Could Joseph Smith have written the Book of Mormon?

The question of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon is the basis for any discussion on the truthfulness of the LDS church.

Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The enemies of the Church understand this clearly. This is why they go to such great lengths to try to disprove the Book of Mormon, for if it can be discredited, the Prophet Joseph Smith goes with it.^[1]

The Church maintains that the Book of Mormon is of divine origins, and that Joseph Smith, or any other person, was uncapable of inventing a document of such length and complexity.

Overview of LDS position

During his tenure at BYU, Hugh Nibley, a Mormon apologist, issued a challenge to see if any student could compose a history similar to the Book of Mormon (BOM) within the space of a semester,^[2] as Joseph Smith had completed the translation of the Book in less than three months.^[3] (No student ever succeeded in his challenge.) Not only that, but the history should never contradict itself, observe appropriate literary conventions, and be lavish with cultural and technical details. The LDS church asserts that for a poorly educated farm boy, this task would be entirely impossible without the power of God.

Overview of Critics' position

First, translation of the BOM did not take place in less than three months; it spanned a time period of over a year.^[4] Second, the "most correct of any book on earth" has undergone more than 3,000 textual and grammatical corrections.^[5] Some of these corrections included significant changes in doctrine. Third, a large portion of the BOM simply quotes the Bible, including translation errors unique to the King James Version. Fourth, stories in the BOM directly parallel stories from Joseph's life, such as his father's dream of the tree of life when Joseph was five years old.^[6] Fifth, the BOM is no more complicated than other works of fiction, such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and related works. Finally, the ideas in the BOM bear strong parallels to ideas popular in New England at the time and several other books.

References

Contents

Introduction

Member beliefs

Mortal write the BOM?

Joseph's childhood

Joseph's education

Joseph's age

Joseph's imagination

BOM - alternative sources

Early American influences

Others helped Joseph?

Translating speed

Emma Smith

B.H. Roberts

Unlikely literary works?

Modern "scripture" writers?

Automatic writing

Extraordinary accomplishments

Why would Joseph lie?

Church's response

Critics' summary

Editor's comments

Links

Member beliefs

For those members of the LDS Church that have more of an intellectual testimony of the Church, they often say that they believe in the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and therefore the LDS Church, because of the assertion that Joseph Smith could not possibly have written the Book of Mormon. How could a young, farm boy with limited education like Joseph have written a fairly long, complex, flawless religious text like the Book of Mormon? If Joseph could not have written the book on his own, then therefore his story of the golden plates and the angel must be true.

Could a mortal have written the Book of Mormon?

Before trying to answer the question of whether or not Joseph could have written the Book of Mormon, let's examine whether anyone in the 19th century could have written such a book. Some LDS assert that no man or woman could have written the BOM without divine intervention.

The first edition of the Book of Mormon

When the BOM was first published in 1830, it looked very different than today. The text was all in paragraph form. The original BOM had the appearance of an average 'non-religious' book. The modern BOM used in the Church looks much more 'biblical' as everything has been put into numbered chapters and verses, cross referenced with footnotes, etc.

The first edition of the BOM was riddled with grammatical errors. This alone questions whether the text was written by man or translated divinely. There were also several more significant errors in the early editions of the BOM such as changing the name of King Benjamin to King Mosiah (King Benjamin was already dead at this point) or changing that Mary was the 'mother of God' to the 'mother of the son of God'.

Overall there have been some 3,913 changes to the first edition of Book of Mormon. This is the book Joseph called 'the most correct book on earth'. For more detail on the changes go to: http://www.saintsalive.com/mormonism/bomchanges.htm

So when determining whether or not Joseph could have written the Book of Mormon, we should actually be looking at the first edition of the BOM and not the current version we have today which has been altered by people other than Joseph Smith.

How does the Book of Mormon compare to other literary works?

Most non-LDS authors are not all that impressed with the Book of Mormon - certainly no non-LDS authors are so impressed as to even entertain the idea that the book could not have been written by a man without divine help.

Mark Twain thought the BOM was extremely boring and referred to it as 'chloroform in print'.

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James's translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel -- half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern -- which was about every sentence or two -- he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc., and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass" was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet. Mark Twain, Roughing It.

For the complete review of the Book of Mormon by Mark Twain: http://www.salamandersociety.com/marktwain/

Even Assistant Church Historian and General Authority B.H. Roberts objectively stated:

"... [T]here is a certain lack of perspective in the things the book relates as history that points quite clearly to an undeveloped mind as their origin. The narrative proceeds in characteristic disregard of conditions necessary to its reasonableness, as if it were a tale told by a child, with utter disregard for consistency...

"Is this all sober history ... or is it a wonder-tale of an immature mind, unconscious of what a test he is laying on human credulity when asking men to accept his narrative as solemn history." (Studies of the Book of Mormon, B.H. Roberts)

Very few objective people would disagree that the Book of Mormon pales in comparison to such literary masterpieces as A Tale of Two Cities, War and Peace or any the works of William Shakespeare. Many books are far more complex and difficult to write than the BOM. In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings fiction series, not only are multiple interacting civilizations created, but also their own languages. If William Shakespeare had said that an angel gave him a set of gold plates in which he translated the Book of Mormon, no one would have believed him because everyone knows that Mr. Shakespeare was certainly capable of writing a book like the BOM based on the other impressive works he wrote.

So we think it's pretty certain that the Book of Mormon is not so spectacular of a book that no one on the planet could have possibly written it without divine intervention. The next question is, could Joseph Smith have produced the book on his own? It's one thing to say whether or not a trained author could have written the BOM, and quite another to say Joseph Smith could have written it.

Also, it should be noted that when the BOM was first published, he tried to sell the copyright to the BOM to a publishing company just like a regular book. Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery went to Toronto for this purpose, but they failed entirely to sell the copyright, returning without any money. (Comprehensive History of the Church Vol. 1 pp. 162-66). http://www.i4m.com/think/history/sell_BOM_copyright.htm

Also, the first edition of the BOM has on its title page the author listed as Joseph Smith although the "Preface" page in the first edition of the Book of Mormon states that Joseph translated it. Subsequent editions changed the term 'author and proprietor' to 'translator'. See photo of first edition here: http://www.inephi.com/1.htm

Reference

• http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm
• http://www.saintsalive.com/mormonism/bomchanges.htm

Joseph's life as a child

Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. He grew up on a series of farms in Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York. Although the LDS church has painted a picture of Joseph Smith as an uneducated farm boy, he was home schooled quite extensively in "reading, writing, and the ground rules of arithmetic," as his mother put it.

Even from an early age, it is apparent that Joseph was not a typical boy, but possessed some qualities and mannerisms that seemed beyond his years. Some Mormons know about Joseph's terrible operation on his leg at age seven. Infected bone was cut from his swollen and infected lower leg without any anesthesia. Joseph's mother reported the incident in her writings:

The principal surgeon, after a moment's conversation, ordered cords to be brought to bind Joseph fast to a bedstead; but to this Joseph objected. The doctor, however, insisted that he must be confined, upon which Joseph said very decidedly, "No, doctor, I will not be bound, for I can bear the operation much better if I have my liberty." "Then," said Dr. Stone, "will you have some brandy?"...

"No," exclaimed Joseph, "I will not touch one particle of liquor, neither will I be tied down; but I will tell you what I will do-I will have my father sit on the bed and hold me in his arms, and then I will do whatever is necessary in order to have the bone taken out." Looking at me, he said, "Mother I want you to leave the room, for I know you cannot bear to suffer so; father can stand it, but you have carried me so much, and watched over me so long, you are almost worn out." Then looking up into my face, his eyes swimming in tears, he continued, "Now, mother, promise me that you will not stay, will you? The Lord will help me, and I shall get through with it." (Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith The Prophet, Lucy Mack Smith).

That manner of speech and control is certainly not typical for a seven-year-old child. Even at that tender age, it appears Joseph had the verbal skills and some influence over those much older than he. Although Joseph survived the operation quite well, he walked with a limp from that day forward. A few LDS depictions will show Joseph with a limp and occasionally using a cane.

It is very apparent in our studies of Joseph Smith, that he had academic strengths and weaknesses. We would describe Smith as very creative, articulate, and well read. By his early teens, he had quite a thorough knowledge of The Holy Bible and many other books. Although well-read beyond average, he appeared weak in areas such as writing and grammar and, of course, in formal education subjects such as the sciences and mathematics.

Reference

• Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith The Prophet, Lucy Mack Smith
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080820013511/http://www.rmwhome.com/Mormons/Documents/background.htm - archived copy

Joseph's education

Joseph Smith did have limited formal education and that's often heralded as 'proof' that he could not have written the BOM. However most people do not know that Joseph's father, Joseph Smith, Sr., was a school teacher during the off season. Joseph's brother, Hyrum, worked as a school teacher during the off season also. One of his sisters may have also been a teacher at some point in her life. This wasn't a family of illiterates. Education was important to the Smith family, and although Joseph may have only had limited formal education in a typical classroom, his parents undoubtedly schooled him at home. Also Joseph was going to high school when he was 20 years old in Harmony PA with the Stowell children.

Joseph was able to read and ponder scriptures. His parents were literate. He had access to books and newspapers. He even held a position as "exhorter" at a local church. Joseph's mother wrote that they did not neglect the education of their children.

In the early 1800s few children were able to have a full education. Most children in rural America worked on farms and often had much of their education done at home. As Joseph Smith Sr. was an actual school teacher at various times in his life, he would be quite capable of teaching general education to his children, including Joseph. Joseph's mother, Lucy Smith, would undoubtedly help as well. Even Abraham Lincoln had a very limited formal education, and Benjamin Franklin had only one year of formal education.

Even today many people home-school their children. Would anyone say that these home-schooled children are uneducated? It's true that they do not have a formal education but for the most part, home-schooled children have similar, and in some cases superior, education than traditionally-schooled children.

Religious education

Young Joseph was able to read and ponder scriptures. Joseph also attended many protestant church services and studied the Bible in depth. According to Joseph Smith's mother he told her, back before the BOM came forth that,

"I can take my Bible, and go into the woods, and learn more in two hours, than you can learn at meetings in two years, if you should go all the time." [Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853), p. 90]

Critic's comment: If Joseph studied the Bible so well, is it any wonder that the BOM is so similar to the Bible? The LDS Gospel doctrine teachers often say that the BOM was translated from its original language into 17th century English. The English used in the 1830s certainly doesn't match the BOM language. The 'thees' and 'thous' were obviously put in to make the book sound more like The Holy Bible. One has to wonder why a document translated in the 19th century uses 17th century English.

Michael Quinn has made the best case for Joseph Smith's information environment. Joseph knew the Bible, Camp meetings, American antiquities, strategies of the war of 1812 and earlier American/Indian wars, and the strong anti-Masonic sentiments between 1826-1830 in his environment (Hyrum Smith was a Mason in NY, and belonged to a lodge). In other words, the VERY things that Joseph was most "schooled" in, he had observed from his own backyard so to speak--the VERY things that we find discussed in the Book of Mormon.

The poor grammar in the 1830 BOM shows the lack of formal education that Joseph had. However, lack of education does not mean lack of intelligence or imagination. The original grammar and the errors in the BOM is what would be expected from someone with limited formal education.

An example of Joseph's writing from before he published the Book of Mormon is in the section below 'What about Emma Smith?'.

Reference

• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer, pp 42-44.

Joseph's age

We've heard many times that it's impossible for a young boy to have written the BOM. Although the Church doesn't teach this, many members mistakenly confuse the age of Joseph when he translated the BOM with the age Joseph was when he had the First Vision at age 14 or 15. The first edition of the BOM was published in 1830 when Joseph was 24. So Joseph was in his early to mid twenties when the BOM was translated and not a teenager. Many authors have written very impressive works and were younger than when Joseph translated the BOM such as Ernest Hemingway. See below for examples of extraordinary accomplishments by people younger than Joseph was when he translated the BOM.

Joseph's imagination

Critics often say that young Joseph was known for story-telling and often cite the following account from Joseph's mother:

During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelings, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them. (Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith The Prophet, Lucy Mack Smith).

However, as we're an organization that promotes total fairness, we must point out that although this is a true quote, it is not the complete quote. LDS apologists contend that the knowledge came from Joseph's encounters with Moroni and not from his imagination.

So we will show the entire account as provided by Assistant Church historian, LDS apologist and General Authority B.H. Roberts who suggests that Joseph could not have learned any of these things from Moroni:

Studies of the Book of Mormon, B.H. Roberts, pp 243-244.

Chapter XIV

THE IMAGINATIVE MIND OF PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH: EVIDENCE OF ITS EXISTENCE-EXAMPLES OF ITS FORCE

One other subject remains to be considered in this division of the "study" here conducted, viz.-was Joseph Smith possessed of a sufficiently vivid and creative imagination as to produce such a work as the Book Mormon from such materials as have been indicated in the preceding chapters-from such common knowledge as was extant in the communities where he lived in his boyhood and young manhood; from the Bible, and more especially from the View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith? That such power of imagination would have to be of a high order is conceded; that Joseph Smith possessed such a gift of mind there can be no question.

The fact of it is first established by the testimony of the mother who bore him, Lucy Smith. Speaking of the days immediately following the revelation making known the existence of the Book of Mormon to her son-the ever memorable 23rd day of September, 1823-Lucy Smith in her History of the Prophet Joseph Smith, recounts how in the evening of that day, the young prophet sat up late detailing to the family the wonderful conversations he had with the angel; until the elder brother, Alvin, noting how exhausted the youthful prophet was suggested an adjournment of the story being related until the following evening. And this was done. This seems to have been the inauguration of a long series of such evenings according to the History by "Mother Lucy Smith" for she writes:

"From this time forth, Joseph continued to receive instructions from the Lord, and we continued to get the children together every night evening, for the purpose of listening while he gave us a relation of the same. I presume our family presented an aspect as singular as any that ever lived upon the face of the earth-all seated in a circle, father, mother, sons and daughters, and giving the most profound attention to a boy, eighteen years of age, who had never read the Bible through in his life; he seemed much less inclined to the perusal of books than any of the rest of our children, but far more given to meditation and deep study..During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them." (History of the Prophet Joseph, 1901 edition, Salt Lake City, Utah. Published under the sanction and direction of the late President Joseph F. Smith).

It must be remembered that the above took place before the young prophet had received the plates of the Book of Mormon: these were the evenings immediately following the first interviews with Moroni. Whence came his knowledge for these recitals of "the dress," "the mode of the ancient inhabitants of America of traveling," "the animals on which they rode," "their cities," "their buildings," "their mode of warfare," "their religious worship"? And all this given "with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them"? Whence indeed, since all this happened before even the second interview with Moroni had taken place, and between three and four years before the translation of the Book of Mormon began.

