13:2-11: A New Jerusalem to be built upon the land.
- D&C 10:48-51: "...my gospel, which I gave unto them that they might preach in their days, might come unto their brethren the Lamanites, and also all that had become Lamanites because of their dissensions."
- D&C 19:27: "...the Jew, of whom the Lamanites are a remnant."
- D&C 84:2-5: Location of New Jerusalem in Missouri.
Claim
Author's sources
Response
- Why were they proclaiming their lineage? Could not everyone proclaim their lineage through Israel?
Page 22
Claim
Author's sources
- Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (1985), 50–56;
- John L. Sorenson and Matthew Roper, “Before DNA,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 17–18;
- Whiting, “DNA” (2003), 25–28, 31, 33–34.
Claim
Author's sources
- No source provided.
Author's sources
- No source provided.
Claim
Author's sources
- No source provided.
Claim
Author's sources
- Joseph Smith to N. C. Saxton, 4 January 1833, Joseph Smith Letter Book 1, p. 17 (the r in “tribes of Indians” is dotted like an i), Joseph Smith Collection, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, available on Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 2002), DVD 20; see also Dean C. Jessee, comp. and ed., The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002),
297.
Claim
Author's sources
- For surveys of the primary sources on Zelph, see Donald Q. Cannon,
“Zelph Revisited,” Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint History: Illinois, ed. H. Dean Garrett (Provo: Brigham Young University, Department of Church History and Doctrine, 1995), 97–111; Kenneth W. Godfrey, “The Zelph Story,” Paper GOD-89 (Provo: FARMS, 1989); Godfrey, “The Zelph Story,” Brigham Young University Studies 29, no. 2 (Spring 1989): 31–56; Godfrey, “What Is the Significance of Zelph in the Study of Book of Mormon Geography?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 2 (1999), 70–79; Brent Lee Metcalfe, “A Documentary Analysis of the Zelph Episode,” delivered at the 1989 Sunstone Symposium; Metcalfe, “Disinterring Zelph,” forthcoming online at <www.mormonscripturestudies.com>. Wilford Woodruff, Journal, [3 June] 1834, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City; see also Susan Staker, ed., Waiting for World’s End: The Diaries of Wilford Woodruff (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993), 4. Woodruff’s journal was combined with Heber C. Kimball’s to form the 3 June 1834 entry in the History of the Church ([Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978], 2:79–80). Like Woodruff, Kimball also observed that “Brother Joseph had enquired of the Lord” about Zelph’s identity “and it was made known in a vision” (Heber C. Kimball, “Extracts from H. C. Kimball[’]s Journal,” Times and Seasons 6, no. 2 [1 February 1845]: 788). Woodruff recounted Smith’s Zelph vision several times throughout his life. Ruben McBride penned a similar eyewitness account—so similar that in some instances his recollection of Smith’s language is identical to Woodruff’s (Reuben McBride, Sr., Journal, 3 June 1834, pp. 3–4, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City).