The book is one of the earliest and most well-known unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement. Thedenominations of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture (sometimes as one offour standard works) and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of theAmericas.[3] Most Latter Day Saints view the book as a record of actual history, though perspectives vary by denomination: some emphasize its spiritual inspiration rather than literal history, while others—particularly the LDS Church—regard it as both literal history and the central "keystone" of their faith.[4][5] Independent archaeological, historical, and scientific communities have discovered little evidence to support the existence of the civilizations described therein.[6] Characteristics of the language and content point toward a nineteenth-centuryorigin of the Book of Mormon. Various academics and apologetic organizations connected to the Latter Day Saint movement nevertheless argue that the book is an authentic account of the pre–Columbian exchange world.
The Book of Mormon is divided into smaller books — which are usually titled after individuals named as primary authors — and in most versions, is divided into chapters and verses.[11] Its English text imitates the style of theKing James Version of the Bible.[11] The Book of Mormon has been fully or partiallytranslated into at least 112 languages.[12]
According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book was originally engraved in otherwise unknown characters ongolden plates by ancientprophets; the last prophet to contribute to the book,Moroni, had buried it in what is present-dayManchester, New York, and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827, revealing the location of the plates and instructing him to translate the plates into English.[13][14] A different view is that Smith authored the Book, drawing on material and ideas from his contemporary 19th-century environment, rather than translating an ancient record.[15][16]
According to Joseph Smith, in 1823, when he was seventeen years old, anangel ofGod namedMoroni appeared to him and said that a collection of ancient writings was buried in anearby hill in present-dayWayne County, New York, engraved ongolden plates by ancient prophets.[17][18] The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led fromJerusalem to theWestern Hemisphere 600 years before the birth ofJesus.[14] Smith said this vision occurred on the evening of September 21, 1823, and that on the following day, via divine guidance, he located the burial location of the plates on this hill and was also instructed by Moroni to meet him at the same hill on September 22 of the following year to receive further instructions, which repeated annually until 1827.[19][20] By the following night, Smith had told his entire immediate family about this angelic encounter and his brotherWilliam reported that the family "believed all he [Joseph Smith] said" about the angel and plates.[21]
Smith and his family reminisced that as part of what Smith believed was angelic instruction, Moroni provided Smith with a "brief sketch" of the "origin, progress,civilization,laws,governments...righteousness and iniquity" of the "aboriginal inhabitants of the country" (referring to theNephites andLamanites who figure in the Book of Mormon's primary narrative). Smith sometimes shared what he said he had learned through such angelic encounters with his family as well.[22]
In Smith's account, Moroni allowed him, accompanied by his wifeEmma Hale Smith, to take the plates on September 22, 1827, four years after his initial visit to the hill, and directed him to translate them intoEnglish.[23][24] Smith said the angel Moroni strictly instructed him to not let anyone else see the plates without divine permission.[25] Neighbors, some of whom had collaborated with Smith in earliertreasure-hunting enterprises, tried several times to steal the plates from Smith while he and his family guarded them.[26][27]
As Smith and contemporaries reported, the English manuscript of the Book of Mormon was produced byscribes[28] recording Smith'sdictation throughout multiple sessions between 1828 and 1829.[29][30] The dictation of the extant Book of Mormon was completed in 1829 in between 53 and 74 working days.[31][32]
Descriptions of the way in which Smith dictated the Book of Mormon vary. Smith himself called the Book of Mormon a translated work, but in public he generally described the process itself only in vague terms, saying he translated by a miraculous gift from God.[33] According to some accounts from his family and friends at the time, early on, Smith copiedcharacters off the plates as part of a process of learning to translate an initial corpus.[34] For the majority of the process, Smith dictated the text by voicing strings of words which a scribe would write down; after the scribe confirmed they had finished writing, Smith would continue.[35]
Smith,his first scribeMartin Harris and his wifeEmma[failed verification] all claimed that Joseph dictated by translating the ancient text through the use of theUrim and Thummim that accompanied the plates, prepared by the Lord for the purpose of translation.[36] This "Urim and Thummim," named after the biblical divination stones, also called "Nephite interpreters" were described as two clearseer stones which Smith said he could look through in order to translate, bound together by a metal rim and attached to abreastplate.[37]
Other accounts say that Smith used aseer stone he already possessed placed inside of a hat to darken the area around the stone.[38]
Beginning around 1832, both the interpreters and Smith's own seer stone were at times referred to as the "Urim and Thummim", and Smith sometimes used the term interchangeably with "spectacles".[39]Emma Smith's andDavid Whitmer's accounts describe Smith using the interpreters while dictating toMartin Harris, and switching to only using his seer stone(s) in subsequent translation.[40] Religious studies scholarGrant Hardy summarizes Smith's known dictation process as follows: "Smith looked at a seer stone placed in his hat and then dictated the text of the Book of Mormon to scribes".[41][42] Early on, Smith sometimes separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them, as he did while Martin Harris, a neighbor, scribed his dictation in 1828.[43][44] At other points in the process, such as whenOliver Cowdery or Emma Smith scribed, the plates were left covered up but in the open.[45] During some dictation sessions, the plates were entirely absent.[46][47]
A depiction of Joseph Smith dictating the Book of Mormon through the use of a seer stone placed in a hat to block out light
In 1828, while scribing for Smith, Martin Harris, at the prompting of his wifeLucy Harris, repeatedly asked Smith to loan him themanuscript pages of the dictation thus far. Smith reluctantly acceded to Harris's requests. Within weeks, Harrislost the manuscript, which was most likely stolen by a member of his extended family.[48] After the loss, Smith recorded that he lost the ability to translate and that Moroni had taken back the plates to be returned only after Smithrepented.[49][50][40] Smith later stated that God allowed him to resume translation, but directed that he begin precisely where he had left off (in what is now called the Book of Mosiah), without retranslating what had been in the lost manuscript.[51]