And yet it must be from that book that he would get his knowledge of the ancient inhabitants of America, unless he has caught suggestions from such common knowledge, or that which was taken for "knowledge," as existed in the community concerning ancient American civilization, and built by imagination from this and possible contact with Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews his description of the ancient inhabitants of the land, their life, religion and customs. A year later he will be helped by Josiah Priest's book, The Wonders of Nature and Providence, published only twenty miles away, and it will have much to say about the Hebrew origin of the American Indian, and his advanced culture and civilization. Whence comes the young prophet's ability to give these descriptions "with as much ease as if he had spent his whole life" with these ancient inhabitants of America? Not from the Book of Mormon, which is, as yet, a sealed book to him; and surely not from Moroni, since he had had but one day and night of interviews with him, during which there had be several interviews, it is true, but these had been occupied with other subject matter than the things enumerated by Lucy Smith. These evening recitals could come from no other source than the vivid, constructive imagination of Joseph Smith, a remarkable power which attended him through all his life. It was as strong and varied as Shakespeare's and no more to be accounted for than the English Bard's.

B.H. Roberts Conclusion

In his book Studies of the Book of Mormon, Roberts answers the question as to whether or not Joseph Smith could have produced the Book of Mormon.

He concluded that Joseph Smith had sufficient imagination and was capable of producing the BOM even though he had little formal education. He was, however, prone to made silly mistakes. It is these telling inconsistencies and problems that Roberts lists: 1) evidence of an undeveloped mind, 2) repetition of the same themes, 3) repetition of the same villains, 4) repetition of same battles and wars, 5) conversions typical of 19th century conversions.

"In light of this evidence, there can be no doubt as to the possession of a vividly strong, creative imagination by Joseph Smith, the Prophet. An imagination, it could with reason be urged, which, given the suggestions that are to be found in the 'common knowledge' of accepted American Antiquities of the times, supplemented [sic] by such a work as Ethan Smith's, View of the Hebrews, would make it possible for him to create a book such as the Book of Mormon is.

"... There is a certain lack of perspective in the things the book relates as history that points quite clearly to an undeveloped mind as their origin, The narrative proceeds in characteristic disregard of conditions necessary to its reasonableness, as if it were a tale told by a child, with utter disregard for consistency...

"Is this all sober history ... or is it a wonder-tale of an immature mind, unconscious of what a test he is laying on human credulity when asking men to accept his narrative as solemn history."

"... was Joseph Smith possessed of a sufficiently vivid and creative imagination as to produce such a work as the Book of Mormon from such materials as have been indicated in the preceding chapters ...? That such power of imagination would have to be of a high order is conceded; that Joseph Smith possessed such a gift of mind there can be no question." B.H. Roberts (Studies, p. 243).

Reference: http://mormonquotes.com/B._H._Roberts

Book of Mormon evidences of other sources

Joseph's Father

Joseph Smith Sr. had the following dream when Joseph Smith Jr. was only 5 years old as recounted by his wife Lucy:

"I thought," said he, "I was traveling in an open, desolate field, which appeared to be very barren. As I was thus traveling, the thought suddenly came into my mind that I had better stop and reflect upon what I was doing, before I went any further. So I asked myself, 'What motive can I have in traveling here, and what place can this be?' My guide, who was by my side, as before, said, 'This is the desolate world; but travel on.' The road was so broad and barren that I wondered why I should travel in it; for, said I to myself, 'Broad is the road, and wide is the gate that leads to death, and many there be that walk therein; but narrow is the way, and straight is the gate that leads to everlasting' life, and few there be that go in thereat.'

Traveling a short distance farther, I came to a narrow path. This path I entered, and, when I had traveled a little way in it, I beheld a beautiful stream of water, which ran from the east to the west. Of this stream I could see neither the source nor yet the termination; but as far as my eyes could extend I could see a rope running along the bank of it, about as high as a man could reach, and beyond me was a low, but very pleasant valley, in which stood a tree such as I had never seen before. It was exceedingly handsome, insomuch that I looked upon it with wonder and admiration. Its beautiful branches spread themselves somewhat like an umbrella, and it bore a kind of fruit, in shape much like a chestnut bur, and as white as snow, or, if possible whiter. I gazed upon the same with considerable interest, and as I was doing so the burs or shells commenced opening and shedding their particles, or the fruit which they contained, which was of dazzling whiteness. I drew near and began to eat of it, and I found it delicious beyond description. As I was eating, I said in my heart, 'I can not eat this alone, I must bring my wife and children, that they may partake with me.' Accordingly, I went and brought my family, which consisted of a wife and seven children, and we all commenced eating, and praising God for this blessing. We were exceedingly happy, insomuch that our joy could not easily be expressed.

While thus engaged, I beheld a spacious building standing opposite the valley which we were in, and it appeared to reach to the very heavens. It was full of doors and windows, and they were filled with people, who were very finely dressed. When these people observed us in the low valley, under the tree, they pointed the finger of scorn at us, and treated us with all manner of disrespect and contempt. But their contumely we utterly disregarded.
I presently turned to my guide, and inquired of him the meaning of the fruit that was so delicious. He told me it was the pure love of God, shed abroad in the hearts of all those who love him, and keep his commandments. He then commanded me to go and bring the rest of my children. I told him that we were all there. 'No,' he replied, 'look yonder, you have two more, and you must bring them also.' Upon raising my eyes, I saw two small children, standing some distance off. I immediately went to them, and brought them to the tree; upon which they commenced eating with the rest, and we all rejoiced together. The more we ate, the more we seemed to desire, until we even got down upon our knees, and scooped it up, eating it by double handfuls.
After feasting in this manner a short time, I asked my guide what was the meaning of the spacious building which I saw. He replied, 'It is Babylon, it is Babylon, and it must fall. The people in the doors and windows are the inhabitants thereof, who scorn and despise the Saints of God because of their humility.'
I soon awoke, clapping my hands together for joy."

Reference: Meridian Magazine

Critic's comment: This is the 'Tree of Life' story as told in the Book of Mormon starting in 1 Nephi 11:25. Joseph's father must have told Joseph about this dream many times when Joseph was growing up. Although faithful LDS try to explain this as evidence that Joseph's father was also inspired, there is another more plausible explanation - Joseph simply incorporated this dream experience, that had such an impact on his father, into the BOM.

The Holy Bible

Many parts of the BOM are identical to the Bible. Entire chapters of the Bible are contained within the BOM. Plagiarism is not difficult for anyone to do.

LDS faithful say that there are a couple of reasons for this. The first one is that the BOM peoples had the Old Testament writings, that they had taken with them from Jerusalem, so there isn't a problem in quoting Old Testament prophets like Isaiah as the BOM prophets had the Old Testament. Another reason is that these stories were on the plates because the same experiences that happened in the Americas also happened in Jerusalem. For example, since Christ taught the 'sermon on the mount' to the Jews, he would also teach that same exact message to the Nephites as it's the same gospel.

http://www.lds-mormon.com/bookofmormonquestions.shtml#BOM8
http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bom/kjv.shtml
http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bom/summary.shtml
http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/annotated/topics.shtml
http://www.xmission.com/~research/central/isabm1.html

Problems with portions of the Bible in the BOM

The King James version of The Holy Bible has some translation problems with it as stated in the Articles of Faith. These translation errors occurred when the original Greek and Hebrew Bibles were translated into English. Obviously if the BOM used the Old Testament records that the Nephites brought with them from Jerusalem in 600 BC, then they would not have English translation errors made in the Middle Ages.

However the BOM has these same errors. The Bible has some rare errors such as plurals of certain words. The portions of the BOM that appear to quote the Bible have these same errors. Also the term 'Lucifer' was translated incorrectly in the Bible and was also used in the same incorrect manner as in the King James Bible.

Some LDS apologists admit that Joseph must have used the King James Bible when bringing forth the Book of Mormon. They explain that translating was hard on Joseph, and when he recognized that parts of the golden plates were identical to the Bible, he used the Bible instead so Joseph would not have to go through the more laborious method of translating the BOM using the seer stones. This apologetic answer really sounds like they are grasping for straws to provide some sort of answer to this problem.

More information on the King James Bible being used in the creation of the BOM can be found here:

Book of Mormon Difficulties

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/curt_heuvel/bom_bible.html

Christ's Sermon on the Mount in the BOM and the Bible are identical. Yet later on, in the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible, Joseph corrected many of the parts of the Sermon on the Mount. So the question is, if the sermon on the mount was not translated correctly in the Bible, why then, is it the same incorrect translation in the BOM? Why is it not corrected like Joseph later did with his Bible translation?

Critics say the obvious answer is that originally Joseph just copied the sermon on the mount out of the Bible. It wasn't until later he came up with the idea to fix the Bible.

See also: The problems with the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible

'View of The Hebrews' by Ethan Smith

View of the Hebrews was a very popular book published in New England in 1823 which said that the American Indians are really descended from Hebrews and that they came over here to America and separated into two factions, one civilized and one wild and bloodthirsty, and that there were lots of wars between them, and finally the wild faction wiped out the civilized faction. The book begins with the destruction of Jerusalem, quotes a lot from Isaiah and also mentions a prophet standing on a wall saying "wo" unto the people, and the people shoot arrows at him (pg 26).

Parallels between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon

There are significant parallels between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon. B.H. Roberts (1857-1933), a prominent LDS scholar and apologist for the Book of Mormon, wrote Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study, later published as Studies of the Book of Mormon. In a letter to President Heber J. Grant and other church officials, Roberts urged "all the brethren herein addressed becoming familiar with these Book of Mormon problems, and finding the answer for them, as it is a matter that will concern the faith of the Youth of the Church now as also in the future, as well as such casual inquirers as may come to us from the outside world." Roberts discusses elements which he considers to be similar between the two books:

Origin of the inhabitants of the American continents

Roberts states that both View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon make the claim that the Hebrews "occupied the whole extent of the American continents." In addition, Roberts states that Mormon speakers and writers often ignorantly claim that the Book of Mormon was the first book to represent that the American Indians were descendents of Hebrews. He points out that Ethan Smith and many other writers made this claim earlier, and that this idea was "very generally obtained throughout New England." A number of parallels presented by Roberts require the belief, as Roberts himself believed, that the people described in the Book of Mormon arrived at and populated an empty North and South American continent, and that all people on those continents descended from these people.

Destruction of Jerusalem

Roberts notes that the entire first chapter of View of the Hebrews describes the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. He compares this to information given in first chapters of the Book of Mormon, in which Lehi prophesies of the destruction of Jerusalem prior to their leaving the area of the city around 600 B.C.E.

Stories of a "lost book"

An account is given in View of the Hebrews in which "an old Indian" stated that his ancestors "had a book which they had for a long time preserved," but that "having lost the knowledge of reading it.they buried it with an Indian chief." This is compared with Joseph Smith's story of the retrieval of the golden plates from a stone box in the hill Cumorah in New York.

The discovery of what is claimed to be a Jewish phylactery by a "Mr. Merrick" is described in View of the Hebrews. The item was dug out of the ground and "contained four folded leaves of old parchment." The leaves were described as being "dark yellow" and were said to contain Hebrew writing. Roberts speculates that the "dark yellow" might suggest "gold color" and adds a note: "Query: Could all this have supplied structural work for the Book of Mormon?"

Breastplate and the Urim and Thummim

Ethan Smith describes a breastplate "in resemblance of the Urim and Thummim" made of a white conch shell with two holes in it to which are fastened buckhorn white buttons "as if in imitation of the precious stones of the Urim." Roberts compares this to the Urim and Thummim which Joseph Smith said that he was given for the purpose of translating the plates.

Egyptian hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphic paintings found in the area New Mexico are described in View of the Hebrews. Roberts writes "Was this sufficient to suggest the strange manner of writing the Book of Mormon in an altered Egyptian?"

Barbarous and civilized people

Ethan Smith was challenged regarding his postulation of a highly civilized society among ancient Americans, which was in contrast with the nomadic lifestyle of the American Indians of his day. Ethan Smith supposes that the Hebrews who arrived on the American continent split into two classes, and that "most of them fell into a wandering idle hunting life" but that "more sensible parts of this people associated together to improve their knowledge of the arts." Ethan Smith believed that the more civilized portion of this society separated from the more primitive group, who "lost the knowledge of their having descended from the same family." As a result of their "tremendous wars," the civilized group "became extinct." This situation is compared to the story of the Nephites and Lamanites, who also split into two groups and had frequent wars, which ultimately resulted in the destruction of the more civilized Nephites. It is noted by LDS scholars that in the Book of Mormon, the two groups retained their knowledge of having descended from the same family up until the time that the Nephites were destroyed, contrary to Smith's supposition in View of the Hebrews that this knowledge was lost.

Isaiah and the scattering and gathering of Israel

Roberts points out that both View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon include extensive quotations from Isaiah regarding the scattering and future gathering of Israel. Roberts adds the note "Query: Did the Author of the Book of Mormon follow too closely the course of Ethan Smith in this use of Isaiah would be a legitimate query." It is noted by LDS scholars that View of the Hebrews includes many scriptural prophecies about the restoration of Israel, including Deuteronomy 30; Isaiah 11, 18, 60, 65; Jeremiah 16, 23, 30-31, 35-37; Zephaniah 3; Amos 9; Hosea and Joel. Of the scriptures cited, only Isaiah 11 appears in the Book of Mormon.

Quetzalcoatl

Ethan Smith discusses the legends of the "bearded white god" Quetzalcoatl and proposes that this "lawgiver" or "Mexican messiah" was actually Moses. Ethan Smith also suggests that this belief held by the people of Mexico at the time of Montezuma allowed the Spanish to easily conquer the country because "the Mexicans mistook the white bearded invaders from the east for the descendents of their long cherished culture-hero Quetzalcoatl." Roberts note states "The legitimate query: did this character spoken of in the ''View of the Hebrews,'' published five years before the Book of Mormon, furnish the suggestion of the ''Christ'' on the ''Western Continent?

Additional parallels include:

• the future gathering of Israel and restoration of the Ten Lost Tribes
• the peopling of the New World from the Old via a long journey northward which encountered "seas" of "many waters"
• a religious motive for the migration
• the description of extensive military fortifications with military observatories or "watch towers" overlooking them
• a change from monarchy to republican forms of government
• the preaching of the gospel in ancient America.
• Both tell of prophets in ancient America
• Both maintain that the purpose of America in the last days is to gather up the remnants of Israel, bringing them into Christianity, and bringing forth the millennium.

