Book of Mormon

- 1830 Palmyra edition -
Excerpt from the Book of Alma


Chapter XXIX: last 3 pages [403-405]
(see p. 405 for color-code legend)





     
                       BOOK   OF   ALMA                                          403  
     
  of Moroni, which was in the borders by the seashore. Thus 01
  had Moroni and Pahoran obtained the possession of the city of  
  Nephihah without the loss of one soul; and there were many  
  of the Lamanites which were slain. 04
     
           Now it came to pass that many of the Lamanites that 05
  were prisoners were desirous to join the people of Ammon,  
  and become a free people. And it came to pass that as many  
  as were desirous, unto them it was granted, according to their  
  desires; therefore all the prisoners of the Lamanites did join  
  the people of Ammon, and did begin to labor exceedingly, til- 10
  ling the ground, raising all manner of grain, and flocks, and  
  herds of every kind; and thus were the Nephites relieved from  
  a great BURTHEN; yea, insomuch that they were relieved from  
  all the prisoners of the Lamanites. 14
     
           Now it came to pass that Moroni, after he had obtained pos- 15
  session of the city of Nephihah, having taken many prisoners,  
  which did reduce the armies of the Lamanites exceedingly,  
  and having regained many of the Nephites who had been ta-  
  ken prisoners, which did strengthen the army of Moroni excee-  
  dingly; therefore Moroni went forth from the land of Nephi- 20
  hah to the land of Lehi. 21
     
           And it came to pass that when the Lamanites saw that Mo- 22
  roni was coming against them, they were again frightened,  
  and fled before the army of Moroni. And it came to pass  
  that Moroni and his army did pursue them from city to city, 25
  until they were met by Lehi and Teancum; and the Lamanites  
  fled from Lehi and Teancum, even down upon the borders by  
  the seashore, until they came to the land of Moroni . And the  
  armies of the Lamanites were all gathered together, insomuch  
  that they were all in one body, in the land of Moroni. Now 30
  Ammoron, the King of the Lamanites, was also with them. 31
     
           And it came to pass that Moroni and Lehi and Teancum, 32
  did encamp with their armies round about in the borders of  
  the land of Moroni , insomuch that the Lamanites were EN-  
  CIRCLED about in the borders by the wilderness, on the south, 35
  and in the borders by the wilderness, on the east; and  
  thus they did encamp for the night. For behold, the Nephites  
  and the Lamanites also, were weary because of the greatness  
  of the march; therefore they did not resolve upon any strata-  
  gem in the night time, save it were Teancum; for he was ex- 40
  ceedingly angry with Ammoron, insomuch that he considered  
  that Ammoron, and Amalickiah his brother, had been the cause  
  of this great and lasting war between them and the Lamanites, 43
     




     

                       BOOK   OF   ALMA                                          404  
     
  which had been the cause of so much war and bloodshed, yea , 01
  famine. 02
     
           And it came to pass that Teancum, in his anger, did go forth 03
  into the camp of the Lamanites, and did let himself down over  
  the walls of the city. And he went forth with a cord, from 05
  place to place, insomuch that he did find the king; and he did  
  cast a javelin at him, which did pierce him near the heart. --  
  But behold, the king did awake his servant before he died,  
  insomuch that they did pursue Teancum, and slew him. 09
     
           Now it came to pass that when Lehi and Moroni knew that 10
  Teancum was dead, they were exceeding sorrowful; for be-  
  hold, he had been a man which had fought valiantly for his  
  country, yea , a true friend to liberty; and he had suffered very  
  many exceeding sore afflictions. But behold, he was dead,  
  and had gone the way of all the earth. 15
     
           Now it came to pass that Moroni marched forth on the mor-16
  row, and came upon the Lamanites, insomuch that they did  
  slay them with a great slaughter; and they did drive them out  
  of the land; and they did flee, even that they did not return  
  at that time against the Nephites. And thus ended the thirty 20
  and first year of the reign of the Judges over the people of Ne-  
  phi; and thus they had wars, and bloodsheds, and fam-  
  ine, and affliction, for the space of many years. And there  
  had been murders, and contentions, and dissensions, and all  
  manner of iniquity, among the people of Nephi; nevertheless, 25
  for the righteous' sake, yea , because of the prayers of the  
  righteous, they were spared. But behold, because of the ex-  
  ceeding great length of the war between the Nephites and the  
  Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the excee-  
  ding great length of the war; and many were softened, because 30
  of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves  
  before God, even in the depth of humility. 32
     
           And it came to pass that after Moroni had fortified those 33
  parts of the land which were most exposed to the Lamanites,  
  until they were sufficiently strong, he returned to the city of 35
  Zarahemla; and also Helaman returned to the place of his  
  inheritance; and there was once more peace established among  
  the people of Nephi. And Moroni yielded up the command  
  of his armies into the hands of his son, whose name was Mo-  
  ronihah; and he retired to his own house, that he might spend 40
  the remainder of his days in peace. And Pahoran did return  
  to his judgment seat; and Helaman did take upon him again  
  to preach unto the people the word of God; for because of 43
     




     

                       BOOK   OF   ALMA                                          405  
     
  so many wars and contentions, it had become expedient 01
  that a regulation should be made again in the church; therefore  
  Helaman and his brethren went forth, and did declare the  
  word of God with much power, unto the convincing of many  
  people of their wickedness, which did cause them to repent of 05
  their sins, and to be baptized unto the Lord their God. 06
     
