200 Fun Facts About Book of Mormon

What is the name of Lehi's wife, the mother of Nephi and his brothers?

She complains bitterly when her sons are gone so long fetching the plates, then testifies that her husband is truly a prophet when they return. Abish is a Lamanite servant woman and Isabel a harlot in Alma; Sherem is a man.

How many books make up the Book of Mormon, from First Nephi through Moroni?

Four of them carry the name Nephi. Third Nephi was still printed as 'III Nephi' in the 1879 edition and only became 'Third Nephi' in 1920.

Which two older brothers repeatedly threaten Nephi's life on the journey?

During the ocean voyage they tie Nephi up until a storm drives the ship backward and they relent. Nephi is the fourth of six sons.

Nephi and his brothers return to Jerusalem to obtain what record from a man named Laban?

Laban rebuffs the brothers twice and seizes the family fortune before Nephi finds him drunk in the street. Nephi's own record says Laban's sword had a hilt of pure gold and a steel blade.

Which sentence, spoken by Nephi in 1 Nephi 3:7, is one of the most-quoted lines in the book?

Nephi says it in reply to his father's request that the sons go back for the plates. The other three phrases all come from later books, two of them from the same verse in 2 Nephi.

What was the Liahona, found outside Lehi's tent one morning?

One spindle pointed the direction the family should travel through the wilderness. The Church's international magazine and a high school in Tonga are both named after it.

In Lehi's dream, what does the multitude cling to as they press through the mist of darkness?

It runs along the bank of a river to the tree with the white fruit, opposite a 'great and spacious building'. Lehi's wife, Sam and Nephi eat the fruit; the two eldest brothers refuse.

What name did Lehi's family give the sea where Nephi built his ship?

Nephi translates the name as 'many waters'. Sidon is a river near Zarahemla, Shelem is the mount the brother of Jared climbed, and Ripliancum is a body of water in the Jaredite record.

In 2 Nephi 2:25, 'Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have' what?

The verse comes from Lehi's farewell teaching to his son Jacob and is one of the book's most-cited statements on the Fall.

Which is the only book in the volume not titled a 'book', a single 18-verse chapter?

It links the small plates of Nephi to the rest of the record and briefly summarises King Benjamin's reign. Enos, Jarom and Omni are also one chapter each but carry 'The Book of' in their titles.

Which record-keeper opens his single-chapter book with a 'wrestle' before God while hunting in the forest?

He was the son of Jacob and prayed all day and into the night before hearing that his sins were forgiven. His son Jarom took the plates after him.

Because the crowd was too large to hear him inside the temple walls, King Benjamin spoke from what?

The speech begins in Mosiah chapter 2 and includes the line that serving your fellow beings is serving your God. Benjamin then handed the kingship to his son Mosiah.

Which prophet was burned to death after preaching to King Noah and his priests?

One priest, Alma the Elder, believed him and went on to baptize followers in secret at the Waters of Mormon. Mosiah 17 says he sealed 'the truth of his words by his death'.

After an angel rebuked him, Alma the Younger lay unable to move or speak for how long?

He later described seeing God on his throne during that time. He went on to become the first elected chief judge of the Nephites as well as their high priest.

How did Ammon, shepherding for King Lamoni, fight off raiders at the waters of Sebus?

The other servants carried the severed arms in to the king as proof. Ammon slew only the leader with his sword; six others fell to his sling.

The Anti-Nephi-Lehies swore never to fight again and did what with their weapons?

They later moved to Nephite lands and took the name 'people of Ammon'. Their sons, who had never taken the oath, became Helaman's young army.

How many 'stripling' sons of the people of Ammon marched to war under Helaman?

Helaman wrote that they had been taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them, and that though many were wounded, none died in battle.

In Ammonihah, the lawyer Zeezrom offers Amulek how many onties of silver to deny the existence of God?

Alma 11 lays out the whole Nephite money system first, and an onti was the largest silver piece, 'as great as them all'. Zeezrom later repented and was healed by Alma.

In Alma 32, Alma compares the word of God to what for the Zoramite poor?