Joseph quotes View of the Hebrews in support of the Book of Mormon

There was a reference to View of the Hebrews within Joseph Smith's lifetime, but it came from the prophet himself. In an article published in the Times and Seasons on June 1, 1842, Joseph quoted View of the Hebrews in support of the Book of Mormon:

If such may have been the fact, that a part of the Ten Tribes came over to America, in the way we have supposed, leaving the cold regions of Assareth behind them in quest of a milder climate, it would be natural to look for tokens of the presence of Jews of some sort, along countries adjacent to the Atlantic. In order to this, we shall here make an extract from an able work: written exclusively on the subject of the Ten Tribes having come from Asia by the way of Bherings Strait, by the Rev. Ethan Smith, Pultney, Vt., who relates as follows: "Joseph Merrick, Esq., a highly respectable character in the church at Pittsfield, gave the following account: That in 1815, he was leveling some ground under and near an old wood shed, standing on a place of his, situated on (Indian Hill)... [Joseph then discusses the supposed phylacteries found among Amerindians, citing View of the Hebrews p. 220, 223.] ( Joseph Smith, Jr., "From Priest's American Antiquities," (1 June 1842) Times and Seasons 3:813-815. )

The Golden Pot

LDS historian Grant Palmer cites parallels between the Book of Mormon and a story called 'The Golden Pot'.

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Palmer Ch 5.

 

Westminster Confession

http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech5b.htm

References

• http://www.centerplace.org/history/misc/jsp.htm#14
• wikipedia.org
• wikipedia.org
• http://mormonthink.com/mormonstudiesauthor.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_Hebrews
• http://trialsofascension.net/mormon/plagiarism.html

Early American influences in the Book of Mormon.

Early American Influences in the Book of Mormon stands in direct contradiction to the testimonies of witnesses to Joseph Smith's translation process. Translation is a generous term considering the word for word dictation method as observed by those closest to Smith. The multiple accounts of Smith's glowing stone in his hat delivering each word in order leaves little room for Smith interpreting or translating what he saw. Yet, when compared to available contemporary writing, the Book of Mormon is shown repeatedly to borrow verbiage and phrases from its time.
 
Defenders of Smith counter that any duplication of phrases between his Book of Mormon and contemporary sources are merely accidental anomalies generated through the permutation of a finite number of words. If this be the case then the chiasmus and Hebraisms, often pointed to by many of Smith's defenders, must suffer the same fate. However, in the world of Book of Mormon apology, a faith promoting parallel is taken as evidence of its divinity while more suspicious evidence of borrowing and plagiarism is considered insignificant.
 
Larry Morris of the pro-LDS group FARMS took the proper perspective in relation to this material when he said:

"Believers in the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham have every reason to move cautiously when citing parallels in support of their belief because the use of parallels is a two-edged sword. Critics of the Book of Mormon, for example, have long cited parallels between that book of scripture and Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews (published before the Book of Mormon) as evidence that Joseph Smith borrowed freely from Ethan Smith. Similarly, Thomas E. Donofrio has recently attempted to prove that Joseph Smith drew on such sources as David Ramsay's Life of George Washington and Mercy Otis Warren's History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution in producing the Book of Mormon."

A two edged sword indeed it is. Please read this insightful essay by Tom Donofrio on Early American Influences on the Book of Mormon.

Could others have helped Joseph?

Joseph Smith may simply have had help from someone else to write the Book of Mormon. Someone else may have written the BOM (or most of it) and Joseph was merely the one to deliver it to the world. There are many theories regarding this idea. They generally involve some combination of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon and perhaps an author by the name of Solomon Spalding.

The Spalding theory often does not get much attention because two of the biggest critics of the LDS Church dismissed it years ago - The Tanners and Fawn Brodie. LDS apologists dismiss it similarly saying that it was refuted long ago. Perhaps the Tanners and Fawn Brodie did a disservice to the theory as there is some significant information that supports the theory that is worthy of further study.

From Craig Criddle:

The Spalding Theory

In a nutshell, the Spalding-Rigdon Theory proposes that The Book of Mormon is the product of a pious fraud orchestrated by Sidney Rigdon, a popular preacher in the 1820's Christian Restoration movement. More specifically, it proposes that Rigdon added Restoration doctrines and his own theology to the unpublished narratives of Spalding, then deceased, to create documents that were subsequently compiled and edited to produce the 1830 version of The Book of Mormon. In executing this plan, Rigdon understood that The Book of Mormon would only be accepted as divinely approved if it could be brought to light through means that would appear supernatural. He was also well known for the theology that he had added to The Book of Mormon, and thus needed a way to reveal the book without exposing his own role in its creation. The answer came in the person of Joseph Smith, Jr., a con man and master of the gold digging scam. Smith's charm and ability to induce belief made him an excellent Revelator. For Smith, the "gold bible business" was a way to make money and to help his family escape poverty. For Rigdon it was the springboard to leadership of a religious movement. In carrying out this plan, however, Rigdon and Smith were concerned that their lack of education and "weakness in writing" would prevent timely completion of the book and its public acceptance. So they secured the editorial assistance of Smith's distant cousin - Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher with editing experience.

Historical evidence connecting Rigdon to Spalding

Textual and theological evidence implicating Rigdon

Historical evidence connecting Rigdon to Smith before 1830

Historical evidence related to the long-term relationship between Rigdon and Smith

Further Insightful Reading on the Spalding Theory

Craig Criddle gave a presentation on the Spalding Theory at the Ex-Mormon conference in 2009 in SLC. It was an excellent presentation and attended by several MormonThink writers. It is available on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ExmormonFou ... jnG7aidPxI

Essay by Craig Criddle: Sidney Rigdon: Creating the Book of Mormon

Statements of the witnesses: http://www.mormonstudies.com/witness.htm

Website detailing many facets of the BOM authorship: Book of Mormon Studies by Ted Chandler

1880 Article, "The Book of Mormon", Spalding manuscript explanation

More from Craig Criddle: Tracking BOM Authorship

Oxford Journal - Literary and Linguistic Computing

Youtube Video and updated take in the theory: http://mormonleaks.com/

Signed statement of Isaac Butts

I was born in Palmyra, N.Y., near where old Jo Smith settled, January 4, 1807. I attended school with Prophet Jo. His father taught me to mow. I worked with old and young Jo at farming. I have frequently seen old Jo drunk. Young Jo had a forked witch-hazel rod with which he claimed he could locate buried money or hidden things. Later he had a peep-stone which he put into his hat and looked into it. I have seen both. Joshua Stafford, a good citizen, told me that young Jo Smith and himself dug for money in his orchard and elsewhere nights. All the money digging was done nights. I saw the holes in the orchard which were four or five feet square and three or four feet deep. Jo and others dug much about Palmyra and Manchester. I have seen many of the holes. The first thing he claimed to find was gold plates of the "Book of Mormon," which he kept in a pillowcase and would let people lift, but not see. I came to Ohio in 1818, and became acquainted with Sydney Rigdon in 1820. He preached my brother's funeral sermon in Auburn, O., in May, 1822. I returned to Palmyra twice and resided there about two years each time. Many persons whom I knew in New York joined the Mormons and came to Kirtland. They told me they saw Sidney Rigdon much with Jo Smith before they became Mormons, but did not know who he was until they came to Kirtland.
  [Signed.] ISAAC BUTTS.
  South Newbury, Geauga Co, O.

http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/CA/natruths.htm

Other witnesses testified that Sidney Rigdon told them about the Book of Mormon

Aside from those that claimed that Oliver Cowdery admitted that the Book of Mormon originated with Solomon Spalding's unpublished manuscript, there are also witnesses that testified that Sidney Rigdon personally told them the same thing. Here's one of them:

STATEMENT  OF  JAMES  JEFFERY.

I know more about the Mormons than any man east of the Alleghenies, although I have given no attention to the matter for twenty-five years. I did not know I was in possession of any information concerning the Book of Mormon unknown to others. I supposed that as Rigdon was so open with me, he had told others the same things.

Forty years ago I was in business in St. Louis. The Mormons then had their temple in Nauvoo, Ill. I had business transactions with them. Sidney Rigdon I knew very well. He was general manager of the affairs of the Mormons.

Rigdon, in hours of conversation told me a number of times there was in the printing office with which he was connected in Ohio, a manuscript of Rev. Spaulding, tracing the origin of the Indian race from the lost tribes of Israel; that this manuscript was in the office for several years; that he was familiar with it; that Spaulding had wanted it printed, but had not the money to pay for the printing; that he (Rigdon) and Joe Smith used to look over the manuscript and read it over Sundays.

Rigdon and Smith took the manuscript and said -- "I'll print it," and went off to Palmyra, N. Y.

I never knew the information was of any importance -- thought others were aware of these facts. I do not now think the matter is of any importance. It will not injure Mormonism. That is an "ism," and chimes in with the wishes of certain classes of people. Nothing will put it down but the strong arm of the law. Otherwise it will go on forever, like Tennyson's "Brook."

This is the substance of what I remember about the matter. JAMES JEFFERY.

I hereby certify that I wrote the above paper at the dictation of Mr. James Jeffery, in the presence of Mrs. James Jeffery, and and Dr. John M. Finney. (Rev.) CALVIN D. WILSON.

Mrs. James Jeffery.  |
J. M. Finney, M. D.  |Witnesses.

Churchville, Hartford Co., Md., Jan. 29, 1884.

Reference: Statement of James Jeffrey

Dale Broadhurst has amassed a collection of various 1800s newspaper articles that report many accounts of those that support the Spalding Theory and witnesses that claimed Sidney Rigdon admitted his involvement in producing the Book of Mormon. http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/PA/penn1860.htm [archived backup here]

Statement of Able D. Chase

I, Able D. Chase, now living in Palmyra, Wayne Co., N.Y., make the following statement regarding my early acquaintence with Joseph Smith and the incidents about the production of the so-called Mormon Bible. I was well acquainted with the Smith family, frequently visiting the Smith boys and they me. I was a youth at the time from twelve to thirteen years old, having been born Jan. 19, 1814, at Palmyra, N. Y. During some of my visits at the Smiths, I saw a STRANGER there WHO THEY SAID WAS MR. RIGDON. He was at Smith's several times, and it was in the year of 1827 when I first saw him there, as near as I can recollect. Some time after that tales were circulated that young Joe had found or dug from the earth a BOOK OF PLATES which the Smiths called the GOLDEN BIBLE. I don't think Smith had any such plates. He was mysterious in his actions. The PEEPSTONE, in which he was accustomed to look, he got of my elder brother Willard while at work for us digging a well. It was a singular looking stone and young Joe pretended he could discover hidden things in it

My brother Willard Chase died at Palmyra, N. Y., March 10, 1871. His affidavit, published in Howe's "History of Mormonism," is genuine. Peter Ingersoll, whose affidavit was published in the same book, is also dead. He moved West years ago and died about two years ago. Ingersoll had the reputation of being a man of his word, and I have no doubt his sworn statement regarding the Smiths and the Mormon Bible is genuine. I was also well acquainted with Thomas P. Baldwin, a lawyer and Notary Public, and Frederick Smith, a lawyer and magistrate, before whom Chase's and Ingersoll's depositions were made, and who were residents of this village at the time and for several years after.

Reference: Joseph Smith, His Family and Friends

Able D. Chase signed the above statement in our presence, and he is known to us and the entire community here as a man whose word is always the exact truth and above any possible suspicion.

The statement of Abel D. Chase is corroborated by a letter from J. H. Gilbert, addressed to Mr. Cobb, dated Palmyra, October 14, 1879. Mr. Gilbert says:

Last evening I had about 15 minutes conversation with Mr. Lorenzo Saunders of Reading, Hillsdale Co., Mich. He has been gone about thirty years. He was born south of our village in 1811, and was a near neighbor of the Smith family -- knew them all well; was in the habit of visiting the Smith boys; says he knows that RIGDON was hanging around Smith's for EIGHTEEN MONTHS PRIOR TO THE PUBLISHING OF THE MORMON BIBLE."

Statement of Rigdon's grandson - Walter Sidney Rigdon

''He 'found' Joe Smith and they had a great many talks together befores they brought out the plates. None of us ever doubted that they got the whole thing up; but father always maintained that grandfather helped get up the original Spaulding book. At any rate he got a copy very early and schemed on some way to make it useful. Although the family knew these facts, they refused to talk on the subject while grandfather lived. In fact, he and they took on a huge disgust at the whole subject.''

Reference: Interview with Sidney Rigdon's Grandson - 1888, The Salt Lake Tribune, April 15, 1888

Didn't someone find Spalding's lost manuscript?

A lost Spalding manuscript was found in Hawaii and LDS believers have said that puts the nail in the Spalding Theory coffin. The manuscript that was discovered was Manuscript Story, not Manuscript Found, even though it was given that name later on, perhaps as wishful thinking so the Spalding theory would die. Yet discussions have included both names over the years. So then if there was only one manuscript, then it was/is Manuscript Story, and Manuscript Found doesn't exist, unless it is indeed the second manuscript, the one which Solomon Spalding did indeed submit to a print shop in Pittsburgh. The point of contention then becomes whether that manuscript later became the basis for the Book of Mormon.

Cowdery, Ethan Smith and Solomon Spalding

The complete theory

A recent book has come forth entitled Who really Wrote the Book of Mormon - The Spalding Enigma. This volume examines the origins of the Book of Mormon based upon a hypothesis of the Spalding Enigma. The Pro-Mormon challenge of "supplying a more plausible account" is hereby met. The organization Spalding Research Associates continues to research this theory.

Editor Comments: We don't necessarily support the Spalding theory; however there is more evidence to support the theory than we initially thought. If this theory is true then it neatly answers many of the concerns that faithful members have who question the church based on other problematic issues such as the temple ceremony and Book of Abraham translation issues but still don't think that Joseph could have come up with the Book of Mormon on his own. Many people currently support the theory. It may or may not be true, but it's certainly worthy of further study. More ongoing work is currently being performed in order to try to find a link between Rigdon and Smith before the BOM was published.

The following quotes from "Manuscript Found" make you wonder. This was written by Solomon Spalding who died in 1816 and who appears to have had ties to Joseph Smith's associates:

NEAR the west Bank of the Coneaught River there are the remains of an ancient fort. As I was walking and forming various conjectures respecting the character situation & numbers of those people who far exceeded the present Indians in works of art and inginuety, I hapned to tread on a flat stone. This was at a small distance from the fort, it lay on the top of a great small mound of Earth exactly horizontal. The face of it had a singular appearance. I discovered a number of characters, which appeared to me to be letters, but so much effaced by the ravages of time, that I could not read the inscription. With the assistance of a leaver I raised the stone. But you may easily conjecture my astonishment when I discovered that its ends and sides rested on stones & that it was designed as a cover to an artificial Cave. I found by examining that its sides were lined with stones built in a connical form with down, & that it was about eight feet deep. Determined to investigate the design of this extraordinary work of antiquity, I prepared myself with the necessary requisites for that purpose and descended to the Bottom of the Cave. Observing one side to be perpendicular nearly three feet from the bottom, I began to inspect that part with accuracy. Here I noticed a big flat stone fixed in the form of a doar.

