Review
======

Title: _Book of Mormon Commentary_. Six volumes, individually titled: _I
Nephi Wrote This Record_, _These Records Are True_, _The Record of
Alma_, _The Record of Helaman_, _Divine Ministry-The First Gospel_, _I,
Mormon, Make a Record_.
Author: Monte S. Nyman
Publisher: Granite Publishing and Distribution
Genre: Non-fiction
Year Published: 2003-2004
Number of Pages: Varies with each volume; the longest is 814 pp; the
shortest is 449 pp.
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: :
_I Nephi Wrote This Record_: 1-932280-29-4
_These Records Are True_1-932280-30-8
_The Record of Alma_: 1932280-42-1
_The Record of Helaman_: 1-932280-54-5
_Divine Ministry-The First Gospel_: 1-930980-96-5
_I, Mormon, Make a Record_: 1-932280-64-2.
Price: Varies with volume; prices range from $19.95 to $29.95.
Six-volume set is $129.95.

Reviewed by Katie Parker


Granite's _Book of Mormon Commentary_ is a series of six books by Monte
S. Nyman that walks the reader through the entire Book of Mormon and
offers helpful insights and commentaries. Each volume is available
separately, or the set can be purchased together.

When first encountering doctrinally informative books, it's essential to
understand who wrote them and what their agenda is. So who is Monte S.
Nyman? According to the flyleaf, he was a professor of ancient scripture
at BYU until his retirement in 1996. I assume that these books grew out
of his lecture notes from the many classes he taught on the Book of
Mormon while at BYU. In fact, reading them very much reminds me of the
institute classes I took at another university under trained Church
Education System professionals. They're thoughtful, they're faithful,
and they can help to clarify a student's understanding of the scriptures.

The volumes are hardcover with full-color dust jackets. The jackets are
attractive; each volume features a different background color and a
painting of a scene from the scriptures covered in that book. The set is
visually appealing together on a bookshelf.

Each chapter of each volume follows a specific format:

1. A brief introduction to the Book of Mormon chapter or chapters to be
covered.

2. An outline of the chapter or chapters covered. Each part of the
outline is labeled with the corresponding verse references. The outlines
are quite detailed, and bring out the main points of each passage of
each chapter. These outlines could be particularly useful for teachers
trying to make sure they completely understand each chapter that they're
teaching.

For example, here are the outline notes for 1 Nephi 1:1-3:

<<<<<<
Nephi makes a record of his proceedings having been born of goodly
parents and taught in the learning of his father.

a. He has seen many afflictions but was highly favored of the Lord and
knew of the goodness and mysteries of God (v. 1)
b. His record was made in the language of his father, which consists of
the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians (v. 2)
c. He knows the record is true; he makes it with his own hand and
according to his knowledge (v. 3) (Volume 1, _I Nephi Wrote This
Record_, p. 11)
>>>>>>

3. Notes and commentary for the Book of Mormon chapters covered. This
section is perhaps the greatest contribution of this series. Brother
Nyman goes through the scriptural selection, passage by passage
(including the text of each passage), and explains it all. His approach
is like that of a faithful institute or religion instructor, which fits
with his professional role as BYU instructor. In general, he goes into
more depth than one might find in an average Sunday School class, but
does not analyze and question each detail the way a skeptical scholar
might. He does bring in some interesting insights that a student might
expect to find in an institute class from a trained instructor. For
example, in _Volume 5, Divine Ministry--The First Gospel_, he brings in
some stories of Indian tradition that seem to fit with the visit of
Christ to the Nephites, as well as a couple of possible "sighting"
stories of the Three Nephites along with quotations from Joseph Smith
regarding translated beings. Here are a couple of shorter examples I've
pulled at random:

<<<<<<
What type of individual was Lehi prior to being warned of the Lord? Was
he a prophet of God, a contemporary of Jeremiah, as many as have
supposed? Perhaps he was, but another possibility is that he was one of
many "brethren of the [Jewish] Church" (1 Nephi 4:26) who heard the
message of the "many prophets" (v. 4). The city of Jerusalem was
destroyed because the people would not hearken unto the message of the
prophets. Jeremiah was even told that the city of Jerusalem would be
pardoned if he could find a man, "that executeth judgment and seeketh
the truth" (Jeremiah 5:1). Was not Lehi such a man? (Volume 1, _I Nephi
Wrote This Record_, p. 21)
>>>>>>

<<<<<<
(regarding Helaman 3:1-6)
The people traveled an exceedingly great distance to large bodies of
water (v. 4). We must be careful that contentions do not arise over
where these people traveled. Some Book of Mormon students feel this is
an area in Central America. Others quote this verse as the area of the
great lakes in North America....In this writer’s opinion, all of that
evidence has not yet been found, and the Lord is still expecting his
people to accept the Book of Mormon on faith. When the time is right,
the Lord will bring forth further evidence. (Volume 4, _The Record of
Helaman_, p. 260)
>>>>>>

4. A "Sacred Writing" section that notes significant revelations,
prophesies, and doctrines contained in the scripture block. These lists
would be easy to overlook, but they contain useful insights from a man
who knows the scriptures well. For example, the Book of Enos is one that
I've always found inspirational, but hadn't really considered containing
much doctrine. Yet Brother Nyman lists five doctrines given in the book,
including "God cannot lie" (Enos 1:6), "Sins are forgiven through faith
in Christ" (Enos 1:, and "Blessings are conditional according to
diligence in keeping the Lord's commandments" (Enos 1:10). (_Volume 2,
These Records Are True_, p. 133.) These are in fact all doctrines that
can be easily discerned from the passage, but they can also be easily
missed if one is not looking beyond the story of Enos itself.

