Bryan Sebesta’s Reviews > The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories > Status Update

I'm continuing to be impressed by the connections Don Bradley is making. He's a detective of the Restoration. His chapter on Mosiah is particularly impressive, and the picture that emerges of this former King who reshaped Nephite tradition is impressive.

Also, I want to draw a line (in my notes and review) between the evidence Bradley is using and the interpretation he's offering. Because that's what this book is doing: collating ALL of the available/discovered evidence for what was on the plates into one place, & interpreting it in a particular way. I think both are solid, but what flaws are there? Questions? Critique to offer? Not sure, except "I'm impressed"

MY MIND IS BLOWN. Twice. I write "mind blown" in the margins twice. Bradley picked up on a chronological parallel, verbally and temporally hinted at in Omni/Jarom, and uses it to explain some of the "lost 300 years or so" that are covered so briskly in Omni/Jarom. Also, some geographical evidence that is BRILLIANT. That feeling when something's right under your nose and you missed it all this time? Boom. Right here

A remarkable discussion of "Nephi's temple": more on the parallels between the Lehite temple relics and Biblical temple relics; how everything was building up to the Nephite establishment of temple rites; how Nephite modeled their priesthood after Melchizidek and not Aaron; and suggesting that at some point (around Mosiah or Alma), a shift occurred from temples to "the church."

There was a moment near the end of the chapter on Nephi's Conquest where Bradley's testimony shined through strongly, in wonderful display of disciple-scholarship. The parallels between Nephi and Joseph/Joshua/Daniel discussed here are striking. A major theme of Bradley's interpretation is that the BoM is like the Hebrew Bible, but different. It inverts, riffs, and alters the HB stories in important ways.

Just finished "The Seven Tribes of Lehi." WHOA. Lehi was smart and insightful. And the whole "Josephite" nation is starting to really hammer in, with the explanation of the Manasseh/Ephraim connections.

I had never seen Lehi's wanderings in the wilderness as a contrast to Moses' wanderings, despite the (now) obvious parallels. But it makes sense. I loved Bradley's diving into how the sacred relics of the Nephites had parallels with the Israelites', and how it was likely that Lehi created a tabernacle, and the priesthood implications of this. Note: I need to reread some of this.

Okay, Bradley finished the chapter on Lehi's Exodus with some really incredible details on the Sword of Laban, and linking Lehi and Nephi's identity back to Joseph of Egypt in an incredible way. It's establishing more clearly for me that this is the story of a nation, and a Josephite nation at that–not just a family. Really great.

Now we're into his reconstruction of the missing stories. The first chapter links the Passover with Lehi fleeing. So far in the chapter, it's EXCELLENT exegesis and intertextual analysis of 1 Nephi 1-5. (In fact, Bradley excels at intertextuality.) It's all in the service of giving strength to a comment made by Lapham that Lehi fled during a feast, and arguing that the feast in question was Passover. Good stuff.

Hot diggity dawg, Bradley has me excited. He just discussed the length of what was lost. Spoiler alert: it's more than 116 pages. It was likely 200-400 pages, which is one-third to two-thirds of what we currently have in the Book of Mormon! And it was much more than "the Book of Lehi," but a more detailed account of the first several hundred years that are given so little time in the current book. Good stuff!