I immediately tore it down and lo, a cavity within the wall presented itself; it being about three feet in diameter from side to side and about two feet high. Within this cavity I found an earthen box with a cover which shut it perfectly tight. The box was two feet in length one and half in breadth and one and three inches in diameter. My mind filled with awful sensations which crowded fast upon me (( and )) would hardly permit my hands to remove this venerable deposit, but curiosity soon gained the ascendancy (( and )) the box was taken and raised to open (( its cover. )) When I had removed the cover I found that it contained twenty-eight (( rolls )) of parchment; and that when (( examined )) appeared to be manuscripts written in elegant hand with ROMAN letters and in the Latin Language. They were written on a variety of subjects. But the roll which principally attracted my attention contained a history of the author's life and that part of America which extends along the Great Lakes and the waters of the Mississippi. Extracts of the most interesting and important matters contained in this roll I take the liberty to publish. Gentle Reader, tread lightly on the ashes of the venerable dead. Thou must know that this country was once inhabited by great and powerful nations, considerably civilized and skilled in the arts of war; and that on ground where thou (( now )) treadest many a bloody battle hath been fought, and heroes by thousands have been made to bite the dust.

This sounds familar.

References

• Sidney Rigdon: Creating the Book of Mormon by Craig Criddle
• http://i4m.com/think/history/Book-of-Mormon.pdf
• http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs2/vernP3.htm#pg6061
• Who Really Wrote The Book of Mormon? - The Spalding Enigma
• Audio Presentation - Art Vanick, Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?: http://exmormonfoundation.org/audio2007.html
• http://sidneyrigdon.com/vern/vernP0.htm
• Spalding research Associates
• Spalding Studies - Dale Broadhurst

Translating speed of the Book of Mormon

True-believing LDS often say that Joseph translated the BOM in only about 90 days or so. If this is true, then this would lend credibility to the BOM as it would have been very difficult for Joseph or perhaps anyone else to come up with the whole BOM in such a relatively short period of time.

From Apostle Neal A. Maxwell in 1997:

"One marvel is the very rapidity with which Joseph was translating-at an estimated average rate of eight of our printed pages per day! The total translation time was about 65 working days. (See "How long did it take Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon?" Ensign, Jan. 1988, 47.) By comparison, one able LDS translator in Japan, surrounded by reference books, language dictionaries, and translator colleagues ready to help if needed, indicated that he considered an output of one careful, final page a day to be productive. And he is retranslating from earlier Japanese to modern Japanese! More than 50 able English scholars labored for seven years, using previous translations, to produce the King James Version of the Bible, averaging about one precious page per day."

"The Prophet Joseph Smith would sometimes produce 10 pages per day!"

The writing of the first one hundred and sixteen pages was "painfully slow ... for Joseph had yet to learn how to write," a long and difficult process at best. Yet less than a year later we find him tossing off a 275,000 word manuscript in three months. [This three month's translation feat is something Nibley and other apologists frequently flaunt as 'proof' of the Book of Mormon's authenticity. I heard Nibley claim on another occasion that it took only 60 days to write the entire Book of Mormon. The methodology used in computing the time is seriously flawed. The lost 116 pages according to the text of the Book of Mormon itself is essentially duplicated in the subsequent version which we now have as first and second Nephi. That takes up a significant amount of the 275,000 words. The first 116 pages took months to create alone. During the interim period, after the manuscript was lost, of about a year (which Nibley and others don't include in the calculation) Joseph wasn't doing much of anything. He didn't have a job. He could have easily been coming up with text for the book. Joseph Smith's mother stated that Joseph was telling stories about the Indians from the time he was young. The plot and narrative could have been worked on for two or three years or more. Nibley's assertion that it was done in only two or three months is pure speculation at best. Considering that the content of the Book of Mormon is largely borrowed and adapted from the KJV of the Bible, the time involved to 'translate' need not be significant anyway.]

Per LDS Historian Grant Palmer

The following is a plausible scenario for how the Book of Mormon came to be. After Joseph's marriage to Emma Hale in January 1827, he promised his father-in-law that he would give up treasure hunting. Influenced by the revival fervor and by his mother's piety, his mind began to fill with impressions that blended his familiarity with Indian lore and his conviction of biblical promises. Perhaps the outline of a book began to form sometime before Martin Harris became his scribe in April 1828. He had already experimented with seer stones, and perhaps he thought that through greater faith and concentrations, God would open to his mind a vision of the secrets of the artifacts being discovered in upstate New York. The dictation proceeded, and after Martin lost the first 116 pages of transcription in mid-1828, this may have been fortuitous. An apprenticeship had been served, and the vision that was unfolding in Joseph's mind may have become more clear. The dictation probably progressed haltingly at first, perhaps as a kind of stream-of-consciousness narrative. Before Oliver Cowdery became his new scribe in April 1829, the prophet had had nine months to ponder the details of the plots and subplots and to flesh out the timeline. Given his familiarity with the Bible and with American antiquities, it would have become progressively easier for him to put form to vision. He dictated the final manuscript in about ninety days. Over the next eight months, before the book was published in March 1830, he had the opportunity to make textual refinements. He thus had three years to develop, write, and refine the book-six years from the time he told his family about the project.

An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer, pp 66-67.

It should also take into consideration the fact that Joseph Smith had years to come up with text and plot. There are tons of books, far superior in writing style and story line, that didn't take nearly as long as the Book of Mormon did to complete. It may have been dictated in 90 days but he had been working on it, if only in his head, for years. Of course if the Spalding theory has any validity to it, the translating speed is not an issue at all as he would have basically been dictating a book already written.

References

• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer, pp 66-67.
• http://www.lds-mormon.com/nibley4.shtml#time

What about Emma Smith?

When answering critics about if Joseph could have written the Book of Mormon, Joseph's wife Emma has stated that he was incapable of writing anything like the BOM. Two issues are often brought up by supporters of Joseph regarding Emma:

The walls of Jerusalem

Emma gives an example that in the process of translating, Joseph Smith was surprised to see a reference to Jerusalem surrounded by walls as he didn't seem to know that Jerusalem had walls around it. Emma had to inform him of that. This experience helped Joseph seem more credible as a prophet in Emma's eyes.

Critic's Comment: If Joseph was indeed committing a fraud, but wanted to convince his wife that he was really translating an ancient document, then that is exactly the kind of thing that Joseph would do. He simply acted like he didn't know that Jerusalem had walls so she would think he was translating from another document and not merely making it up. OR if the BOM came from another source such as Sidney Rigdon, then he may have been genuinely surprised to read that and simply stated as such.

It is well known that Joseph read and studied the Bible. There are numerous Bible verses that mention Jerusalem's walls:

Dictation of the Book of Mormon

Emma claimed that Joseph could begin dictation right where he left off on a previous day:

"A second marvel of the Book of Mormon translation process is that from what we know, rarely would Joseph go back, review, or revise what had already been done. There was a steady flow in the translation. The Prophet's dictating resulted-just as the compositor, John H. Gilbert, remembered-in no paragraphing."

"Emma Smith said of the inspired process: "After meals, or after interruptions, [Joseph] would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him" ("Last Testimony of Sister Emma," Saints' Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, 290). One who has dictated and been interrupted must usually resume by inquiring, "Now, where were we?" Not so with the Prophet!"

"If one were manufacturing a text, he would constantly need to cross-check himself, to edit, and to revise for consistency. Had the Prophet dictated and revised extensively, there would be more evidence of it. But there was no need to revise divinely supplied text. Whatever the details of the translation process, we are discussing a process that was truly astonishing!"

"Emma does mention, however, and so does David Whitmer, the Prophet's spelling out of unfamiliar names, letter by letter, especially if asked by the scribe. For instance, Oliver Cowdery first wrote the name Coriantumr phonetically. He then immediately crossed out his phonetic spelling and spelled the name as we now have it in the Book of Mormon. Coriantumr with its "-mr" ending clearly would have required a letter-by-letter spelling out by the Prophet."

- Apostle Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, January 1997, p 36

Critic's Comment: According to Oliver Cowdery, Oliver scribed the entire Book of Mormon 'save a few pages'. Emma may have only done a few pages here and there. Joseph likely memorized the pages well enough to continue where he left off or he may very well have peaked at the last page before he started again - it's not like Emma kept the pages. Joseph would have kept the pages already done, and he simply looked at them before he gave them to Emma to begin translating again. It's not that remarkable when you think about it. And if there was a curtain between them, as was commonly taught when we were growing up in the Church, then Joseph could have obviously had notes or any material he wanted to look at.

Joseph had a good memory - he progressed rapidly in Masonry. You progress from one degree to another through memorization of long rituals that need to be repeatedly perfectly. He may have been first accepted because his father was a Mason, but still Masonry involves a lot of memorization which Joseph mastered and copied.

Patience Worth dictated her masterpieces also, so the method Joseph used was not unique. Also the Tanners have demonstrated how Joseph could have looked through slits in a hat to read from pre-prepared notes.

Joseph had been thinking about the book for years and it is entirely within the bounds of possibility that Joseph dictated the whole thing from his head much like Mozart had his finished compositions in his head and referred to his actual writing (pen to paper) of them as "copying."

The passages in the BOM that are similar to the KJV Bible are not impossible to have been in Joseph's memory. In the first place, many of them are not 100% verbatim. They are too close to not be referenced the KJV but not exact copies--sort of like how one might remember them after having read them many times.

Small children, for instance, will very often correct a parent reading a cherished bedtime story if a word is misread or out of place. And the one book we know Joseph buried his nose in a lot was the KJV of the Bible. Martin Harris remarks that upon his return from the Anthon visit, Joseph opened the Old Testament to the passage where the 'learned cannot read a sealed book' and convinces Harris then and there that it referred precisely to him. Now that's knowing the material!

Was a curtain used when Joseph dictated the BOM to a scribe?

Growing up in the church we were clearly taught that there was a curtain between Joseph and Oliver Cowdery, the principle scribe for the BOM. This was done presumably so that the scribe could not see the plates. If that's the case, then the dictation isn't even an issue as Joseph could have simply read from notes or even whole papers that were already developed by him or someone else.

However, LDS historians support the idea that there was often not a curtain between Joseph and the scribe. If a curtain was used at all, it was to separate Joseph and Oliver from others in the house. Although still unknown to the vast majority of Latter-day Saints, knowledgeable LDS historians endorse the idea that Joseph put his face in a hat with a seer stone and dictated the BOM to a scribe when the plates were either covered or not even in the room. See Translation of the Book of Mormon

Emma's full quotes and commentary

"Q. Could not father have dictated the Book of Mormon to you, Oliver Cowdery and the others who wrote for him, after having first written it, or having read it out of some book?

"A. Joseph Smith [and for the first time she used his name direct, having usually used the words, "your father," or "my husband"] could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictating a book like the Book of Mormon. And, though I was an active participant in the scenes that transpired, and was present during the translation of the plates, and had cognizance of things as they transpired, it is marvelous to me, "a marvel and a wonder," as much so as to any one else."

...

"Q. Mother, what is your belief about the authenticity, or origin of the Book of Mormon?

"A. My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity-I have not the slightest doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him. This was a usual thing for him to do. It would have been improbable that a learned man could do this; and, for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply impossible."

The rest of the interview with Emma

When LDS faithful quote the above two questions and answers by Emma they never quote the rest of the interview by Emma. That's because Emma blatantly lies in the following questions seriously damaging her credibility. Here are other questions and her answers from that same letter:

Q. What about the revelation on polygamy? Did Joseph Smith have anything like it? What of spiritual wifery?

A. There was no revelation on either polygamy, or spiritual wives. There were some rumors or something of the sort, of which I asked my husband. He assured me that all there was to it was that, in a chat about plural wives, he had said, "Well, such a system might possibly be, if everybody was agreed to it, and would behave as they should; but they would not; and besides, it was contrary to the will of heaven." No such thing as polygamy, or spiritual wifery, was taught, publicly or privately, before my husband's death, that I have now, or ever had, any knowledge of.

Q. Did he not have other wives than yourself?

A. He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have.

Q. Did he not hold marital relation with women other than yourself?

A. He did not have improper relations with any woman that ever came to my knowledge.

Q. Was there nothing about spiritual wives that you recollect?

A. At one time my husband came to me and asked me if I had heard certain rumors about spiritual marriages, or anything of the kind; and assured me that if I had, that they were without foundation; that there was no such doctrine, and should never be with his knowledge, or consent. I know that he had no other wife or wives than myself, in any sense, either spiritual or otherwise"

[From Emma Smith Bidamon Interview with Joseph Smith III, February 1879 Published as "Last Testimony of Sister Emma," Saints' Herald 26 (1 October 1879): 289-90. Also published in Saints' Advocate 2 (October 1879): 49-52. as quoted in Early Mormon Documents Vol. 1, edited by Dan Vogel; Signature Books, Salt Lake City, 1996; p. 542.]

Critic's Comment: Emma's answers are blatant lies, as the historical record shows. Her intentions are fairly clear - she is lying in order to protect Joseph Smith's legacy. What she said in the same letter about Smith's involvement in creating the Book of Mormon is equally suspect.

Emma said this to her (and Joseph's) son, Joseph Smith III, who was president of the Reorganized Church. She had ample motive to defend the Book of Mormon to her own son who was president of a Church that she was a member of, and which also considered the Book of Mormon to be scripture.

Joseph's Literacy

Her memory of Joseph's literacy 50 years earlier may have been massaged by time and the story, which had been often told, that Joseph was too illiterate to write such a book. However the best evidence on Joseph's literacy are the letters he wrote.

On Oct 22, 1829 he wrote the following to Oliver Cowdery:

Harmony Oct. 22d 1829

Respected Sir

I would in form you that I arrived at home on sunday morning the 4th after having a prosperous Journey, and found all well the people are all friendly to <us> except a few who are in opposition to evry thing unless it is some thing that is exactly like themselves and two of our most formadable persacutors are now under censure and are cited to a tryal in the church for crimes which if true are worse than all the Gold Book business. we do not rejoice in the affliction of our enimies but we shall be glad to have truth prevail there begins to be a great call for our books in this country the minds of the people are very much excited when they find that there is a copy right obtained and that there is really book, about to be printed I have bought a horse of Mr. Stowell and want some one to come after it as soon as convenient Mr. Stowell has a prospect of getting five or six hundred dollars he does not know certain that he can get it but he is a going to try and if he can get the money he wants to pay it in immediately for books we want to hear from you and know how you prosper in the good work, give our best respects to Father & Mother and all our brothers and Sisters, to Mr. Harris and all the company concerned tell them that our prayers are put up daily for them that they may be prospered in evry, good word and work and that they may be preserved from sin here and from the consequence of sin hereafter and now dear brother be faithful in the discharge of evry duty looking for the reward of the righteous and now may God of his infinite mercy keep and preserve us spotless untill his coming and receive us all to rest with him in eternal repose through the attonement of Christ our Lord Amen

Joseph Smith Jr

Oliver H. Cowdery

[Original spelling retained]

The readers can judge for themselves if Joseph "could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter" in the time before the publication of the Book of Mormon.

