This work examines the word yea in the Book of Mormon, the Earliest Text and enumerates the usages found therein. Already recognized definitions in addition to new definitions are given with examples. Also included are textual variations from the Earliest Text and the current Book of Mormon used generally as scripture in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Nephite government was essentially theocratic, with both the monarchy and reign of the judges paralleling the similar institutions of the ancient Israelites. Ultimate political authority resided in the prophet. The laws were given by the Lord, and the principle of popular consent was recognized. The role of government was primarily national defense and the punishment of crime, not social reform.Lamanite government was monarchal and despotic, with notable exceptions when the nation was converted to the gospel. The Jaredites theoretically lived under a theocratic monarchy, but intrigue, tyranny, and oppression were the rule rather than the exception.In all three cases, righteousness was more important to the well-being and security of the people than the form of government. The greatest danger to free institutions was the rise of secret combinations with public tolerance and support. The authors of the Book of Mormon wrote in part to warn their readers of the dangers of such combinations and to enable them to profit from the political experiences of their predecessors on the American continent.

The Book of Mormon contains twenty-one chapters of the Book of Isaiah: two through fourteen, twenty-nine, and forty-eight through fifty-four. The language is primarily that of the King James Version with some variations. The King James Version itself has been translated from the Massoretic Hebrew Text. It is a fair assumption that the variations in the Book of Mormon represent an older, more accurate text than the Massoretic Text.Textual critics are anxious to find ancient texts and versions of the scriptures in the hope that some of these texts may contain readings closer to the original than does the Massoretic Text thereby avoiding some of the errors of transmission to which the Massoretic Text has succumbed during its long history. It is generally expected among believers in the Book of Mormon that the variations in the Book of Mormon will be supported by comparison with the ancient versions and ancient Hebrew texts of Isaiah.

The Holy scriptures abound in references to the use of dance as a means of worship. It would seem that there is a need to understand how present day members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel in regard to the kind of dancing referred to in the Scriptures.This study will be concerned with the production of "Desert Journey," a religious dance-drama depicting an episode from the Book of Mormon. A record of "Desert Journey" will be made with a movement notation system adapted from Motation, an architectual movement notation system developed by Laurence Halprin of San Francisco."Desert Journey" will be presented to a selected group of Latter-day Saint dance directors attending the 1965 June Quarterly Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their responses and attitudes toward the production as a means for religious worship will be determined with a questionnaire.The information gained from the production of "Desert Journey" and the responses to the questionnaires will be used to make suggestions for the effective production of religious dance-dramas in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This thesis is a study of textual variations in the two manuscripts and the first three editions of the Book of Mormon. Successive collations of each of these were made against the text of the first edition. From these collations some 427 specific textual variations were selected for inclusion in the thesis.The research disclosed that some genuine corrections as well as editorial revisions were made by Joseph Smith in 1837 and 1840. However, it was also concluded that some alterations of the text arose from accidental causes.The most significant contribution of this study was that both the Original Manuscript and the Printer's Manuscript contain valuable new manuscript readings which were unfortunately corrupted by scribal or printer's errors. These readings from the manuscripts eliminate inconsistencies, clarify meanings, correct errors, restore lost words, or otherwise present a super text. Because these genuine readings went unnoticed in 1837 and 1840, the process of restoring them to the text has not been completed.

This thesis, DAVID WHITMER, A WITNESS TO THE DIVINE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, is an attempt to give an unbiased history of the life and religious activities of a man who spent fifty years apart from the Church he was so much an instrument in establishing. His testimony has been a considerable factor in promoting its growth and success. The title of this work was suggested by a text Mr. Whitmer wrote in the year previous to his demise; the subject, by A. William Lund, assistant Latter-day Saint Church Historian. Particular emphasis has been placed upon that phase of David Whitmer's life that touched the Church, both for good and bad, and is not an attempt to elaborate upon his life prior to the year 1829 or to give a comprehensive account of his progenitors and posterity. Nearly all those who knew him in life have long since joined him in death. My thanks to those few who yet live; their contributions have become a part of this work.