5. General Authority quotations. Sources for these quotes include
_Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith_, BYU _Speeches of the Year_,
_Doctrines of Salvation_, conference reports, and other solid faithful
sources. As with most general authority quotes, these generally focus on
clarifying and applying the doctrines contained in the scriptures. I did
not notice that these overlapped particularly with the institute manuals
put out by the Church. As the institute manuals often focus on
clarifying difficult passages and explaining historical backgrounds, I
think the practical approach of applying the doctrines can be helpful.

6. "Challenges to Eternal Life." This section contains several
challenges, applicable to the preceding scripture block, that could be
used for personal goal-setting or to motivate students. For example, the
challenges for Mosiah 29, in which King Mosiah speaks of righteous
government, include "Study the issues and candidates in the coming
election and read Mosiah 29 as a preparation to vote" and "Select a law
of the land you have previously regarded as unimportant and relate it to
the commandments of God to find out its purpose (Mosiah 29:55)."
(_Volume 2, These Records Are True_, p. 532.)

7. At the end of each volume, there is an index of all of the scriptures
throughout the standard works that are referenced in this particular
volume of the Book of Mormon Commentary. This would be more useful if
there were one volume that contained an index for the whole six-book
set. Still, it is interesting to see how Brother Nyman uses scriptures
to explain other scriptures.

Just as an example, on pages 164 and 165 of _I, Mormon, Make a Record_,
Brother Nyman uses scriptures from all of the other books of scripture
except the Pearl of Great Price to explain various aspects of the story
of the brother of Jared. He shows that the brother of Jared was able to
communicate with the Lord because he was "highly favored of the Lord"
(Ether 1:34), and this was because "he kept the commandments." Brother
Nyman then shows the significance of keeping the commandments with John
14:15-17, which begins: "If ye love me, keep my commandments" and
explains how those who keep the commandments can receive the Comforter
and thus can receive revelation. He further secures this truth by
quoting D&C 82:10: "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say."

For the second chapter of Ether, on the following page of the
commentary, Brother Nyman uses the Old Testament to explain the nature
of the Valley of Nimrod. Ether 2:1 gives this as the place where the
Jaredites began their journey to the Promised Land, and it's helpful to
understand the circumstances of their journey.

8. Each volume also contains a topical index at the end. Again, this is
on an individual volume basis and does not cover the whole set together.

In reviewing these books, I decided to see if they had the answer to a
question I've had for some time: In the story of Ammon in Alma 17, did
Ammon actually chop off everyone's arms in the gruesome way we envision
it? Or might the word "arms" actually mean "weapons" as it does when the
Anti-Nephi-Lehies bury their weapons and "go without arms"?

Well, the appropriate volume , _The Record of Alma_, doesn't
specifically address that question. Nor did I really expect it to, given
the nature of the rest of the commentary. But Brother Nyman does say on
page 241, "As will be seen in chapter 18 of Alma, Ammon was not with the
other servants when they carried the amputated arms unto the king as a
testimony of their victory." To me, that implies that at least Brother
Nyman also pictures the bloody mess that many of us envision.

In looking for the answer to my question, however, I did come away with
some new insights into the story of Ammon. Brother Nyman says that Alma
17-19 are "the most significant chapters on missionary work...given
anywhere in the four standard works of the Church" (231). I hadn't
really thought of them before in those terms, but they really do give
the best play-by-play description of how to build friendships and help
to prepare people to hear the gospel, and then how to help them
understand and receive it.

He also brought up the small dilemma posed by Alma 19:16, which talks
about Abish "having been converted...on account of a remarkable vision
of her father." I'd always assumed that her father had had the vision,
and told her about it and she was converted. But Brother Nyman, quoting
Daniel H. Ludlow, points out that this could also mean that Abish
herself might have had "a vision of her father" which led to her
conversion. Interesting. He then hastens to add that, however the
passage should be interpreted, the important thing is the role that
Abish played in the conversion of the Lamanites.

I did find the individual book titles less than straightforward. For
instance, does the volume entitled _The Record of Alma_ cover the record
of Alma the Elder or of Alma the Younger, or both? Does it cover the
parts of the book of Alma that are written by Helaman? Which parts of
the Book of Mormon are covered in the volume _These Records Are True_?
These questions are, of course, easily answered by opening the cover and
checking the table of contents or flipping through the pages. Still, it
would have been helpful to include the specific scriptures covered in a
subtitle for each volume. (By the way, the answers are: _The Record of
Alma_ covers Alma 1-42, or the writings of Alma the Younger. And _These
Records Are True_ covers Jacob through Mosiah. That's a pretty good
title for the collection of shorter books.)

As I mentioned earlier, reading these books reminded me of my days as a
college student at the University of Oklahoma LDS Institute, attending
the classes of trained instructors who knew the scriptures well and
could open them up for their students. The organization of each book may
seem strict, but the writing style is conversational. Former students of
Brother Nyman might particularly enjoy this series. The structure of the
set lends itself well to lesson-planning, and could be very useful for
seminary and Sunday School teachers. Families might enjoy referring to
the books as they study the Book of Mormon together. And, of course,
anyone who would like to add some new insights and structure to their
Book of Mormon study could benefit from this series. I look forward to
continuing to learn from its pages.