Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Volume 1: First Nephi

Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon #1

by Brant A. Gardner

Gardner, Brant A.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, History, Mormonism

469 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 2007

Reviews

[Jolie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it terrible to add a shameless promotion for my Dad's book? I am currently reading this, and if you are interested in a scholarly, comprehensive commentary on the Book of Mormon, this one really is great. He takes a look at the Book of Mormon, verse by verse, discusses the importance of everything from cultural context to translation issues, and uses those things to enhance doctrinal understanding.

Yay, Dad!

[Christian Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a commentary on the Book of Mormon, this one outstrips them all. Without exaggeration, every other commentary set (especially the 4-vol McConkie/Millet set) is going to appear useless and superficial in comparison. Gardner uses everything at his disposal, from literary criticism and early manuscripts of the Book of Mormon to Mesoamerican cultural and archaeological findings to inform his commentary. It is not just trite fluff, devotional ramblings, or regurgitation of General Authority quotes (see the McConkie/Millet set to see what I'm talking about) but is hard hitting and thought provoking. Whether you are a true believer in the Mesoamerican model for Book of Mormon geography or even question the very historicity of the Book of Mormon, this commentary will enlighten and enliven your reading of the Book of Mormon in every aspect.

[Kevin Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

To enhance our Sunday School reading of the Book of Mormon, I'm going through Brant's six volume commentary. I'm pleased to see that he makes powerful use of Margaret Barker's work, supplimenting her insights with other non-LDS scholars, notably William Dever and Mark Smith. And many more. He provides a wide-ranging survey and provides fresh insights throughout. It's not just more of the same.

[Joshua Sears · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are lots of Book of Mormon commentaries out there. You can find reviews that call this one the "best," and I agree with them, but I also have to clarify that "best" depends on what you want to get out of a commentary. Some commentaries aim to make the text easy to understand by breaking it up into small and familiar gospel nuggets. Others might challenge the reader a little more but focus primarily on doctrinal discussions, especially doctrine as understood by the modern Church. Such approaches are valid and I have no quarrel with them. But in my field of training, there are three crucial concepts that guide any reading of an ancient text: context, context, context. When I read the Old or New Testaments, I want to know what the historical setting is, what cultural influences impact the author, and how the text would have been perceived by its original audience. Because of my personal disposition toward that kind of a reading, I'm a huge fan of Brant Gardner's approach to the Book of Mormon. He analyzes the text on its own terms, without (as much as he can) superimposing modern paradigms and assumptions. His readings are deep and nuanced, and always make me think, even if I don't agree with some particular point.

It's important to note that in this series Gardner assumes a Mesoamerican setting for the events of the Book of Mormon. The reasons for that pairing have been ably argued elsewhere, so he doesn't spend a lot of time there; rather, he takes that geography as a starting point and asks, if the Book of Mormon took place in this location at this time, how can our knowledge of that place and time inform how we understand what is going on in the Book of Mormon? I'm pointing out this geographical assumption because if you are the kind of person who believes the Book of Mormon took place somewhere else, or if you are turned off by any discussion of Book of Mormon geography (remember, the Church has no official position), then this aspect of the series might be off-putting to you. In the end, however, I'd still recommend this series to someone who isn't fully committed to a particular geography, simply because there's so much to chew on.

By any measure, Gardner's thoughtful work has set a new standard for serious engagement with the Book of Mormon.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this book is a really detailed and excellent commentary on the book of 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. The author focuses and draws heavily on academic scholarship of the Book of Mormon and the Bible for the context it provides for the life and times of Lehi & family during the events of 1 Nephi. The author argues for a limited Mesoamerican geographic model of the new world events of the Book of Mormon. This book definitely had a wealth of good information, including references to quite a lot of academic research I was not previously familiar with. I learned a lot and appreciate the insights this commentary gave into the Book of Mormon. I didn't agree with 100% of the author's general arguments and conclusions, but I appreciated how he attempts to be quite serious and methodical about considering the best available balance of evidence.

There was one reoccurring thing about the way this book was written that I found a bit irksome. There were frequent instances where the author would cite some evidence and then say that because of that something "certainly" happened or "definitely" is true, when I think it would be more accurate to say that that thing "likely" happened or "probably" is true. This writing pattern tended to express a greater sense of certitude to some of the arguments/conclusions made than in my opinion the evidence necessarily warranted. Some things the author felt "certain" were true I am personally more skeptical about.

This book does have a bit of doctrinal commentary, but if you are looking for a commentary focused mainly on that you would probably want to check out the 4-volume Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie commentary. This commentary is more focused on context (geography, history, culture, anthropology, etc.), language, translation, text issues, and so forth. Both this series and the Millet/McConkie series have enriched my understanding and appreciation of the Book of Mormon and I would recommend both to my friends. I plan to read the remaining volumes in this series.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great commentary that pulls together different threads of scholarship on the Book of Mormon (BoM), from textual variants to Mesoamerican archaeology to everything in between. It goes verse by verse (literally reproducing the text of the BoM, so you could technically just read this and you'd also be reading the BoM) and gives commentary, an enormous undertaking. The various interlude essays also do a great job of outlining the various issues in producing such a commentary and taking the BoM seriously, and also of showing Gardner's preconceptions. This volume only covers 1 Nephi, but I look forward to the others because I can tell that Gardner has thought long and hard about Mesoamerica being the site for the BoM, and this series of commentaries is more up to date than John Sorenson's work on that subject.

Perhaps not as theologically interesting as it might have been, but Gardner is a Mesoamerican and ancient world expert, and so those are the lenses through which most of this commentary is produced. I'm glad to be reading it alongside the Maxwell Institute's Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon series, as well as Grant Hardy's Annotated Book of Mormon from Oxford UP. Between the three of them, I have a lot of bases covered.

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first commentary I've read on the Book of Mormon--and it only covered 1 Nephi! I was impressed with how through the discussion was (there was commentary on every single verse), and it was complex and scholarly without being painfully academic. I learned a lot, and feel able to talk about the BoM on a higher level than I could before, which is very helpful for teaching Gospel Doctrine this year. I don't know that I agreed with *everything* Gardner suggested, but I mostly thought it was incredibly insightful. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting commentary on the first book in the Book of Mormon - lots of approaches, well-cited, discussion of various interpretations, literary aspects, historical aspects. I learned a lot, and have already started on volume 2.

[David Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book I've ever read on the Book of Mormon

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great start to what, so far at least, has been a great commentary. Someone needs to put together a synthesis of all of the great scholarship that has been done on the Book of Mormon in the past two or three decades. The book should go verse by verse through the Book of Mormon, very similar to what Mr. Gardner has done here, but should summarize briefly the various (sometimes conflicting) commentary that has been generated by FARMS/Maxwell Institute and in other scholarly publications during the past quarter century or so. I would definitely by that book (probably series of books).

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid. I wish there were more information on each verse, and perhaps less speculation. Still, this is extremely useful, a huge step forward in Mormon commentaries -- just not to the level of non-Mormon biblical commentaries.