Professor Barry Kemp of Cambridge is an Egyptian
archaeologist whose published views are usually thought provoking. In one of
his books he wrote:
“’Great culture’, which in times becomes tourist culture,
was not the spontaneous creation of the common man. It is no accident that we
meet its manifestations in large religious buildings, in palaces, mansions, and
castles. Great culture, which requires patronage and the direction of labour,
originates in courts. The wealth, size, splendour, craft standards, and
intellectual novelties are part of the instruments of the rule. When well
established, a great tradition may have an influence which is felt throughout
society. But to reach this stage it has to expand at the expense of other
traditions. It has to colonize the minds of the nation.”[1]
Such a statement makes the thoughtful reader of the Book of
Mormon wonder if great and spacious buildings (1 Nephi 8:26, 31, 33; 11:35-36;
12:18) really equate with great culture. Interestingly, this quote is at the
beginning of a chapter in which Professor Kemp shows how many of the Egyptian
temples did not start out as great and spacious buildings.
Ancient Egypt produced great and spacious buildings,
beautiful artwork, and an intriguingly picturesque script. By contrast, ancient
Israel produced utilitarian buildings, crude artwork, and a scratchy script. But
ancient Israel also produced the Bible, a work whose literary history has far
outlasted anything any ancient Egyptian ever wrote. The ancient Maya too
produced great and spacious buildings, beautiful artwork, and an intriguingly
picturesque script. The Nephites, on the other hand, may not have had much of
these things but they produced the Book of Mormon.
The three mentions of a lavish building project from the
Book of Mormon are undertaken by king Noah who “built many elegant and spacious
buildings” (Mosiah 11:8-13) and Riplakish who “did build many spacious buildings”
(Ether 10:5-6) and Morianton who was rich “both in buildings, and in gold and
silver” (Ether 10:12). All of these kings are depicted as wicked. From a Book
of Mormon point of view great and spacious buildings are not signs of
righteousness.
