![\"Sand](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/08\/800px-Desert_Dunes.jpg\")
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Two new items went up on Friday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n
\u201cNephi\u2019s Eight Years in the \u201cWilderness\u201d: \u00a0Reconsidering Definitions and Details,<\/a>\u201d written by Godfrey J. Ellis<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract: <\/strong>A traditional reading of Nephi\u2019s chronicle of the trek through Arabia relies heavily on two verses in 1 Nephi 17. In verse 4, Nephi states that they \u201cdid sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.\u201d In verse 5, he reports that \u201cwe did come to the land which we called Bountiful.\u201d The almost universal interpretation of these verses is that of sequential events: eight years traversing the arid desert of Western Arabia following which the Lehites entered the lush Bountiful for an unspecified time to build the ship. A question with the traditional reading is why a trip that could have taken eight months ostensibly took eight years. It may be that Nephi gave us that information. His \u201ceight years\u201d could be read as a general statement about one large context: the \u201cwilderness\u201d of all of Arabia. In other words, the \u201ceight years in the wilderness\u201d may have included both the time in the desert and the time in Bountiful. In this paper I examine the basis for such an alternative reading.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cInterpreting Interpreter<\/em>: Eight Years in the Wilderness,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cNephi\u2019s Eight Years in the \u201cWilderness\u201d: Reconsidering Definitions and Details<\/a>\u201d by Godfrey J. Ellis in Volume 57 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> series is available at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong> Ellis argues that Nephi\u2019s reference to \u201ceight years in the wilderness\u201d includes the time spent in Bountiful, allowing us to set concrete estimates for Nephi\u2019s travel and shipbuilding efforts, and making it unnecessary to explain that time by positing extended stays in desert regions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>