If it is good, he says, it will 'begin to swell within your breasts' and eventually grow into a tree bearing fruit. The sermon is one of the book's best-known passages on faith.

How old was Moroni when the Nephites appointed him chief captain of all their armies?

He introduced body armour to Nephite soldiers and led them against Zerahemnah's Lamanite-Zoramite force at the river Sidon. He shares his name with the much later prophet who buried the plates.

Captain Moroni made the 'title of liberty' by writing his rallying words on what?

The words were 'In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.' A banner copying it was carried by rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The secret criminal band that plagues the Nephites in Helaman is named after which man?

He took over the group Kishkumen had formed after assassinating the chief judge Pahoran, promising the band government posts if he became chief judge himself.

Where did Samuel the Lamanite stand to preach after the Nephites refused to let him through the gates?

The people threw stones and shot arrows at him but could not hit him. He is unusual in the book as a Lamanite prophet preaching to Nephites, and Donny Osmond played him in the church's outdoor pageant in 1997.

Samuel prophesied Christ would be born in how many years, with a night as bright as day?

The sign was 'one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day'. He also foretold three days of darkness at the crucifixion, which 3 Nephi later describes.

In 3 Nephi, the resurrected Christ appears to a multitude gathered around the temple in which land?

The visit follows a great storm, earthquake and three days of darkness. Christ tells them they are the 'other sheep' he spoke of in the Gospel of John.

How many disciples did Christ choose and give power to baptize during his visit in 3 Nephi?

3 Nephi 19 names them, including Nephi, his brother Timothy whom he had raised from the dead, and Kumen and Kumenonhi. Three of them asked to remain on earth until Christ's return.

Which prophet abridged the large plates of Nephi and narrates from Mosiah onward, giving the book its name?

He said he was named after the land of Mormon where Alma founded the church, and was told by Ammaron at about age ten where the records were hidden.

After the Nephites' final battle, how many of his people did Mormon say stood with him the next morning?

Mormon 6 lists commander after commander who had 'fallen with his ten thousand', which puts the dead at 230,000 or more. His son Moroni was among the survivors.

Mormon 9:32 says the record was written in characters called what, 'handed down and altered by us'?

Nephi earlier says he wrote in 'the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians'. No scholarly reference work recognises the script, which is why apologists compare it to hieratic or Demotic.

The Book of Ether tells of the Jaredites, who left the Old World after what event?

God led them across the ocean in eight enclosed 'barges' lit by stones the brother of Jared had asked the Lord to touch. Their civilisation collapsed around the time Lehi's family arrived.

How many stones did the brother of Jared carry up Mount Shelem for the Lord to touch?

Two for each of the eight vessels. The chapter says they were 'white and clear, even as transparent glass', and when the Lord touched them the brother of Jared saw his finger.

The brother of Jared is unnamed in the text. What name did Joseph Smith say was revealed?

The name surfaced when Smith blessed a baby in Kirtland and told the father he had just given the child the brother of Jared's name. Moriancumer appears in Ether only as a place name.

The Jaredite civil war ends with which two exhausted men as the last combatants, one beheading the other?

Ether 15 says the loser 'raised up on his hands and fell' after his head was cut off, and the winner collapsed as if lifeless. Nephite settlers later found the lone survivor.

In Moroni 10:4, God's answer on whether the book is true comes 'by the power of the' what?

The verse asks for 'a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ'. Missionaries invite investigators to test the book with it, and it closes the final book of ten chapters.

What do Latter-day Saints call the Manchester, New York, hill where Joseph Smith said the golden plates were buried?

Locals called it 'Mormon Hill' or 'Gold Bible Hill'. It is a glacial drumlin rising about 110 feet above the valley floor, about three miles from the Smith farm.

On which date was Joseph Smith finally allowed to take the plates, after four annual visits?

The angel Moroni first appeared to him on September 21, 1823. Witnesses who hefted the covered plates put their weight at 30 to 60 pounds, bound with three D-shaped rings.

Which scribe took the first 116 manuscript pages home to Palmyra in 1828, after which they vanished?

