The Nephite Calendar

One interesting thing to look at in the Book of Mormon is the manner that they recorded dates and kept their calendar.  There were three different systems of measuring their years: from the point of departure of Lehi, from the start of the reign of the judges, and from the sign of the Savior’s birth.  Nephi told us that “six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem” the Savior would come, giving us an approximate start date of the Book of Mormon as 600 BC (1 Nephi 10:4).  Time was measured from the date of departure from that time forward during the reign of the kings; for example, when Jacob began writing “fifty and five years had passed away from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem” (Jacob 1:1).   Mosiah died “five hundred and nine years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem” and so we have the date of 91 BC as the start of the reign of the judges where the book of Alma begins (Mosiah 29:46).  The Nephite calendar from that time forth was based on the year of the reign of the judges up until the Savior came; for example, “there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi” than “in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges” (Alma 50:23).  This manner of recording time was kept until the sign of the Savior’s coming appeared, and then “the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ” (3 Nephi 2:8).  This was continued through the end of the book until the final date was given, when Moroni wrote that “more than four hundred and twenty years have passed away since the sign was given of the coming of Christ” (Moroni 10:1).

                But we don’t know for sure that a year for the Nephites corresponded exactly to our years today.  We do not know the names of any months (if there were any), how many days were in the months, or even for certain how many months there were.  There are a handful of dates given with a month and day value which do suggest that the calendar in general was similar to ours:

·         Amulek described: “I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth year of the reign of the judges” (Alma 10:6).

·         Alma and Amulek suffered in prison and “it was on the twelfth day, in the tenth month, in the tenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi” (Alma 14:23).

·         The people of Ammonihah were destroyed “in the eleventh year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, on the fifth day of the second month” (Alma 16:1).

·         Amalickiah attacked the Nephites “eleventh month of the nineteenth year, on the tenth day of the month” (Alma 49:1).

·         The Lamanites found Amalickiah had been slain “in the twenty and sixth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi… on the first morning of the first month” (Alma 52:1).

·         Moroni received an epistle from Helaman “in the commencement of the thirtieth year of the reign of the judges, on the second day in the first month” (Alma 56:1).

·         The signs of the Savior’s death came “in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month” (3 Nephi 8:5).

So this tells us that their calendar had at least 11 months, the highest month value given, and so it seems at least likely that they had 12 months.  The highest day value used in a date is the 12^th day, and so we really have no confirmation as to the lengths of the months. 

The other information that is missing from the Book of Mormon is seasons.  We don’t know much about how temperature corresponded to their months (nothing is said of spring, summer, fall, winter); we only know that there was a “season of grain” and “season of fruit” (Helaman 11:13, 17).  We do have one reference to the “heat of the day” that corresponded to the last day of the 25^th year of the reign of the judges, and so it doesn’t appear that the end of the year was winter (Alma 51:37).  In fact, there is no mention of “cold” other than Lehi telling us he would go to a “cold and silent grave” (1 Nephi 1:14).  We just don’t know much about these kind of details of Nephite life, and the Book of Mormon wasn’t really intended to give them to us.  This does not change the fact that we do know the people described were real and that they had real challenges and struggles that are relevant to us today.  And they overcame their difficulties through their faith in Jesus Christ just as we can today.  The formula that worked for them will work for us today as well: “As much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 38:5).