The lack of punctuation in this letter parallels the lack of punctuation in the original manuscript of the BOM that was given to the printer, E. B. Grandin, for the typesetting of the first edition. Grandin's typesetter, twenty-seven year old John H. Gilbert, had to supply all the punctuation himself. He was the first non-Mormon to read the entire Book of Mormon and he did it from the "printer's manuscript."

Notice the rustic construction "he is a going to try" in the letter. Interestingly the first edition (1830) of the Book of Mormon contains the phrase "as I was a going thither" (p 249) and "with the Lamanitish servants, a going forth with their flocks." (p. 271).

In addition it also has the following similar constructions:

• "As I was a journeying to see a very near kindred" (p. 248).
• "the destruction of this people is a beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your Judges" (p. 251).
• "he met with the sons of Mosiah, a journeying towards the land of Zarahemla." (p. 269).
• "And it came to pass that as Ammon and Lamoni was a journeying thither" (p. 280).
• "and went about from house to house, a begging for his food." (p. 309)."
• Moroni, on the other hand, had been a preparing the minds of the people to be faithful" (p. 357).
• "the Lamanites saw that Moroni was a coming against them," (p. 403).
• "did now behold the armies of the Lamanites a marching towards them;" (p. 529).

Add to this fact that JS had a former schoolteacher as a scribe (Oliver Cowdery) and JS's supposedly limited literacy is no longer a problem. In fact it appears that Joseph Smith had exactly the right amount of "illiteracy" to write the Book of Mormon.

Besides, the Book of Mormon is not composing a letter (which, judging from the above letter to OC, Joseph could do just fine) it is about story telling. And we have his mother's testimony that:

"Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them."

Note that Joseph Smith did this with "much ease." This is exactly what was done in dictating the Book of Mormon. Also, Joseph Smith's history written in 1832, not long after the BOM "translation" includes long passages in JS's handwriting which show equivalent (if not superior) literacy.

Comments on Emma

Although Emma likely believed Joseph, even if she didn't, she would still have supported her husband. If she suspected that Joseph was indeed making this stuff up and she stated that to the public, Joseph's enemies surely would have taken it out on him. Emma obviously wouldn't want any harm to come to her husband, and the father of her children, regardless of the reason.

Also Emma lied when she felt it was necessary. In addition to her false claim that Smith couldn't "write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter", she also lied to her son about polygamy. She lied repeatedly to her children when asked if their father practiced polygamy. She denied it so strongly so her children would not have a tainted view of their father. Emma's lies are one of the reasons that the RLDS (Community of Christ) church was formed.

In view of the documentary record, together with the fact that Emma also testified that Joseph had no wife but her, it can be surmised that her "memory" was probably more concerned with how she wanted things to be remembered more than how they had actually happened. And of course she didn't want to be portrayed as the woman whose husband made a fool of by claiming divine right to have relations with dozens of other women while he was married to Emma.

Reference

• http://www.mormonthink.com/mormonstudiesscribe.htm

B.H. Roberts

B.H. Roberts is quoted several times above so it's worthwhile to learn a little more about him. Why are his comments so significant? Since B.H. Roberts was such an advocate of the LDS Church all his life, even being denied a seat in Congress after being elected due to his practice of polygamy, it's amazing just how damaging some of the things he wrote about the Church could be. Roberts's writings would be comparable to having Hugh Nibley or LDS apologist Daniel Peterson of FARMS start suggesting that Joseph could have written the Book of Mormon and came up with numerous problems associated with the Book of Mormon.

B.H. Roberts was president of the First Council of Seventy, a prolific writer and author of some notable historical, biographical and theological works. He was an intellectual and the 'Hugh Nibley' of his day. He wrote A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' which was printed as a series in Americana (a monthly periodical published by the "American Historical Society" of New York) from June 1909 to July 1915 and updated to 1930 when it was published.

Ironically, while he was indeed a defender of the faith and expressed a strong testimony of The Book of Mormon throughout his life, he also authored a manuscript entitled Studies of the Book of Mormon (which remained unpublished until after his death), which critically examined the book's claims and origins. He identified many problems with the Book of Mormon such as things mentioned that did not exist in the Americas in Book of Mormon times. In the manuscript, he examines some of the claims of The Book of Mormon regarding the native inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, compares the content of the book with an earlier book entitled View of the Hebrews and comments on the likelihood that Joseph Smith could have been the author of The Book of Mormon without divine assistance. Whether the manuscript reflects his true doubts or was a case of Roberts playing the devil's advocate is a subject of much debate among Mormon historians and scholars. Significantly, upon presenting Studies of the Book of Mormon to Church leaders, he emphasized that "I am taking the position that our faith is not only unshaken but unshakable in the Book of Mormon, and therefore we can look without fear upon all that can be said against it" (see B.H Roberts' Purpose in Performing the Study)

From Roberts' own writings in his landmark work, Studies of the Book of Mormon, Brother Roberts shows his sincere frustration that the Quorum of the 12 would not address the issues he raised concerning the Book of Mormon.

From 'Studies of the Book of Mormon, B. H. Roberts, ed. by Brigham D. Madsen, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, 1992; pp. 22-24 (emphasis added):

"But not quite two months before his death, Roberts did discuss the episode of his meeting with the Church authorities as recorded in the Personal Journal of Wesley P. Lloyd, former dean of the Graduate School at Brigham Young University and a missionary under Roberts in the Eastern States Mission. Lloyd wrote on August 7, 1933, that he had spent three and a half hours with his former mission president and that "the conversation then drifted to the Book of Mormon and this surprising story he related to me." Lloyd then recounted Roberts's explanation of the background of Riter's request for answers to the Book of Mormon problems and how Roberts had been assigned the task of answering the questions (emphasis added):

Roberts went to work and investigated it from every angle but could not answer it satisfactorily to himself. At his request Pres. Grant called a meeting of the Twelve Apostles and Bro. Roberts presented the matter, told them frankly that he was stumped and ask for their aide [sic] in the explanation. In answer, they merely one by one stood up and bore testimony to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. George Albert Smith in tears testified that his faith in the Book had not been shaken by the question. Pres. Ivins, the man most likely to be able to answer a question on that subject was unable to produce the solution. No answer was available. Bro. Roberts could not criticize them for not being able to answer it or to assist him, but said that in a Church which claimed continuous revelation, a crisis had arisen where revelation was necessary. After the meeting he wrote Pres. Grant expressing his disappointment at the failure and especially at the failure of Pres. Ivins to contribute to the problem. It was mentioned at the meeting by Bro. Roberts that there were other Book of Mormon problems that needed special attention. Richard R. Lyman spoke up and asked if they were things that would help our prestige and when Bro. Roberts answered no, he said then why discuss them. This attitude was too much for the historically minded Roberts.

There was however a committee appointed to study this problem, consisting of Bros. Talmage, Ballard, Roberts and one other Apostle. They met and looked vacantly at one and other, but none seemed to know what to do about it. Finally, Bro. Roberts mentioned that he had at least attempted an answer and he had it in his drawer. That it was an answer that would satisfy people that didn't think, but a very inadequate answer to a thinking man. They asked him to read it and after hearing it, they adopted it by vote and said that was about the best they could do. After this Bro. Roberts made a special Book of Mormon study. Treated the problem systematically and historically and in a 400 type written page thesis set forth a revolutionary article on the origin of the Book of Mormon and sent it to Pres. Grant. It's an article far too strong for the average Church member but for the intellectual group he considers it a contribution to assist in explaining Mormonism. He swings to a psychological explanation of the Book of Mormon and shows that the plates were not objective but subjective with Joseph Smith, that his exceptional imagination qualified him psychologically for the experience which he had in presenting to the world the Book of Mormon and that the plates with the Urim and Thummim were not objective. He explained certain literary difficulties in the Book such as the miraculous incident of the entire nation of the Jaradites, the dramatic story of one man being left on each side, and one of them finally being slain, also the New England flat hill surroundings of a great civilization of another part of the country. We see none of the cliffs of the Mayas or the high mountain peaks or other geographical environment of early American civilization that the entire story laid in a New England flat hill surrounding. These are some of the things which has made Bro. Roberts shift his base on the Book of Mormon. Instead of regarding it as the strongest evidence we have of Church Divinity, he regards it as the one which needs the most bolstering. His greatest claim for the divinity of the Prophet Joseph lies in the Doctrine and Covenants.

For more on B. H. Roberts doubts about the Book of Mormon: http://www.cephas-library.com/mormon/mormon_b.h.roberts_disappointments.html

FAIR Rebuttal: Fair's defense of B.H. Robert's writings.

References

• http://www.neirr.org/bomdiff.htm
• http://www.lds-mormon.com/bhrlettr.shtml
• http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/Anti-Mormon_Claims_that_BH_Roberts_Lost_His_Testimony.html
• http://www.cephasministry.com/book_of_mormon_review.html
• http://www.mazeministry.com/mormonism/bhroberts/index.htm
• http://www.osaywhatistruth.com/BH%20Roberts.htm

Have any other unlikely people produced comparable literary works?

Many Latter-day Saints proclaim that the Book of Mormon is true because Joseph Smith didn't have the education and knowledge to produce such a work. They cite that no one else of Joseph's Smith comparable background ever produced anything well-beyond their apparent capabilities as Joseph did. If there are others that produced works that far exceeded their capabilities, then this would show that Joseph's experience was not unique and perhaps there are more earthly explanations for the Book of Mormon's origins.

The strange case of Patience Worth

St Louis, Missouri, May 1913. Mrs. Pearl Curran, while using a Ouija board, received the first of many messages from a mysterious entity, who called herself, at first 'Pat C'. On June 22nd, Pat returned and spelt out 'Oh, why let sorrow steel thy heart?' It was only two months after the first visit, on July 8th, that the entity finally revealed herself as 'Patience Worth'.

The spirit Worth, it soon transpired, was born in Dorset, England, in the seventeenth century. While still a young girl, the Worth family emigrated to America, where the young Patience met an untimely death at the hands of a tribe of native Indians.

From 1913 to Curran's death in 1938, Patience dictated an incredible amount of material through Mrs. Curran. Some of the material was in her quaint seventeenth century dialect, and some in a more modern English style. Her speed was tremendous - in one night, she dictated 22 poems. In one five-year stretch, she wrote 1,600,000 words. (About six times the length of the Book of Mormon)

Worth's writings were of a wide variety and quality. One of her full-length novels, Hope Trueblood, earned the following review from the editors of the Sheffield Independent (who were unaware of the circumstances surrounding the origin of the Book):

'Patience Worth must command a wide field of readers by the sheer excellence of Hope Trueblood, which contains sufficient high-grade characters, splendidly fashioned, to stock half a dozen novels.'

Telka, a poem of 60,000 words, made astonishingly accurate use of middle English phraseology. The sorry Tale, a 325,000 word book (50,000 words longer than the Book of Mormon) of the life of a 'parallel Christ' was written in 108 days, a rate of 3,000 words per evening. (By this stage, Patience had dispensed with the Ouija board, and transmitted her thoughts directly to Mrs. Curran's pen). The details of social, domestic and political life in ancient Palestine and Rome, and the language and customs of Greeks, Arabians, Romans and several sects of the Jews were rich and convincing.

(Compare this with the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith dictated about 275,000 words in about ninety days, beginning on April 7, 1829. The rate of output was about 3,050 words per day. If we count the fact that Joseph and Oliver worked together for only seventy-five of those ninety days, the output rate was about 3,700 words per day, including about 27,000 words quoted from the King James Bible.

On the other hand, the picture that the Book of Mormon paints of the ancient Americans is very difficult to validate. Not only does the Book fail to ascribe the correct attributes to the primal inhabitants, it also claims that they made use of artifacts, animals and plants that modern archaeology has so far been unable to find any trace of.)

Curran's knowledge of the Bible lands was limited to what she learned in Sunday School. She was not fond of reading, left school at the age of fifteen, and had hardly ever traveled out of St Louis. Her only occupation was as a housewife. There were no books in her house that could have been used for reference.

When tested, Curran revealed a distinct lack of knowledge of literature. She thought that Tennyson's famous poem was called the Lady of Charlotte. When asked to write as Curran herself, her work was slow, and no better than might be expected from a housewife with an average education.

During one 'dictation', Mrs. Curran expressed puzzlement over a reference that Patience made to a 'Bernadette' and 'the Maid'. She later discovered that Bernadette Soubirous was the Maid of Lourdes. In a similar manner, Joseph Smith once stopped the dictation of the Book of Mormon to enquire if Jerusalem actually had walls, as the text suggested.

An analysis of Worth's language, by qualified researchers, shows a substantially correct use of idiom and spelling for seventeenth century England. The style of the Book of Mormon, on the other hand, can best be described as 'fractured'. It attempts to emulate the cadence and flow of the King James Version, and falls far short of this goal.

This is one of Patience Worth's poems, in modern English:

Lavendar and Lace

A purple sky, twilight
Silver-fringed of tremorous stars;
Cloud rifts, tattered, as old lace,
And a shuttling moon - wan-faced, seeking.

Twilight, and garden shadows;
The liquid note of some late songster;
And the scent of lavendar and rue,
Like memory of the day aclinging!

The life of Pearl Curran, a woman living in St. Louis during the first part of the 20th century who channeled, originally through a Ouija board, the spirit of a 17th century woman named Patience Worth. The story of Pearl Curran and Patience Worth is an enigma, not easily explainable without an acceptance of spiritism or reincarnation.

This remarkable little book has probably been missed by many readers interested in the Book of Mormon. Irving Litvag says nothing about the Book of Mormon, but in detailing Mrs. Pearl Curran's authorship (under the spell of a spirit named Patience Worth) of thousands of pages of fiction, one can see how anyone under the right conditions could write a novel.

Between 1913 and 1937, Curran, a relatively uneducated St. Louis housewife, began dictating seven full-length novels, thousands of poems, innumerable epigrams and aphorisms, and thousands of pages of other material (some four million words in all).

Curran, as the spirit of a seventeenth century English woman, wrote in "a strange yet beautiful language strewn with obsolete and archaic words." Her works drew the attention of literary critics and historians. One critic said her story about Jesus was "the greatest story of the life and times of Christ penned since the Gospels were finished."

Litvag's book illustrates how a relatively uneducated person with a mission and a scribe could grind out historical fiction, such as Joseph Smith may have done with the Book of Mormon.

Editor Comments: After studying a bit about this fascinating story of Patience Worth, most of us get the distinct impression that Pearl Curran was sincere and she was not intentionally deceiving people when she produced those amazing works. However, none of us think that a dead poet was really communicating through Mrs. Curran.

References

• http://www.prairieghosts.com/pearl.html
• Patience Worth - Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time from The Case of Patience Worth, Walter Franklin Prince
• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Patience-Worth-Author-From-the-Great-Beyond.html

Mohammed and the Quran

Born in the Arabian desert, in the sixth century AD, Mohammed was poor material for a prophet. He was uneducated and illiterate, making a living as a caravan driver, until he married a rich widow. And yet, he brought forth a message that ignited a flame in Arabia, which today we know as Islam, a religion that is a way of life for nearly a billion people.