This thesis is a project which investigates the science of stylometry and wordprints; the analysis of writing style characteristics. The focus is placed on reexamining a wordprint study done by Wayne Larsen and Alvin Rencher wherein the Book of Mormon was analyzed against texts by those who are purported to have written it. The difference in this study from the first was that new wordprint definitions were developed using a junction grammar program created by Eldon Lytle, the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon was employed as the base text, the phrase "it came to pass" was deleted and the texts used in analysis were divided into narrative and discourse groups and analyzed separately.The results of the thesis show conclusively that the idea of wordprints being able to identify uniqueness in authors is indeed valid. The tests on the control groups show this. This was then applied to the Book of Mormon authors and a test made which was significant; indicating that no one individual could have authored the text. This was true not only for the wordprint as defined in the Larsen/Rencher study, but for each new definition derived from the junction grammar program. Other tests were performed which showed that Joseph Smith could not have authored any part of the Book of Mormon.

This paper employs Ricoeur's Interpretation Theory to analyze the affect the exclamation mark has on the readers' interpretation of five Book of Mormon editions. Each unique instance of exclamation was obtained with its accompanying verse and these were coded by three coders for the genre they appeared in, the syntactic structures of their utterances, and the rhetorical function of the exclaimed proposition. This made possible a comparison of the exclaimed themes both within and across each genre and across each of the five editions analyzed. While the 1830 edition was found to have many exclamations in the genres of conversation and speech with emphasis on the themes of the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and the carnal nature of man, the 1920 edition by contrast saw emphasis mainly in the genres of prayer and aside on the call to repentance, the calamities of hell, and the need to call upon God's grace to overcome the many sins that will beset the latter generation of readers.

Prophecy appears to play an important role in the Book of Mormon. The prophets evidently felt it necessary to include a considerable amount of prophetic material in this modern book of scripture. Three general divisions of book of mormon prophecy can be made: (1) prophecies which relate to the period of time prior to the year 421 A.D., the approximate date of the final writing on the plates of Mormon, (2) prophecies which relate to the period 421 to 1830, the publication date of the Book of Mormon, and (3) prophecies which relate to the period 1830 onward. The first two divisions above pertain to the period of time prior to the year 1830 A.D. and thus are not pertinent to the discussion under consideration in this thesis. It would be natural to suppose that many of the prophecies relating to the third division would have been already fulfilled. The evidence of fulfillment of prophecies following the publication of the Book of Mormon is added proof of its genuine authenticity. The scriptures indicate that the fulfillment of prophecies made by a prophet is one way of knowing whether or not he is a genuine prophet. There are a number of problems which present themselves as the prophecies of the Book of Mormon are read and considered. Some of these problems are: 1. How much importance is attached to prophecy? 2. What seems to be the purpose of prophecy? 3. Are the prophets dealing with similar basic issues in their prophecies? 4. If so, what are these issues? 5. Can a classification be made of the prophecies? 6. Are the prophecies which deal with the same subject consistent in that which is foretold? 7. Is there sufficient evidence to show fulfillment of the prophecies which should have come to pass since the publication of the Book of Mormon? This thesis will deal with the above problems. The writer will attempt to classify the prophecies of the Book of Mormon that relate to the period from 1830 onward and to present evidence in regard to the fulfillment of these prophecies.

In 1945 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in Nag Hammadi; the founding consisted of Gnostic Gospels, the Gospels helped researcher to get a more correct view of the Gnostic Movement. In the beginning of the 19th century another founding was made, according to Joseph Smith an angel appeared from heaven giving him lost Christian Gospels on golden plates, later knows as the Book of Mormon. With the new Gospels Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter day Saints, also know as Mormonism. The thesis’ purpose has been to examine and do a literature analysis on the Book of Mormon, a recently new discovery, with secondary research on the Gnostic Gospels, also a recently new discovery. This paper will guide its reader through similarities between the two movements; with the overarching research question “What Gnostic elements can be found in the Book of Mormon?”. The first chapter will introduce the reader to the Book of Mormon and the Gnostic movement, in chapter two the research results will be displayed followed by the analysis, discussion and a conclusion that will take place in chapter three.