An Hypothesis Concerning the Three Days of Darkness Among the Nephites

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Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Volume 2 Number 1

1-31-1993

Article 8

An Hypothesis concerning the Three Days of Darkness among the Nephites

Russell H. Ball

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BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Ball, Russell H. (1993) "An Hypothesis concerning the Three Days of Darkness among the Nephites," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Vol. 2 : No. 1 , Article 8.

Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol2/iss1/8

This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For

more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected].

Title An Hypothesis concerning the Three Days of
Darkness among the Nephites

Russell H. Ball

Author(s) Reference
ISSN

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2/1 (1993): 107–23.

1065-9366 (print), 2168-3158 (online)
Abstract Aspects of the three days of darkness following the three-hour period of intense destruction described principally in 3 Nephi include: (1) the strange absence of rain among the destructive mechanisms described; (2) the source of the intense lightning, which seems to be unaccompanied by rain; (3) a mechanism to account for the inundation of the cities of Onihah, Mocum, and Jerusalem, which were not among the cities which “sunk in the depths of the sea”; and (4) the absence in the histories of contemporary European and Asiatic civilizations of corresponding events, which are repeatedly characterized in 3 Nephi as aﬀecting “the face of the whole earth.”

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