Since Cumorah, by Hugh Nibley (The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 7.)#

This book presents a large amount of evidence for the Book of Mormon that has been discovered since the time of Joseph Smith.#

The outrageous daring of its title page is the very thing that should whet the appetite of a real scholar: here is a book that is asking for a fight, so to speak, and if it is as flimsy as it looks at first glance any competent schoolman should have little trouble polishing it off in an hour or so. [p. xii]

[We] are not going to prove anything in this book. The evidence that will prove or disprove the Book of Mormon does not exist. [p. xiv]

Nibley talks about how the innovative thing about the Bible and the Book of Mormon is its concern for historical, rather than mythological, story-telling. He quotes Eduard Meyer: "This respect for fact and historical perspective in the records of the race finds no parallel in the whole literature of the ancient Near East until the time of Herodotus." (p. 51)#

Nibley references how the thought that Lehi's family would try to build a temple in the New World was considered unthinkable for a real Jew. He cites the story of exiled Jews who lived near the base of the Nile who got permission from Jerusalem to build another temple! (p. 53)#

Nibley quotes Stendahl on Marcion who wished Christianity to be "new": "Our pattern of thought is that of natural science: Jesus is the inventor of Christianity and the church is the guardian of his patent and copyright. In the New Testament the major concern is the diametrically opposite one: to make clear that all is 'old.' in accordance with the expectations of the prophets." (p. 58)#

A reference is made to "Origen's argument for the roundness of the earth was that the first Christians taught that God had covenant people on the other side of the world---the Antichthonians." (p. 65)#

Athanasius: "One must not recite the mysteries to the uninitiated, lest outsiders who do not understand them make fun of them while they perplex and scandalize investigators." (p. 105)#

Nibley spends some time describing how many scholars believe the text of Isaiah has evolved over time. He then shows how the parts that Nephi quotes are from the chapters that are regarded as the original and oldest. (p. 125)#

On the neglect of the writing of the ancients in the study of the ancients:#

It is as if one were to try to reconstruct the life of Lord Chesterfield by the careful examination of his bones, his clothes, the house he lived in, the food he ate, etc.---all of which are important---while throwing aside the man's daily journal, which tells us in his own handwriting where he was, what he saw and heard and did, and even what he thought and felt. This should be at least as instructive as the measurement of his bones. [p. 145]

A description of how "And it came to pass..." is an Egyptian grammatical form is on page 150.#

The chapter "Good People and Bad People" is awesome.#

One did not have to be a Nephite or a Lamanite, however, in order to be wicked or righteous: every man and woman who ever lived has been capable of doing right and wrong no matter when or where he or she lived. [p. 349]

"One can never prove the Book of Mormon to another, but one can go far enough to ask for a testimony for one's self, and get it." (p. 406)#