The pages held what Smith called the Book of Lehi and were most likely stolen by a member of the scribe's extended family; he later mortgaged his farm to pay for the printing.

Which schoolteacher arrived in April 1829 and scribed most of the dictation?

He also copied out the printer's manuscript, which the church bought back in 2017 for US$35 million. He, Smith and Emma moved in with the Whitmer family in Fayette to finish the work.

Which of these was one of the Three Witnesses shown the plates by an angel on June 28, 1829?

The other two were the book's financier and its principal scribe; all three later broke with Smith's church but stood by their testimony until death. The three names listed as distractors were among the Eight Witnesses.

The Eight Witnesses all came from which two families?

Three of them were Joseph's father and brothers, and Hiram Page was a Whitmer brother-in-law. Mark Twain quipped that he could not feel more satisfied 'if the entire Whitmer family had testified'.

Which Palmyra printer, who had first refused the job, published the 1830 first edition?

He demanded a $3,000 security before he would print, and his compositor John H. Gilbert found the manuscript had 'not a punctuation mark from beginning to end'. The book went on sale in his shop on March 26, 1830.

How many copies were in the 1830 first print run?

The production cost worked out at about 60 cents a book, and the early believer who had mortgaged his farm to pay for it struggled to sell them. By October 2020 the church had printed more than 192 million copies.

Which apostle divided the text into its modern shorter chapters and verses in 1879?

The 1852 edition had merely numbered the paragraphs. Talmage's 1920 edition later moved the text into double columns to look like the Bibles of the day.

In what year did the church add the subtitle 'Another Testament of Jesus Christ' to its editions?

The 1980s brought a renewed emphasis on the book, especially under Ezra Taft Benson, the church's thirteenth president.

Wikipedia records the book as fully or partially translated into at least how many languages?

That includes audio recordings for languages without a writing tradition and American Sign Language on video. The full LDS edition exists in 83 of them.

The Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon" was written by Robert Lopez and which two South Park creators?

Lopez had co-written Avenue Q and went on to the songs of Frozen. The trio spent years workshopping the show before it opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

(The musical) The two missionaries in the show are sent to a remote village in which country?

Elder Price had prayed to be sent to Orlando, Florida instead. The village is menaced by a warlord who was called General Kony in previews.

(The musical) Which future voice of Olaf originated the role of Elder Cunningham on Broadway in 2011?

Andrew Rannells originated Elder Price opposite him. Ben Platt played Cunningham later, in the Chicago production.

(The musical) How many Tony Awards did the show win in 2011, including Best Musical?

The cast album also won a Grammy and climbed to number three on the Billboard 200 after the Tonys, the highest chart position for a Broadway cast album in over four decades.

(The musical) Nikki M. James won the Tony for Best Featured Actress for playing which character?

The character is the daughter of the village leader Mafala and leads the villagers' wildly garbled 'Joseph Smith American Moses' pageant. Elder McKinley is a male role played by Rory O'Malley.

How old was Joseph Smith when he said the angel Moroni first appeared to him in 1823?

Smith dated the first visit to the evening of September 21, 1823, four years before he said he received the plates.

In which present-day New York county did Smith say the plates were buried?

The hill sits in Manchester township; the church later bought it in the 1920s and topped it with a Moroni statue.

Roughly how many working days did the 1829 dictation of the extant text take?

Scholars put the whole dictation inside a 13-month window, with most of it in a burst after Oliver Cowdery arrived in April 1829.

What did Smith often place a seer stone inside to darken it while dictating?

Emma Smith and David Whitmer both described the stone-in-hat method for the later stages of the dictation.

Where did Smith say he was directed to resume translating after the 116 pages were lost?

He did not retranslate the lost Book of Lehi; the small plates of Nephi later filled the gap.

Which of Joseph's brothers occasionally helped scribe from late 1828 to April 1829?

Emma did most of the writing in that slow stretch; only limited progress was made until Cowdery arrived.

On what date did the Book of Mormon go on sale in Grandin's Palmyra bookstore?

The church itself was organized eleven days later, on April 6, 1830.