Between September 18128 and April 1829, Smith would resumee dictating the Book of Mormon with his wife, Emma Smith, scribing in addition to occasional help from his brother Samuel Smith, though transcription accomplished was limited. In April 1829, Oliver Cowdery met Smith and, believing Smith's account of the plates, began scribing for Smith in what became a "burst of rapid-fire translation".[52] In May, Joseph and Emma Smith along with Cowdery moved in with the Whitmer family, sympathetic neighbors, in an effort to avoid interruptions as they proceeded with producing the manuscript.[53]
While living with the Whitmers, Smith said he received permission to allow eleven specific others to see the uncovered golden plates and, in some cases, handle them.[54] Their written testimonies are known as the Testimony ofThree Witnesses, who described seeing the plates in a visionary encounter with an angel, and the Testimony ofEight Witnesses, who described handling the plates as displayed by Smith. Statements signed by them have been published in most editions of the Book of Mormon.[55] In addition to both these eleven witnesses and Smith himself, several others described encountering the plates by holding or moving them wrapped in cloth, albeit without seeing the plates themselves.[56][57] Their accounts of the plates tend to describe a series of thin, metallic, gold-colored sheets (the "plates")bound together by wires in the shape of abook.[58]
The manuscript was completed in June 1829.[31]E. B. Grandin published the Book of Mormon inPalmyra, New York. It would go on sale in his bookstore on March 26, 1830.[59] Smith said he returned the plates to Moroni upon the publication of the book.[60]
Smith Patented Improved Press (no relation to Joseph Smith family) used byE. B. Grandin to print the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon
Multiple theories ofnaturalistic composition have been proposed.[15] In the twenty-first century, the leading naturalistinterpretations of the text and its origins hold that Smith authored it himself, whether consciously or subconsciously. Smith appears to have sincerely believed in the Book of Mormon's validity as an authentic, sacred history.[61]
According to a recent survey, the majority (50%-62%) of members ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) were confident that the Book of Mormon is a literal, historic record translated by Smith from actual ancient plates through divinerevelation.[62]: 19 The LDS Church, the largest Latter Day Saint denomination, maintains this as its official position.[63]
The Book of Mormon as a written text is the transcription of what scholars Grant Hardy and William L. Davis calls an "extended oral performance", considered by Davis to be "comparable in length and magnitude toclassicoral epics, such asHomer'sIliad andOdyssey".[64][65] Eyewitnesses said Smith never referred to notes or other documents while dictating,[66] while Smith's followers and those close to him insisted that he lacked theliterary and narrative skills necessary to consciously and single-handedly produce a text like the Book of Mormon.[67] Some naturalistic interpretations have therefore compared Smith's dictation toautomatic writing arising from thesubconscious.[15] However, Ann Taves considers this description problematic for overemphasizing "lack ofcontrol" when historical and comparative study instead suggests Smith "had a highly focused awareness" and "a considerable degree of control over theexperience" of dictation.[68]
Independent scholar William L. Davis posits that Smith, upon his supposed encounter with an angel in 1823, "carefully developed his ideas about the narratives" of the Book of Mormon for several years by making outlines, whether mental or based on private notes, until he began the process of dictation in 1828.[69] Smith's oral recitations about Nephites to his family could have been an opportunity to work out ideas and practiceoratory. Smith had indeed received some formal education as alayMethodist exhorter.[70] In this interpretation, Smith believed the dictation he produced reflected anancient history, but assembled the narrative in his own words.[71]
Early observers, presuming Smith incapable of writing something as long or as complex as the Book of Mormon, often searched for a possible source from which he might haveplagiarized.[72] In thenineteenth century, one popular hypothesis was that Smith collaborated withSidney Rigdon to plagiarizean unpublished manuscript written bySolomon Spalding, which he then turned into the Book of Mormon.[73] Since 1945, historians have considered the Spalding manuscript source hypothesis debunked, whenFawn M. Brodie thoroughly disproved the theory in her critical biography of Smith.[74]
Since the earlytwentieth century,historians have suggested Smith was inspired byView of the Hebrews, an 1823 book which propounded theHebraic Indian theory, similar in their association ofAmerican Indians with ancientIsraelites and description of clashes between two dualistically opposed civilizations (View as speculation about American Indian history and the Book of Mormon as its narrative).[75][76] Whether or notView influenced the Book of Mormon is the subject of debate.[77] A pseudo-anthropologicaltreatise,View presented allegedlyempirical evidence in support of its hypothesis, that American Indians are dependents of one or several of thelost tribes of Israel. By contrast, the Book of Mormon is written as a narrative, andChristian themes predominate rather than supposedlyIndigenous parallels.[78] Additionally, whileView supposes that Indigenous American peoples descended from theTen Lost Tribes, a hypothesis which the Book of Mormon actively rejects; the peoples in the later narrative have an "ancient Hebrew" origin but do not descend from the lost tribes. Therefore, the Book of Mormon would, if anything, function as a response in direct opposition to the Hebraic Indian theory as presented inView, rather than an uncritical repetition of its contents.[79]
The Book of Mormon may creatively reconfigure, without plagiarizing, parts of the popular 1678 Christian allegoryThe Pilgrim's Progress written byJohn Bunyan. For example, the Book of Mormon'smartyr narrative ofAbinadi shares a complex matrix of descriptive language with Faithful's martyr narrative inProgress. Some other Book of Mormon narratives, such as thedream of Lehi in the book's opening, also resemble story arcs fromProgress in addition to elements of other works by Bunyan, such asThe Holy War andGrace Abounding.[65]
Historical scholarship also suggests it is plausible for Smith to have produced the Book of Mormon himself, based on his knowledge of theBible and enabled by a democratizing religious culture interspersed by intense periods of popular Christianrevivalism, namely theSecond Great Awakening.[72]
Cover page of The Book of Mormon from an original 1830 edition, byJoseph Smith (Image from the U.S. Library of CongressRare Book and Special Collections Division)
