The Lord gives some of the most elementary instruction in all of scripture as he advises the Brother of Jared on how to prepare his ship: "Make a hole in the top and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood" (Ether 2:20) Now, just how old was the Brother of Jared? At the risk of sounding scornful, was it any wonder that the Lord did not trust the Jaredites with navigational responsibilities? On a side note, one wonders how they managed day to day in a vessel that could be right side up one day, and upside down the next. It’s amazing that all living things aboard made it to the promised land without broken necks!

The Jaredite barges moved at an incredibly slow pace, notwithstanding “the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind… And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters...” (Ether 6: 5, 8) In spite of the hurricane-like conditions, the voyage took “three hundred and forty and four days.” (Ether 6:11) The average sailing vessels that brought settlers to America in the 1600’s traveled at approximately 6 knots per hour (6.9 mph according to a NASA fact sheet posted on its website). At that rate it would take only 150 days to circumnavigate the entire globe! Even if the Jaredite barges were barely creeping along at 2 knots (a little over 2 mph) it would take only 231 days to go from Dubai on the Arabian Peninsula to Los Angeles, California (11099 nautical miles according to Distances.com). Assuming that the Jaredites traveled a comparable distance in 344 days, their barges were moving at a snail’s pace of about 1.4 knots an hour. In retrospect, the Jaredites would have been much better off if the Lord had provided them with sailing vessels, calm seas, and some good wind (it would have solved the issues of fresh air, light, and broken necks, too).

Moroni seems to subscribe to a very superstitious view of ocean wildlife as he recounts the Jaredite voyage: “And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them…” (Ether 6:10) Were nondescript monsters and malicious whales truly two of the dangers that confronted the Jaredites?

How historically plausible is an epic battle of extinction where millions of men, women, and children slaughter one another until there are only two left, and these two survivors happen to be the military commanders (and most important characters) for each side. Stretching the bounds of plausibility even farther, they fight each other until they both pass out. The warrior that awakens first (Coriantamur) removes the head of the other (Shiz), who, with his spinal cord completely severed, manages to raise up “on his hands,” and then inexplicably “struggle(s) for breath.” (Ether 15:31) All the while, a lonely prophet (Ether) looks on from a safe distance, but obviously close enough to record even the most minute, gory details of this unprecedented human tragedy.

Notwithstanding the Nephites had already gained advantage over their enemy by getting them drunk (Alma 55: 8-15), the Lamanites were unwitting enough to try the same strategy. Mormon informs the reader that the Nephites were well aware of their schemes and would not allow the Lamanites to trick them into consuming tainted wine. Apparently, they did not want to reject Lamanite “hospitality” altogether, per chance a good bottle of wine should make its way into their hands. Therefore, they accepted the Lamanite offerings, but would first test it out on some of their captives (v. 31). Question: Wouldn’t it have been much smarter to simply reject all Lamanite wine up front? In any case, Mormon reasoned that the procedure for “testing” the wine was failsafe, “for if their wine would poison a Lamanite it would also poison a Nephite…” (v. 32)

Alma explains to Zeezrom how “it was appointed unto men that they must die; and after death, they must come to judgment, even that same judgment of which we have spoken, which is the end.” He then reveals that the Lord came to a most important realization, one that would have lasting consequences for mankind: “And after God had appointed that these things should come unto man, behold, then he saw that it was expedient that man should know concerning the things whereof he had appointed unto them…” (Alma 12: 27, 28)

The book of Alma begins with a most awkward expression: “NOW it came to pass that in the first year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, from this time forward, king Mosiah having gone the way of all the earth, having warred a good warfare…” (Alma 1:1). Would it be out of bounds to suggest that this is an extremely clumsy rewording of the Apostle Paul’s statement, “fought a good fight?” (2 Timothy 4:7) Again, would Mormon really use such an expression?