Emeritus professor of anthropology John L. Sorenson has pursued his interests in ancient Book of Mormon culture and peoples since he served a mission in New Zealand and the Cook Islands in 1949.
His extensive scholarly analysis of the Book of Mormon, specifically where the prophet Mormon got his historical information for his writings, was the topic of the second biennial Laura F. Willes Center Book of Mormon lecture Thursday night.
His discussion began with a context of Mormon’s time. Sorenson said Mormon set out to write an abridgment of his peoples’ records when they were about to enter battle.
He called Mormon’s work “a daunting feat,” considering the severe time restrictions and other limitations he faced. Sorenson explained how Mormon had to produce a book to last centuries, one that was portable but able to fit all the information needed on the plates.
Sorenson also said Mormon had to “severely discipline his editorial hand so as to construct a narrative of practical length that was faithful to the facts of history related on the archival records he was summarizing.”
Sorenson said Mormon depended primarily on the large plates of Nephi for information which covers more than 600 years of history.
The format of the plates was annals, which Sorenson defined as “yearly summaries of salient events.” In other words, they recorded the major events that happened each year. Annals helped shorten the history. For example, he said 285 years of history covered only 49 verses. They also helped Mormon decided what to include in his record.
In addition to the large plates of Nephi and annals, Mormon also used his own eyewitness accounts or those of earlier record keepers. Sorenson said there were difficulties in recording accurate information.
“There was no press back they [record keepers] could consult,” Sorenson said, so they had to rely on casual reports and rumors by merchants or travelers.
Mormon also referred to other supplementary documents from the Nephite library in his possession, such as the text of King Benjamin’s discourse.
In order to fill in some of the gaps in stories, Sorenson said Mormon had to make historical inferences based on general information. However, Sorenson affirmed that “Mormon did not manufacture any history.”
“There is a human side to historians; Mormon did the best he could with the information available to him,” he said.
Sorenson concluded by saying an understanding of the authorship of the Book of Mormon confirms “it was written anciently using the words of a variety of persons and not by any one person in the 19th century.”