The central scripture of Islam is the Quran (which is Arabic for 'recitation'). One of the first things that strikes the reader is the extraordinary power and beauty of the language. The Quran is often called the King James Version of the Arabic Language. It is difficult to imagine how a work of such high literary quality could have emanated from an illiterate desert-dweller.

"The central miracle of Islam was, and remains the Quranic revelation. To this day no one has put forward a defensible explanation of how an unlettered caravan merchant of the early seventh century might have been able, by his own devices, to produce a text of such inimitable beauty, of such capacity to stir emotion, and which contained knowledge and wisdom which stood so far above ideas current among mankind at that time. The studies carried out in the West which try to determine the 'sources used by Muhammad', or to bring to light the psychological phenomenon which enabled him to draw inspiration from his 'subconcious', have demonstrated only one thing; the anti- Muslim prejudice of their authors." (Roger du Pasquier, Unveiling Islam, pg 53)

In size, the Quran is a little shorter than the New Testament, at about 165,000 words (in English). The book was revealed over a period of about 23 years, beginning in 610 AD, and ending shortly before the prophet's death in 632 AD. According to Mohammed himself, the words of the Quran were spoken to him by the angel Gabriel.

The Quran contains within itself its own 'falsification tests', which Islamic apologists make much use of. Two of these are the discrepancy test, and the uniqueness test.

The Discrepancy test is based on Sura 4:82:

"Do they not then meditate on the Quran? And if it were from any other than Allah, they would have found in it many a discrepancy."

In fact, the Quran does contain a number of contradictions, lists of which are freely available. Like their Fundamentalist Christian counterparts, however, Islamic apologists have evolved a number of techniques for dealing with these discrepancies. The first is to simply postulate a speculative scenario that dissolves the contradiction. This same technique is eagerly embraced by believers in Biblical inerrancy, apparently unaware that the method can be used to make any text 'inerrant'.

The second is the rather curious tenet of 'abrogation', which teaches, in effect, that Allah reserves the right to reveal verses which clarify or reverse earlier teachings. (Similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses claim that 'New Light' often replaces the Old).

It is easy to see how the application of these two techniques (among others) allow the Islamic scholar to claim that the Quran is without discrepancy or contradiction.

The second 'falsification test' contained in the Quran is the uniqueness test, based on two verses.

Sura 2:23 And if you are in doubt as to that which We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a chapter (sura) like it and call on your witnesses besides Allah if you are truthful.

Sura 10:38 Or do they say: He has forged it? Say: Then bring a chapter (sura) like this and invite whom you can besides Allah, if you are truthful.

Mormon apologists will immediately recognize this as the counterpart to the so-called 'Book of Mormon Challenge'. In essence, the challenge states that the critic should produce a text of like character to the Book of Mormon, before he assumes that Smith could have been the sole author. One could resort to facetiousness at this point, and point the Islamic apologists to the LDS scholars, and vice-versa. The outcome of such a collision might be entertaining.

Conclusion

Both Mohammed and Pearl Curran were of like mental ability to Joseph Smith. Mrs. Curran had a slightly better education than Smith, although it was still not outstanding by any means. Mohammed's formal education, on the other hand, was virtually nil. He was illiterate, unlike Smith, who could read and write. (It should be noted that the claim that Mohammed was unlettered has been disputed by a number of professional historians, including some Muslim scholars).

Their lack of ability, in each case, did not seem to deter them from producing works which equal, or easily surpass, the Book of Mormon in literary style and quality. We find then that the LDS claim that Smith could not have written the Book of Mormon is without foundation. Not only has a similar feat been performed before, it has been performed better.

If the Book of Mormon is held up as proof of Joseph Smith's prophetic calling on the basis that he could not have written it, then we must grant the same status to Pearl Curran and Mohammed, on the same grounds. Anything less would amount to intellectual dishonesty.

Reference

• http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bom/written.shtml

Modern-day replication of scripture

A righteous man who was deluded could have written the Book of Mormon, not aware that he was lying. There are hundreds of examples of well-meaning (righteous) people who have produced "scriptures" which we (as LDS members) would not accept such as Mohammed, Zoroaster, Lao Tze, to mention only a few. Even well-meaning believers in Joseph Smith have produced nice-sounding scriptures. Here are a few examples:

Christopher Marc Nemelka

A former security guard wrote (translated) what he claims is the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon. Check out the enormous amount of material he claims to have translated, aptly titled, The Sealed Portion. (More information is found here: http://marvelousworkandawonder.com/tsp/whatistsp.htm. You can read The Sealed Portion online by clicking on the "Read Now" links from that page.) He has produced 100 chapters of the sealed Book of Mormon as well as the entire lost 116 pages. He also includes an impressive description of how this came to be. All in all, he produced some 668 pages of manuscript. It's truly unbelievable. The scriptures all read just like the Book of Mormon does. By reading parts of his biography, he seems very sincere in that he believes that he actually translated these lost scriptures using the Urim and Thummim. It seems far too much work to be merely a hoax. We suspect he is deluded and really thinks he translated this work. He even sent it to the LDS Church as actual revealed scripture.

Here's a small sample of his immense work:

This goes on for some 600 pages.

The sealed portion is apparently finding a following of converts for this new movement/religion. Please read a little of the sealed portion to see just how much this man has written and how similar it is to the BOM. After reading a portion of this, it seems obvious that the BOM is certainly not impossible to replicate as some members claim.

LDS apologists respond to Nemelka

Also, Nemelka's work is gaining enough notice that FAIR (LDS apologetic group) has actually analyzed his 'scripture' in order to discredit it. They cite some issues that they consider important enough to state the following:

The "Book of Lehi" is a clumsy forgery that fails even a cursory analysis.

It's interesting to note that most of their issues are relatively minor but FAIR dismisses all of Nemelka's work because of these minor issues such as the BOM states that the Lord shows Nephi in revelation how to build a ship but in Nemelka's Book of Lehi it says Nephi built the ship "according to the promptings of the spirit." This sounds like semantics to us. Now we don't believe that Nemelka's Lost Pages are scripture either but if FAIR applied the same logic and scrutiny to the Book of Mormon as they do to the Lost 116 Pages by Nemelka, they may have to declare the Book of Mormon a "clumsy forgery that fails even a cursory analysis" also.

http://en.fairmormon.org/Christopher_Marc_Nemelka

James Strang

Former LDS Church leader Jesse Strang made many impressive 'ancient-sounding' scriptures such as translations from the Brass Plates of Laban. Also his revelations, including the "Voree Plates", have the Book of Mormon feel to them. His book called The Book of the Law of the Lord is even riddled with the chiasmus style of writing (often used by defenders of Mormonism to 'prove' that the Book of Mormon is ancient scripture}.

http://www.strangite.org/Law.htm

http://www.strangite.org/Reveal.htm

http://www.strangite.org/Plates.htm

Goker Harim III

Claims to have translated the sealed portion of the Book of Jared.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100327141336/http://www.sealedportion.com/book/index.htm - archived copy

Works from Morrisites, George Williams, Leland Jensen (Bahai overtones): http://www.entrybytroops.org/new-jerusalem.html [need updated link]

Church of the Firstborn

http://thefirstborn.org/Firstborn/

Further examples

http://packham.n4m.org/prophet2.htm

Parody of the Book of Mormon

Josh Anderson, a mildly educated Blockbuster clerk, wrote The Book of Zelph, a quite funny and salient parody of the BOM.  It is an example that without inserting copious amounts of the King James Bible, someone could write a form of scripture that sounds and smells like (humorous) scripture while obviously being fiction.

Critic's Comment: What one man can do, another can also.

Automatic Writing and Channeling

Automatic writing (also called spirit writing) is a phenomenon where people claim they're getting communications from the spirits or from some other dimension or from some beings or entities, and they're passing these messages on to us. There have been accounts for hundreds of years where people enter a trance and write things as if possessed by a 'spirit' or other unseen force.

If anyone has read "Conversations with God", the author in his first chapter describes that this book was written by his hand just moving on its own. Other authors have said the same thing. These people seem to write things in a trance-like state that they would not be able to do when they are not in a trance. In the movie 'A Beautiful Mind', which is based on a true story of a brilliant mathematician who had some sort of brain disorder, John Nash wrote formulas in a trance-like frenzy.

Some people believe that Joseph Smith's hand was moving by some strange force like the channelers do. Now the channeling hypotheses cannot be dismissed out of hand. Joseph was trained by his father in the hermitic arts. His use of the seer stone is consistent with a long tradition stretching back to Europe.

See The Course on Miracles which is a very popular book which has sold over 1.5M copies which the author (Helen Schucman) claims to have dictated the book based on an inner voice which she believes is Jesus Christ. The Book of Urantia also has claimed divine origins via a sleeping subject.

Editor Comment: We don't give credence to any particular theory of channeling, but just state that those who "believe" (or who say that they do) are capable of complex and lengthy documents that seem to greatly exceed the normal capabilities demonstrated by the 'mediums' when not in a trance.

References

• http://www.intuition.org/txt/hastings.htm
• http://www.spiritwritings.com/library.html
• http://web.archive.org/web/20060418031846/http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin/auto.htm - archived copy
• Scott C. Dunn's article "Automaticity and the Dictation of the Book of Mormon" in American Apocrypha ed by Metcalfe and Vogel
• "Spirit Writing, Another Look at the Book of Mormon," Sunstone, June 1985, Vol.10, No. 6, pages 17-26, Scott C. Dunn

Sidney Rigdon: Channeling the Dead

Craig Criddle

"Automatic writing" or "spirit writing" is the ability that a person has to write or dictate complex and often lengthy pieces of writing while in a kind of trance. In many cases, the "author" claims to be in communication with a "person" who has died, a "familiar spirit" or an angel.

In 1985, Scott C. Dunn proposed that "Automatic writing" played a role in the creation of the Book of Mormon ("Spirit Writing, Another Look at the Book of Mormon," Sunstone, June 1985, Vol.10, No. 6, pages 17-26).

Dunn theorized that Joseph Smith used automatic writing to produce the Book of Mormon. While it is difficult to find evidence that Smith engaged in automatic writing, we have absolute proof that Sidney Rigdon did.

In 1868, Sidney Rigdon was Prophet, Seer and Revelator for a small group of Mormons in New York. In his capacity as prophet, Rigdon regularly received revelations, often directed as specific followers. His revelations include channeling of the dead. He recorded these revelations and sent them to his follower Stephen Post. The resulting compilation of revelations (in Rigdon’s handwriting) are available today in the Stephen Post Collection at the University of Utah, where they are stored as Copying Book A & Book of the Revelations of Jesus Christ to the Children of Zion Through Sidney Rigdon Prophet & Seer & Revelator. Essentially this scripture can be viewed as The Doctrine and Covenants Part II.

The following excerpt from the Book of the Revelations of Jesus Christ to the Children of Zion is one of Rigdon’s revelations. In it, Rigdon channels a spirit (angel) named Phineas, who he claims is the grandson of Aaron.
In a preface to the revelation, Rigdon states:

"To my great surprise Phineas grandson of Aaron has spoken to me concerning Israel Huffaker. I will send it to you & you must copy & send to him."

The revelation containing the words of Phineas as revealed through Sidney Rigdon is labeled Section 86. In it, we read the following:

"Phineas the angel high priest to his son and descendant. Behold I am Phineas the son of Eliezur who was the son of Aaron, and according to the law and power of the holy priesthood, which priesthood has power as ministering angels, when they maintain their priesthood in the flesh during all their fleshly existence in purity."

"I Phineas being of the high priesthood and having been adjudged by the courts above as one who had honoured the Holy priesthood during all my days I obtained the privilege and power of ministering to those in the flesh who had obtained & were consecrated to the priesthood."

"Therefore I Phineas speak to you my son in the priesthood as a father to his son knowing the character of your calling & the solemnity of its influence, and the manner in which you will be assailed by the devices of the adversary that he may bring you under condemnation and cast you down at his feet."

"To preserve the priesthood of his church from being overcome by the Devil, the Lord of Zion has given a law, the strict obedience to which will shield them against all the subtle artifices of Satan, and enable them to overcome the devil, the world, and the flesh."

Rigdon then continues to channel Phineas as he gives instructions to his follower Israel Huffaker, concluding with the following commands to Huffaker:

"And the Lord claims to himself the right of declaring unto you what you shall do in order that you may serve him and not be ensnared by the Devil."

"O! Israel remember who has spoken these things to you one of your forefathers in the line of the priesthood to which you by birth belong."

"One who shall see you in the world of spirits and you shall then see and know him who by this and through this has spoken to you."

"Where O where shall I see you in that day of awful solemnity shall we strike hands with eternal joy or shall I see you sink, yea sink into the gulf of eternal woe howling in horror and anguish. This will be your fate unless you give heed to every word of the Lord spoken to you. Amen.”

The above account of Rigdon channeling Phineas is important for several reasons, not least of which is its relevance to authorship of the Book of Mormon.

In Bainbridge, Ohio, in the year 1826, Sidney Rigdon reportedly became involved in a séance-like process to create the Book of Mormon. A description of that process is given in an in a letter to the editor of The New Northwest in an article entitled “The Mormon Bible”, published September 9, 1880.

The letter reads:

"We are in receipt of a letter from Mr. O. P. Henry, an Astoria subscriber, who says, in reference to an article in the Oregonian of recent date concerning the origin of the Mormon Bible, that his mother, who is yet alive, lived in the family of Sidney Rigdon for several years prior to her marriage in 1827; that there was in the family what is now called a "writing medium," also several others in adjacent places, and the Mormon Bible was written by two or three different persons by an automatic power which they believed was inspiration direct from God, the same as produced the original Jewish Bible and Christian New Testament. Mr. H. believes that Sidney Rigdon furnished Joseph Smith with these manuscripts, and that the story of the "hieroglyphics" was a fabrication to make the credulous take hold of the mystery; that Rigdon, having learned, beyond a doubt, that the so-called dead could communicate to the living, considered himself duly authorized by Jehovah to found a new church, under a divine guidance similar to that of Confucius, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Swedenborg, Calvin, Luther or Wesley, all of whom believed in and taught the ministration of spirits. The New Northwest gives place to Mr. Henry's idea as a matter of general interest. The public will, of course, make its own comments and draw its own conclusions".
See: http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/NW/miscnw04.htm#081680.

Dale Broadhurst has confirmed several aspects of the above account, and compiled additional historical evidence pointing to Bainbridge as the likely location for production of the 1827 version of the Book of Mormon.

See: http://sidneyrigdon.com/books/Hnry1942.htm and http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/books/Brew1945.htm

Describing the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 26:16, reads

“For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit … and their speech shall whisper out of the dust”

The above description sounds like automatic writing, and is consistent with the Bainbridge report on Rigdon's activities in writing the Book of Mormon.

