Doug Christensen, VP and Webmaster of the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (http://bmaf.org), shared an article on Facebook recently written by Warren Bennett on the use of the easily-overlooked phrase “and now” in the ancient Middle East and in the Book of Mormon.

Turns out this phrase is often used by ancient Semitic writers to introduce a conclusion or give other emphasis to what follows.

Bennett draws heavily upon an earlier publication available at the Maxwell Institute about some ancient Jewish writings, where the “and now” pattern was noted but not directly compared to Book of Mormon uses. He does a nice job of making some connections and giving us one more interesting tidbit to better appreciate the style and content of the Book of Mormon, an ancient text preserved for our day.