In addition to some
scholars claiming the Nephites never built out of stone, they and others claim
that "The
Jaredite cities and ceremonial centers were built of stone, earth and a minimal
amount of wood. The Nephites built principally with wood, with some
fortifications of earth, rock and timber. Both Jaredite and Nephite homes were
probably constructed of wood, with pole or matting walls and thatched roofs."
One has to wonder how anyone came up with such an idea, for
we have no idea what a Nephite home looked like, let alone from what materials
it was built. However, in 600 B.C. Jerusalem, we do know what homes looked like
and how they were built with which Nephi, Sam and Zoram would have been familiar. “The
houses inside the walled city were built on
the hillsides in a sort of terraced manner. Even the biggest of these homes was
not large, although most homes were two stories high, the second story being
more like a loft covered by the main roof. Paint was rarely used and the houses
were light tan because they were, by and large, from local stone with
some mud and wood. Inside, wood beams and joists supported the roofs. The main
social unit was the household, which is more than just a family. The head of
the household was the father, and the household consisted of multiple homes
built close together and usually comprised the father’s sons and unmarried
daughters and any aging parent, uncle, or unmarried aunt. In most cases the
homes surrounded an outdoor courtyard where much of the cooking and social
activities took place.”
When Nephi left his
brothers after Lehi’s death, he took with him all those who would go with him, including
his own family, and “Zoram and his family,
and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger
brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all
those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the
revelations of God” (2 Nephi 5:6), thus, when this group settled, they built a
city, called the City of Nephi. Up until this time, and since leaving Jerusalem
some ten to twelve years earlier, they lived and slept in tents (2 Nephi 5:7),
but when they got around to building a permanent city (2 Nephi 5:15), it only
stands to reason that they built houses of the type with which they were
familiar—made of stone, mud and some wood.
With Nephi, as the
father of his family, being responsible under the Jewish custom of his day, he
likely built a home that had a central court, with other homes around it that
housed his unmarried sisters, brothers, perhaps his mother (we never learned
what happened to Sariah), and any other family members that were not heads of
their own families. Men of this time were predominantly involved in farming,
his wife would have run the household and supervised the additional members
living in this complex.
In addition, public buildings
in ancient Jerusalem were made of stone. King David’s house, unearthed
recently, was a large stone structure, even though the record shows that “Hiram
king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and carpenters,
and masons; and they built David a house.” (2 Samuel 5:11). In 2005,
remains of what became known as the “Large Stone Structure,” built in 10th
Century B .C., were discovered beneath ruins from the Byzantine and
Second Temple periods.
Obviously, the Jews
for four hundred years before Lehi left Jerusalem, used stone in their
building, both of small houses and of large public buildings and of the Temple.
Why, then, would we think that when Nephi came to the Land of Promise, that he
build houses out of “wood, with pole or matting walls and thatched
roofs”?
The only reason a person could
suggest such a thing is because there are no stone edifices in his model area
for his Land of Promise, and he has to eliminate any stone building by the
Nephites. A problem we find frequently in people who have a
pre-determined location and try to write about it to prove their viewpoint. The fact of
the matter is that Nephi and Sam grew up in a society that built with stone and
had for hundreds of years—they knew no other type of construction. When they
arrived in the land of Promise, it stands to reason they built in the manner
they knew and understood.
Top Left: North American Indian building
with wood poles and thatched roof; Right: Wood “window” in a stone house; Bottom
Left: Timber used for support of stone structure; Right: Ceiling timbers once
held up the roof of this stone house
Which brings us to the use of
wood. Wood, of course, is a versatile building material. It was anciently used
for such things as roof supports, door and window framing, flooring,
staircases, steps, railings, stalls, fences, platforms, mezzanines, internal
wall divisions, etc. When Nephi said “I did teach my people
to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of
copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious
ores, which were in great abundance,” (2 Nephi 5:15), he was explaining that
the workmanship he taught his people was in the varying uses of wood, as well
as how to molten iron and copper, forge brass, create steel, and cut gems for
decoration, etc. No doubt he also showed them how to hammer gold into plates to
be written upon, cover walls, decorations, columns, etc., with gold and silver
aesthetic purposes. However, he was not telling us that he built anything
exclusively out of wood anymore than he was telling us he taught his people to
built steel buildings as we built today.
It should also be
kept in mind that wood is a building material essential in any type of
construction, for among other things, supports, decorations, and framing. It
would be inconceivable to consider building a house without wood in any era,
anciently or today, if wood was available. Thus, when the Nephites traveled
north into the Land of Desolation and beyond to the Land of Cumorah (Helaman
3:4), and “spread forth into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had
not been rendered desolate and without timber, because of the many inhabitants
who had before inherited the land” (Helaman 3:5), some ended up through
expansion in areas where there were no trees for timber (Helaman 3:6). There
they lived in tents as they built houses of cement (2 Nephi 3:7), but without
timber there could be no casings for doors and windows, stairs and other
construction where wood was typically used.
It should be
understood that working with cement was not a new idea to the Nephites in 46
B.C. when they sent for cement from the Land Southward (Helaman 3:11), but at this
time those who went north became quite expert in using cement to build
houses—probably something they had not done before. Still, they preferred wood
for such trim, support and decoration as they were used to, and suffered trees
to grow up so they could harvest the timber (Helaman 3:9). But even after
obtaining wood, through import or growth, they still built out of cement along
with the wood (Helaman 3:11).
Regarding the housing
in the Land Southward, one scholar wrote: “The dwellings were likely constructed of light wood with
thatched roofs, built upon raised mounds of rock and earth, with cobbled
pathways in-between. The account mentions temples, synagogues, sanctuaries,
palaces and towers. It is also likely that these were built of wood. The people
were skilled in building construction, wood working, metal working, and gold
smithing. It is logical to assume that Nephite architecture would be
similar to that of the Hebrews of the 6th century B.C.”
At least he got the last part right—it would have been
similar to that of 6th Century Jerusalem, which Israeli
archaeologists claim was mostly “built of stone with some mud and wood.” No houses
in ancient Jerusalem were built on raised platforms of rock, nor did they have
thatched roofs. The roofs of their houses were solid and used for living,
eating and sleeping during warm nights and in the summer. Not only did King
David in the 10th Century B.C. walk upon the roof of the king’s
house, obviously a common practice, in which he saw Bathsheba bathing on the
roof of her own house. In fact, in Lehi’s time, roofs were
reached by wood stairs or a wooden ladder, and the roof was used as an outdoor
room that was partly shaded by matting or a tent.
Examples of houses excavated within
and around Jerusalem, dating to Lehi’s time. Each has a flat roof where the
family spent much time. These were not stick and thatch houses built like the
Indians of Central and North America, but solid stone houses with wood timbers
to support the roof, and sometimes wood floors on the second story
According to Architecture of the Bible: "Housing," the inside rooms tended to be small and
dark, so the courtyard and the roof were important parts of the house, used for
tasks that needed good light—such as spinning and weaving, and food
preparation. The flat roof area might also be used for sleeping, or for drying
food or textiles (Joshua 2:6). In the earlier period of Jewish history, it was
also used for bathing, such as Bathsheba, who bathed on the flat roof of her
house, where she was seen by King David (2 Samuel 11:2-4).
When Nephi returned
from an unsuccessful missionary trip to the Land Northward, he retired to his
roof and to the tower thereon to pray to the Lord (Helaman 7:10). Based upon
Jewish custom in Jerusalem, such gardens and towers were part of the flat roof
structure, and was reached from the roof of the house.
(See the next post,
“Did the Nephites Build out of Stone? Part III,” for more on the building of
the Jaredites and the Nephites)
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