Alma<\/em><\/a> on the website of the Book of Mormon Onomasticon Project.)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the public presentations in which I very briefly commented on Alma<\/em>, I regularly indicated that the evidence overwhelmingly shows that having the name affixed to two masculine figures isn\u2019t the mistake, let alone the obvious and fatal howler, that anti-Mormon polemicists liked to ridicule. \u00a0And I stand by that. \u00a0The folks at the Utah Evangel<\/em> were wrong. \u00a0Their argument fails. \u00a0The Book of Mormon certainly doesn\u2019t look less ancient or less authentic because it features men named Alma.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I also commonly suggested that what had once seemed a weakness in the Book of Mormon was now evidently an asset: \u00a0Alma<\/em> is in fact an anciently attested Semitic masculine personal name \u2014 something that Joseph Smith would have been, to put it mildly, very unlikely to know.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t given such presentations often or at all for quite a number of years now. \u00a0But transcriptions and recordings of them have received modestly wide distribution.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since that time, though, I\u2019ve been told that, in fact, there were some non-Latter-day Saint American men before and during the period of Joseph Smith who may have borne the name Alma<\/em>. \u00a0 (The computerization of genealogical and census materials makes searches for such names far easier than they were even just a few years ago.) \u00a0I haven\u2019t personally investigated this claim, since Alma<\/em> isn\u2019t a topic that I address much any more. \u00a0Perhaps I\u2019ll do it, sometime, but my current priorities lie elsewhere.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
If true, though, it would obviously weaken somewhat \u2014 though I don\u2019t think that it wholly obviates \u2014 my suggestion that Alma<\/em>\u00a0represents minor but genuine evidence for the Book of Mormon\u2019s authentic antiquity. \u00a0But I would want to know how likely Joseph Smith would have been to know of men named Alma. \u00a0How common was<\/em> the name among males in early America? \u00a0Did certain regions favor it more than others? \u00a0If so, where? \u00a0In places with which Joseph Smith was familiar?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I address this topic now because somebody challenged me yesterday on the matter, accusing me of lying, of deliberate deceit, because, in the presentations that I used to make in which I would devote perhaps a minute or two to the name Alma<\/em>, I failed to mention the fact \u2014 again, I\u2019m assuming it to be true \u2014 that at least a few early American men bore that name.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t, of course, seeking to deceive anybody. \u00a0I was speaking honestly, as I routinely do, on the basis of the information that I had at the time. \u00a0And, in any event, much of my argument remains quite unaffected.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Columbia Falls, Montana<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Many years ago, though for several years, I was on the mailing list of Utah Missions, Inc., based in Marlow, Oklahoma. \u00a0Accordingly, each month, I received their grammatically fascinating free tabloid, the Utah Evangel. \u00a0The Evangel was a treasure trove of logical fallacies and of curious fundamentalist Protestant arguments against my faith, and […]<\/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-76676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>