Which historian's 1945 biography is credited with debunking the Spalding manuscript theory?

The theory held that Sidney Rigdon and Smith plagiarized an unpublished Solomon Spalding novel.

Which 1823 book on the Hebraic Indian theory is often suggested as an influence on the text?

Whether the book influenced Smith is debated; the Book of Mormon actually rejects the Ten Lost Tribes claim it made.

Which 1678 Christian allegory shares descriptive language with the Abinadi martyr narrative?

John Bunyan's Faithful is martyred in a scene that scholars compare closely to Abinadi's.

Which author dismissed the book as 'chloroform in print'?

Twain also called it 'a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament' in Roughing It.

Sermons presented as verbatim speeches make up roughly what share of the text?

The book's narrators repeatedly describe themselves editing and handing on records, a self-aware style some call almost postmodern.

Which run of books is described as originating from the small plates?

Those first-person books run from about 600 BC to about 130 BC before Mormon's abridgment takes over.

Which historian called the visit of Jesus in 3 Nephi 'the climax of the entire scripture'?

Turner also notes the book gives a 'twist' on trinitarianism, since Jesus prays to the Father while visiting the Nephites.

How many times does the text explicitly refer to a plan of salvation, happiness or redemption?

The Bible never lays out such a plan directly, which is one reason the theme stands out in the Book of Mormon.

What is Jesus's ministry in the Book of Mormon said to most resemble in style?

As in John, he teaches without parables and centres his message on faith and obedience.

Which scholar described the book's eschatology as a theology of Native or nonwhite liberation?

Hickman reads the ending as an 'apocalyptic reversal' meant to jar white antebellum readers.

In what year did Joseph Smith call the book 'the keystone of our religion'?

Oddly, Smith himself quoted the Bible far more often than the Book of Mormon in his own preaching.

Which church president, serving 1985-1994, especially pushed the Book of Mormon as central?

He said the church remained under the 1832 condemnation for treating the book lightly.

As of October 2020, how many copies had the LDS Church published?

About 90-95 percent of all printings have been church-affiliated.

What did the Community of Christ call its 1966 modernized-language edition?

Its 1908 Authorized Edition was based on the printer's manuscript and the 1837 Kirtland edition.

Which 19th-century leader claimed to translate the Voree Plates in imitation of Smith?

Strang's scripture, the Book of the Law of the Lord, claims to include part of Laban's brass plates.

Which Nahua-Mexican Latter-day Saint published a 1935 treatise on Indigenous Mexicans as Lehi's descendants?

He was excommunicated and founded a denomination that still exists in Ozumba, Mexico.

Which region do many apologists prefer as the setting for a limited geography model?

A rival 'Heartlander' movement insists the events happened inside the present-day United States.

Which anachronistic livestock does the narrative mention that archaeology has not found in pre-Columbian America?

Barley, wheat, silk, steel, chariots and the wheel are on the same list of disputed items.

Which archaeological site did John L. Sorenson say resembles the city of Zarahemla?

Mainstream scholars generally call such parallels 'parallelomania'.

In 2006 the LDS introduction changed to call Lamanites what, in relation to American Indians?

The earlier wording, 'the principal ancestors', had stood since the 1981 edition.

Which Dutch rabbi wrote a 1650 book proposing Native Americans descended from Jews?

The idea persisted into the antebellum period, when the book found its first readers.

Where was the entire original manuscript sealed in October 1841?

When it was opened nearly forty years later, water and mold had destroyed most of it.

After the 1991 fragment find, roughly what share of the original manuscript survived?

A cache of fragments from 58 pages turned up in 1991; most of the rest was destroyed by water and mold in the Nauvoo House cornerstone.

For roughly how much did the LDS Church buy the printer's manuscript in 2017?

The RLDS Church had bought it from David Whitmer's grandson in 1903 for just $2,300.

Which apostle edited the 1920 edition that first set the text in double columns?

The format imitated the Bibles then common in the United States.

Into how many languages has the full LDS version been translated?

Selections exist in another 25 languages, and since 1998 every new translation must be a full edition.

