Grant Hardy discusses the New World animals listed in 1 Nephi 18:25; proposes that Nephi may be applying Old World terms for these animals, or it may be an issue concerning translation, or simply an inaccuracy.

Date
2023
Type
Book
Source
Grant Hardy
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

Grant Hardy, The Annotated Book of Mormon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), 63

Scribe/Publisher
Oxford University Press
People
Grant Hardy
Audience
Reading Public
Transcription

25: It is surprising that Nephi does not report encounters with other humans. Any large area of the world with rich vegetation and animal life would have already been populated, yet in Nephi’s telling the story of the Lehites in the New World is a family drama, and after the Nephtes encounter the Mulekites in the book of Omni, the BoM becomes a tale of rival Israelite lineages. Other native peoples may be assumed to be in the background, but they are never mentioned explicitly. Beasts in the forests of every kind, none of the animals in the list that follows were native to the Americas in the pre-Columbian era, which may indicate that Nephi is applying familiar names to newly encountered fauna, or it may be a translation issue or simply an inaccuracy.

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