BOM 1 Nephi 11

We come, now, to a favorite chapter of mine in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 11.

And I’m simply going to mention, in this connection, one of my very favorite articles among the various Mormon-related things that I’ve written and published.

Here it is in its abbreviated form:

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/9/2/S00003-50be458eb2b313Peterson.pdf

Here it is in its original much longer form, which I greatly prefer:

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1085&index=9

Many years ago, I was reading the first edition of Mark Smith’s The Early History of God while I also happened to be reading 1 Nephi 11.  And it suddenly dawned on me that I was seeing distinctively pre-exilic goddess imagery in Nephi’s vision of the Tree of Life.  I was astonished, and my two articles were the result.

Around that same time, the distinguished American archaeologist William Dever visited BYU and gave a presentation to a small faculty group.  He apologized at the beginning of his presentation, saying that, although he didn’t want to offend us, he was going to be arguing that the archaeological evidence clearly shows an early Hebrews belief that God had a consort or wife.

We hastened to reassure him that we wouldn’t be offended.  Not at all.

And the research into early Hebrew belief in a divine consort continues.  For example, Boyd Bauer kindly called my attention some time back to this interesting item:

http://news.discovery.com/history/religion/god-wife-yahweh-asherah-110318.htm