The presentation and content of the Book of Mormon is divisive. It was written in aJacobean style of English similar to that seen in theKing James Bible,[80] despite being penned 2 centuries later. The novelistJane Barnes considered the book "difficult to read",[81] and according to religious studies scholarGrant Hardy, the text is characterized by an "awkward, repetitious form of English" with a "nonmainstream literary aesthetic".[82]Terryl Givens describes the book as narratively and structurally complex,[83] and historianDaniel Walker Howe called it "a powerful epic written on a grand scale" that "should rank among the great achievements of American literature".[84] However,Mark Twain was far less favorable, describing it as "chloroform in print" and "merely a prosy detail of imaginary history... followed by a tedious plagiarism of theNew Testament."[85]
The Book of Mormon presents its text through multiplenarrators who are explicitly identified as figures within the book's own narrative. Many details included in the text reveal a strong and emphatic interest in a self-contained form ofhistoriography: the various narrators describe the process ofreading,redacting,writing, and exchanging records.[86] The prose is accompanied relevantsermons delivered by figures from the narrative, which are presented as verbatim. Interspersed throughout the text, these internal orations make up just over 40 percent of the Book of Mormon.[87] Periodically, the book's primary narrators will reflexively describe themselves as creating the book, references that have been described "almostpostmodern" in theirself-consciousness.[88] Historian Laurie Maffly-Kipp explains that "the mechanics of editing and transmitting thereby become an important feature of the text".[89] Barnes calls the Book of Mormon a "scripture about writing and its influence in a post-modern world of texts" as well as "a statement about different voices, and possibly the problem of voice, in sacred literature".[90]
The Book of Mormon is organized as a compilation of smaller books, named either after its primary named narrator, or a prominent character featured therein. The narrative begins with theFirst Book of Nephi (1 Nephi) and ends with theBook of Moroni.[91]
The book's sequence is primarily chronological, arranged according to the sequential order of the events depicted. However, there are some exceptions to this, including theWords of Mormon and theBook of Ether.[92] The Words of Mormon contains editorial commentary byMormon, while The Book of Ether is presented as the narrative of an earlier group of people who had come to theAmerican continent before the migration described in 1 Nephi. First Nephi throughOmni are written in afirst-person narrative, as are Mormon and Moroni. The remainder of the Book of Mormon is written in athird-person historical tone, said to be compiled and abridged by Mormon (with Moroni abridging the Book of Ether and writing the latter part of Mormon and the Book of Moroni).
Most modern editions of the book have been divided into chapters and verses.[11] Most editions of the book also contain supplementary material, including the "Testimony ofThree Witnesses" and the "Testimony ofEight Witnesses" which appeared in the original 1830 edition and has been included in every official Latter-day Saint edition thereafter.[55]
The books fromFirst Nephi toOmni are described as originating from "the small plates of Nephi".[93] This account begins in ancientJerusalem around 600 BC, telling the story of a man namedLehi, his family, and several others as they are led by God from Jerusalem shortly before the fall of that city to theBabylonians. The book describes their journey across theArabian peninsula by land, and then to a "promised land" by ship, presumably an unspecified location in the Americas.[94] These books recount the group's dealings from approximately 600 BC to about 130 BC, during which time the community grows and splits into two waring groups: theNephites and theLamanites. This internecine conflict features heavily throughout the rest of the narrative.[95]
Following this section is theWords of Mormon, a small book that introducesMormon, the principal narrator for the remainder of the text.[93] The narration describes the proceeding content (Book of Mosiah through to chapter 7 of the internalBook of Mormon) as being Mormon'sabridgment of "the large plates of Nephi", existing records that detailed the people's history up to Mormon's own time in the4th centuryAD.[96] One section of Mormon's narrative is theBook of Third Nephi, which describes a visit by Jesus to the people ofancient America sometime afterhis resurrection andascension in theNew Testament. Historian John Turner calls this episode "the climax of the entire scripture".[97] After this visit, the Nephites and Lamanites unite to form a harmonious, peaceful society which endures for several generations before once again breaking into warring factions again,[98] ending in the victory of the Lamanites and the destruction of the Nephites.[99] In the narrative, Mormon himself is a Nephite living during this period of this war, and is killed before finishing the book.[100] From that point, his son Moroni takes over as narrator, describing himself taking his father's record into his charge and finishing its writing.[101]
Before the very end of the book, Moroni describes an abridgment (called theBook of Ether) of a record from a much earlier people from a distant and long forgotten past.[102] This includes a subplot describing a group of families who God leads away from theTower of Babel after it falls.[98] Led by a man namedJared andhis brother, described as a prophet of God, theseJaredites travel to the "promised land" and establish asociety there. After successive violent reversals between rival monarchs and factions, their society collapses around the time that Lehi's family arrive in the promised land further south.[103]
The narrative returns to Moroni's present (Book of Moroni), in which he transcribes a few short documents, meditates on and addresses the book's audience, finishes the record, and buries the plates upon which they are narrated to be inscribed upon, before implicitly dying as his father did, in what allegedly would have been the early5th century AD.[104][105]
On its title page, the Book of Mormon describes its central purpose as being the "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations."[106] Although much of the Book of Mormon's internal chronology takes place prior to thebirth of Jesus, prophets in the book frequently see him in vision and preach about him, and the people in the narrative worship Jesus as "pre-Christian Christians."[107][97] For example, the book's first narrator,Nephi, describes having a vision of the birth,ministry, anddeath of Jesus nearly 600 years prior to the nativity.[108] Late in the book, a narrator refers to converted peoples as "children of Christ".[109] By depicting ancient prophets and peoples as familiar with Jesus as a Savior, the Book of Mormonuniversalizes Christian salvation as being accessible across all time and places regardless of their spatial and/or temporal proximity to Christ himself.[110][111] By implying that even more ancient peoples were familiar with Jesus Christ, the book presents a "polygenist Christian history" in which Christianity has multipleorigins.[79]
