The Purpose of this Book is to make easily available selections from the four volume lectures transcribed and published as Teachings of the Book of Mormon by Hugh W.Nibley, Professor at Brigham Young University.
I have made an effort to add Scripture References to each paragraph, when applicable, including chapter and verse. The original books only had occasional verse references. This effort along with greatly expanded Lecture Topics at the beginning of some of the Lessons will be helpful to teachers of the Book of Mormon classes.
The numbers at the beginning of each paragraph refer to the page number of the First Edition of each of the four volumes. These numbers will give the reader a clue as to where I have made extensive omissions. Total omissions approximate 50%.
All document text was scanned from the first editions of the four volumes. Foreign language printed in italics in the original books were converted by me to capital letters to distinguish them. Text scanning to word processing could not retain foreign characters. Refer to the earlier editions for these words using the page references mentioned above.
I have occasionally used brackets to clarify omissions or where necessary for understanding. Most of the brackets were added by other editors. Occasionally I have recast some sentences without changing the meaning.
Omissions are always controversial. It is my hope that this volume will entice the reader to read the original volumes. My objective was to leave only comments by Brother Nibley directly relating to the scriptures.
Dedication
To the Ancient Prophet Moroni, the last Editor of The Book of Mormon, who knew through prophecy the problems of our day, and who as an Angel was assigned to restore the Gospel at the hands of a Modern Prophet Joseph Smith.