When the prophet Mormon compiled the book named after him, he used the records of his people covering just over a full millennium. Roughly 500 pages are used in the English edition of The Book of Mormon to tell the Nephite and Lamanite history, giving a mere half page per year to Mormon as he wrote his abridgment of his people's history. (31 more pages record the 1500 year history of the Jaredites).
The above graphic takes the number of pages dedicated to a year's events (or rather groups of 5 years) and presents this number in comparison to all other 5 year periods in the Book of Mormon record. I put this together using the foot notes throughout the 1979 edition of The Book of Mormon, where it lists approximately what year events occur.
I knew from my daily reading that there would be a concentration of pages around various discourses, but I was surprised that Christ's visit to the American Continent was third in page density to the missionary efforts of Alma along with the sons of Mosiah and to Nephi's quoting of Isaiah.
After noting the periods with such large gaps, I am contemplating what reasons the portions of the record we have were included during Mormon's abridgment. Share with me your thoughts if you have read the Book of Mormon, and if not, I invite you to do so. I can get you a free copy or you can read it on line.
I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that you can know for yourself. I have done as invited by Moroni (verses 3-5) and received an answer to my prayers concerning this book.
3 comments:
WOW, nice observation. I am amazed by this graph. Where did you get it? Did you do it? Thanks
How do I copy it larger for my personal use?
I put it together last night. It resulted from some thoughts after reading 3rd Nephi and then suddenly zipping 300 years into the future in 4 pages, and finding myself reading about Mormon's life.
You can click on the picture in my blog and it will link to the url that it is stored on at a much larger aspect ratio. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Hey, Ryan -- this is interesting! Funnily enough, I had never really thought about this concept before, but it's such a valid and important question. When we look at the amount of words God and the prophets spent on certain principles, we should wonder why.
I'm reading a book called "Why God Lets Us Choose," and the author sort of touches on this question in regard to our premortal life. That is, he says it's interesting to note that of all the mysteries and unknowns concerning the premortal world, God focused on the war in heaven and why it was fought. Of all the things He could've mentioned, he chose to talk about agency, so it must be pretty important.
I'd say we should start doing that more with the rest of scripture, so thanks for getting me started! :)
Also, here's a friend's religious blog that I think you might like: http://visionsofthekingdom.shynaar.net/.
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