Evidently, Rigdon thought he was communicating with the dead-- or he made it appear as though he were communicating with the dead. And perhaps Rigdon did have a kind of "familiar spirit" to inspire him – the writings of Solomon Spalding, a man who had died 10 years earlier.

Parley Pratt, a follower of Rigdon, on the channeling of dead spirits

Parley P Pratt was a follower of Rigdon before his sudden conversion to Mormonism (described in contradictory accounts).

On April 6, 1853, Pratt gave a speech on Spiritual Communication in the Conference in Salt Lake City. His speech is recorded in the Journal of Discourses 2:43.

http://journalofdiscourses.com/2/12

Some excerpts are provided below:

[Pratt begins his discourse by citing Isaiah on "familiar spirits"]

"And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to hear from the dead?"

[Pratt relates the Isaiah text to the Book of Mormon]

"The foregoing text was copied by Nephi, from the Book of Isaiah, about six hundred years before Christ, and is now contained in the second Book of Nephi, chap. ix."

[Pratt then describes how the world has come to accept the possibility of communication with the dead}

"For the last few years the world has been disturbed very much by alleged communications from the world of spirits. "Mesmerism," "Clairvoyance," "Spiritual Knockings," "Writing Mediums," &c., are said to be channels of communication between the living and the dead. How often one meets with an invitation to seek to some "medium"-to some one "familiar with spirits," in order to hear from a deceased father, mother, husband, wife, or other relative or friend."

[Pratt points out that some oppose the idea that the dead can communicate with the living]

"On the other hand, these alleged communications from the spirit world are zealously opposed, on the ground that there is no such philosophy in nature; that there can be no medium of communication between the living and those who have passed the vale of death; and that, therefore, all alleged communications from that source must necessarily be false."

[Pratt says that the faithful cannot deny that the dead communicate with the living or they will be denying the very foundation of the Church]

"….If, on the other hand, we deny the philosophy or the fact of spiritual communication between the living and those who have died, we deny the very fountain from which emanated the great truths or principles which were the foundation of both the ancient and modern Church."

[Pratt gives scriptural examples of the dead communicating with the living then says]

"Shall we, then, deny the principle, the philosophy, the fact of communication between worlds? No! verily no!"

[Pratt then rejoices that the rest of the world now recognizes the importance of spirit world communication]

"Editors, statesmen, philosophers, priests, and lawyers, as well as the common people, began to advocate the principle of converse with the dead, by visions, divination, clairvoyance, knocking, and writing mediums, &c., &c. This spiritual philosophy of converse with the dead, once established by the labors, toils, sufferings, and martyrdom of its modern founders, and now embraced by a large portion of the learned world, shows a triumph more rapid and complete-a victory more extensive, than has ever been achieved in the same length of time in our world."

[Pratt continues, now emphasizing that other groups that communicate with the dead use "unlawful mediums" or improper "channels of communication"]

"The fact of spiritual communications being established, by which the living hear from the dead-being no longer a question of controversy with the well informed, we drop that point, and call attention to the means of discriminating or judging between the lawful and the unlawful mediums or channels of communication-between the holy and impure, the truths and falsehoods, thus communicated."

[Pratt concludes that only those who hold the keys of the Priesthood can properly communicate with the dead]

"It is, then, a matter of certainty, according to the things revealed to the ancient Prophets, and renewed unto us, that all the animal magnetic phenomena, all the trances and visions of clairvoyant states, all the phenomena of spiritual knockings, writing mediums, &c., are from impure, unlawful, and unholy sources; and that those holy and chosen vessels which hold the keys of Priesthood in this world, in the spirit world, or in the world of resurrected beings, stand as far aloof from all these improper channels, or unholy mediums, of spiritual communication, as the heavens are higher than the earth, or as the mysteries of the third heaven, which are unlawful to utter, differ from the jargon of sectarian ignorance and folly, or the divinations of foul spirits, abandoned wizards, magic-mongers, jugglers, and fortune-tellers."

It is tempting to speculate that Pratt understood the process used to create the Book of Mormon.

Sidney Rigdon reportedly became involved in a séance-like process to create the Book of Mormon. A description of that process is given in an in a letter to the editor of The New Northwest in an article entitled “The Mormon Bible”, published September 9, 1880. The article says that:

"there was in the [Rigdon] family what is now called a "writing medium," also several others in adjacent places, and the Mormon Bible was written by two or three different persons by an automatic power which they believed was inspiration direct from God"

In the time period when Rigdon was allegedly channeling the dead to create the Book of Mormon (1825-26), Pratt was a peddlar of tin working in the same area of Ohio as Sidney Rigdon.

Extraordinary accomplishments by others

True believers often ask critics how Joseph Smith could have written the Book of Mormon at such a young age without divine assistance? There have been many, many people that have demonstrated unusual talents that seem to defy rational explanation. Here is a small sample of real people with extraordinary, unusual abilities who were younger than Joseph was when he finished the BOM at age 24:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Wrote musical compositions at age 5.
• Kim Ung-Yong: Attended university physics courses at age 4, Ph.D in physics before age 11.
• Michelangelo did "Battle of the Centaurs" and "Madonna of the Stairs" before he was 15.
• Gregory R. Smith: Entered college at age 10, first nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at age 12.
• Brian Greene: At 5 he could multiply 30-digit numbers.
• Truman Henry Safford: At 10 years old he could square 18 digit numbers.
• Song Yoo-geun: Physics prodigy who entered a university at age 8.
• Daniel Tammet: a British autistic who recounted pi to its 22,514th digit from memory.
• Tathagat Avatar Tulsi: Undergraduate degree at age 10
• Ruth Lawrence: Accepted to Oxford at age 11.
• Sho Yano: Started college at age 9 and graduated summa cum laude at age 12 from Loyola University.
• Frédéric Chopin: Concerts and polonaises at 7, well-known composer by 15.
• Ruth Gipps: Debut at 4 and first composition at age 8
• Morton Gould: Published composer at age 6.
• Lorin Maazel: Orchestra conductor at age 7.
• Camille Saint-Saëns: His first composition was before he turned 4.
• Michael Kearney: Several degrees with the first being earned at age 10.
• Bernini did the "Goat Amalthea" at the age of 10.
• Ernest Hemingway was in his early 20's when he wrote The Sun Also Rises.
• The popular Eragon book series was written by Christopher Paolini. He started writing the first book in the series when he was 15.
• John Updike had stories published in the New Yorker before he was out of his teens.
• Leonardo da Vinci could write with the one hand and draw with the other simultaneously.
• The barely literate Wilson Rawls had been home schooled for only a few years. Later in his life he wrote the book Where the Red Fern Grows - a 35,000 word book in a three week period of feverish unpunctuated writing. His educated wife took the manuscript to straighten out his awful spelling and grammar. It has since gone on to become one the most widely read books in this country.

Other remarkable individuals of all ages

There are even more remarkable people older than 23. A few are:

• Beethoven wrote an entire symphony when he was totally deaf.
• Einstein - his theory of relativity. It's almost inconceivable that a mere mortal, a patent clerk no less, came up with this - and long before computers were invented.
• Shakespeare - need we say more?

Critic's Comment: What makes these people different than Joseph Smith was that they didn't claim divine origins for their abilities. What would have happened if any of these people had said that God gave them their abilities as proof of divine intervention, and that they were to be prophets speaking for God?

Why would Joseph make up such a story if it wasn't true?

Many people believe Joseph must be telling the truth about the restoration as they cannot fathom why someone would do that. 'If I was going to tell people that I talked to God, I would probably tell them something they would want to hear, not something they would persecute me for'.

There's no shortage of theories as to why Joseph would tell a false story. People do it all the time. A few of the more popular theories:

Financial Gain

Joseph preferred not to work as a traditional farmer or laborer and sought easier, unconventional methods to earn a living. Joseph earned a living as a young man by acting as a seer and instructing others where to dig for lost, buried treasure. Although he never found any treasure, this did not stop him from taking the money from the people that hired him for his alleged ability to see treasure underground. Read more about Joseph Smith's treasure seeking

The Book of Mormon was sold for money when it was first published. It wasn't free like it is today. Originally Joseph tried to sell the copyright for the Book of Mormon. Joseph convinced Martin Harris to mortgage his farm to pay for the publishing of the BOM. The BOM may have originally been designed as a moneymaking scheme, but turned more religious as the book did not sell well.

Both Martin Harris's wife and sister-in-law are quoted as saying that Martin said, "What if it is a lie; if you will let me alone I will make money out of it!"

The Witnesses: Testimony of Abagail and Lucy Harris

Pious Fraud

Perhaps Joseph was a well-intentioned "pious deceiver" or, perhaps otherwise worded, a "sincere fraud," someone who prevaricated for "good" reasons. Admittedly, the terms are not entirely satisfying. Nevertheless, "pious" connotes genuine religious conviction, while "fraud" or "deceiver" only describes some of Smith's activities. Perhaps Joseph believed he was called of God, yet occasionally engaged in fraudulent activities in order to preach God's word as effectively as possible. Robert N. Hullinger, a Lutheran minister, argued similarly in his 1980 book, Mormon Answer to Skepticism: Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon. Hullinger plumbed Smith's motives for writing the Book of Mormon by examining its rhetoric and concluded: "Joseph Smith... regarded himself as a defender of God." "Even if one believes that Joseph Smith was at best a scoundrel," he observed, "one still must account for the Book of Mormon." Indeed, the book's religious appeal-its defense of God, Jesus, spiritual gifts, call to repentance-argues against presuming that Smith's motives were wholly self-serving.

Several books have been written with this theme. One of the more recent ones is:

Joseph Smith, The Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel

http://signaturebooks.com/2010/02/joseph-smith-the-making-of-a-prophet/

Delusions

Joseph may have had a brain disorder such as multiple personalities where he only thought he was having visions and communicating with God. Perhaps when Joseph heard voices in his head, he thought they were coming from God. Mental problems were not researched and identified in the early 1800s as they are now, so people would not know about such medical conditions as schizophrenia. Also Joseph's youngest son was committed to a mental institution when he was 32, so perhaps it was hereditary.

Reference: FLAGSTAFF HISTORIAN PROBES TROUBLED LAST SON OF JOSEPH SMITH

We watched the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' in which a brilliant mathematician would see people and have detailed conversations with them, but they were totally imaginary. This went on for years until someone discovered this and tried to convince him that the people that he was having interaction with were not real. It was very difficult for him to accept this. This movie is based on a true story. A friend of mine's father was delusional at times and would see people that were not real. He would actually call the police on them. Is it possible that a similar kind of experience happened to Joseph Smith?

Some people that believe Joseph was essentially a good man, but do not believe in the divinity of the LDS Church, think that Joseph may have had some similar experiences, as did the delusional mathematician in the movie 'A Beautiful Mind'. Perhaps whenever a strange thought entered Joseph's mind, he thought it came from God and acted upon it accordingly. He may have thought he was trying to do the right thing by getting people motivated by a new religion, and whenever people needed more convincing, he developed things on his own such as a prop covered in a cloth that he said contained gold plates - all to the end goal of following the guidance of the thoughts in his head.

Responses to these issues by the LDS Church

We regret that we could not find this issue discussed in sufficient detail in any church publication or web site. However we did find various LDS apologetic responses.

The Book of Mormon Challenge

LDS historian and apologist Hugh Nibley, in an effort to show how impossible it would be for someone to write the BOM, issued the following challenge:

If one scoffs at the missionary's explanation of the Book of Mormon, he is in so many words claiming it to be false: That it is a deceiving fraud formulated through the efforts and talents of a common man. What is produced by one man can always be duplicated by another. The challenge that the Book of Mormon makes to the world is that of duplication. Because the book complies with every one of the following conditions, in order to produce a similar record, one must comply with the same conditions.

Here is the challenge: Can you accept it?

There is only one answer: The Book of Mormon is a divine record. If not, its origin must be stated and its claims must be explained by the critic. It isn't enough to merely discard it as false and forget about it!

The first thing to do in examining any ancient text is to consider it in the light of the origin and background; there is no need to look farther, since historical forgery is virtually impossible.

Reference

• http://mmoutreachinc.com/mormons/bom_challenge.html
• http://www.lds-mormon.com/challenge.shtml
• http://www.davidvanalstyne.com/pg-hughnibleychallenge.html

Critic's response

Nibley's challenge is moot, because there is no physical evidence to show that the BOM is an authentic history. In fact, the Book of Mormon's story is utterly demolished by what scholarly research tells us about ancient America. Thus, the question of whether Joseph Smith, either by himself or with co-authors, could have produced the BOM without divine aid is answered by the fact that the book is a demonstrable fiction.

If the book was authentic, it wouldn't be chock-full of historical, anthropological, and archaeological inconsistencies and anomalies. The fact that we don't know exactly who wrote which parts, or that there are some unanswered questions about its production, doesn't force us to conclude that the book is authentic. That kind of thinking is "Mormonlogic," which Nibley used on a regular basis.

Ex-Mormon LDS critic Randy Jordan

Point by point refutation of Nibley's BOM challenge

There are 3 very good refutations of the Nibley BOM Challenge by critics of the church.

Also, a funny semi-parody of the BOM challenge can be found here: http://www.macgregorministries.org/mormons/bom_challenge.html

The Book of Mormon challenge was popularized by Hugh Nibley, and often presented to his students in a course on the Book of Mormon. Basically, the idea is that the detractors of the Book are invited to try their hand at writing a similar epic, the point presumably being that it is so difficult that it could only have come about with divine help.

It should be noted at the outset that there are several problems with the whole concept. The first is the very obvious point that this test is by no means unique. The Koran, for example, contains a very similar test within its pages.

Sura 2:23 And if you are in doubt as to that which We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a chapter (sura) like it and call on your witnesses besides Allah if you are truthful.

Sura 10:38 Or do they say: He has forged it? Say: Then bring a chapter (sura) like this and invite whom you can besides Allah, if you are truthful.

One wonders if the Mormons have ever handed the Muslims the Book of Mormon as fulfillment of this challenge, and vice-versa.

A second problem centers around the concept of the onus of proof. Since the Mormons have claimed that the Book of Mormon has a divine origin, it is up to them to provide satisfactory evidence of this claim, something which has not been performed to date. The Challenge is actually a subtle attempt to shift the burden of proof onto the detractor, and as such should be disregarded.

By far the major problem with the Book of Mormon Challenge, however, is the simple fact that the Book itself does not meet the requirements outlined in the challenge! It will be evident that the Mormon apologist has made grandiose claims for the Book, claims which far outstrip the meager evidence. This article will demonstrate that the Challenge is only valid if one first assumes the historical validity of the Book of Mormon, which thus results in a circular argument.

Here then are the main points of the Challenge, with comments added.