An artistic depiction of the climactic moment in the Book of Mormon, the visitation of Jesus to the Nephites
In the climax of the book, Jesus visits some early inhabitants of the Americas after his resurrection in an extended bodilytheophany.[10][97] During this ministry, he reiterates many teachings from theNew Testament, re-emphasizes salvificbaptism, and introduces theritual consumption of bread and wine "in remembrance of [his] body", a teaching that became the basis for modern Latter-day Saints' "memorialist" view of their sacrament ordinance (analogous to communion).[112] Jesus's ministry in the Book of Mormon resembles his portrayal in theGospel of John, as Jesus similarly teaches withoutparables and preachesfaith andobedience as a central message.[113][114]
Barnes argues that the Book of Mormon depicts Jesus as a "revolutionary new character", different from that of the New Testament in a portrayal that is "constantly, subtly revising the Christian tradition".[90] According to historian John Turner, the Book of Mormon's depiction provides "a twist" on Christiantrinitarianism, as Jesus in the Book of Mormon is distinct fromGod the Father—as he prays to God during a post-resurrection visit with the Nephites—while also emphasizing that Jesus and God have "divine unity," with other parts of the book referring to Jesus as "the Father and the Son".[115] Beliefs among the churches of theLatter Day Saint movement range betweensocial trinitarianism (such as among Latter-day Saints)[116] and traditionaltrinitarianism (such as inCommunity of Christ).[117]
The Christian concept of God'splan of salvation for humanity is a frequently recurring theme of the Book of Mormon.[118] While the Bible does not directly outline a plan ofsalvation, the Book of Mormon explicitly refers to the concept thirty times using a variety of terms such asplan of salvation,plan of happiness, andplan of redemption. The Book of Mormon's plan of salvation doctrine describes life as a probationary time for people to learn thegospel of Christ throughrevelation given to prophets and have the opportunity to choose whether or not to obey God. Jesus' atonement then makesrepentance possible, enabling the righteous to enter aheavenly state after afinal judgment.[119]
Although most of Christianity traditionally considers thefall of man to be a negative development for humanity,[120] the Book of Mormon instead portrays the fall as a foreordained step in God's plan of salvation, necessary to securing human agency, eventual righteousness,[119] and bodilyjoy through physical experience.[121] This positive interpretation of theAdam and Eve story contributes to the Book of Mormon's emphasis "on the importance of humanfreedom and responsibility" to choose salvation.[119]
In the Book of Mormon, revelation from God typically manifests as adialogue between God and one or more persons, characterizing the deity as an anthropomorphic being who hearsprayers and provides direct answers to questions.[122] Multiple narratives in the book portray revelation as a dialogue in which petitioners and deity engage one another in a mutual exchange whereby God's contribution originates from outside the mortal recipient.[123] The Book of Mormon also emphasizes regularprayer as a significant component of devotional life, depicting it as a central means through which such dialogic revelation can take place.[124] While theOld Testament of the Christian Bible links revelation specifically to prophetic authority, the Book of Mormon's portrayal democratizes the idea of revelation, depicting it as the right of every person. Figures such as Nephi andAmmon receive visions and revelatory direction prior to or without ever becoming prophets, whileLaman and Lemuel are rebuked for hesitating to pray for revelation.[125] Also in contrast with traditional Christian concept of revelation is the Book of Mormon's broader range of revelatory content.[126] In the Book of Mormon, figures petition God for revelatory answers to doctrinal questions and ecclesiastical crises as well as for inspiration to guidehunts, military campaigns, and matters of state.[127] The Book of Mormon depicts revelation as an active and sometimes laborious experience. For example, the Book of Mormon'sBrother of Jared learns to act not merely as a petitioner with questions for God but also as an interlocutor with "a specific proposal" for God to consider as part of a guided process of miraculous assistance.[128]
Apocalyptic reversal and Indigenous or nonwhite liberation
The Book of Mormon's "eschatological content" lends to a "theology of Native and/or nonwhite liberation", in the words of American studies scholar Jared Hickman.[129] The Book of Mormon's narrative content includes prophecies describing how although Gentiles (generally interpreted as being whites of European descent) would conquer the Indigenous residents of the Americas (imagined in the Book of Mormon as being a remnant of descendants of the Lamanites), this conquest would only precede the Native Americans' revival and resurgence as a God-empowered people. The Book of Mormon narrative's prophecies envision a Christianeschaton in which Indigenous people are destined to rise up as the true leaders of the continent, manifesting in a newutopia to be called "Zion".[130] White Gentiles would have an opportunity to repent of their sins and join themselves to the Indigenous remnant,[131] but if white Gentile society fails to do so, the Book of Mormon's content foretells a future "apocalyptic reversal" in which Native Americans will destroy white American society and replace it with a godly, Zionic society.[132][133] This prophecy commanding whites to repent and become supporters of American Indians even bears "special authority as an utterance of Jesus" Christ himself during a messianic appearance at the book's climax.[129]
Furthermore, the Book of Mormon's "formal logic" criticizes the theological supports forracism andwhite supremacy prevalent in the antebellum United States by enacting a textual apocalypse.[129] The book's apparently white Nephite narrators fail to recognize and repent of their own sinful, hubristic prejudices against the seemingly darker-skinned Lamanites in the narrative. In theirpride, the Nephites repeatedly backslide into producingoppressive social orders, such that the book's narrative performs a sustained critique of colonialist racism.[134] The book concludes with its own narrative implosion in which Lamanites suddenly succeed over and destroy Nephites in a literary turn seemingly designed to jar the average antebellum white American reader into recognizing the "utter inadequacy of his or her rac(ial)ist common sense".[129]
Adherents of the early Latter Day Saint movement frequently read the Book of Mormon as a corroboration of and supplement to the Bible, persuaded by its resemblance to theKing James Version's form and language. For these early readers, the Book of Mormon confirmed the Bible's scriptural veracity and resolved then-contemporary theological controversies the Bible did not seem to adequately address, such as the appropriate mode of baptism, the role of prayer, and the nature of the Christian atonement.[135] Early church administrative design also drew inspiration from the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith, respectively, used the depiction of the Christian church in the Book of Mormon as a template for theirArticles of the Church andArticles and Covenants of the Church.[136]
