These chapters are also difficult to follow geographically (Figure 1). The history covers, at minimum, seven different groups of people who made significant journeys to and from Zarahemla, the land of Lehi-Nephi, and the surrounding area. While these four chapters in the Book of Mormon may seem a bit dull to modern readers, people should remember that the earliest historical works—such as those by Herodotus or in the Old Testament books of Samuel and Kings—typically focused (as do these chapters) mainly on events involving kings, armies, contacts, conflicts, treaties, official and prophetic messages, diplomacy, and divine influences on political outcomes. Skillfully, these historical chapters describe such factors. Because they sometimes use flash-backs, these chapters require readers to keep in mind past, present, and future events simultaneously (Figure 2).
Figure 1 Overview of Journeys in Mosiah 7-24
Figure 2 "Flashbacks in the Book of Mosiah" in Charting the Book of Mormon
The geographical, temporal, and interpersonal dimensions of the book of Mosiah are often cited as one of the most complexly impressive sections in the entire Book of Mormon. This complexity and the satisfying resolution of each scenario into the overall story is rightly seen by many to be one of the strongest evidences of the divine authenticity and historicity of the Book of Mormon. Why would Joseph Smith choose to include a storyline where it is extremely difficult to follow the many characters, locations, twists and turns—a narrative that requires a diagram, such as the one below, for readers to follow keep track of all of the details?
Many well-educated and seasoned authors hire others to assist them when writing a novel that includes many characters and many locations to make sure that the characters’ personalities remain consistent, the characters are in the right location at the right time doing the right things, and the description of the location of each city or country remains consistent and accurate. This fact-checking often takes months. Joseph Smith translated and perfectly dictated the entire Book of Mormon—a book of more than 500 pages—in 65 days with the assistance of only one scribe at a time and almost never went back to make changes to the record. The ability to write a record of this complexity, with no notes, and in such a short period of time has not been done by the best and most experienced of authors. And yet, Joseph, an uneducated, inexperienced farm boy was able to accomplish such a task because, as he said, this ancient record was translated by the gift and power of God.
Tad R. Callister, A Case for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2019), 229–235.