{"id":30293,"date":"2016-01-24T15:45:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T22:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=30293"},"modified":"2016-01-24T15:47:54","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T22:47:54","slug":"bom-2-nephi-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/bom-2-nephi-5.html","title":{"rendered":"BOM 2 Nephi 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Elephantine<\/a>
At the southern end of Elephantine Island in the Nile River, near Aswan, in Upper Egypt
(Wikimedia CC; click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"W<\/a>
Along the western shore of Elephantine Island
(Wikimedia CC; click to enlarge)
The name of the island, which comes from Greek, hearkens back to the pharaonic period,\u00a0when Aswan was a major center of the ivory trade with sub-Saharan Africa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Critics of the Book of Mormon have often criticized the idea, contained in today\u2019s reading (2 Nephi 5<\/a>), that Nephi built a temple in the New World. \u00a0I saw a video two or three years ago for which a rabbi had been recruited to mock the notion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

No good Jew, they say, would ever have built a temple except upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. \u00a0(And what bad, irreligious Jew would\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0to?)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the archaeological facts say otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is, for example, the small Israelite temple at\u00a0Tel Arad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the one at\u00a0Tel Be\u2019er Sheva<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And\u00a0another one<\/a>\u00a0seems recently to have been found located\u00a0only about five kilometers from the Temple Mount.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
An artist\u2019s reconstruction of the small ancient Jewish Temple of Elephantine Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there were at least\u00a0two ancient Jewish temples in Egypt<\/a>. \u00a0(One was on Elephantine Island, named for the ancient ivory trade with sub-Saharan Africa, which was a significant source of Aswan\u2019s wealth.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seen in this light, it doesn\u2019t seem quite so obvious a howler that the Book of Mormon has Nephi building a temple outside of Jerusalem, in the Land of Promise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Critics of the Book of Mormon have often criticized the idea, contained in today\u2019s reading (2 Nephi 5), that Nephi built a temple in the New World. \u00a0I saw a video two or three years ago for which a rabbi had been recruited to mock the notion. \u00a0 No good Jew, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBOM 2 Nephi 5<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"      Critics of the Book of Mormon have often criticized the idea, contained in today's reading (2 Nephi 5), that Nephi built a temple in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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