Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of Mormonism, first published by Joseph Smith, Jr. in March 1830 in Palmyra, New York. The book's self-declared main purpose is to testify of Jesus Christ, through the writings of ancient American prophets. It asserts that it was abridged and compiled by the prophet Mormon and his son Moroni in the 4th century, for "the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God." Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the record by divine inspiration with assistance from the Urim and Thummim.

Origin of the Book of Mormon

See Linguistics and the Book of Mormon for additional information and analysis on authorship.

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Joseph Smith's official account

According to Joseph Smith and his associates, the record comprising The Book of Mormon was found and translated as follows:

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:The original record was engraved on thin, malleable sheets of metal with the appearance of gold and bound with rings at one edge, much like a modern book. At the end of Moroni's ministry (around AD 421), he hid these gold plates along with several other artifacts in a stone box.

Related Topics:
Gold - 421

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:On September 22, 1823, Joseph Smith was directed by God through the angel Moroni to the place where the plates were stored. He was not immediately allowed to take them, but after four years was entrusted with them. Through the power of God he was able to translate the characters (supposedly related to 600 B.C. Egyptian with Hebrew influence (Mormon 9:32,34)) into English.

Related Topics:
September 22 - 1823 - Angel - Moroni - Egyptian - English

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:The heavy plates were assumed to be of gold, and were consequently much sought-after by some greedy individuals. Joseph Smith and his family reported many attempts by others to find and take the plates. Joseph also admitted that, prior to receiving the plates, he had at entertained thoughts of selling them to provide for his family.

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:Joseph Smith was commanded to show the plates to several people and none else; these accounts are recorded in the front of The Book of Mormon as "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" and "The Testimony of Eight Witnesses." Most of the witnesses at some point became disaffected with Joseph Smith's leadership and the church, but none ever denied their statements about the book's origins. Two of the Three Witnesses, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery, returned to the church after it relocated to Utah.

Related Topics:
Three Witnesses - Eight Witnesses - Martin Harris - Oliver Cowdery - Church - Utah

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:After translation was complete, the angel again took the plates from Joseph Smith, and no public account of their whereabouts has been made since.

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Because of its reputed source, the Book of Mormon was commonly known as the "Golden Bible," particularly by non-Mormons, though a few members also used the term in early descriptions.

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See Golden Plates

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Alternative explanations

Alternative explanations for the authorship of the Book of Mormon have arisen. Most of these explanations attack the notion of Joseph Smith receiving divine revelations. An incomplete list of alternative origins of The Book of Mormon is given below. (See Dr. Jeff Lindsay's website for additional scholarly analysis of these allegations)

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Smith as author

According to this view, Joseph Smith simply wrote the Book of Mormon and later claimed to have translated it. This position tends to be the most commonly-held among Smith's critics and non-Mormons in general. Some Latter-day Saint scholars, such as Hugh Nibley, addressed this viewpoint, claiming that it is nearly impossible to write such a book within such a period of time, particuarly given that Smith was an unlearned man.

Related Topics:
Joseph Smith - Latter-day Saint - Hugh Nibley

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Smith as a plagiarist of contemporaries

Persuitte has pointed out that Smith may have had source material with which to work, especially View of the Hebrews: or the Tribes of Israel in America, by Ethan Smith, pastor of a church in Poultney, Vermont, self-published, 1825, which called for recognition of Native Americans as the lost tribes of Israel and for bringing them back into the Christian fold. Speculation regarding the possible origins of the Native Americans were common in the era. Thus Smith could have formed an outline of the epic in his mind from contemporary sources before dictating it. Persuitte, in his book, Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon, shows extensive parallels between passages in View of the Hebrews and in The Book of Mormon, but notes no instances of direct copying, nor does he demonstrate that Smith ever read or even encountered the book. Had he owned a copy, Smith could be said to have been inspired by View of the Hebrews.

Related Topics:
View of the Hebrews - Poultney, Vermont - 1825 - Lost tribes - Christian - Native Americans

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Some claim Smith plagiarized material from the manuscript for an unpublished novel by Solomon Spaulding. Others believe Spaulding's romantic novel has very little in common to the Book of Mormon, with the exception of the story, which revolves around a group of seafaring Romans who sail to the New World around 2 millennia ago.

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Smith as a plagiarist from the King James Version of the Bible

A substantial segment of the Book of Mormon, namely 2 Nephi chapters 7, 8, and 12-24, match nearly word-for-word the chapters 50, 51-52:1-2, and 2-4 (respectively) of the King James Translation (1611) of the Book of Isaiah. This suggests that it is possible Joseph Smith used these sections of the Bible when authoring the Book of Mormon.

Related Topics:
King James Translation - Book of Isaiah

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The footnotes and chapter headings of the 1981 LDS Edition of the Book of Mormon acknowledge the similarities between these passages and encourage comparisons between the Isaiah and 2 Nephi. There are differences in more than half of the 433 verses of Isaiah that are quoted in the Book of Mormon; most are very minor, but some are significant, which shows that Joseph Smith did not copy the KJV word-for-word, though he still may have used it during the supposed "translation."

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One of Smith's colleagues as author

According to this theory, someone else (either Sidney Rigdon or some other close friend of Smith) wrote the book and allowed Smith to take credit for it. Given that Smith was not particularly educated beyond a basic understanding of reading, writing, and arithmetic, many consider this theory more probable than the view that Smith wrote the book himself. Both Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery were educated and could have helped Smith fabricate the story. This theory would also help explain why different sections of the book appear to be written by different authors (of course, the Book of Mormon does claim to be written by different authors).

Related Topics:
Sidney Rigdon - Oliver Cowdery

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However, Sidney Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery both denied having written the book, and in fact Cowdery was one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. Even though he became disaffected with Joseph Smith's leadership and with the church and was excommunicated, Cowdery never denied his testimony that the Book of Mormon was the word of God; he later returned to the church. There is also no evidence that Joseph Smith knew of or was in contact with Sidney Rigdon until after the Book of Mormon was published. Most histories state that Parley P. Pratt, a member of Rigdon's congregation near Kirtland, Ohio, was baptized around September 1830 in Palmyra. Soon after, Pratt returned to Ohio, which is when Rigdon learned of Smith and the Book of Mormon and was baptized. According to these accounts, Rigdon first met Smith in December 1830, nine months after the Book of Mormon's publication.

Related Topics:
Three Witnesses - Parley P. Pratt - Kirtland, Ohio - Palmyra

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Latter Day Saint views concerning the book's historicity

The dominant and widely accepted view among Latter Day Saints is that the Book of Mormon is a true account of the people whose history it documents.

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Since the time of its publication, it has been common among Latter Day Saints to view and explain the Book of Mormon as a comprehensive history of all Native Americans. In light of more careful research, however, both the text of the book and archaeological studies support a more limited view of the scope of the Book of Mormon. Now, many Latter Day Saint scholars suggest that the book is a history of only a small group of Native Americans in Central America. Populations and civilizations described in the Book of Mormon would not have been large enough to fill whole continents. Moreover, there is much evidence that one common assumption of the past (that Book of Mormon civilizations were alone in America) is probably incorrect.

Related Topics:
Native Americans - Central America

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While some Mormon religious scholars claim to have found archaeological and linguistic evidence that the book was an ancient record, these conclusions are not generally accepted by secular scholars.

Related Topics:
Religious scholars - Archaeological - Linguistic

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