One of the slightest controversies in Book of Mormon studies
includes the concept of making the text easier or harder. Readers at Deseret
Book often see various scriptures “made easy,” while scholars enjoy what
Richard Bushman called wrestling with important questions, or making things
harder. The unique joy of the Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of
Mormon is that it assembles the text in such a way that it’s easier to read,
and thus makes it a blessing for both groups.
The text is reformatted into paragraphs with the markings
for chapters and verses added in later additions in Arabic numbers in this
edition. I particular enjoy original chapters being marked in Roman numerals.
As editor Grant Hardy noted, these were apparently marked on the gold plates,
and thus reflect the author’s intent. I found them especially helpful in
noticing major themes and sections of the text.
The text is further aided by select footnotes that explain
possible emendations to the text, highlight or explain major points, and
provide cross references. I’m currently
working on a major project that examines classical Chinese military texts
beyond Sunzi (Sun-Tzu). I have plenty of experience noticing how subtle changes
in punctuation, spelling, and grammar along with occasional emendations can
critically change the meaning of the text. This addition takes particularly
trenchant commentary from Royal Skousen’s voluminous and excellent work on the
matter and presents it to the reader.
Many of the footnotes, as well as a glossary of short essays
addressing pertinent topics at the end of the book provide excellent summaries
of existing research and major questions about its provenance and such topics
as geography and Hebrew poetry. Simply by summarizing and assessing them in a
forthright manner Hardy provides aids to both believers and non-believing but
interested academics. Explaining something like seer stones in a forthright
manner helps members accept items that may be disturbing in other settings.
Providing a careful analysis of past apologetic efforts is more palatable for
skeptics studying the book, while still making them aware of pertinent
research.
The text also includes basic maps, highlights major figures
in the text and its organization through simple charts. Probably the most
helpful are the excerpts of primary sources from key people involved with the
origins of the book, process of translation, and the testimony of those that
saw the plates. These are rather informative on their own, but also show that,
as the very least, Hardy and the Maxwell Institute care about grounding the
reception and origination of the text by using primary sources and proper
historical methods. As a historian this makes me proud, while still leaving
unresolved the fact that the new MI seems a bit more interested in the 19th
century than the old AR (ancient research) part of FARMS and the Book of
Mormon.
Overall, I highly recommend the text for believers looking
to aid in their devotional study of the text to non-believing scholars wishing
to familiarize themselves with what some people say is one of the most
important books in American history. This
truly fulfills the purpose of being a study edition.