How Much Do You Really Know About the Book of Mormon?

Both the language and the organization of the Book of Mormon resembles that of the Bible. It's the Quran which is divided into suras, which can be seen as long chapters or short books.

Nephi was a prophet who, with his family, built a ship and sailed to the Americas. (Note: If you said "2 Nephi" -- come on, you're just not trying!)

This is a little confusing. But "Mormon" is a book, like 1 Nephi, within the Book of Mormon. It is written by Mormon, except for the last two chapters, which are written by Moroni.

This is pretty concise compared to the Jewish and the Christian Bibles. It should be said, though, that the Book of Mormon isn't their only sacred text. They read the Bible as well, a book of doctrines and teachings, and the "Pearl of Great Price."

This is more than are named after one person in either the Jewish or the Christian Bibles. The Jewish Bible has two books named for the prophet Samuel, while the Christian one has three named for the apostle John (technically, they are letters he wrote).

Lehi was the one who spearheaded his family's flight from Jerusalem and their settling in the wilderness. Along with Lehi and Nephi, Lehi's wife Sariah, his other sons Laman, Lemuel and Sam, and his (unnamed) daughters went along.

The Jaredites are said to have fled Israel and crossed the ocean around the time of the Tower of Babel. This is long before Nephi and his family crossed.

Laman was the oldest son of Lehi; he and Lemuel both resented and opposed Nephi. When the righteous Nephi and his family went off to live in the wilderness, the rest of the family, as a whole, became "the Lamanites" and rivals to the Nephites.

The Mulekites were descendants of Mulek, the only surviving son of the last king of Judah. The name "Mulek," literally translated, means "dear little king."

Zedekiah was king when Judah fell to the Babylonians. Lehi and his family, having advance warning, escaped from the city and from being carried off into slavery.

Ether was the last of the Jaredite prophets. In Book of Mormon tradition, the book he narrates is named for him.

They gave the land this name because it was fertile, unlike much of Arabia. However, they were not destined to stay there, but to go on to the New World.

Moroni is the last prophet of the ancient peoples in the Americas, and the one who sets down in writing the last of their history. He will return to tell Joseph Smith the location of the plates.

When Moroni set down the last of the Nephites and Lamanites' history, he was finishing the work started by his father Mormon.

Joseph Smith gave about 116 manuscript pages to his business partner to take home. The partner, Martin Harris, lost them. Smith then said the Lord commanded him not to try to recreate them, but to forge ahead with the rest of the book.

Here's how it worked: The record of the Nephites was on "the plates of Nephi," some of which were large, and some small. Both were transcribed onto the golden plates that Joseph Smith was directed to. Smith said that the actual plates of Nephi, large and small, had reverted to the angel Moroni's possession, and were no longer on earth.

Mormon foresaw the destruction of the Nephite people, but was unable to escape the tide of violence. The final chapters of the book of Mormon (not the overall Book of Mormon) tell us he died after the battle at the Hill of Cumorah.

Zarahemla was a land in the New World, named after an early leader of its people. The Nephites, fleeing from the tyranny of the Lamanites, went to Zarahemla and were welcomed by its people.

The Book's chronology does not contradict that of general Christian theology. Mormons believe that when Christ was born in Bethlehem, the people of the Americas witnessed a night without darkness, and then saw the Christ star in the skies.

According to Mormon doctrine, Jesus visited the Americas shortly after his ascent into heaven, after he taught the disciples on earth for 40 days after his resurrection. The account of his visit is found in the third book of Nephi.

The Ishmael in the Book of Mormon isn't the same as the one in the Jewish and Christian Bibles -- the son of Abraham and the half-brother of Isaac. Instead, he is a good man who, with his family, makes the trip into the desert with Lehi and his family.

The family of Lehi finds the Liahona, which directs them toward their destined home in the New World. However, they also find it only works when they are faithful to God.

This prediction by Nephi is the basis of Mormon distrust of Catholic and Protestant editions of the Bible. Nephi says that those who do not know the full truth of God will edit important things out of the holy scriptures.

Recently, the LDS Church has made efforts to squelch the idea that this is the Roman Catholic church. However, this idea was commonly voiced among earlier generations of Mormons.

Much of the Book of Mormon proceeds in a chronological order, from Lehi's journey across the desert, to the lives of the Nephites and Lamanites in the New World, to Jesus's visit and beyond. An exception is the book of Ether, which tells the story of the Jaredites, and how they fell from God's grace and were destroyed.

Mosiah led his people, a segment of the Nephites, to Zarahemla. There, he was able to translate the book of Ether, which contained the history of the Jaredites.

You might expect King Mosiah II to be the son of Mosiah I, but that's not so. Mosiah I's son was King Benjamin, then came the second King Mosiah.

You'd expect the book of Mosiah to be about Mosiah -- and you'd be right, but it's a different one, Mosiah the second. More confusingly, very little of the book of Omni is attributed to Omni; instead, it's considered to be mostly the work of writers called Amaron, Abinadom and Amaleki.

Zarahemla is the land that a subsection of Nephites escaped to. Mosiah, already a prophet when he arrives, is later made king of Zarahemla.

Ammaron later told Mormon where the records were, so that Mormon could find and abridge them. Ammaron did this because he saw that Mormon, though quite young, was righteous.

Hey, we're not making fun. But you've got to admit, there are some pretty odd names found in the Book of Mormon.

The Bible has been translated into 670 languages. The Book of Mormon boasts only about one-sixth of that number, having been translated into 108 languages.

This subtitle was added to stress that the Book of Mormon is a companion narrative to the Bible, but with equivalent authenticity. Don't laugh about "You've Seen the Musical, Now Read the Book" -- the LDS Church actually used this slogan to capitalize, slyly, on the hit musical, "The Book of Mormon."

This somewhat wordy subtitle was appended by Smith when he wrote (or translated) the first version in 1830. To be fair, a lot of early 19th-century publications had wordy titles and subtitles.

This statement is wrong on two levels. First, the Alma in the Book of Mormon is a man. Second, there is no "one book" of the book of Mormon named for a woman; they are all named for men.