Critic's Conclusion

As we have seen, a number of these points are completely irrelevant to the historicity of the Book of Mormon, others are easily duplicated by other works of fiction, and still other points do not apply to the Book of Mormon, such as archeological accuracy. We therefore find no compelling reason to suspect that the Book of Mormon has to have a supernatural origin; instead we find that it fits very well with the more mundane theory - that the Book originated solely in the mind of Joseph Smith - or perhaps even a collaberation with Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery as other critics have theorized above.

The only reason why more critics haven't bothered to take up the "challenge" is that it has already been done. Thousands, nay millions of times. Every day. All the time. It's called "writing fiction".

References

• http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bom/challenge.shtml
• http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no107.htm
• http://www.lds-mormon.com/chal.shtml
• http://www.pfo.org/bomchllg.htm
• http://www.macgregorministries.org/mormons/bom_challenge.html

Ending summary by critics

The Real Story Behind The Book Of Mormon

So what actually is the Book of Mormon, and how did it come about? Researchers have come to the conclusion that it is the product of Joseph Smith's vivid imagination and his free usage of other source materials at hand which Smith easily had access to. The subject of several popular literary works that were widely available in American in the early 1800's were all concerned with exploring a common misconception held by many in that day. And what was that misconception? It was a belief which asserted that the native American tribes were actually the lost tribes of Israel; and from one of these books, entitled View Of The Hebrews, by Ethan Smith (an unrelated Vermont pastor and contemporary of Joseph Smith's family) were found many parallels of identical thought with passages and concepts found in the Book of Mormon.

These were found and compiled by no less than the renowned Mormon historian B.H. Roberts. He was forced to concede to the facts when he stated "that such 'common knowledge' did exist in New England; that Joseph Smith was in contact with it; that one book, at least, with which he was most likely acquainted, could well have furnished structural outlines for the Book of Mormon; and that Joseph Smith was possessed of such creative imaginative powers as would make it quite within the lines of possibility that the Book of Mormon could have been produced in that way." (13) He also went on to state the following: "A superabundance of evidence of Joseph Smith's power of imagination exists outside of the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon be regarded as of merely human origin, then, of course, to those so regarding it, the rest of Joseph Smith's work falls to the same plane (emphasis ours)."

A haphazard and massive plagiarization of the King James Version of the Bible supplied much of the body of the text in the Book of Mormon, primarily from the book of Isaiah, with terminology and concepts borrowed freely from various portions of the New Testament. The book uses the term "the Lord Jesus Christ" repeatedly, despite the fact that the name is actually of New Testament Greek origin. And as we have already seen, the tale of the Book of Mormon was liberally embellished with religious activities - such as missions work and baptism of new converts - that simply could not have happened in that time before even the birth of Christ. B.H. Roberts expresses the view that these details of the Book of Mormon were impressions received during his Smith's earlier days:

It is clearly established now that .. scenes of religious frenzy, were common in the vicinage where Joseph Smith resided in his youth and early manhood....(He) came in contact with these emotional phenomena in his own experience after their rebirth in the early decades of the 19th century. There can be no doubt but what the style of preaching, exhortation, warning, praying, admonition together with the things emphasized and the ends aimed at in such work of the Christian ministry as came to the attention of Joseph Smith, was all largely and deeply influenced by those first and greatest evangelical popular preachers of Protestant Christianity, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards ...

So, based upon all of these established facts, what can we conclude from a consideration of the real background of the Book of Mormon?

The book is clearly of purely human origin, penned by an author with a vivid imagination who attempted to combine contradictory elements and details gleaned from the Bible and popular literature into an ancient spiritual epic that set forth a shockingly contemporary Christian worldview. The same cunning and avarice that led Smith to dabble with "peepstones" to divine the location of hidden treasures was pressed into service as he developed a crude scheme to make a living off of book sales to the local churches and public. Knowing well the naive piety he could exploit, Smith clearly appeared to be banking upon it to gain their attentions. Sadly, he succeeded beyond his wildest imagination, even if his status as "prophet" was largely unrecognized for several years after the book's publication, except by the true believers who flocked to his fledgling church. This is largely because the evidence shows that Smith never initially intended to start a new religious movement. But events and local zeal by readers quickly convinced him that there was a future to the myth he created, a golden opportunity to make a name. Events ran away with him, and soon Smith found himself at the center of the attentions of both the devout and the skeptical. The marketing of the book to ministers also seem to indicate this: it attracted the fanatical Campbellite minister Sydney Rigdon whose restorational elitism profoundly shaped Smith's evolving religious vision. Together with the duplicity of Smith's associates Cowdery, Harris and Whitmer, their affirmation of the Book of Mormon as a part of "God's restoration of the true Church" helped attract the hundreds, than thousands who would travel with them across the Midwest to create their own religious utopia, Zion, which would evolve into the LDS Church of today.

No one is claiming that the average farmer of 1830 with limited education could be expected to produce something like the BOM. But the BOM did happen once. So to explain it we have only to ask is it possible that ONE of the millions of farmers with limited formal education could produce such a volume.

It's just not a remarkable book. Mormons are brainwashed (in Emperor's New Clothes fashion) to think that it is. But it isn't. And really, a religious education to go along with his vivid imagination is all Smith needed to produce the Book of Mormon--that's where all of the book's impressiveness lies: in the sermons and the long doctrinal asides. Whereas the 'historical' side of the book is, well, far-fetched and ignorantly composed.

At any rate, no matter how you look at it, Mohammed was as uneducated as Joseph Smith--yet he produced the Quran, which is, suffice it to say, considered by the majority of philosophers to be superior to the Book of Mormon.

He didn't write it, he told the story and others wrote it down. Since he was so secretive, we don't know for sure how he did it, but there are lots of possibilities. He could have told an original story while borrowing heavily from other sources. He could have plagiarized directly from Spalding's manuscript. Or he could have done a combination of the two, or perhaps it was completely original and he somehow coincidentally used exact verses from the Bible and borrowed identical ideas from View of the Hebrews.

Any of these possibilities is infinitely more likely than a ghost led him to a set of buried plates with strange engravings which he translated into English using a magic rock, and the plates miraculously disappeared before any third party could examine them.

The only thing remarkable about the Book of Mormon is how remarkably bad it is. How much genius does it take to write about god telling Nephi to hack off Laban's head and then put on Laban's clothing to fool Laban's servants into thinking that Nephi was Laban? (A slightly intelligent writer would almost instantly see that there was a problem with this scenario, unless Laban was in the habit of coming home with blood-drenched clothing and dripping blood and gore all over the place.)

To play devil's advocate (pun intended) let's assume Smith was, in fact, solely responsible for the BOM. So what? Just because he had some remarkable talent is no proof - or even indication - that God had anything to do with it. The BOM is still a work of forgettable fiction regardless of how Smith came by it. Smith may have been some sort of twisted prodigy but he was no prophet of God.

Reference

• http://www.spiritwatch.org/mobehbom.htm

Editor Comments

Both the critics and defenders of the faith have compelling points to make. The editors of this section give their own opinion:

This essay doesn't prove that Joseph wrote the Book of Mormon, but it also doesn't prove that Joseph or someone else didn't write the Book of Mormon either. There seems to be ample evidence that shows that Joseph or someone like him could have written the BOM, and it didn't have to come from a divine source. It may have happened just as Joseph claimed but that cannot be determined by assuming Joseph could not have written it. The evidence seems to show it was at least possible that Joseph, with or without help, could have produced a book like the Book of Mormon.

LDS historian Grant Palmer asserts that 80% of the Book of Mormon can be explained by such sources available to Joseph Smith as The Holy Bible, View of the Hebrews, Joseph's family and surroundings, local protestant revival meetings, etc. The other 20% may have merely come from Joseph or someone else's imagination.

To not have a definitive answer as to how exactly the remaining unexplained portion of the BOM was derived doesn't make it so perplexing of a mystery as to assume divine intervention must have taken place. Joseph may have received help, but Joseph's "angels" perhaps were no more supernatural than David Copperfield's assistants.

There are so many more amazing mysteries that we don't know the answers to, but we don't immediately say that it must have some supernatural explanation, such as; how did Beethoven write entire symphonies when he was totally deaf, how were the pyramids of Egypt built, how did Einstein come up with the theory of relativity, how did Mozart compose music as a child, etc. We're more amazed at how Daniel Tammet memorized and recited pi to 22,514 digits than how Joseph maybe wrote a book.

We don't know exactly how illusionist David Copperfield can make the Statue of Liberty seem to disappear or how magician Chris Angel can 'float' between buildings but us not knowing exactly how these gifted magicians perform their illusions doesn't change the fact that they are merely tricks and nothing supernatural. Similarly, we don't know exactly how Joseph Smith came up with the Book of Mormon but to merely assume it must have been by using seer stones and gold plates is a bit premature.

Many people believe that Joseph could have written the Book of Mormon by using a combination of several factors such as his story telling gift, his Bible study and other religious and secular training, remarkable innate abilities, assistance from others such as Cowdery and Rigdon, etc.

B.H. Roberts

The premier LDS apologist of the early 20th century, B.H,. Roberts, postulated that it was certainly possible for Joseph Smith to have come up with the Book of Mormon on his own. If a member of the Quorum of the Seventy and one of the most knowledgeable members of the LDS Church in the 20th century could admit this, then we don't know why the average member cannot at least accept this possibility.

Whether or not B.H. Roberts really lost his testimony or was merely playing devil's advocate, when he wrote those very damaging things about Joseph and the Book of Mormon, doesn't really matter as it's only one person's testimony. However we greatly admire Brother Robert's objective way he looked at the issues. He didn't sugarcoat anything. He recognized problems to a degree that no LDS apologists had ever done before or has ever been done since. We wish that the LDS apologists living today would be as honest as Brother Roberts in recognizing the credibility of problems associated with the Book of Mormon and not just dismissing them all as if the problems were nothing.

"frankly state events as they occurred, in full consideration of all related circumstances, [and] allow the line of condemnation or justification to fall where it may... " B.H. Roberts from the epilogue in The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past

The library is full of books

There are untold millions of books in libraries all over the world written by millions of people. Professional authors of course write whole series of books, but many books are written by average people that just wrote one book that they had some knowledge or interest in writing. Some of us can't fathom how extremely complex stories like Lord of the Rings, War and Peace or even Star Wars were written by one person yet no one questions that a single, modern author wrote each of those works.

No one outside the LDS community thinks that the Book of Mormon is the work of a "genius" (such as Shakespeare, or the person/s who wrote Proverbs, etc.). Mark Twain's comment about it being "chloroform in print" seems about right to many of the non-Mormons who have ever read it.

If you look at the first edition of the BOM written in paragraph form without the biblical-looking chapters, verse numbering and complete with the thousands of grammatical errors, it appears no different than any other work of fiction. If Joseph had just said he wrote the book, would anyone have said "Impossible! An angel must have given it to you"?

Maybe someone else wrote the Book of Mormon

To those people that believe that Joseph couldn't have written the BOM on his own, he could have had help - namely Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery. We'll never really know if Joseph wrote the BOM himself, used the writings of others or actually translated the BOM from ancient gold plates as he claimed.

The Spalding theory should not be so readily dismissed, even though such critics as Fawn Brodie and the Tanners have done so. We don't necessarily support the Spalding theory; however we don't dismiss it either. There is more evidence to support the theory than we initially thought. If this theory is true, then it neatly answers many of the questions that troubled members have. Many people currently support the theory. It may or may not be true, but it's certainly worthy of further study. Ongoing work is currently being performed in order to try to find a link between Rigdon and Smith before the BOM was published.

And what about the Doctrine and Covenants?

People also forget that Joseph dictated maybe 90% of the Doctrine & Covenants. While it is not a story like the BOM, the style of language, complexity of language, etc...is very similar to the BOM. So if he could have written the D&C, why not the BOM?

Joseph's Sermons

If you read some of Joseph's sermons, you definitely don't get the impression that he was an uneducated, backwoods hick. For example: Joseph Smith's King Follet Sermon

Christopher Marc Nemelka

Many times we've heard the tale that people have tried to replicate the BOM writings and always fail miserably. Not so, we are still amazed at what Christopher Marc Nemelka has accomplished. He claims to have translated the sealed portion of the BOM as well as the Lost 116 Pages from the Book of Lehi using the Urim and Thummim. His 'scriptures' are unbelievably impressive. This 668 page masterpiece reads just the way the Book of Mormon does. It is truly a wonder. It seems far too much work to be a simple hoax. We believe the man to be deluded, yet he appears to be gathering followers to his new movement/religion. Don't ever say that it's impossible to replicate the BOM without reading the The Sealed Portion. (More information is found here: http://marvelousworkandawonder.com/tsp/whatistsp.htm. You can read The Sealed Portion online by clicking on the "Read Now" links from that page.)

What parts of the Book of Mormon couldn't have been written by Joseph Smith?

If you dissect the BOM, try to find one sentence or paragraph that could not have been written by Joseph Smith. Is there any phrase so profound that someone who studied the Bible, attended many religious services, was an exhorter at his local church and had an incredible imagination could not have written or plagiarized from another source?

How did the Nephites originally write the Book of Mormon?

The Book of Mormon is claimed to have been originally written by the ancestors of the American Indian between about 2200 BC and 400 AD. Is it not ridiculous to assert that Joseph Smith was somehow less educated and less capable of writing the book than the ancient Native Americans who originally wrote it thousands of years ago? The Nephites lived on a continent where they had very poor education, poor writing skills, and where ancient Egyptian or Hebrew texts have never been found? How many literary masterpieces have been discovered to have been written by the ancient Cherokee Indians?

The Nephites and Lamanites were primitive peoples. Joseph Smith would have been considered a scholar compared to any Indians that lived 2,000 years ago. Yet we don't question that the ancient Indians wrote the original Book of Mormon, but we totally reject the idea that a 19th century man couldn't have done the same thing. That makes reason stare.

Links

Supporting the critics:

• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer.
• http://packham.n4m.org/prophet2.htm
• http://packham.n4m.org/jsauthor.htm
• http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bom/written.shtml
• http://trialsofascension.net/mormon/plagiarism.html
• http://www.inephi.com/1.htm
• http://mormonthink.com/influences.htm
• http://signaturebooks.com/2010/12/excerpt-an-american-prophets-record/
• http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=3402
• http://www.spiritwatch.org/mobehbom.htm
• Who Really Wrote The Book of Mormon? - The Spalding Enigma
• http://www.cephas-library.com/mormon/mormon_b.h.roberts_disappointments.html
• http://sidneyrigdon.com/vern/vernP0.htm
• Early American Influences in the Book of Mormon

Supporting the church:

• http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=10
• http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=509
• http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=2&num=1&id=41
• http://mmoutreachinc.com/mormons/bom_challenge.html
• http://www.shields-research.org/General/Purposes.htm
• http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-225-23,00.html
• http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/keystone.htm
• http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/HeDidntWriteIt.htm
• http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6730

Neutral:

• What Mormons Don't Know About Mormonism http://mormonthink.com/files/whatmormonsdontknow.pdf

Youtube Videos:

• http://mormonleaks.com/