Saturday, July 23, 2022

Alma 36:22 and 1 Nephi 1:8: An Example of the Internal Consistency of the Book of Mormon

In Alma 36:22, we read:

 

Yea, and methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw,

God sitting upon his throne,

surrounded with numberless concourses of angels

in the attitude of singing and praising their God.

Yea, and my soul did long to be there.

 

1 Nephi 1:8 reads as follows:

 

And being thus overcome with the Spirit,

he was carried away in a vision,

even that he saw the heavens open

and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne,

surrounded with numberless concourses of angels

in the attitude of singing and praising their God.

 

According to John W. Welch, Alma 36:22 was translated on March 24, 1829, with 1 Nephi 1:8 being translated 42 days later on May 5, 1829 (see John W. Welch, "The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon," in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844, ed. John W. Welch [2d ed.; Provo, Utah: BYU Press; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017], 121, 123). Notwithstanding six weeks separating the dictation of these two passages, we have this strong example of the internal consistency within the Book of Mormon.


Further Reading:

John Tvedtnes, King Mosiah and the Judgeship

Knowledge of Christ's coming in the Book of Mormon: Are there Internal Inconsistencies in the Text?

John L. Sorenson, The Significance of the Chronological Discrepancy between Alma 53:22 and Alma 56:9

Kerry A. Shirts (back when he was sane!), The Astonishing Internal Consistency of the Book of Mormon