Which Alfred Hitchcock film has a priest read 2 Nephi 9 at a funeral?

It has been called one of the most complex uses of Mormonism in cinema.

Which 1915 church film was among the first to depict Book of Mormon events?

How Rare a Possession followed in 1987 and The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd in 2000.

In what year did the LDS Church begin releasing its live-action Book of Mormon Videos series?

The episodes were distributed on the church's website and YouTube channel.

Roughly how much did people who reported hefting the plates say they weighed?

Accounts describe thin metallic pages engraved on both sides and bound with three D-shaped rings.

What was the production cost of the 5,000-copy first edition?

That worked out to about 60 cents per book.

What color was the seer stone Smith found while digging a neighbor's well?

The LDS Church released photographs of the egg-sized stone on August 4, 2015.

What nickname did western New York earn for its repeated religious revivals?

The same region was also known for a craze for treasure hunting.

About how much per month was young Smith paid to work as a scryer with seer stones?

He would put the stone in a white stovepipe hat and look for lost items or treasure.

Which deceased brother did Smith say the angel first named as the 'right person' to bring in 1824?

Alvin had died in November 1823; Smith later concluded the right person was Emma Hale.

Where did Smith say he first hid the plates on the night he retrieved them?

He then took a well-digging job in Macedon to earn money for a lockable chest.

Which injury did Smith say he suffered fighting off three attackers while carrying the plates home?

He said he knocked down each man in turn while running through the woods with the plates under his arm.

In what were the plates hidden when the Smiths moved to Pennsylvania in October 1827?

Emma later said they sat on a table wrapped in a linen tablecloth, and she moved them during chores.

According to Smith's mother, what frightened Lucy Harris off from digging for the plates?

Lucy Harris had searched the house, grounds and woods after Smith refused to show them to her.

Roughly how many words long is the Book of Mormon?

Apologists cite that length against the short dictation window as evidence Smith could not have memorized it.

What did Martin Harris say the plates were bound with in his 1859 description?

He gave their size as seven by eight inches and about four inches thick when stacked.

What was hanging on the cave wall when Smith reportedly returned the plates, per early accounts?

The same accounts describe 'many wagon loads' of other ancient records in the cave.

How many witnesses in total, including Smith, said they saw the plates?

The Three saw them shown by an angel; the Eight said Smith himself showed and let them handle the plates.

On what date did the Three Witnesses say they saw the plates in the woods near the Whitmer home?

Harris withdrew at first, believing he was blocking the vision, and saw it only after praying with Smith.

Which of the Three Witnesses founded his own Church of Christ after breaking with Smith?

All three upheld their testimony of the book at their deaths, and Harris and Cowdery were later rebaptized.

Where did Cowdery say he and Smith baptized each other after John the Baptist ordained them?

Cowdery said Peter, James and John later ordained the pair to the Melchizedek priesthood in a forest.

What Kirtland church newspaper did Oliver Cowdery edit?

He was also ordained Assistant President of the Church, a largely ceremonial role.

Which brother-in-law of the Whitmer brothers signed the Eight Witnesses statement?

Mark Twain quipped he could not feel more satisfied 'if the entire Whitmer family had testified'.

On what date did the Eight Witnesses say they handled the plates near the Smith home in Palmyra?

Unlike the Three, they said Smith himself, not an angel, showed them the plates.

Which Columbia College classical scholar was shown copied characters from the plates in 1828?

Believers say his words 'I cannot read a sealed book' fulfilled a prophecy of Isaiah.

Which forger sold a fake Anthon Transcript to LDS leaders in 1980?

The forgery was exposed during the investigation of three Salt Lake City bombings he was convicted for.

What newspaper did E. B. Grandin own and publish in Palmyra?

He bought it in 1827 at age 21 and also ran a bookbindery and lending library.

What did chief compositor John H. Gilbert find missing from the manuscript he typeset?

Gilbert said he added punctuation and capitalization in the evenings.

Which local weekly reprinted mocking excerpts from the unbound sheets before publication?

Its editor Abner Cole had access because he used Grandin's press; Smith threatened legal action.