The Book of Mormon was also significant in the early movement as a sign, proving Joseph Smith's claimed prophetic calling, signalling the "restoration of all things", and ending what was believed to have been an apostasy from true Christianity.[137][138] Early Latter Day Saints tended to interpret the Book of Mormon through amillenarian lens and consequently believed the book portended Christ's imminentSecond Coming.[139] And during the movement's first years, observers identified converts with the new scripture they propounded, nicknaming them "Mormons".[140]
Early Mormons also cultivated their own individual relationships with the Book of Mormon. Reading the book became an ordinary habit for some, and some would reference passages by page number in correspondence with friends and family. Historian Janiece Johnson explains that early converts' "depth of Book of Mormon usage is illustrated most thoroughly through intertextuality—the pervasive echoes, allusions, and expansions on the Book of Mormon text that appear in the early converts' own writings." Early Latter Day Saints alluded to Book of Mormon narratives, incorporated Book of Mormon turns of phrase into their writing styles, and even gave their children Book of Mormon names.[136]
Like many other early adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement, Smith referenced Book of Mormon scriptures in his preaching relatively infrequently and cited the Bible more often.[141] In 1832, Smith dictated arevelation that condemned the "whole church" for treating the Book of Mormon lightly, although even after doing so Smith still referenced the Book of Mormon less often than the Bible.[141] Nevertheless, in 1841 Joseph Smith characterized the Book of Mormon as "the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of [the] religion".[142] Although Smith quoted the book infrequently, he accepted the Book of Mormon narrative world as his own.[143]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) accepts the Book of Mormon as one of the four sacred texts in its scriptural canon called thestandard works.[144] Church leaders and publications have "strongly affirm[ed]" Smith's claims of the book's significance to the faith.[145] According to the church's"Articles of Faith"—a document written by Joseph Smith in 1842 and canonized by the church as scripture in 1880—members "believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly," and they "believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God," without qualification.[146][147] In their evangelism, Latter-day Saint leaders and missionaries have long emphasized the book's place in a causal chain which held that if the Book of Mormon was "verifiably true revelation of God," then it justified Smith's claims to prophetic authority to restore the New Testament church.[148]
Latter-day Saints have also long believed the Book of Mormon's contents confirm and fulfill biblical prophecies.[149] For example, "many Latter-day Saints" consider the biblical patriarchJacob's description of his sonJoseph as "a fruitful bough... whose branches run over a wall" a prophecy of Lehi's posterity—described as descendants of Joseph—overflowing into the New World.[150] Latter-day Saints also believe the Bible prophesies of the Book of Mormon as an additional testament to God's dealings with humanity.[151][152]
In the 1980s, the church placed greater emphasis on the Book of Mormon as a central text of the faith.[153][154] In 1982, it added the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" to its official editions of the Book of Mormon.[155][156]Ezra Taft Benson, the church's thirteenthpresident (1985–1994), especially emphasized the Book of Mormon.[145][157] Referencing Smith's 1832 revelation, Benson said the church remained under condemnation for treating the Book of Mormon lightly.[157]
Since the late 1980s, Latter-day Saint leaders have encouraged church members to read from the Book of Mormon daily, and in the twenty-first century, many Latter-day Saints use the book in private devotions and family worship.[146][158] Literary scholar Terryl Givens observes that for Latter-day Saints, the Book of Mormon is "the principal scriptural focus", a "cultural touchstone, and "absolutely central" to worship, including in weekly services, Sunday School, youth seminaries, and more.[159]
Approximately 90 to 95% of all Book of Mormon printings have been affiliated with the church.[160] As of October 2020, it has published more than 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon.[161]
RLDS devotional literature about the Book of Mormon, published in 1912
TheCommunity of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or RLDS Church) views the Book of Mormon as scripture which provides an additional witness of Jesus Christ in support of the Bible.[162] The Community of Christ publishes two versions of the book. The first is the Authorized Edition, first published by the then-RLDS Church in 1908, whose text is based on comparing the original printer's manuscript and the 1837 Second Edition (or "Kirtland Edition") of the Book of Mormon.[163] Its content is similar to the Latter-day Saint edition of the Book of Mormon, but the versification is different.[164] The Community of Christ also publishes a "New Authorized Version" (also called a "reader's edition"), first released in 1966, which attempts to modernize the language of the text by removing archaisms and standardizing punctuation.[165]
Use of the Book of Mormon varies among Community of Christ membership. The church describes it as scripture and includes references to the Book of Mormon in its official lectionary.[166] In 2010, representatives told theNational Council of Churches that "the Book of Mormon is in our DNA".[162][167] The book remains a symbol of the denomination's belief in continuing revelation from God.[168] Nevertheless, its usage inNorth American congregations declined between the mid-twentieth and twenty-first centuries.[166] Community of Christ theologian Anthony Chvala-Smith describes the Book of Mormon as being akin to a "subordinate standard" relative to the Bible, giving the Bible priority over the Book of Mormon,[168] and the denomination does not emphasize the book as part of its self-conceived identity.[164] Book of Mormon use varies in what David Howlett calls "Mormon heritage regions": North America, Western Europe, and French Polynesia.[169] Outside these regions, where there are tens of thousands of members,[166] congregations almost never use the Book of Mormon in their worship,[169] and they may be entirely unfamiliar with it.[166] Some in Community of Christ remain interested in prioritizing the Book of Mormon in religious practice and have variously responded to these developments by leaving the denomination or by striving to re-emphasize the book.[170]
