Why mention tilling the earth?

Thomas R. Valletta

“Tilling the ground seems like such an ordinary thing to do. Why, then, would one waste time and space writing about such things? Such an apparently superfluous piece of information becomes more meaningful when we realize that tilling the earth had symbolic significance among various ancient societies. Mircea Eliade has noticed in his studies of ancient cultures and religions that ‘ … rites are performed that symbolically repeat the act of Creation.’ … Thus, tilling the ground may symbolize the act of creation to the author/editor of the Jaredite record and therefore warrants inclusion” (Thompson, “The Jaredite Exodus,” 106–7).

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