How much did a first-edition copy fetch at auction in 2007?

Copies had sold for $58,000 in 1999 and $44,000 in 2000.

Geologically, what kind of landform is the hill Cumorah in Manchester, New York?

It rises only about 110 feet above the surrounding valley floor.

Which church president oversaw the purchase of the hill Cumorah in the 1920s?

The deal combined the 96-acre Inglis farm and the 187-acre Sexton farm.

What derogatory nickname did local non-members give Cumorah?

It has also been called Mormon Hill and, more kindly, Inspiration Point.

In what year did the Hill Cumorah Pageant premiere?

NYU professor H. Wayne Driggs wrote its first script, America's Witness for Christ.

Which science-fiction author was tasked with writing a new pageant script in 1988?

He cut about 40 minutes and aimed it at non-scripture-reading young adults.

Which entertainer left a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tour in 1997 to play Samuel the Lamanite?

He performed with his family in the pageant's cast of about 700 volunteers.

Roughly how many people watched the pageant each summer?

It ran seven nights in late July with no tickets and no donations accepted.

In what year was the final Hill Cumorah Pageant actually performed?

The planned 2020 farewell was postponed by COVID-19 and then cancelled outright, ending an 82-year run.

How much money did Martin Harris first give Smith to finance the translation?

His wife Lucy also donated, though Smith refused her request to see the plates.

Whose record, later called by his name, did the 116 lost pages contain?

Smith replaced it with what he called an abridgment from the plates of Nephi rather than retranslating.

To how many named family members was Harris allowed to show the manuscript?

He ended up showing it to 'any friend who came along', and it vanished from a bureau.

Which servant of Laban did Nephi compel to join the family after taking the brass plates?

Lehi later named a tribe, the Zoramites, after his descendants.

Whose family did Lehi's sons bring out of Jerusalem on their second return trip?

The daughters of Ishmael became wives for Lehi's sons and Zoram.

How many years did Lehi's family spend in the wilderness before reaching Bountiful?

There Nephi built a ship under divine direction and the family sailed for the promised land.

What did Laman and Lemuel do to Nephi during the ocean voyage?

A storm drove the ship backwards until they released him.

To which brother did Nephi pass the small plates and record?

Grant Hardy speculates Nephi's own sons may have been swayed by Laman and Lemuel, or that he had only daughters.

Which title did later Nephite kings adopt in honor of the first ruler?

Jacob explains they were called second Nephi, third Nephi and so on regardless of their given names.

Roughly when does the text say the Nephites were destroyed?

The Nephite arrival in the Americas is dated to about 589 BC.

Which Maya scholar wrote in 1973 that no non-Mormon archaeologist backs the book's history?

The Smithsonian issued a similar statement in 1996 after its name was misused to lend the book credibility.

What did the last Nephite king do about 91 BC instead of naming a successor?

There were at least three levels of judges, headed by a single chief judge.

Who became the first elected chief judge of the Nephites?

He was also their religious leader and later resigned the judgeship to preach full time.

Which insurrectionist did Alma defeat while serving as both chief judge and military commander?

The rising is known as the Amlicite Civil War.

Which anti-Christ lost his power of speech after debating Alma?

Reduced to begging, he was later trampled to death among the Zoramites.

Which three sons received Alma's final counsel?

Each son got a separate lesson; Corianton's is the famous rebuke for abandoning his ministry.

What war marked Captain Moroni's first campaign as chief captain?

In it he outfitted Nephite soldiers with body armor for the first time.

What was the name of the king-men leader killed when Moroni marched on Zarahemla?

Moroni had earlier threatened to 'stir up insurrections' when Pahoran failed to send help.

To whom did Captain Moroni hand command of the armies when he retired?

He died four years later, around 56 BC, aged about 45.

How did Teancum kill King Amalickiah in his camp?

He struck just before the New Year, a timing some apologists read as ritually significant.

Which brother of Amalickiah did Teancum also assassinate, at the cost of his own life?

The guards caught and killed Teancum; Moroni's attack the next morning ended the war.

