Keywords
Book of Mormon, critics, Tree of Life, rare maps
Abstract
A novel theory for the origins of Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life has been offered by Rick Grunder, who argues that the story was inspired by a June 1829 visit to Rochester where Joseph could have seen a “great and spacious building,” a river, an iron railing, and even fruit trees. The purported source for the great and spacious building, the Reynolds Arcade, has even been suggested by one critic as a place where Joseph might have found “rare maps,” such as a map of Arabia that could have guided his fabrication of Lehi’s trail. As beautiful as such theories may be to their champions, they utterly fail to account for Nephi’s text.
Recommended Citation
Lindsay, Jeff
(2017)
"The Great and Spacious Book of Mormon Arcade Game: More Curious Works from Book of Mormon Critics,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 23, Article 10.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol23/iss1/10
