But, and this is very interesting, you can also compare their content to other ancient texts from the same claimed era, and see if it sits comfortably among them. The gold plates are long gone – placed back into a heavenly repository. You can’t look at them – lots of others did though . Reading the plates' translated scripture (the Book of Mormon) and praying is the best way you can really know of their scriptural validity., and this is very interesting, you can also compare their content to other ancient texts from the same claimed era, and see if it sits comfortably among them.





very comfortably among them! Hint – it sitscomfortably among them!





The Autobiography of Kai: Below are four old texts that show how and what ancient middle easterners used to write. Some have content very, very like the BOM and some have structure very, very like it. For starters – there’s





1) “[Hugh] Nibley has pointed out the same kind of self-definition [as found in 1st Nephi] in The Autobiography of Kai , an Egyptian text which Nibley explains is from “a short time before Nephi.” …Nibley translates Kai’s opening statement as, “I, Kai, was the son of a man who was worthy and wise.” ((Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon , 1:11. In the actual text, Nibley leaves “worthy” ( neḫet ) and “wise” ( sʿḥ ) untranslated, adding his translation in brackets. Interestingly, Kai also refers to himself as nfr bi·t , which Nibley renders as “excellent of character.” Notice the use of nefer in his self description, proposed above as the origin of the name Nephi and possibly underlying “goodly” and “goodness” in the text.)) Hence when Kai introduces himself, he first establishes the greatness of his father, just as Nephi seeks to establish his own credentials through his “goodly parents.”” ( https://interpreterfoundation.org/blog-nephi-the-good-a-commentary-on-1-nephi-11-3/ )





Kai opens talking about his ‘worthy and wise parents,’ because apparently that’s what people did back then. Nephi opens talking about his ‘goodly parents,’ because apparently that’s what people… you get it.





Here’s an old Hebrew story that deals with familiar Old Testament personalities – Joseph and Judah. It has a story, though, that escaped Biblical pages. Keep in mind that the Book of Mormon has Lehi & Co as descendants of Joseph of Egypt. Already a strong tie there – and then we have this:





2) “The recently discovered Hebrew version of the Testament of Naphthali (one of the Twelve) tells of the contest between Joseph and Judah. In it Naphthali sees Israel as a ship at sea, "the Ship of Jacob." "As long as Joseph and Judah got along together the ship sailed calmly and well, but when quarreling broke out between Joseph and Judah she would not sail in the right direction but wandered and was wrecked." The Book of Mormon student will of course think immediately of the quarreling of the brothers on Lehi's ship, which accordingly was driven off its course and nearly foundered; and he is licensed to do so, because Alma hundreds of years later discusses this as a type and an image…” https://archive.org/stream/improvementera6904unse/improvementera6904unse_djvu.txt)





Next comes the story of Zosimus. Zosimus was entirely unknown in Latter-Day Saint circles until did think something of it. Stephen Robinson and John Welch got assigned homework. They were studying under Professor James Charlesworth, of Princeton Theological Seminary. He was not of their faith, and thought nothing of it. Welch and Robinsonthink something of it.





Here is a Zosimus summary:





3) “According to the Narrative of Zosimus, a righteous man named Zosimus, dwelling in a cave in a desert, prays to the Lord and obtains spiritual passage to a land of blessedness. In order to arrive at this land of promise, Zosimus must wander in the wilderness without knowing where he is being led. He is pushed to the point of exhaustion but attains his destination by constant prayer and divine intervention. Zosimus eventually arrives at the bank of an unfathomable river of water covered by an impenetrable cloud of darkness. Catching the branches of a tree, Zosimus is transported across the water where he sits beneath a beautiful tree, eating its fruit and drinking of the life-sustaining water which flows from its root. Zosimus is then met by an angelic escort, who asks him what he wants, shows him a vision in which he thinks he beholds the Son of God, and ultimately introduces him to a group of righteous sons of God. These elders tell Zosimus of their history and instruct him in their ways of righteousness. Their history is engraved upon soft stone plates. It explains how the group, led by their father, escaped the destruction of Jerusalem at the time of Jeremiah and how as a nation they survived the scattering of Israel.” ( https://www.deseret.com/platform/amp/2015/4/9/20562332/the-narrative-of-zosimus-and-the-book-of-mormon )





The wandering in the desert is familiar. The elders being led by a father in the end there is incredible. Clearly righteous men were fleeing just prior to Jerusalem’s fall – specifically because God told them to. We’re not done with this theme just yet.





