Comments on: Reading Nephi – 6

By: Terry H

Terry H — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 23:14:55 +0000

Dave Parry did one for FARMS several years ago that is more geared towards the poetry. Hardy’s is good for that purpose, but I agree with Clark. I also saw a print edition with extremely wide margins for a lot of note taking. Unfortunately, I only saw it the one time and it was at church, not in a store. I was traveling and didn’t get a chance to ask where they’d purchased it.

By: James Olsen

James Olsen — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 20:40:21 +0000

Clark, I love the idea of the electronic version being able to toggle between the current verse-emphasis format and a more readable format.

Have you seen Hardy’s reader’s edition? That’s the text I’ve been using this time through, and I really like it. He mimics recent biblical formatting conventions, including breaking things into prose vs. poetic verse. Of course one has often to make interpretive leaps in order to do so, but I think he does a fantastic job.

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 18:52:28 +0000

I’d love to have a Book of Mormon typeset in a fashion more akin to recent Bibles. I particularly like how my NAB does it with small dots • at the start of sentences where a verse break is made. Then there’s an attempt to break things into a better set of paragraphs. The current verses and chapters are a bit problematic in places. The formatting that emphasizes versus causes us to miss many elements. (The version of the Book of Mormon done in paragraphs based upon original breaks reads much better)

It’s probably a futile wish but I wish with the electronic version of the scriptures we’d have an option to not read in verse form and perhaps even display poetic structure better.

The shift for Nephi to write scripture is a weird one. You’re right to note that. It makes me often suspect the structure of the scriptures he has is quite different from the version that was put together after the exile. What is it about the Brass Plates that leads Nephi to think this is appropriate? I suspect it contained a record more akin to Nephi’s writing. Although who knows. (It’s all speculative)