Facts don't care about your feelings

[_Kittens_and_Jesus]

How many wives did Joseph Smith have?

What do the church manuals say about the matter? Do they provide quotes for each special bride of the man that brought forth the Restoration and did the thing Jesus couldn't do?

[_peacemaker]

The Book of Mormon doesn't say they avoided contact with others.

That was the point of not having fires to cook their food.

Notice how Nephi uses Hebrew word play for Nahom in 1 Ne 16: 34-35 And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom. 35 And it came to pass that the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly.

It doesn't solve the problem that NHM has many different meanings in Hebrew and the place you like that uses it does not use it as Nahom or having anything to do with mourning. The place was not named Nahom and there is no connection with the Book of Mormon.

The Lehi clan was hiding from other Israelites. Nahom was a tribal territory and for ancient Israelites it can mean "mourning".

[_Lemmie]

..Nahom was a tribal territory and for ancient Israelites it can mean "mourning".

Not according to the experts.

I posted this about a year ago in a thread titled:
Nahom and "the placename fallacy... in pseudo-archaeology":

As I was reading the various NAHOM threads and comments, I wondered why Warren Aston seems to be the only one writing about this? In looking for more information, I noticed this:

Tabsir: Insight on Islam and the Middle East
• We are scholars concerned about stereotypes, misinformation and propaganda spread in the media and academic forums on Islam and the Middle East.

The entry is posted by dvarisco, but the important part is the update at the bottom, from Dr.Mohammed Maraqten:

Post Date : Friday, Apr 18th, 2014 at 7:24 am
Category : Archaeology and Antiquities and Bible and Holy Land and Yemen

Mormons in Marib:

Not being a resident of Utah, I sometimes forget that there are people who take The Book of Mormon (the original and not the Broadway play) seriously. There is a passage in 1 Nephi 16:34 that suggests the place of Ishmael’s burial: “And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom.” So where might Nahom be? Well, why not Yemen? That is the argument in an article by Warren Aston, who traveled to Yemen and found an inscription on an alter at Marib that referred to Nihm, a tribe. Thus, The Book of Mormon is verified, as innumerable Mormon websites attest, including one on Wikipedia....

The placename fallacy has a long history in pseudo-archaeology.
One can rather easily manipulate major biblical placenames in Arabia. The Lebanese scholar Kamal Salibi played this game to the hilt in his imaginative The Bible Came from Arabia. Two individuals in Bahrain have continued the theme. It is difficult to dismiss the political motive (that Abraham and Moses were not herding their flocks and refugees respectively to ancient Israel) that no doubt underlies such attempts to rewrite history. Certainly there is no archaeological evidence for these bizarre claims. And just as certainly there is no end of lunatic archaeology in sight.

and Now regarding thhe inscription on your altar, peacemaker

UPDATE: Dr.Mohammed Maraqten, who has excavated at Marib, sends the following details about the altar:

This altar is from Barʾān Temple (Arsch Bilqis), ca. 6 Century B.C. and still in situ.
The complete filiations of the dedicator of this altar to Almaqah reads: Bʿṯtr / bn / s¹wdm / bn / nwʿm / nhmyn

The partly damaged letters are / N / and / H / (like Arabic Hirra) and the complete word is NHMYN and has for sure NOTHING to do with Biblical NḤM with / Ḥ / and the Canaanite root NḤM. The root is NHM and not NḤM.

Two possibilities to understand this word:

– NHMYN (al-Nihmī) is Nisbe to the very famous and many time attested in the inscriptions, in the Islamic period and still in the same place northeast of Sanaa. Also the Nisbe NHMYN is attested may times.

– NHMYN is a designation of a profession “Stonemason”, Munahhim or Muhandis, the verb NHM is well known in the inscriptions and the Arabic sources as a Yemeni term in the meaning of “to dress stones”.

][bolding added by me.]

Here's a bio I found on Dr. Maraqten, from the Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Qatar University:

Dr. Mohammed Maraqten published intensively on Semitic epigraphy and in particular on Old South Arabian inscriptions. He is currently involved in the project “the irrigation systems in ancient Yemen: Epigraphic and historical research” (a DFG-project). In addition he is publishing the newly discovered Sabaic inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis (Yemen), and the South Arabian texts written on wooden sticks (the collection of the National Museum of Sanaa). He is epigrapher of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM) and is engaged on the project of this Foundation, which is continuing since 1998 at the Awam temple, Mahram Bilqis, near Ma'rib, Yemen.
http://www.qu.edu.qa/artssciences/chss/about/staff.php

So no, the inscriptions would not have meant "mourning., " but more relevantly, the altars are NOT Book of Mormon evidence.

[_peacemaker]

..Nahom was a tribal territory and for ancient Israelites it can mean "mourning".

Not according to the experts.

I posted this about a year ago in a thread titled:
Nahom and "the placename fallacy... in pseudo-archaeology":

As I was reading the various NAHOM threads and comments, I wondered why Warren Aston seems to be the only one writing about this? In looking for more information, I noticed this:

Tabsir: Insight on Islam and the Middle East
• We are scholars concerned about stereotypes, misinformation and propaganda spread in the media and academic forums on Islam and the Middle East.

