Timing of the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon

Patheos - Dan Peterson - 23 Aug 2020 

The initial visitation of Moroni to Joseph Smith, which launched the recovery of the Book of Mormon, occurred during the night of 21-22 September 1823.  Joseph first saw the actual plates on the morning of 22 September.  And, for the next four years, Moroni’s visits occurred very deliberately on 21-22 September.

Was the choice of these dates the result of simple random chance?  Not likely.

“The initial visit on September 21 in 1823 coincided with that year’s celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. In 1824, September 22 was the eve of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the beginning of the fall festivals. In 1825, September 22 was precisely Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In 1827, when Moroni finally delivered the plates to Joseph (Joseph Smith—History 1:59), his timing on September 22 coincided exactly with Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets.”

Appropriately, these holidays are connected with notions of final harvest, remembering God’s covenants with Israel, the announcement of revelation or truth, and preparation for the Messianic Age, and they typically involve solemn admonitions and warnings, covenant making, remembrance of God’s might acts in history, sacrifice, prophecy, and new beginnings

Egyptian Names in the Book of Mormon

 Nibley drew particular attention to an Egyptian named Paanchi (Piankh), whose father (named Kherihor or Ḥerihor [Egyptian: ḥry-ḥr], cf. Korihor) was involved “in a priestly plot [that] set himself up as a rival of Pharaoh himself, while his son Paanchi actually claimed the throne.”22 Thus, the name Piankh shows up in Egyptian texts in close association with an attempt to usurp the throne, just as Paanchi in the Book of Mormon rejects the voice of the people and seeks to usurp the judgment-seat (Helaman 1:5–8).

More recently, Matthew L. Bowen, an expert in Semitic and Egyptian languages, has drawn additional attention to the fact that Paanchi’s rebellion initiates a series of events that culminates in his followers entering into secret covenants and oaths, “swearing by their everlasting Maker” (Helaman 1:11). Thus, this narrative involving Paanchi (pꜢ-ꜥnḫ-ỉ) seems to invoke or allude to the subtle meanings of ankh (not just life, live; but also oath, swear) and their association with oaths and swearing on the life of a deity.23

While the story of a rivalry for the judgment-seat between three brothers from a ruling-elite family with similar sounding names (Pahoran, Paanchi, and Pacumeni) may not be good fiction writing, Mormon apparently appreciated the value of these names at several levels, and that is why he purposefully included them in his record. These names and the narrative in Helaman 1 are arguably more true to life and consistent with the ancient Egyptian origins of the Book of Mormon than any fiction writer in 1829 could have hoped.

Stephen M. Barr - Modern Physics and Ancient Faith

“The universe looks far more orderly to us now than it did to the ancients who appealed to that order as proof of God’s existence.”

Sin and Community

The breakthrough to community [Gemeinschaft] begins in confession. Sin wants to be alone with humans. It causes them to withdraw from community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive power sin will have over him, and, again, the deeper the entanglement the more hopeless the solitude. Sin wishes to remain unrecognized. It shies away from the light. In the darkness of the unspoken, it complete poisons a person’s being.

Dietrich Bonhoffer