Episode 98: Unique Voices in the Book of Mormon (John Hilton III)

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BYU Religious Education

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4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

Some 150 voices unite in the Book of Mormon to provide a clear witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. What insights might we gain from examining their distinctive voices? And what meaning can studying unique voices of the past lend to our lives today? In this episode BYU professor of Ancient Scripture John Hilton III answers such questions in discussing his recent book Voices in the Book of Mormon—Discovering Distinctive Witnesses of Jesus Christ. Dr. Hilton details some of the linguistic characteristics of major speakers, from Nephi and Mormon to Jacob and Jesus Christ. He also explains how voices speak in harmony, especially as later prophets use teachings from their predecessors. Finally, Dr. Hilton asks us to consider applying Elder Boyd K. Packer’s question, “therefore, what?” as we examine who is speaking, to whom, and for what purpose, and how such unique voices might teach principles relevant to our lives.

Publications:

Voices in the Book of Mormon—Discovering Distinctive Witnesses of Jesus Christ (Religious Studies Center, 2024)
“Textual Similarities in the World of Abinadi and Alma’s Counsel to Corianton” (BYU Studies Quarterly, 51.2, 2012)
“Samuel and His Nephite Sources” (BYU Studies Quarterly, 56.3, 2017)
“Remembering Christ’s Blood Which Was Shed” (Religious Educator, 23.3, 2022)
“The Isaiah Map: An Approach to Teaching Isaiah” (Religious Educator, 21.1, 2020)
“Abinadi’s Legacy: Tracing His Influence through the Book of Mormon” (in Abinadi, Religious Studies Center, 2018)

Click here to learn more about John Hilton III

Transcript

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0:00.0	Think of some people that you know well.
0:03.0	Are there unique words or phrases that you connect with that individual?
0:09.0	For example, if I go back to my college days at Brigham Young University. I had a roommate named Joseph and he would
0:16.2	always use the word sour to describe things like oh that person is so sour. If I heard the word sour I knew it was Joseph talking. Or I had another
0:26.5	roommate Chris. He would often use the phrase, what the rock? I don't even know what that
0:31.6	phrase means but I associate it with Chris to this day.
0:36.0	It's interesting that recent research has even shown that unique patterns of speaking or writing show up even in translation.
0:45.0	Kila Roca?
0:47.0	As you might have guessed, this relates to the Book of Mormon.
0:50.0	Some people claim that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon, so one approach to determining whether this is true is to analyze the patterns in Joseph Smith's writings and compare them with those of the Book of Mormon.
1:04.4	About 40 years ago, my grandfather, he's John Hilton the first.
1:08.0	I'm named for him and for my father.
1:10.1	My grandfather was researching in this area and determined that it was statistically indefensible to state that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon.
1:19.0	Since being hired at BYU, I've been picking up a thread in my grandfather's research, specifically
1:24.7	looking at the words and phrases that are written by the speakers in the Book of Mormon.
1:29.5	Overall there are some 150 different people who speak in the Book of Mormon, everyone from
1:36.9	Aaron to the Zoramites.
1:39.2	And I've been fascinated to learn that speaking both qualitatively and quantitatively there are distinctive
1:46.3	differences in the speaking patterns of individuals in the Book of Mormon.
1:51.8	We know that Jacob is writing very differently than Nephi.
1:55.4	To be able to see that proven statistically is very fascinating.
2:01.1	That's exactly right. And that's part of the fun of this research is that it's showing the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be. It's a multi-authored work written by distinctive individuals. Clearly, Nephi is different than Jacob is different than Mormon who's different
	...

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