Keywords
Lehi, Book of Mormon, working metals, smelter
Abstract
A strong case has been made by John A. Tvedtnes and Jeffrey R. Chadwick that Lehi was a metalworker by profession.1 Although the text gives several indications of Nephi’s (and by implications, Lehi’s) familiarity with the craft of working metals, prominent Book of Mormon scholar John L. Sorenson nonetheless disagreed with this assessment on the grounds that, “it would be highly unlikely that a man who had inherited land and was considered very wealthy (1 Nephi 3:25) would have been a metalworker, for the men in that role tended to be of lower social status and were usually landless.”2 More recent findings, however, are changing the picture.
Recommended Citation
Rappleye, Neal
(2015)
"Lehi the Smelter: New Light on Lehi’s Profession,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 14, Article 14.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol14/iss1/14
