We did a family reading of the first part of 4th Nephi.  I didn’t expect three things that I found.

Numbering

Read this bland bit of chronology:

And thus did the thirty and eighth year pass away, and also the thirty and ninth, and forty and first, and the forty and second, yea, even until forty and nine years had passed away, and also the fifty and first, and the fifty and second; yea, and even until fifty and nine years had passed away.

What happened to the fiftieth year?  What happened to the sixtieth?  Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon the annals do refer to decadal years–the “tenth year of the reign of the judges,” for instance.  If anyone knows what is going on here, speak up.

Utopia is not Hippy Utopia

The ideal Zion society of 4th Nephi is pretty kumbayah in a lot of ways.  All things in common, no quarrels, that sort of stuff.  But not in every way:

And now, behold, it came to pass that the people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and became an exceedingly fair and delightsome people

As far as I can tell, whenever “strong” is used in the Book of Mormon without a qualifier, it refers to military strength.  Zion’s unrivalled asabiyah made it mighty, apparently.

Which incidentally is more evidence that the Book of Mormon peoples had other folk on the peripheries.  Otherwise, there would be no way to measure military strength and no need to.

Utopia is not Progressive Utopia

And now, behold, it came to pass that the people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and became an exceedingly fair and delightsome people

Exceedingly fast. Even by ancient standards, apparently. In a just society, people want to have kids.

It is what one would expect demographically. Remember there had just been a massive loss of life, so there were a fair number of empty niches and likely a surplus of food and land. Further, stable cooperative societies also tend to generate a surplus. So a population boom would be expected.

Until, of course, the population had expanded to fill the surplus, at which point you would expect to see dissension and infighting.

Pretty savvy of Joseph Smith to predict major findings of 21st century social science and to avoid hanging a lantern on his clever prediction.