EVIDENCE: Scrolls and the Other Israel

Ed J. Pinegar, Richard J. Allen

The history of the Jews as a nation has been officially recorded and controlled by the scribes and doctors of official Jewry. The Book of Mormon reveals the coexistence of another Israel. As Hugh Nibley states, they have existed in enforced obscurity, “a society of righteous seekers zealously devoting their lives to the preservation of the law of their fathers in all its purity and considering the bulk of their nation to have fallen into sin and transgression.” Nibley explains that these seekers—who included dreamers and prophets—were forced out of Jerusalem for too eagerly expecting the coming of the Messiah, and they often lived in the desert in family groups or communities. Both the Book of Mormon and the Dead Sea Scrolls present a picture of history at variance with many scholars’ assumptions—a picture of the other Israel. Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were not discovered until 117 years after the publication of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon’s ancient origin is unquestionable. (See Echoes, 453–454.)

Commentaries and Insights on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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