Last night during a gospel discussion on how to effectively study the scriptures, we were following the 5 steps and we came across an interesting question.
The 5 Steps to effective scripture study are:
- What’s going on
- Wonder Why: ask questions
- Find Patterns
- Types of the Savior
- Apply Yourself
We commenced our study in Alma 56 and became interested in the dates. This is the story of the Stripling Warrior’s first battle. We noticed that the story starts off in the 30 year of the reign of the Judges. That doesn’t mean much to me, so I usually use the footnote to position the story on B.C. or A.D. time. This story commences in 62 B.C.
The intriguing part was the months, not the year(s). Verse 1 is the first month, second day. No frame of reference yet. Verse 27 their campaign commences in the second month. Still no frame of reference, but the pattern is at the beginning of the year. Is that the same as our calendar? The first month is January etc.
Then I remembered reading something from John Welch about the time frame that the Book of Mormon wars followed. It seemed they fought 9 months out of the year and rested for 3 or 4 months. I wondered why.
Here is the answer.
John L. Sorenson, an archaeologist who has devoted his life to the study of ancient Mesoamerica and how it corresponds to the history of the Nephite, Lamanite, and Jaredite peoples in the Book of Mormon, concludes that:
“Nephite wars were typically carried out early in the dry season as permitted by the agricultural maintenance pattern and when weather conditions were most suited for military campaigns…The Nephite seasonality pattern for warfare agrees remarkable well with what we know from Mesoamerica about seasons for fighting and for cultivation and harvest.”
See the attached chart, which illustrates that November and February were the months in which the most warfare was conducted. Other months were reserved for cultivation and harvesting of crops, taxing, and celebrating according to the law of Moses, and so forth.
Source: John L. Sorenson, “Seasonality of Warfare in the Book of Mormon and in Mesoamerica,” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 455-57.
