More Comments from Readers – Part I

Here are more comments that we have received from readers of this website blog:

Rocky Mountains in Provo, Utah 

Comment #1: “I started reading your blog from the oldest and am almost done through your most current posts.  Absolutely love your work and have shared your website with many friends and relatives.  Just bought your first book to read next.  Was just reading your October post about mountains of exceeding height, and in this post you state: ‘Now in the entire Western Hemisphere, there are only two locations where mountains have so great a height that the Lord would have chosen “mountains whose height is great” as a sign to look forward to at the time of his crucifixion, and forever after remind people of the event those mountains signaled.’ While I do agree that the Andes mountains are those prophesied of (due to the abundance of evidence you point out throughout your blog entries), I'm not sure that "there are only two locations" possible.  I was born in New York near Palmyra and grew up in Michigan.  Both are very flat areas.  When I first came to Utah to enter the MTC, I was amazed at the mountains, which to me had a height, which was great.  I've now lived in Utah for 20 years and am still amazed at the height and beauty of the Rocky Mountains.  Some years ago when I first traveled to Idaho and saw the Tetons, I was amazed at their height as well. The prophesy does not say they will be the highest mountains; just "whose height is great". To me it seems there are at least a handful of mountain ranges that could meet that criteria.  (Now, when you add in all the other criteria you have so skillfully shown throughout your blog, only the Andes fit). That's just my perspective on this scripture, but thought I'd share it with you.” 
Response: “Sometimes we forget that our perspective is not always shared by our readers. When we said there are only two areas in the Western Hemisphere where mountains are really high, or "whose height is great," we should have clarified that Western Hemisphere mountains run along from Tierra del Fuego (tip of South America) all the way to Alaska (and the Aleutian islands) in a continuous and contiguous chain, often referred to in the Bible and Church as the Land of Everlasting Hills, i.e., North and South America, and that those mountains exist through South America (Andes), Central America/Mexico (Sierra Madre, etc.) Utah Idaho, Washington, etc., Rocky Mountains, California (Sierra Nevada) all the way to Alaska (Alaska Range) etc.
    Now, since no one has suggested that the western U.S. is the sight of the Land of Promise (California, Utah, Idaho, Washington, etc.), we typically do not write about those areas being considered as the Land of Promise location and skip to the main locations discussed, South America, Central America, Mesoamerica, Eastern U.S., Heartland, Great Lakes, etc. Therefore, the only two areas in the Western Hemisphere where there are mountains whose height is great would be South America and Mesoamerica (Land of Promise suggested sites). Sorry for the confusion.

Mt. Concagua of the Andes in South America

However, while on the subject, we might also add that of the mountains of the world, beginning with the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere (Mt. Aconcaguas – Andes, at 22,840-feet) the next 25 mountains in the Western Hemisphere are all in the Andes, making the top 26 in the Andes, then one in Alaska, 9 more in the Andes, 1 in Canada, then 12 more in the Andes (meaning of the highest 51 mountains in the Western Hemisphere, 49 lie within the Andes Range of South America); or overall, 59 of the highest 69 mountains in the Western Hemisphere are found in the Andes—and of those found in suggested Land of Promise areas, of the highest 62 mountains, 59 are in the Andes and 3 in Mexico, with 47 in the Andes before the highest in Mexico is reached.
Comment #2: “I know you have written a lot about the grammar and English-Hebrew type of errors or differences, especially in the changes of the language during the early to late 1800s, but what can you say about the error in Mosiah? In this particular instance, the name of King Benjamin was used and translated as such in the original 1830 edition, yet Joseph Smith later corrected it to read King Mosiah (Benjamin’s son) for King Benjamin had been dead for some time by the period covered in the verse (Mosiah 21:28). That is a different type of error and if God was behind this translation then why did it occur?” Cy F.
Response: This has been answered by others far more knowledgeable of translation than we are, but in brief, your comment is correct. It was a mistake. Now one might ask whose mistake was it? Joseph Smith for making a slip in translating, reading Mosiah but thinking Benjamin? Certainly that is a common enough thing for people to do—some do it quite frequently in daily conversation. On the other hand, since God or the Spirit was involved in the translation as we have reported several times, to assign the error to the Spirit is to assign it to God and that would be unthinkable.
    Consequently, we are left to wonder if Mormon, abridging the record of Mosiah didn’t inadvertently make the slip. Such would be possible, of course, and may be the answer. On the other hand, we need to understand that our purpose of being on earth, and serving in various capacities in the kingdom as some are called upon to do, are still human with human frailties and God allows us to make our mistakes that we may learn and profit by them in our growth and development.
    In translating over 500 pages, it might be asked why are there not more errors? The importance of the Book of Mormon is not in its perfect writing style, prose, spelling or grammar, but in the spiritual message the Lord wants delivered to his children. In that, the Book of Mormon is perfect, and the Lord so indicated it was when he said to Joseph and the witnesses: ”These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear'" (History of the Church, by Joseph Smith, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55). 

After all, there were errors in the Bible, in its translation, in its printing, in its Hebrew and later Greek writing. The point is not whether the Bible is a perfect work of language, but of the message it has delivered to countless millions over the millennia. The same is true with the Book of Mormon. That many of these errors have been found through careful observance and study and corrected to the point of clarity is of value, and one to be expected in any work accomplished by man. As Sidney Sperry point out, “what we have here is an example of another human error that Joseph Smith was glad to correct" (The Problems of the Book of Mormon, page 203).
    It might be kept in mind that the Book of Mormon has been translated into 82 full foreign languages and 25 partial languages and has been named one of the twenty books that changed America—in that, it was and is, a perfect translation and we are under command to tell the world: “These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.”
Comment #3: “I understand that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith in 1829. Did it take the entire year? Even so, that seems like a short time to translate 530 pages or so” Edward S.
Response: Actually, his dictation of the translation to scribes took only about three months—April, May and June 1829. As we have described in these pages in the past, he translated the plates with the help of a seer stone that witnesses said he placed in a hat, which he then put over his face to block out the light so he could see the writing on the stone.
    It is a strange story, to be sure, but the surviving manuscripts do show that the text was dictated aloud, one time through—which is a heck of a way to write such a lengthy book, including with more than 200 named characters and 90 place names. Its chronology, internal geography, and genealogies are all quite consistent. There have been a few thousand changes made in the text since it was first published in 1830, but virtually all of them have been grammatical corrections; the narrative itself is basically exactly what Joseph first dictated.”