In 1992, John Sorenson published his article “When Lehi’s Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There?” Sorenson urges that they did, and that the Book of Mormon should be read as containing references to these “others” who had to have been present, but are not expressly mentioned. Indeed, Sorenson’s “Others” hypothesis is now understood as a principal feature of the “Limited Tehuantepec Model” of the Book of Mormon. Under that model, the existence of these Necessary, Inferred Mayans (NIMs), is essential to the book’s historicity because the early narrative events in the Land of Promise could not have occurred without them. So why are they so invisible, and voiceless? This paper critically assesses the “Others” hypothesis and identifies certain consequences it has for the Book of Mormon story.

David Anderson