In his excellent
article, When
Lehi's Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There? John L.
Sorenson made the case that the Book of Mormon is a lineage history (do note:
this article was not the first time this was proposed by Sorenson and other LDS
scholars). Further evidence supporting this thesis can be seen in 2 Nephi 4
where Lehi blesses those who followed him to the New World:
And it came to pass
that after my father had made an end of speaking to the sons and daughters of
Laman, he caused the sons and daughters of Lemuel to be brought before him. And
he spake unto them, saying: Behold, my sons and my daughters, who are the sons
and the daughters of my second son; behold I leave unto you the same blessing
which I left unto the sons and daughters of Laman; wherefore, thou shalt not
utterly be destroyed; but in the end thy seed shall be blessed. And it came to pass that when my father
had made an end of speaking unto them, behold, he spake unto the sons of
Ishmael, yea, and even all his household. And after he had made an end of
speaking unto them, he spake unto Sam, saying: Blessed art thou, and thy
seed; for thou shalt inherit the land like unto thy brother Nephi. And thy seed
shall be numbered with his seed; and thou shalt be even like unto thy brother,
and thy seed like unto his seed; and thou shalt be blessed in all thy days. (2
Nephi 4:8-11)
Why does this support for the Book of Mormon as a lineage history?
Notice that Nephi, when reproducing the words of Lehi, only reproduces the
wording of the blessings to his family members, even including the always-rebellious
Laman, Lemuel, and their families; however, in verse 10, we are only told that
he blessed the household of Ishmael but does not even bother reproducing the
words of Lehi’s blessing to Ishmael’s household! Such disinterest in other families and lineages is part-and-parcel of what one would expect if, as proposed (correctly, IMO) by many scholars, the Book of Mormon is a lineage history of Lehi and his descendants.
