This report describes the design, development, and evaluation of a computer-based diglot reader of the Book of Mormon Stories of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Di means two and glot means language, thus a diglot reader combines two languages into one reader in order to teach a person to read in a new language. The program, which runs on both Macintosh and Windows computer platforms, contains fifteen chapters of the Book of Mormon Stories and introduces about four hundred Spanish words. This report includes a literature review on the diglot method and related materials, a description of the program and its features, and an evaluation of the program including eight one-to-one evaluations and a small-group evaluation. The small-group evaluation volunteers completed a pretest, studied the reader, completed a posttest, and filled out a questionnaire for their evaluation of the product. Finally, the report examines the strengths and weaknesses of the program and suggests some general guidelines for future diglot reader computer programs in general.

As the title indicates, this thesis is a consideration of selected changes that have been made in major editions of the Book of Mormon. Much has been said recently about changes and modifications in this record but, unfortunately, most of it has been said by those who have been unfriendly toward both the book itself and the church which endorses it. Because this kind of bias is usually an obstruction to objective scholarship, this study has been undertaken by one firmly within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to document not only what changes have been made, but also when they were made, and, consequently who probably made them.A detailed analysis of every change that has been made in the Book of Mormon since its initial publication in 1830 would be neither feasible nor rewarding as a Master's thesis. Therefore, although consideration has been given to every change, this study has been limited to "selected changes," defined as major modifications in format and the addition, deletion, or change of words within the text which could alter the meaning of the passage. For the most part, differences in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, verb forms, verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, pronoun forms, pronoun-antecedent problems, and other grammatical or stylistic revisions have not been considered. Nevertheless, some of these kinds of changes have been included in those isolated cases where they appear to influence the meaning of the verse.

This thesis contends that the Book of Mormon can be profitably read from a rhetorical perspective. It employs Kenneth Burke's ideas concerning language, texts, and his method of dramatistic analysis, to reveal certain persuasive aspects of the Book of Mormon, and to urge action in response to the persuasion of the Book of Mormon.Chapter one discusses common ways of reading scripture, and explains some of the inadequacies of these approaches. It gives a rationale of a rhetorical approach that concerns itself with action, and recommends this approach for the Book of Mormon. Chapter two applies a rhetorical reading to the Book of Mormon as a whole, and concludes that the Book has a fundamental and unified purpose: to persuade its readers to come to Christ. Chapter three analyzes Alma 32–34 from the perspective of Burke's pentad, and urges an open, responsive reading of scripture. It concludes that the overall purpose of the Book of Mormon is revealed in these chapters as well. Chapter four explores Burke's notion of identification, and suggests ways to allow for persuasion as readers of the Book of Mormon.

The significance of Lehi's life tree is that it gives life. Lehi's tree expresses the nonverbal, renews Lehi, effectually creates a culture, and keys the structure of a literary, viable, and contemporary scripture. My thesis chapters grow out of my reading of myth, tree mythology, and Lehi's dream. I see Lehi 1) traveling a polemic course toward the tree, 2) confronting the tree's death, and 3) by suffering, opening the symbol to his inner vision.Lehi's first dream images, a dark and dreary wilderness vs. a man in white, suggest the birth of mythic creation. By traveling through and reconciling opposites, Lehi eventually achieves mythic fulfillment and eats the fruit of immortal joy.Lehi's tree represents a highly visible life meaning yet conceals its death meaning. Only after Lehi overcomes a mythical death can he understand and gain the tree's life power.Lehi's death confrontation suggests that he, in isolation, suffers a limitless sphere. The requisite suffering eventually yields a complex desire that is not only filled, but also increases.

The purpose of this study is to determine and present the Book of Mormon's contributions as a witness to the authenticity of the New Testament account of certain events of Christ's life, in order that teachers may have an effective instrument in teaching the historicity of the New Testament account of Christ's life.This study reveals 177 passages in the Book of Mormon that refer to the life of Jesus. These passages corroborated the New Testament account of Christ's life. There are 61 Book of Mormon passages that refer to the pre-existence of Jesus Christ and His anticipated coming. There are 25 passages relating to the birth of Jesus Christ and His divinity as the Son of God. There are 43 passages that refer to the ministry of Jesus Christ. There are 62 passages referring to the trials, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Section C of this study points out 115 different ideas and concepts that the Book of Mormon professes as truths concerning the life of Jesus Christ and related events.

The Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses, sacred scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have woven into their pages a brief history of secret combinations on the "American" continent. Secret combinations have caused the destruction of three previous civilizations that have existed on this continent. The prophet Moroni warned the Latter-day American inhabitants that "This secret combination... shall be among you..." (Ether 8:24). The evidence summarized in this study leads one to the conclusion that the American Mafia Organization (Cosa Nostra) is the same organization warned against in sacred scripture.

English and Japanese are very different from each other in tems of their structures. And consequently no one would call the present translation of the Japanese Book of Mormon a low rank-bound translation. However, a substantial amount of grammatical categories of English such as number, redundant subject for Japanese, pronominal expression, and the passive voice which is not used so often in Japanese as in English, are introduced in the translation. The improper placement of subject, verb and object also serves as a cause of foreign tones. Thus the present translation has more factors of Formal-Equivalence translation than those of Dynamic-Equivalence translation. The principle of 'accuracy and fidelity' resulted in an unnatrual translation to some extent, imposing an effort of understanding the text on the shoulders of the readers. It was also found out that a lack of knowledge of Hebraism resulted in 'betrayal by ignorance,' creating many unnatural Japanese expressions as well as a certain number of mistranslations.

This thesis has been a study of possible lexical Hebraisms occurring in the Book of Mormon in the sections entitled "The Words of Mormon" through "Moroni." A Hebraism was defined as any word or phrase which appeared to be a literal rendering of a Hebrew lexicographic mode of speech, in that the English had a usage or connotation which was not normal; whereas, if translated literally into Hebrew it would represent standard usage. Nearly two hundred such items were found, some one hundred twenty of which were discussed in the body of the thesis. Of these, nouns contributed over sixty examples, verbs more than thirty and the remainder were distributed among the rest of the parts of speech. This accumulation of Hebraisms could be evidence either of Joseph Smith's exceptional ability to recall biblical wording while under the influence of the Holy Spirit or evidence of Hebraic wording in the original coming through in Joseph Smith's translation.

The purpose of this research and study was to evaluate the use of selected Book of Mormon filmstrips and determine their value in teaching Book of Mormon history. New impetus to use filmstrips was received with the announcement that the Department of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion had produced eighteen filmstrips using episodes from Book of Mormon history. The Department was desirous that the filmstrips be utilized in the most effective way by teachers in meeting the individual needs of students in this course of religious instruction.

The purpose of this thesis was to create two paintings and ten drawings pertaining to events and personalities from the Book of Mormon. The art works were done with the special intent of expressing the artist's personal and animated feelings about several men whose writings comprise the book, and certain events pertaining to their particular circumstances.