Nephi mentions many prophets coming to Jerusalem, preaching repentance or destruction. Many other stories, apparently, talk of those prophets having to get out of Dodge or die. This next bit is interesting because Nibley includes tons of detail, and because the record here was (at the time) evidence in an upcoming legal trial against a man who apparently tipped off a wanted prophet that fled to Egypt. The prophet isn’t named here, but his story and flight pattern is familiar:





4) “The city’s [Lachish’s] strategic importance down through the years is reflected in the Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, and biblical records. These describe a succession of intrigues, betrayals, sieges, and disasters that make the city’s story a woefully typical Palestinian “idyll.” Its fall in the days of Jeremiah is dramatically recounted in a number of letters found there in 1935 and 1938. These original letters, actually written at Jeremiah’s time, turned up in the ruins of a guardhouse that stood at the main gate of the city﻿—two letters a foot beneath the street paving in front of the guardhouse, and the other sixteen piled together below a stone bench set against the east wall. The wall had collapsed when a great bonfire was set against it from the outside.





The bonfire was probably set by the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar because they wanted to bring down the wall, which enclosed the gate to the city.





Nebuchadnezzar had to take the city because it was the strongest fortress in Israel and lay astride the road to Egypt, controlling all of western Judah. Jeremiah tells us that it and another fortified place, Azekah, were the last to fall to the invaders. (See Jer. 34:7 .) An ominous passage from Lachish Letter No. 4:12–13 reports that the writer could no longer see the signal-fires of Azekah﻿—that means that Lachish itself was the last to go, beginning with the guardhouse in flames.





The letters survived the heat because they were written on potsherds.





They were written on potsherds because the usual papyrus was unobtainable.





It was unobtainable because the supply from Egypt was cut off.





The supply was cut off because of the war.





cyahu. The letters were in the guardhouse because they were being kept as evidence in the pending trial of a military commander whose name was Hoshayahu.





He was being court-marshalled because he was suspected of treason.





He was suspected of treason because someone had been reading top-secret dispatches sent from the court at Jerusalem to the commander at Lachish, whose name was Yaush.





cyahu was a likely suspect because all the mail had to pass through his hands. Hoshayahu was a likely suspect because all the mail had to pass through his hands.





It had to pass through his hands because he was in command of a fortified town on the road between Jerusalem and Lachish, probably Qiryat Ye’arim. His duty, among other things, was to forward the king’s mail﻿—not to read it.





That the confidential letters had been read was apparent because somebody had tipped off a certain prophet that he was in danger.





He was in danger because the king’s soldiers had been put on his trail.





They were on his trail because he was fleeing to Egypt.





He was fleeing because he was wanted by the police in Jerusalem.





He was wanted by the police because he and other prophets were considered by the king’s supporters to be subversives.





They were considered subversives because they were opposing the official policy and undermining morale by their preaching. As Jeremiah puts it: “The princes [the important people] said unto the king: We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them.” ( Jer. 38:4 .) As Lachish Letter No. 6:6 puts it: “The words of the [prophet] are not good [and are liable] to loosen the hands.” The Book of Mormon adds another reinforcement: “In that same year there came many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city of Jerusalem must be destroyed” ( 1 Ne. 1:4 )﻿—disheartening news, indeed.













The Book of Mormon is either exactly what it claims to be, or a super, super lucky fraud.