           And it came to pass that they did establish again the church 07
  of God, throughout all the land; yea , and REGULATIONS were  
  made concerning the law. And their Judges, and their Chief  
  Judges were chosen. And the people of Nephi began to pros- 10
  per again in the land, and began to multiply and to wax excee-  
  ding strong again in the land. And they began to grow excee-  
  ding rich; but notwithstanding their riches, or their strength,  
  or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their  
  eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their 15
  God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him;  
  yea , they did remember how great things the Lord had done  
  for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from  
  bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions,  
  and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. 20
  And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, inso-  
  much that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so  
  that they did wax strong, and prosper in the land. And it<.U>  
  came to pass that all these things were done. And Helaman  
  died, in the thirty and fifth year of the reign of the Judges 25
  over the people of Nephi. 26
     


 


 
 

- Alma Text: Color Code Legend and Comments-


 
     
  brown text = words found in the Oberlin Ms & Book of Mormon

brown CAPs = words relatively unique to the Oberlin Ms & B. of M.

brown und. = phraseology common to the Oberlin Ms & B. of M.

green text = related words (common root) in Oberlin Ms & B. of M.

purple text = Proper nouns appearing only in the Book of Mormon

purple bold = Book of Mormon words not in the Oberlin Ms 		 


 



 
  Example:


 
           And it came to pass that Moroni and Lehi and Teancum, 403:32
  did encamp with their armies round about in the borders of  
  the land of Moroni , insomuch that the Lamanites were EN-  
  CIRCLED about in the borders by the wilderness, on the south, 403:35
   


  
  Commentary:


 
  And it = common Spalding word group ubiquitous in English texts

came to pass = "came to"/"to pass" (common Spalding word groups)

that, and, were = common Spalding words ubiquitous in English

Moroni, Lehi, Teancum, Lamanites = names found only in B. of M.

did encamp = Spalding words (not found together in the Oberlin Ms).
Rather than a biblical-sounding past emphatic tense, the Oberlin Ms
usually has the simple past, past perfect, and historical present tenses
(i.e. "was encamped," "they encamped," "had encamped," etc.)

with their armies = "with their"/"their armies" (Spalding terms)

round about = Spalding words (not found together in the Oberlin Ms).
Rather than the common biblical term, the Oberlin MS has "about the,"
"round the,""all around," "around us," "country about," etc.

in the, by the, that the = common Spalding terms ubiquitous in English

of the land of = "of the land"/"the land of" (Spalding terms)

insomuch = A Book of Mormon word not found in the Oberlin Ms.
This is a typical example of a B. of M. word common to the Bible
(NT & Apocrypha), Josephus, and other "King James" English texts.
While the Oberlin Ms makes occasional use of these kinds of words,
it usually has a simple preposition or conjunction in place of such an
archaic term (Spalding also used "so much," "as much," etc.).

Leaving aside B. of M. names (which would not be expected to occur
outside of that text) the occurrence of "insomuch" represents less than
3% of the 41 word Alma text example given above. A match of 97%
with Spalding's vocabulary is unusual, but not too terribly rare in the
"Nephite Record." Such high match rates may also be found in a few
other instances where relatively unique B. of M./ Spalding words
(like "burthen," "encircled," and "regulations") cluster together in the
same chapters, or even on the same pages, of the Book of Mormon.

ENCIRCLED = This is one of 37 words relatively unique to the B. of M.
and Spalding's Ms. (see commentary above for "relatively unique.")
It is found at the end of Alma XXIX clustered together with "burthen"
and "regulations," two other relatively unique words. The word is here
underlined due to parallels between Spalding and the B. of M. term:
the Lamanites were ENCIRCLED about in the borders by the wilderness

The Oberlin Ms. phraseology matches this closely with its word group:
the poor citizens now ENCIRCLED by the walls of a fort. [158:20-21].

Both the B. of M. and Spalding excerpts come from stories where the
armies of closely related pre-columbian peoples of the Americas are
fighting, fleeing, pursuing, encamping, taking prisoners, encircling, etc.
Spalding comes close to matching the B. of M.'s "encircled about" with
his own "encircle us all around" [023:04-05]. This parallel is weakened
by the fact that is does not concern endangered people during a war, but
it does have its own, separate matches with other B. of M. "encircle"
terminology.

borders, wilderness = Spalding words (not found together in his Ms.).

on the south = A Spalding term found on page 71 of his Oberlin Ms.:
". . . a nation which lived on the south . . ." [071:07-08]



 
  Conclusion:


To call any Book of Mormon textual parallel "substantial" is to invite
charges of over-exercising one's subjectivity and imagination, and this
is especially the case when the parallel is found in a non-scriptural text
of the early 19th century. Even so, it would be difficult to find matches of
greater substance than those hidden away in the later chapters of Alma.
The selection and commentary given above represents only a very small
sampling of textual patterns still awaiting methodical study. Whether or
not Spalding wrote some portion of the Book of Mormon, he certainly
could have written the sort of texts found in Alma XXIX. And he could
have done so without cobbling together some words from disparate
sources; he could have done so using his own stock phrases and story
elements of the kind found in his Oberlin Manuscript.

Locating unique word clusters and tracing out their various patterns of
occurrence in Spalding and the B. of M. is only one way to go about com-
paring the texts. As demonstrated above, this may prove to be one of the
more fruitful methodologies available to the modern researcher.



 



Return to Spalding Authorship Page