The next time two clean-cut young men in white shirts come to your door wanting to share a special message, give them a chance. These Mormon missionaries have a life-changing message, which includes Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.

This sacred book is “another testament of Jesus Christ” and companion to the Bible, written about an ancient people who lived in the Americas from 600 BCE to 400 CE. While investigators to our faith are encouraged to pray to know for themselves if this book is really of God, here are two evidences found by a Mormon scholar and blogger which prove its validity as an ancient record.

I recently came across an article on HappinessSeekers.com written by Loren Spendlove, a former LDS mission president with an MBA and PhD, whose research centers on linguistics and etymology, and Dustin Phelps, author of Happiness-Seekers.com. The evidence they found in favor of the Book of Mormon was mind-blowing in their article entitled “5 Surprising Evidences for the Book of Mormon.” http://happiness-seekers.com/2016/05/02/5-surprising-evidences-for-the-book-of-mormon/

For me, the article was so exciting that I had to share what I learned with my readers. Because their research was so extensive, I chose to focus on the two most fascinating evidences: the money system and Hebraic literary devices.

Ancient Money System

According to Spendlove and Phelps, the money system described in the Book of Mormon is definitely an ancient one due to its binary system. Their monetary system was based on standardized weights of gold or silver, holding values that doubled at each increment. Other ancient societies, such as the Egyptians, used a similar monetary system.

The article explained how this kind of money system was innovative for ancient societies.

It makes sense because Lehi, the first prophet mentioned in the Book of Mormon with direct lineage to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was originally a merchant who traveled to places such as Egypt, where they used this kind of monetary system.

Lehi’s family left Jerusalem during the reign of King Zedekiah and sailed to the Americas where his descendants, the Nephites and Lamanites, adopted this monetary system.

Spendlove and Phelps additionally mentioned that because the ancient people did not know about the kind of fractions that we do today, their fractions only included halves such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc.

“And this was reflected in the fractional weights that these civilizations implemented. Stunningly, the monetary system described in the Book of Mormon uses the same logic as these ancient money systems. The Nephite monetary system is binary, uses the same fractions, and reflects the same overall organization.”

Written in Egyptian, Spoken in Hebrew

When Joseph Smith received the ancient record of the Book of Mormon, it was a book made of pure gold (a.k.a. the “gold plates”) engraved in reformed Egyptian characters. Moreover, he also received special interpreters/seers called the Urim and Thummim used by ancient prophets such as Abraham and Aaron to help him translate. (See Abraham 3;1; Exodus 29:30)

However, what most people don’t realize is that the native tongue of the Book of Mormon people was not Egyptian, but Hebrew, according to Book of Mormon prophet Mormon. Because Lehi came from the tribe of Joseph, it makes sense that the Nephites and Lamanites spoke Hebrew, the language of their fathers. Because Egyptian was the written language of commerce/trade–much like English is today–it makes sense that Lehi’s family knew that language as well as Hebrew.

“Even though the gold plates were not inscribed with Hebrew, the thoughts, teachings, ideas, and history were originally conceived in Hebrew,” Spendlove and Phelps said in their article.

Many of those written thoughts and ideas in the Book of Mormon used the same Hebraic literary forms, namely parallelism and chiasmus, as those in the Bible and other ancient Hebrew writings.

Parallelisms

Parallelisms are syntactical devices that often repeat the same idea to emphasize a point. While there are many kinds of parallelisms used in Hebraic writing, the ones I found most interesting were antithetic and synonymous.

Phelps and Spendlove explain that although it is not uncommon to make simple parallelisms in our own writing, ancient Hebrew writings have extremely complex parallelisms.

“There is a difference between the simplistic and haphazard parallelisms that show up in all literature and writing, and the type of systematic and intricate parallelisms used by the Hebrews in both the Bible AND the Book of Mormon.”

Antithetic parallelisms provide an antithesis or a contrast. Here are some examples:

Bible: The light of the righteous rejoiceth; but the lamp of the wicked shall be but out.

(Proverbs 13:9)

Book of Mormon: For I say unto you, whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil. (Alma 5:40)

Synonymous parallelism has the second line or following lines add to the first, using different words with the same meaning such as:

Bible: Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. (Psalms 120:2)

Book of Mormon: For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. (Alma 34:32)

Chiasmus

A chiasmus (sometimes called chiasm), commonly used in Hebraic writing, is a rhetorical device where two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures. A modern chiasmus would be: Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.

Another characteristic of a Hebrew chiasmus found in both the Bible and Book of Mormon is the repeating A, B, C,….’C, ‘B, ‘A pattern.

In the Bible, an example of a chiasmus is in Joshua 1:5-9 beginning in the second half of verse five with a promise from God that He will be with Joshua just as He was with Moses; to be strong and courageous in leading the people; then concluding with the promise (once again) that He will be with Joshua.

A great chiasmus in the Book of Mormon is in Alma 36 with the Prophet Alma’s discourse to his son Helaman of his conversion.

He begins with, “My son give ear to my words,” going from line ‘A’ to ‘P’ then from ‘P’ to ‘A’ as he tells the details of being rebuked by an angel, being unconscious, seeing Jesus, then repenting of his sins. He ends with “This according to his word.”

Joseph Smith

While Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through divine help, he did not have enough schooling to know how to write, not to mention spell, many of the odd words and names from the ancient record.

Neither would he have known about the many kinds of parallelism in Hebraic writing or the workings of their ancient money system. He was a humble farm boy who had little more than a third grade education. Thus, came the need for an educated scribe to help Joseph write down the words as he translated them using the sacred interpreters.

From the evidences manifested in the Book of Mormon through their money system and Hebraic literary devices, it would have been virtually impossible for him to have “made up” this intricate record written by many prophets in the Americas. While this proof of the validity of this sacred book may be enough for some, it is only through the Holy Ghost that one can truly know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

For me, I can say that it has changed my life and I know it will change the lives of anyone who reads it with a sincere heart. Give it a chance and remember: the book is always better.

For a free copy of the Book of Mormon, visit https://www.mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon.