It has been common in LDS scholarship to compare Lehi, the founding patriarch-prophet of the Book of Mormon, to perhaps the most famous prophet in the Jerusalem of Lehi’s time, Jeremiah. However, there were many other prophets called by God at roughly the same time, including Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others. A study of the words and phrases used in the accounts of the prophetic callings and visions of these contemporaries reveals similarities that go beyond the common message of Jerusalem’s destruction.

Read at bit.ly/knowhy469

The chiastic structure in Alma 62:48–51 shows that humbling ourselves before #God and remembering to keep His commandments will help us to avoid the #pride cycle so common throughout Nephite history.

Read at bit.ly/know468

Omni 1:26 encourages all people to offer their “whole souls as an offering” to God. This statement relates to the Law of Moses, and is a reminder that we should give ourselves to God symbolically, as animals were literally offered up to God under the Law of Moses.

Read at bit.ly/know467

Although it is never directly stated in the Book of Mormon, a number of passages suggest that Lehi was familiar with and drew upon Zenos’s Allegory of the Olive Tree.

Read at bit.ly/know466

What do we know about the composition of Lehi's party which accompanied him into the wilderness? Based on a careful reading of Nephi's record, modern scholars have plausibly reconstructed the named, unnamed, and implied members of the group. Besides the families of Lehi and Ishmael, it is also possible that unmentioned "others" also accompanied Lehi's group.

Read at bit.ly/know465

Who exactly were these “elders” mentioned by Zoram and why are readers not told more about them by Nephi? Because the Book of Mormon gives no more information about their identity, scholars have turned to the social institution of Israelite “elders” in the world of ancient Israel for further understanding.

Read at bit.ly/know464

Nephi mentions the imprisonment of Jeremiah in 1 Nephi 7:14. This raises questions concerning the chronology of the Book of Mormon. Analysis of this passage also reveals Nephi's rhetorical strategy in attempting to persuade his brothers.

Read at bit.ly/know463

The Lord promised Nephi that he would become a ruler and a teacher over his brethren, and Nephi was eventually made king. As in Nephi’s account, the fulfillment of those promises is clearly demonstrated in the Old Testament.

Read at bit.ly/know462

Nephi stated that after he made an abridgment of his father’s record, he would give an account of His own life. Several lines of textual evidence suggest where this division took place.

Read at bit.ly/know461

The similarities between the experiences of the characters in the Book of Mormon and this dispensation suggest that exhaustion related to spiritual experiences is a common element of such experiences in various times and places.

Read at bit.ly/know460