The entry is posted by dvarisco, but the important part is the update at the bottom, from Dr.Mohammed Maraqten:

Post Date : Friday, Apr 18th, 2014 at 7:24 am
Category : Archaeology and Antiquities and Bible and Holy Land and Yemen

Mormons in Marib:

Not being a resident of Utah, I sometimes forget that there are people who take The Book of Mormon (the original and not the Broadway play) seriously. There is a passage in 1 Nephi 16:34 that suggests the place of Ishmael’s burial: “And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom.” So where might Nahom be? Well, why not Yemen? That is the argument in an article by Warren Aston, who traveled to Yemen and found an inscription on an alter at Marib that referred to Nihm, a tribe. Thus, The Book of Mormon is verified, as innumerable Mormon websites attest, including one on Wikipedia....

The placename fallacy has a long history in pseudo-archaeology.
One can rather easily manipulate major biblical placenames in Arabia. The Lebanese scholar Kamal Salibi played this game to the hilt in his imaginative The Bible Came from Arabia. Two individuals in Bahrain have continued the theme. It is difficult to dismiss the political motive (that Abraham and Moses were not herding their flocks and refugees respectively to ancient Israel) that no doubt underlies such attempts to rewrite history. Certainly there is no archaeological evidence for these bizarre claims. And just as certainly there is no end of lunatic archaeology in sight.

and Now regarding thhe inscription on your altar, peacemaker

UPDATE: Dr.Mohammed Maraqten, who has excavated at Marib, sends the following details about the altar:

This altar is from Barʾān Temple (Arsch Bilqis), ca. 6 Century B.C. and still in situ.
The complete filiations of the dedicator of this altar to Almaqah reads: Bʿṯtr / bn / s¹wdm / bn / nwʿm / nhmyn

The partly damaged letters are / N / and / H / (like Arabic Hirra) and the complete word is NHMYN and has for sure NOTHING to do with Biblical NḤM with / Ḥ / and the Canaanite root NḤM. The root is NHM and not NḤM.

Two possibilities to understand this word:

– NHMYN (al-Nihmī) is Nisbe to the very famous and many time attested in the inscriptions, in the Islamic period and still in the same place northeast of Sanaa. Also the Nisbe NHMYN is attested may times.

– NHMYN is a designation of a profession “Stonemason”, Munahhim or Muhandis, the verb NHM is well known in the inscriptions and the Arabic sources as a Yemeni term in the meaning of “to dress stones”.

][bolding added by me.]

Here's a bio I found on Dr. Maraqten, from the Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Qatar University:

Dr. Mohammed Maraqten published intensively on Semitic epigraphy and in particular on Old South Arabian inscriptions. He is currently involved in the project “the irrigation systems in ancient Yemen: Epigraphic and historical research” (a DFG-project). In addition he is publishing the newly discovered Sabaic inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis (Yemen), and the South Arabian texts written on wooden sticks (the collection of the National Museum of Sanaa). He is epigrapher of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM) and is engaged on the project of this Foundation, which is continuing since 1998 at the Awam temple, Mahram Bilqis, near Ma'rib, Yemen.
http://www.qu.edu.qa/artssciences/chss/about/staff.php

So no, the inscriptions would not have meant "mourning., " but more relevantly, the altars are NOT Book of Mormon evidence.

In the words of a non-Mormon archaeologist "Among the Bakil tribes are the Dhu Muhammad, Dhu Husayn, Arhab, Sufyan, Nihm, Murhibah, Iyal Yazid, Iyal Surayh, Bani Matar". Bakil was a priest warrior that lived in the BC era. Search for Bakil on Wikipedia.

[_SteelHead]

Still not a place name. Tribal name. Remember "facts don't care about your feelings."

[_Lemmie]

No name, no link, no documentation? No facts.

Certainly there is no archaeological evidence for these bizarre claims. And just as certainly there is no end of lunatic archaeology in sight.

[_moksha]

Since the altar was located in the Temple of the Queen of Sheba, what did the Lehi Company of Discovery make of that? Were they tempted to name the place Shebaville, but thought that might be disrespectful of the patriarchy?

The Lehi clan heard the NHM name from tribe members. For ancient Israelites NHM meant "mourning".

Surely there were other donors to the Temple of Sheba besides Bi‘athtar, son of Sawad, son of Naw‘an, the Nihmite. It is like me watching Masterpiece Mysteries on PBS and then seeing that Donald and Darlene Shiley, and Conrad Prebys and Debbie Turner were donors. Would I then write that I had visited TNR, but fail to grasp that I had watched MM on PBS? Would it be the sheer language barrier that would prevent me from realizing that Debbie Turner (TNR) was neither the show nor the broadcast studio?

[_Themis]

The Lehi clan was hiding from other Israelites.

Show where in the Book of Mormon it implies what you just made up?

Nahom was a tribal territory and for ancient Israelites it can mean "mourning".

Nahom was not a tribal territory. You are just making things up out of desperation.

[_Maksutov]

The Lehi clan was hiding from other Israelites.

Show where in the Book of Mormon it implies what you just made up?

Nahom was a tribal territory and for ancient Israelites it can mean "mourning".

Nahom was not a tribal territory. You are just making things up out of desperation.

In the Mormon tradition. Peacemaker's scared and redirecting his fear onto us.

[_peacemaker]

The Lehi clan was hiding from other Israelites.

Show where in the Book of Mormon it implies what you just made up?

Nahom was a tribal territory and for ancient Israelites it can mean "mourning".

Nahom was not a tribal territory. You are just making things up out of desperation.

Look at 1 Nephi 3:27. Nahom was a tribal territory because all tribes have a territory.