Book of Mormon Commentary CofC - Odessa, Missouri Community ...

Book of Mormon Commentary
Mormon Chapter 3
to his initial premise, "Repent, and be baptized" in Jesus' name and "lay hold upon the gospel of
Christ" as found in the Book of Mormon and the Bible (30). He closes his appeal in these words:
If it so be that ye do these things, "it shall be well with you in the day of judgment" (33). This ends
the writings of the great prophet-general Mormon. His son, Moroni, finishes the record of
Mormon and later writes his own message.
WHICH HILL CUMORAH ?
The fact that the Book of Mormon plates were found near Palmyra, New York, in 1823, has led to
the assumption that this was the hill Cumorah in which Mormon hid the plates as described in
Mormon 3:3-8. This is quite improbable:
1. In A.D. 384 Mormon and the king of the Lamanites agreed to meet at the hill Cumorah
for a final battle (Mn. 3: 2-6).
2. Mormon had been a military leader since A.D. 327, when he was sixteen, (Mn. 1:23, 24),
or fifty-seven years. He was therefore seventy-three.
3. He hid all the records in the hill, "save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son
Moroni" (Mn. 3:8).
4. By treaty in A.D. 350 the Nephites got "the land northward; yea, even to the narrow
passage which led into the land southward," and it was possessed by the Lamanites (Mn.
1:60-62).
5. Thirty years later, Mormon wrote "a small abridgment," hid the records in the hill
Cumorah, and fought the final battle from this hill where two hundred and thirty thousand
Nephites "were hewn down. ..yea, even all my people, save it were those twenty and four
who were with me" (Mn. 2:32,36; 3:8,13-16).
6. In A.D. 420 Moroni finished and sealed his record. There is no statement that he hid it
with the other sacred plates in hill Cumorah. We are left to conjecture as to how long he
lived and where he wandered. Since it was the angel Moroni who was sent to Joseph Smith
and delivered the plates to him, it is probable that Moroni carried them from Central
America to western New York.
Thus the real hill Cumorah is undoubtedly in Central America, while its namesake is in
western New York.