BOM 1 Nephi 12

Today’s Book of Mormon reading is 1 Nephi 12. 

Out of all that that chapter covers, I want to say something today about “the large and spacious building” to which allusion is made in 1 Nephi 12:18, but which was, of course, first mentioned as part of Lehi’s vision in 1 Nephi 8.

I’ve wondered for years, though I’ve done absolutely no research on the matter, whether that building might have looked something like those I feature in this entry:

It’s pretty obvious, from the description of the route of Lehi’s party given in 1 Nephi, that they followed the ancient Arabian frankincense trail but then turned essentially due east in order to reach the Arabian Sea.  (See the map here.)

We can only speculate as to the reasons for this course correction, but it should be known that Yemen, anciently, was a place of urban settlement and sedentary agriculture, very unlike the nomadic Bedouin life of the interior of the Arabian Peninsula and, accordingly, unlike much of Lehi’s trail.  There was terraced farming there, and a monarchy, and relatively extensive trade.  It was somewhere in this area, for example, that the Queen of Sheba lived, and when, according to the Bible (see 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9), she came to visit with Solomon in Jerusalem and asked him “questions,” this was almost certainly a trade negotiation between the rulers of states dominating the western and eastern ends of the very lucrative frankincense trail.

I would guess that Lehi feared exposing his recalcitrant sons Laman and Lemuel to the temptations of a relatively comfortable urban area after the patriarchal austerity of their long desert journey.  And parents can easily understand his fear of losing them, though we can also certainly speculate how the history of the Book of Mormon peoples might have been different if only the rebellious Laman and Lemuel had opted to stay among the fleshpots of Yemen.

Anyway, Lehi, who may (as Hugh Nibley and others have suggested) have been an experienced and successful caravan merchant, avoided Yemen, and may have regarded it as a threat to the faith and unity of his family.

It would be appropriate, in that light, if the “great and spacious building” (1 Nephi 8:26) that Lehi saw in his dream had the appearance of a traditional Yemeni “skyscraper.”

“It stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.  And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine, and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.”  (1 Nephi 8:26-27)

These traditional Yemeni structures are often, though not always, actually built on high eminences.  This is for defensive purposes.  The same concern for defense means that they often have few windows, or no windows, on the ground floor.  Thus, particularly in the dark — think of the “mists of darkness” mentioned in 1 Nephi 8:24 — and with people standing, backlit, at open windows, they would seem to stand “in the air, high above the earth.”

These buildings in Yemen are quite old.  Medieval.  What I don’t know — I haven’t researched this hunch of mine, and I’m not sure whether an archaeological answer is even available in that remote and poor part of Arabia — is how far back such construction styles go.  Were buildings of this type standing in 600 BC?  I see no reason why they couldn’t have been, but I don’t know and can’t currently say that they were.