During this time, the Community of Christ moved away from emphasizing the Book of Mormon as an authentic record of a historical past. By the late-twentieth century, church presidentW. Grant McMurray made open the possibility the book was nonhistorical.[165] McMurray reiterated this ambivalence in 2001, reflecting, "The proper use of the Book of Mormon as sacred scripture has been under wide discussion in the 1970s and beyond, in part because of long-standing questions about its historical authenticity and in part because of perceived theological inadequacies, including matters of race and ethnicity."[171] When a resolution was submitted at the 2007 Community of Christ World Conference to "reaffirm the Book of Mormon as a divinely inspired record", church presidentStephen M. Veazey ruled it out-of-order. He stated, "while the Church affirms the Book of Mormon as scripture, and makes it available for study and use in various languages, we do not attempt to mandate the degree of belief or use. This position is in keeping with our longstanding tradition that belief in the Book of Mormon is not to be used as a test of fellowship or membership in the church."[170]
Since the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, there have been approximately seventy differentchurches that have been part of the Latter Day Saint movement, fifty of which were extant as of 2012. Religious studies scholar Paul Gutjahr explains that "each of these sects developed its own special relationship with the Book of Mormon".[172] For exampleJames Strang, who led a denomination in the nineteenth century, reenacted Smith's production of the Book of Mormon by claiming in the 1840s and 1850s to receive and translate new scriptures engraved on metal plates, which became theVoree Plates and theBook of the Law of the Lord.[173]
William Bickerton led another denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (today calledThe Church of Jesus Christ), which accepted the Book of Mormon as scripture alongside the Bible although it did not canonize other Latter Day Saint religious texts like theDoctrine and Covenants andPearl of Great Price.[174] The contemporary Church of Jesus Christ continues to consider the "Bible and Book of Mormon together" to be "the foundation of [their] faith and the building blocks of" their church.[175]
Nahua-Mexican Latter-day SaintMargarito Bautista believed the Book of Mormon told an Indigenous history of Mexico before European contact, and he identified himself as a "descendant of Father Lehi", a prophet in the Book of Mormon.[176] Bautista believed the Book of Mormon revealed that Indigenous Mexicans were a chosen remnant of biblical Israel and therefore had a sacred destiny to someday lead the church spiritually and the world politically.[177] To promote this belief, he wrote a theological treatise synthesizing Mexican nationalism and Book of Mormon content, published in 1935. Anglo-American LDS Church leadership suppressed the book and eventually excommunicated Bautista, and he went on to found a new Mormon denomination. Officially namedEl Reino de Dios en su Plenitud, the denomination continues to exist in Colonial Industrial, Ozumba,Mexico as a church with several hundred members who call themselvesMormons.[176]
Separate editions of the Book of Mormon have been published by a number of churches in the Latter Day Saint movement,[178] along with private individuals and organizations not endorsed by any specific denomination.[citation needed]
Mainstream archaeological, historical, and scientific communities do not consider the Book of Mormon an ancient record of actual historical events.[179] Principally, the content of the Book of Mormon does not correlate with archaeological, genetic, or linguistic evidence about the past of the Americas orancient Near East.
There is no accepted correlation between locations described in the Book of Mormon and known American archaeological sites.[180] Additionally, the Book of Mormon's narrative refers to the presence of animals, plants, metals, and technologies of which archaeological and scientific studies have found little or no evidence in post-Pleistocene,pre-Columbian America.[181] Such anachronistic references include crops such as barley, wheat, and silk; livestock like cattle, donkeys, horses, oxen, and sheep; and metals and technology such as brass, steel, the wheel, and chariots.[182]
Mesoamerica is the preferred setting for the Book of Mormon among many apologists who advocate alimited geography model of Book of Mormon events.[183] However, there is no evidence accepted by non-Mormons in Mesoamerican societies of cultural influence from anything described in the Book of Mormon.[184]
Until the late-twentieth century, most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement who affirmed Book of Mormon historicity believed the people described in the Book of Mormon text were the exclusive ancestors of all Indigenous peoples in the Americas.[185] DNA evidence proved that to be impossible, as no DNA evidence links anyNative American group to ancestry from the ancientNear East as a belief in Book of Mormon peoples as the exclusive ancestors of Indigenous Americans would require. Instead, detailed genetic research indicates that Indigenous Americans' ancestry traces back to Asia,[186] and reveals numerous details about the movements and settlements of ancient Americans which are either lacking in, or contradicted by, the Book of Mormon narrative.[187][a]
There are no widely accepted linguistic connections between anyNative American languages andNear Eastern languages, and "the diversity of Native American languages could not have developed from a single origin in the time frame" that would be necessary to validate a hemispheric view of Book of Mormon historicity.[202] The Book of Mormon states it was written in a language called "Reformed Egyptian", clashing with Book of Mormon peoples' purported origin as the descendants of a family from the Kingdom of Judah, where inhabitants would have communicated inAramaic, not Egyptian.[203] There are no known examples of "Reformed Egyptian".[204]
The Book of Mormon also includes excerpts from and demonstratesintertextuality with portions of the biblicalBook of Isaiah whose widely accepted periods of creation postdate the alleged departure of Lehi's family from Jerusalem circa 600 BCE.[205] No Latter-day Saint arguments for a unified Isaiah or criticisms of the Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah understandings have matched the extent of scholarship supporting later datings for authorship.[206]
Most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon to be historically authentic and to describe events that genuinely took place in the ancient Americas.[207] Within the Latter Day Saint movement there are several individuals and apologetic organizations, most of whom are or which are composed of lay Latter-day Saints, that seek to answer challenges to or advocate for Book of Mormon historicity.[208] For example, in response to linguistics and genetics rendering long-popular hemispheric models of Book of Mormon geography impossible,[b] many apologists posit Book of Mormon peoples could have dwelled in alimited geographical region while Indigenous peoples of other descents occupied the rest of the Americas.[210] To account for anachronisms, apologists often suggest Smith's translation assigned familiar terms to unfamiliar ideas.[211] In the context of a miraculously translated Book of Mormon, supporters affirm that anachronistic intertextuality may also have miraculous explanations.[212]
