Book of Mormon Central

According to their web page:

Book of Mormon Central (BOMC) is a team of ardent students of the Nephite scripture working together to share the wonders of this inspired masterpiece with the world. The team consists of archivists, researchers, writers, editors, reviewers, illustrators, narrators, audio engineers, video engineers, web designers, web and mobile developers, graphic artists, and social media publishers in addition to support personnel. Book of Mormon Central is headquartered in Utah County, Utah. Its mission is to increase understanding and faithful engagment [sic] with the Book of Mormon.  The organization accomplishes its mission in several ways:

  • Archive. The Book of Mormon Central Archive is a comprehensive digital repository of textual, visual, and audio resources relevant to the Book of Mormon.
  • Notes. The Book of Mormon Central Commentary is a verse by verse exegesis of the text linked to the archive.
  • Annotated Text. The Book of Mormon Central Annotated Text is a word by word exegesis of the text linked to the LDS canon and to the archive.
  • KnoWhys. Book of Mormon Central KnoWhys are daily short essays, memes, podcasts, and videos about some aspect of the text published in more than a dozen social media venues.

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There are some wonderful resources at Book of Mormon Central, including the Earliest Text project headed by Royal Skousen. You can see the earliest text of the Book of Mormon here. The discussion of the variants between the earliest manuscripts is available here. I have used these resources quite a bit.

The archive has over 2,000 items, including a copy of the first edition of Letter VII: Oliver Cowdery’s Message to the World about the Hill Cumorah. There are some good items in the archive, but other items that are not so good.

If you go to BOMC, you need to realize that it is managed and staffed solely by proponents of the Mesoamerican theory of Book of Mormon geography. This viewpoint is evident in everything they produce, as well as the archive itself. Their affiliates also promote the Mesoamerican theory. The legal entity being BOMC is the Ancient America Foundation, an organization that has a Mayan temple as its logo, depicts Izapa Stella 5 as “The Tree of Life” and has always focused exclusively on Central America.

I receive a lot of complaints about BOMC because of their focus on Mesoamerica. I agree with those who think this focus is counterproductive, but there’s nothing I can do about it (and believe me, I’ve tried). The people at BOMC are great people and they are well-meaning, but you have to realize they see everything through Mesoamerican lenses. As time permits, I comment on some of the things people bring to my attention. See my blog at http://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/ for examples.

If you’re careful, you can find some excellent resource material at BOMC. Just use your own judgment, especially when you see an article or resource that tries to fit the Book of Mormon into Mesoamerica.