“Eight Years in the Wilderness”

Brant Gardner

Redaction: Here Nephi closes his narration of the journey eastward. While “eight years” is historically significant, Nephi apparently added the specific figure only as an afterthought, since he first said only “for the space of many years.” This chronological marker is less to mark the passage of time than to close a literary unit.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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