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George, what fruit was available/cultivated in or around Khor Rori at the time when Lehi passed through?
I’m not sure of the assumption that it took a number of years to build the ship is definitive. Consider these issues:
1. They did not apparently plant any of the seeds that they had brought from Jerusalem (1 Nephi 18:6).
2. They still had the meat from the wilderness when they boarded the ship (1 Nephi 18:6).
3. The two youngest children born in the wilderness (my theory is that they were twins, which would match the Biblical typology of the first born, as in Jacob and Esau) were still nursing on the ship (1 Nephi 18:19).
4. Nephi knew about shipbuilding techniques of the time, and commented that he did it differently (1 Nephi 18:2). As you mentioned, it does not appear that there was any previous knowledge of shipbuilding prior to arrival, which is expected growing up inland in Jerusalem.
A relatively short stay is support for the premise that there were already materials and knowledge available to Nephi in some proximity to Bountiful. Even high grade iron ore could have been a trade item. In the case of a partially populated Bountiful and existing shipbuilding, it would probably require that there was something about the construction of the ship that required different sorts of tools than would have been available locally. This is consistent with his statement that he did not work the wood after the manner which was learned by men. Again how did he know about the working of wood for ships if he had not witnessed it?
These items provide additional support of your premise of Khor Rori as the likely location of Bountiful. Shorter stay means that the “provisions” which they took were available locally. Anyway, don’t know if these are really new ideas to you or not. I enjoyed the article. Well thought out.
Impressive study and research by Potter & Co. I’m grateful for his passion & relentless pursuit of the “rest of the story.” It’s obvious that Nephi highly edited his account of their journey to give us a spiritual story & allegory and not bog us down with minutiae, technical aspects, logistics & worldly commerce. He needed room on the plates for the “things of God.” I suspect he left out the involvement of other people because he really wanted to impress upon us that it was God, and their complete reliance on Him, Who ultimately made their entire journey possible. That’s what he wanted us to focus on, so those are the details he gave us.
George, one more comment. You wrote: ” How could the timbers have been curious to Nephi if he had logged and cut the lumber himself?”
The word “curious” appears six times in the Book of Mormon. It is used to describe workmanship (4 times), workmen (once), and man [Hagoth] (once). While “curious” can mean “odd” or “strange” in our current vernacular, that is not likely what it meant in 1830. It most likely meant “skilled” or “wrought with care and art.” (see Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language)
George, a very interesting article. Thanks.
You wrote: “If Nephi had three unmarried older brothers and presumably one or more older sisters, how old was he when he knew he needed to build a large and stout ship? He must have been in his early teens.” After leaving Jerusalem and while camping in the valley of Lemuel, Nephi describes himself as “being exceedingly young” but “large in stature.” He was most likely in his early teens at that time. He also tells us that they “did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.” This seems to be a reference to their pre-Bountiful times. If so, then Nephi would have been in his early twenties when they reached Bountiful, which was when he learned that he needed to build a ship.