How did Amalickiah dispose of the Lamanite commander Lehonti after uniting their armies?

He then had the Lamanite king murdered and married the queen to take the throne.

What oath did Amalickiah swear against Captain Moroni?

He made it after Moroni's fortifications repulsed his first invasion.

Around what year did Samuel the Lamanite preach to the Nephites?

His account fills Helaman chapters 13 through 16.

Which one-chapter book covers nearly three centuries, from about AD 35 to 321?

It describes a period when there were 'no manner of -ites' before the people divided again.

How many of Jesus's disciples in 4 Nephi were allowed to live until the end of human history?

The 'Three Nephites' became a fixture of later Latter-day Saint folklore.

Which river does the Book of Mormon place Zarahemla near?

The text says the river flows northward into the sea.

Whose son does the Book of Mormon say Mulek was?

He was said to be the only son to survive the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem.

How long did the last Jaredite, Coriantumr, live among the Mulekites before he died?

A large engraved stone telling his story was later translated by the seer-king Mosiah.

How many days did the Jaredite barges take to cross the ocean?

The sealed vessels could be swamped by waves without sinking and carried honeybees the Jaredites called 'deseret'.

What did the Jaredites call the honeybees they carried across the sea?

The word later gave its name to Utah's proposed State of Deseret and its beehive symbol.

On how many plates was the record of Ether found by the people of Limhi?

King Mosiah, son of Benjamin, translated them, and Moroni later abridged the account.

How large did the Book of Mormon claim the Jaredite civilization grew before its destruction?

They destroyed themselves about the time Lehi's party arrived from Jerusalem.

Which sculptor was named after the brother of Jared?

Smith said the name came to him while blessing a baby of Reynolds Cahoon in Kirtland.

Where in the Book of Moroni is the letter from Mormon condemning infant baptism?

The letter denies original sin, saying children are not capable of committing sin.

In what year does the text say Moroni finished writing and sealed up the plates?

The Book of Moroni's ten chapters were written between about 400 and 421.

For how many years did Jarom keep the small plates before passing them to his son Omni?

His fifteen-verse book is the shortest in the text apart from Words of Mormon.

How many different authors contribute to the Book of Omni?

The last, Amaleki, hands the plates to King Benjamin because he has no descendants.

What weapon does Words of Mormon say King Benjamin wielded against the Lamanites?

The single chapter also summarises how false Christs were confounded in his reign.

From whom did King Benjamin receive the small plates of Nephi?

Benjamin's later farewell speech is called one of the book's most influential sermons.

Which priest of King Noah believed Abinadi and later became a prophet?

He taught Abinadi's words privately and baptized converts at the waters of Mormon.

Where on Broadway did the musical premiere on March 24, 2011?

It set 22 weekly sales records there in its first year alone.

Which puppet musical had Robert Lopez co-created before The Book of Mormon?

Parker and Stone saw it in 2003 on producer Scott Rudin's advice, and Lopez spotted them in the crowd.

Which of Lopez's earlier co-writers was separated from the project after arguing with Trey Parker?

The remaining trio worked for years on what they first called The Musical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What was 'Spooky Mormon Hell Dream' originally called?

'The Bible Is a Trilogy' was itself rewritten into 'All-American Prophet'.

Where did the first fully staged reading take place in February 2008?

Parker and Stone spent hundreds of thousands of their own dollars on workshops before committing to a stage show.

Which pop star was among the three finalists for Elder Price alongside Andrew Rannells?

T. R. Knight was the third finalist; there was also brief talk of casting Jack Black as Cunningham.

How much did the Broadway production end up costing, under its original estimate?

Hundreds auditioned and 28 were cast, with just four weeks of rehearsals plus two of tech.

Where does Elder Price pray to be sent for his mission?

His disappointment powers the late-show number that shares the city's name.

Who is Nabulungi's father in the musical?

He welcomes the missionaries to the village and later orders his daughter to hide indoors.

Which song has district leader Elder McKinley teach the newcomers to suppress upsetting ideas?

The tap number earned Rory O'Malley a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor.

