NOM

For Come Follow Me, lesson 17, April 27 - May 3, Mosiah 7-10

If I wanted to encourage thought and try to understand devout believers better, I might ask:

“What do you think about neas, and sheum?”

Click here to see the Things to consider for this lesson.

Enjoy!
A-Bom

It is possible that we now know of neas and sheum by other names, perhaps opium poppies and banana squash? Just a thought.

moksha wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:33 pm It is possible that we now know of neas and sheum by other names, perhaps opium poppies and banana squash? Just a thought.

Aren’t opium poppies a old world plant? Come out of China as in Oriental Poppies. No, they are talking about coffee and tobacco. But being as they are against the WoW, God didn’t want those words translated or otherwise people might think that if the Nephites used them they must be good

I don't know what those are, but I imagine they kept the seeds in containers made of ziff.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:16 pm I don't know what those are, but I imagine they kept the seeds in containers made of ziff.

I bet ziff was something the Nephites made up to give tribute to the Lamanites. "You've taken a lot of gold and silver, but you'll never get our ziff." "Oh, yeah! Hand it over!" Limhi snorts into his elbow as the bad guys walk out with a bunch of gravel and never find the secret stash of platinum.

Barley is an interesting one that you mention in your notes, anotatedbom.

If you do a Google search for precolumbian barley at least 90% of the hits you get are from Mormon-related sites. It's a big deal with BoM apologists, not such a big deal with ancient America researchers. That's because it was never a big deal for most of the peoples of the Americas.

Native barley was one of many plants that were used by hunter-gatherers in the Americas but, as far as I know, it was never a domesticated, cultivated crop as described in the BoM and it was probably never a significant food source. Barley is mentioned three times in the BoM and it is apparently a VERY important crop, since it was even used to define the value of gold; it was more of a gold standard than gold itself: "A senum of silver was equal to a senine of gold, and either for a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain." (Note: North and Central American societies did not use gold and silver during BoM times either!)

What was a big deal was maize (corn), followed closely by beans and squash. Corn is mentioned twice in the BoM, but both times alongside barley and wheat. Corn was domesticated long before the BoM timeline and became the staple crop all throughout that timeline and right up to the European invasion. Anyone who wrote anciently about corn would also include beans and squash because they were so often grown together. They are called the Three Sisters. Beans were very important to the other two because it is a nitrogen fixing plant. The three were planted together in one mound so the beans could put nitrogen back into the soil for the other two. The corn stalks served as a support for the squash vines. Corn was both a staple and a major trading/tribute paying commodity. It is depicted everywhere in precolumbian art and myth. In fact, according to the Maya creation story in the Popol Vuh , the Gods created people out of corn.

I haven't seen this anywhere but if I were a BoM apologist I would proclaim neas and sheum to be beans and squash, but I would have to do so without any evidence except convenience.

Wheat is mentioned as often as corn, and it seemed to be so familiar to Jesus' ancient audience that he used it in a metaphor: "Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." But there was never any wheat in the Americas either.