• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FAIR

Faithful Study Resources for Come, Follow Me

  • Find Answers
  • Blog
  • Media & Apps
  • Conference
  • Bookstore
  • Archive
  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Search

Faith and Reason 56: New World Temples and Towers

September 27, 2015 by FAIR Staff

Audio Player
https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Temples-and-Towers.mp3
00:00
00:00
00:00
Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Podcast: Download (6.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

 

From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith by Michael R. Ash

The word tower in the Book of Mormon relates to a concept which goes back to Mesopotamia prior to 3000 BC. The “Tower of Babel” of Genesis, and the same “great tower” of Ether, refers to ancient Near Eastern ziggurats which measured from 80 to 230 feet high. Anthropologist John L. Sorenson observes: “It may seem strange to modern readers, used to considering narrow, soaring castle and cathedral spires as towers, that bulky mounds and ziggurats would be termed “towers” by the Book of Mormon scribes. But when the Spanish invaders saw the Mesoamerican temple platforms, they immediately called them torres, ‘towers,’ so height, not shape , must be the main criterion”. Both the early Near Eastern temples and the early American pyramid/temples were of similar construction, design, and purpose.

Michael R. Ash is the author of: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting The Prophet Joseph Smith. He is the owner and operator of MormonFortress.com and is on the management team for FairMormon. He has been published in Sunstone, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, the Maxwell Institute’s FARMS Review, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt.  He and his wife live in Ogden, Utah, and have three daughters.

Julianne Dehlin Hatton  has worked as a News Director at an NPR affiliate, Television Host, and Airborne Traffic Reporter. She graduated with an MSSc from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 2008. Julianne and her husband Thomas are the parents of four children.

Music for Faith and Reason is provided by Arthur Hatton.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address:

Subscribe to Podcast

Podcast icon
Subscribe to podcast in iTunes
Subscribe to podcast elsewhere
Listen with FAIR app
Android app on Google Play Download on the App Store

Pages

  • Blog Guidelines

FAIR Latest

  • Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 49–50 – Autumn Dickson
  • By This All Will Know That You Are My Disciples
  • Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 46, 49–50, 52–56 – Mike Parker
  • Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 46–48 – Autumn Dickson
  • As a Little Child

Blog Categories

Recent Comments

  • Ana on Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 45 – Autumn Dickson
  • Kal- El Luke Skywalker on As a Little Child
  • Ned Scarisbrick on An Easter Message from FAIR
  • Sad Mom on Mortality Works: Finding Meaning in Life’s Challenges
  • Arogen on Are you a personal revelation weirdo?

Archives

Footer

FairMormon Logo

FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our Friends

  • BYU Religious Studies Center
  • BYU Studies
  • Book of Mormon Central
  • TheFamilyProclamation.org
  • Interpreter Foundation
  • Wilford Woodruff Papers Project

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • iTunes
  • YouTube
Android app on Google Play Download on the App Store

Donate to FAIR

We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.

Donate Now

Site Footer

Copyright © 1997-2025 by The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of FAIR, its officers, directors or supporters.

No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written consent of The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.

Any opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the goods and services offered by FAIR are solely those of FAIR and not those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Logo

FAIR is controlled and operated by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR)