BYU Studies
Alphabetical by Authors

Mapping Mormonism brings together contributions from sixty experts in the fields of geography, history, Mormon history, and economics to produce the most monumental work of its kind. More than an atlas, this book also includes hundreds of timelines and charts, along with carefully researched descriptions, that track the Mormon movement from its humble beginnings to its worldwide expansion. A work of this magnitude rarely comes along. Mapping Mormonism’s first edition proved to be a landmark reference work in Mormon studies; now it is further improved and updated with the latest information in this second edition. This work covers the early Restoration, the settlement of the West, and the expanding Church, giving particular emphasis to recent developments in the modern Church throughout all regions of the world. Of all the books on Church history, Mapping Mormonism may be the single most effective work to date at giving an expansive vision of the rise of the LDS Church⿿a vision as vibrant as those who have led the way in building Zion. In 2012, Mapping Mormonism won the Mormon History Association Best Book Award and the Cartography and Geographic Information Society Best Atlas Award.

Jeffrey R. Chadwick, in three landmark articles published in BYU Studies Quarterly, discusses accurately dating key scriptural events. The first article (2010) presents evidence from historical and scriptural sources suggesting that Jesus Christ was born in December of the year 5 BC, rather than in April of 1 BC as commonly claimed in traditional Latter-day Saint sources. The second article (2015) is a follow-up to the first and lays out a more complex collection of evidence pointing to the day and date of Jesus’s crucifixion and death as a Thursday early in April of AD 30, thirty-three years and three months after his birth. The third article (2018) assembles a vast array of historical and archaeological data suggesting that the date of Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem must have been late in the year 605 BC, some six hundred years prior to Jesus’s birth in December of 5 BC.

In December 2010, BYU Studies published a study by Jeffrey R. Chadwick entitled “Dating the Birth of Jesus Christ.” It presented historical and scriptural evidence showing that Jesus was not born in April of 1 BC, as popular Latter-day Saint thought supposed, but most likely in December of 5 BC. A significant component in “Dating the Birth of Jesus Christ” was the proposition that Jesus died at Passover in the early spring of AD 30. While this dating is widely accepted, a minority of scholars disagree. A great deal of historical and scriptural evidence suggests otherwise, however, and this study demonstrates, with some degree of certainty, that Jesus did in fact die in AD 30, on the eve of Passover, the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan, which in that year fell on April 6 in the old Julian calendar. This study also presents evidence that the day on which Jesus died was not a Friday, but the fifth day of the Jewish week, the day we call Thursday. This paper introduces a great deal of data to support the author’s conclusions, including modern scholarly assessments, original primary historical references, citations from the New Testament and the Mishnah, astronomical information, and tables that display the timing of events.

Dating the departure of Lehi from Jerusalem is problematic and has resulted in various proposed dates, most falling between 597 and 587 BC, which do not allow for 600 years to elapse between the departure and the birth of Christ in late 5 BC or early 4 BC. In this article, the author introduces a variety of evidence to show that Lehi’s departure can be dated to sometime in late 605 BC. Much of this evidence results from an understanding of the state of affairs in ancient Judah during the reigns of Judean kings Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. The author introduces supporting evidence from the Book of Mormon account and also shows why other dating models reach untenable conclusions.

After approximately 140 years, public and scholarly opinion are finally beginning to concede the possibility that writing did indeed exist among the ancient Americans. While I have been waiting for this shift to occur among those who don’t have the Mormons’ axe to grind, I have been collecting every available evidence to support my belief in the existence of such writing. My own findings and the findings of others not only establish the fact that writing did exist in ancient America, but they also indicate that metal plates were frequently used as a medium for this writing and that the writings themselves often denote Old World, specifically Hebrew, origins.

The wheel is a basic mechanical device regarded by most scholars as one indication of a higher civilization. The earliest known use of the wheel is depicted on a limestone relief in Mesopotamia and indicates the use of a cart dating c. 3500 BC. For many years, scientific investigation has failed to produce information supporting the use of the wheel in Ancient America. Lately, however, there have been some artifacts found which are of serious interest to the student in this field, which is further supported by

This popular text, used throughout the Church for the study of world religions, has been revised and expanded. Two additional authors, several new chapters, a number of new illustrations, and much updated material add fresh perspectives to the former edition’s tried-and-true approach. The result portrays the vivid spectrum of truth as it extends across cultures and religious systems. The book presents a…

The acceptance of ad hoc ideas on Book of Mormon geography has been a continuing problem in Church history, and for a very good reason. Specifics are generally lacking, and attempts to quantify missing geographic data are frequently met with considerable skepticism. Some Church members find it equally difficult to accept the suggestion that naturally occurring events played a role in anything that is more easily explained by supernatural activity. Fully cognizant that addressing either subject is analogous to welcoming the African killer bees across the southern borders of our country, I offer a new idea on Lehi’s transoceanic voyage, an idea that is firmly rooted in recent atmospheric and oceanographic observations.

Referring to ancient and long-lost scripture that Joseph Smith restored, Wilford Woodruff declared it to be part of “the rich treasures that are revealed unto us in the last days.” One such treasure is Moses chapter 1, a scriptural jewel we have hardly begun to appreciate but whose luster has become more apparent in light of various ancient texts and traditions that have emerged since Joseph Smith’s day. So striking are the parallels as to recall Joseph’s own prophecy that “the world will prove Joseph Smith a true prophet by circumstantial evidence.”

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have become increasingly aware that the restoration of the gospel did not occur in a vacuum inhabited only by Joseph Smith. Numerous individuals were involved, both as forerunners and as disseminators of newly restored or revealed principles. And not all of those involved were members of the Church. It is not necessary, however, to rely exclusively on the “great minds,” the strongest voices (like Wordsworth or Milton), to find elements in strong parallel with LDS doctrine. Other poets, often less well known, less widely accepted critically, were equally convinced of such doctrinal points as a preexistence and of an apostasy and the need for a restoration. One of the most fascinating is the “minor” poet Henry Vaughan.

Chapter Sixteen of Mark Twain’s Roughing It begins, “All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the ”elect’ have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it.” Conversely, all Mormons have heard of Twain’s caustic burlesque on the Book of Mormon, but none seems to have taken the trouble to demonstrate to Gentiles that Twain was obviously one of the multitude who had not read the book. Indeed, the four chapters in Roughing It(1872) devoted to the Mormons and their “golden Bible” continue to evoke hilarity from Latter-day Saints, not only because of the burlesque on sacred Mormon institutions, of which Twain was understandably but appallingly ignorant, but also because of the amusingly evident fact that if Twain read the Book of Mormon at all, it was in the same manner that Tom Sawyer won the Sunday School Bible contest—by cheating.