Which figures personify Cunningham's conscience in 'Making Things Up Again'?

His father and Joseph Smith also appear to scold him for mixing sci-fi into scripture.

What does Nabulungi tell the villagers happened to Cunningham to protect his reputation?

The villagers reply that they always knew his stories were metaphors, not literal truth.

What is the name of the scripture the newly minted Ugandan elders preach in the finale?

The finale reprises 'Hello!' with the villagers now going door to door.

How many musicians make up the show's orchestra?

The single woodwind chair covers flute, saxes, clarinet, oboe, bansuri and recorders.

How did Matt Stone famously describe the show?

The opening scenes of both acts parody the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

What was the top price charged for the best seats during peak-demand performances?

The airline-style dynamic pricing let backers recoup $11.4 million in nine months.

Which future Dear Evan Hansen star played Elder Cunningham on Broadway in 2014?

He first played the role in the Chicago sit-down production opposite Nic Rouleau.

In which city did the first North American tour begin previews in August 2012?

It moved to the Pantages in Los Angeles for its official September opening.

Where did the West End production open in March 2013?

A gala performance raised £200,000 for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day.

In which city did the first non-English production open in January 2017?

A Norwegian production followed that September, with demand crashing the ticket site.

Which venue hosted the original Melbourne production from January 2017?

The church countered with ads at Southern Cross station featuring rugby league player Will Hopoate.

Which slogan did the LDS Church use in playbill ads at the show's venues?

Another version simply read 'The book is always better'.

Which label released the original Broadway cast recording on May 17, 2011?

NPR streamed a free preview of the whole album a week before release.

What peak did the cast album reach on the Billboard 200 after the 2011 Tonys?

That made it the highest-charting Broadway cast album in over four decades.

By late 2025, roughly how much had The Book of Mormon musical grossed worldwide?

By December 2025 it was the tenth longest-running Broadway show with more than 5,000 performances.

Which British prize did the London production win as best musical?

The West End run at the Prince of Wales Theatre has been going since 2013.

In which Nebraska city was Elder Price originator Andrew Rannells born?

He later reunited with Josh Gad for Gutenberg! The Musical! in 2023.

At which university did Josh Gad and Rory O'Malley become friends as students?

Gad later based his Frozen snowman Olaf partly on O'Malley.

Which Hamilton role did Rory O'Malley take over from Jonathan Groff in 2016?

He played it on Broadway for nine months and then on the national tour.

Which 2023 musical brought Casey Nicholaw a second Tony, this time for choreography?

His first Tony was for co-directing The Book of Mormon with Trey Parker.

Robert Lopez is the only person to have won which set of awards more than once each?

His tally stands at two Oscars, three Tonys, three Grammys and four Emmys.

What is Robert Lopez's ancestry through his father, who was born on a ship after leaving Manila?

He was born in Manhattan, where his father directed publications for NYU Langone Medical Center.

In the musical's opening number 'Hello!', what method are the missionaries-to-be practising?

Elder Kevin Price leads the demonstration at a Missionary Training Center before learning his posting.

Which producer steered Parker and Stone toward Avenue Q in 2003, seeding The Book of Mormon?

Rudin, who also produced South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, saw a kinship between Avenue Q's puppets and Team America's marionettes.

During previews, what was the Ugandan warlord in the musical originally called?

The name was changed before opening; a workshop song, 'Family Home Evening', was also cut.

Which song in the show was a major rewrite of an early number called 'The Bible Is a Trilogy'?

Price's lesson on Joseph Smith starts as a tribute to the prophet and ends as a tribute to himself.

Where did the musical's first North American tour close on May 1, 2016?

A separate Chicago sit-down production at the Bank of America Theatre later became the second US national tour.

Where had producers originally planned to stage the show off-Broadway in summer 2010?

Rudin and Anne Garefino went straight to Broadway instead, reasoning that Parker and Stone 'work best when the stakes are highest'.

Which annual LDS outdoor production do the opening scenes of both acts parody?

The villagers' own pageant for the mission president, 'Joseph Smith American Moses', later mangles the story through Cunningham's inventions.