Some apologists strive to identify parallels between the Book of Mormon and biblical antiquity, such as the presence of severalcomplex chiasmi resembling a literary form used in ancient Hebrew poetry and in the Old Testament.[213] Others attempt to identify parallels between Mesoamerican archaeological sites and locations described in the Book of Mormon, such asJohn L. Sorenson, according to whom theSanta Rosa archaeological site resembles thecity of Zarahemla in the Book of Mormon.[214] When mainstream, non-Mormon scholars examine alleged parallels between the Book of Mormon and the ancient world, however, scholars typically deem them "chance based upon only superficial similarities" or "parallelomania", the result of having predetermined ideas about the subject.[215]
Despite the popularity and influence among Latter-day Saints of literature propounding Book of Mormon historicity,[216] not all Mormons who affirm Book of Mormon historicity are universally persuaded by apologetic work.[217] Some claim historicity more modestly, such asRichard Bushman's statement that "I read the Book of Mormon as informed Christians read the Bible. As I read, I know the arguments against the book's historicity, but I can't help feeling that the words are true and the events happened. I believe it in the face of many questions."[218]
Some denominations and adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon a work of inspired fiction[165] akin topseudepigrapha or biblicalmidrash that constitutes scripture by revealing true doctrine about God, similar to a common interpretation of the biblicalBook of Job.[219] Many in Community of Christ hold this view, and the leadership takes no official position on Book of Mormon historicity; among lay members, views vary.[220] Some Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon fictional, although this view is marginal in the denomination at large.[221]
Related to the work's historicity is consideration of where its events are claimed to have occurred if historical. The LDS Church—the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement[222]—affirms the book as literally historical but does not make a formal claim of where precisely its events took place.[223] Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Joseph Smith and others in the Latter Day Saint movement claimed that the book's events occurred broadly throughout North and South America.[184] During the twentieth century, Latter-day Saint apologists backed away from this hemispheric belief in favor of believing the book's events took place in a more limited geographic setting within the Americas.[202] Thislimited geography model gained broader currency in the LDS Church in the 1990s,[224] and in the twenty-first century it is the most popular belief about Book of Mormon geography among those who believe it is historical.[225] In 2006, the LDS Church revised its introduction to LDS editions of the Book of Mormon, which previously read that Lamanites were "the principal ancestors of the American Indians", to read that they are "among the ancestors of the American Indians".[226][227] A movement among Latter-day Saints called Heartlanders believes that the Book of Mormon took place specifically within what is presently the United States.[228]
Contact with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas prompted intellectual and theological controversy among many Europeans and European Americans who wondered how biblical narratives of world history could account for hitherto unrecognized Indigenous societies.[229] From the seventeenth century through the early nineteenth, numerous European and American writers proposed that ancientJews, perhaps through the Lost Ten Tribes, were the ancestors of Native Americans.[230] One of the first books to suggest that Native Americans descended from Jews was written by Jewish-Dutch rabbi and scholarManasseh ben Israel in 1650.[231] Such curiosity and speculation about Indigenous origins persisted in the United States into the antebellum period when the Book of Mormon was published,[232] as archaeologist Stephen Williams explains that "relating the American Indians to the Lost Tribes of Israel was supported by many" at the time of the book's production and publication.[233] Although the Book of Mormon did not explicitly identify Native Americans as descendants of the diasporic Israelites in its narrative, nineteenth-century readers consistently drew that conclusion and considered the book theological support for believing American Indians were of Israelite descent.[234]
European descended settlers took note of earthworks left behind by theMound Builder cultures and had some difficulty believing that Native Americans, denigrated in racist colonial worldviews and whose numbers had been greatly reduced over the previous centuries, could have produced them. A common theory was that a more "civilized" and "advanced" people had built them, but were overrun and destroyed by a more savage, numerous group.[235] Some Book of Mormon content resembles this "mound-builder" genre pervasive in the nineteenth century.[236][237][238] Historian Curtis Dahl wrote, "Undoubtedly the most famous and certainly the most influential of all Mound-Builder literature is theBook of Mormon (1830). Whether one wishes to accept it as divinely inspired or the work of Joseph Smith, it fits exactly into the tradition."[239] Historian Richard Bushman argues the Book of Mormon does not comfortably fit the Mound Builder genre because contemporaneous writings that speculated about Native origins "were explicit about recognizable Indian practices"[c] whereas the "Book of Mormon deposited its people on some unknown shore—not even definitely identified as America—and had them live out their history" without including tropes that Euro-Americans stereotyped as Indigenous.[240]
The Book of Mormon can be read as a critique of theUnited States during Smith's lifetime.Historian of religionNathan O. Hatch called the Book of Mormon "a document of profound social protest",[241] and historian Bushman "found the book thundering no to the state of the world in Joseph Smith's time."[242] In theJacksonian era ofantebellum America, class inequality was a major concern as fiscal downturns and the economy's transition from guild-based artisanship to private business sharpenedeconomic inequality, andpoll taxes in New York limited access to the vote, and the culture of civil discourse and mores surrounding liberty allowed social elites to ignore and delegitimize populist participation in public discourse.[citation needed] Against the backdrop of these trends, the Book of Mormon condemned upper class wealth as elitist,[241] and it criticized social norms around public discourse that silenced critique of the country.[citation needed]
Book of Mormon printer's manuscript, shown with a 19th-century owner, George Schweich (grandson of earlyLatter Day Saint movement figureDavid Whitmer)Replica of the cabin in Fayette (Waterloo), New York (owned byPeter Whitmer) where much of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon was written
Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon to severalscribes over a period of 13 months,[243] resulting in threemanuscripts. Upon examination of pertinent historical records, the book appears to have been dictated over the course of 57 to 63 days within the 13-month period.[244]
The 116 lost pages contained the first portion of theBook of Lehi; it was lost after Smith loaned the original, uncopied manuscript toMartin Harris.[48]
The first completed manuscript, called the original manuscript, was completed using a variety of scribes. Portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting.[citation needed] In October 1841, the entire original manuscript was placed into thecornerstone of theNauvoo House, and sealed up until nearly forty years later when the cornerstone was reopened. It was then discovered that much of the original manuscript had been destroyed by water seepage and mold. Surviving manuscript pages were handed out to various families and individuals in the 1880s.[245]
Only 28 percent of the original manuscript now survives, including a remarkable find of fragments from 58 pages in 1991. The majority of what remains of the original manuscript is now kept in the LDS Church's archives.[246]
The second completed manuscript, called the printer's manuscript, was a copy of the original manuscript produced by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes.[citation needed] It is at this point that initialcopyediting of the Book of Mormon was completed. Observations of the original manuscript show little evidence of corrections to the text.[245] Shortly before his death in 1850, Cowdery gave the printer's manuscript toDavid Whitmer, another of theThree Witnesses. In 1903, the manuscript was bought from Whitmer's grandson by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ.[247] On September 20, 2017, the LDS Church purchased the manuscript from the Community of Christ at a reported price of $35million.[248] The printer's manuscript is now the earliest surviving complete copy of the Book of Mormon.[249] The manuscript was imaged in 1923 and has been made available for viewing online.[250]
Critical comparisons between surviving portions of the manuscripts show an average of two to three changes per page from the original manuscript to the printer's manuscript.[citation needed] The printer's manuscript was further edited, adding paragraphing and punctuation to the first third of the text.[citation needed]
The printer's manuscript was not used fully in thetypesetting of the 1830 version of Book of Mormon; portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting. The original manuscript was used by Smith to further correct errors printed in the 1830 and 1837 versions of the Book of Mormon for the 1840 printing of the book.[citation needed]
In the late-19th century the extant portion of the printer's manuscript remained with the family ofDavid Whitmer, who had been a principal founder of theLatter Day Saints and who, by the 1870s, led theChurch of Christ (Whitmerite). During the 1870s, according to theChicago Tribune, the LDS Church unsuccessfully attempted to buy it from Whitmer for a record price. Church presidentJoseph F. Smith refuted this assertion in a 1901 letter, believing such a manuscript "possesses no value whatever."[251] In 1895, Whitmer's grandson George Schweich inherited the manuscript. By 1903, Schweich had mortgaged the manuscript for $1,800 and, needing to raise at least that sum, sold a collection including 72 percent of the book of the original printer's manuscript (John Whitmer's manuscript history, parts of Joseph Smith's translation of theBible, manuscript copies of several revelations, anda piece of paper containing copied Book of Mormon characters) to the RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ) for $2,450, with $2,300 of this amount for the printer's manuscript.
In 2015, this remaining portion was published by theChurch Historian's Press in itsJoseph Smith Papers series, in Volume Three of "Revelations and Translations"; and, in 2017, the church bought the printer's manuscript forUS$35,000,000.[252]
The original 1830 publication had no verses (breaking the text intoparagraphs instead).The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' (LDS Church) 1852edition numbered the paragraphs.[253]Orson Pratt, anapostle of the denomination, divided the text into shorter chapters, organized it into verses, and addedparatextual footnotes.[254] In 1920, the LDS Church published a new edition edited by apostleJames E. Talmage, who reformatted the text into double columns, imitating the prevailing format of Bibles in the United States.[255] The next new Latter-day saint edition of the book was published in 1981; this edition added new chapter summaries andcross references.[256]
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church; later renamed toCommunity of Christ) also published editions of the Book of Mormon.[257] It printed editions atPlano, Illinois andLamoni, Iowa in 1874.[258] In 1892, the church published alarge-print edition that split the original edition's paragraphs into shorter ones.[259] From 1906 to 1908, Reversification Committee appointed by the RLDS Church revised its Book of Mormon text based on manuscript comparison and also reformatted it into shorter verses (though it retained the original chapter lengths); the RLDS Church published this version as the Revised Authorized edition, printing it beginning in April 1909.[260]
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.[261] New introductions, chapter summaries, and footnotes. 1920 edition errors corrected based on original manuscript and 1840 edition.[253] Updated in a revised edition in 2013.[262][263]
"Revised Authorized Version", based on 1908 Authorized Version, 1837 edition and original manuscript.[264] Omits numerous repetitive "it came to pass" phrases.
Based on Joseph Smith's last personally-updated 1840 version, with revisions perDenver Snuffer Jr.[265] Distributed jointly with theNew Testament, in a volume called the "New Covenants".
Encyclopedia of Mormonism. TheEncyclopedia's fifth volume includes the full text of the Book of Mormon, as well as the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.[266] There are brief introductions but no footnotes or indices (an index to theEncyclopedia is found in its fourth volume).[267] TheEncyclopedia, including the volume containing the Book of Mormon, is no longer in print.[268]
Zarahemla Research Foundation
1999
The Book of Mormon: Restored Covenant Edition. Text from Original and Printer's Manuscripts, in poetic layout.[citation needed]
The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition. The text of the 1920 LDS edition reformatted into paragraphs and poetic stanzas and accompanied by some footnotes.[269]
The Reader's Book of Mormon. Text from the 1830 edition with its original paragraphing and without versification. Published in seven volumes, each introduced with a personal essay on the portion of the Book of Mormon contained.[citation needed]
The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Joseph Smith's dictated text with corrections fromRoyal Skousen's study of more than five thousand textual variances across manuscripts and editions.[273]
A New Approach To Studying The Book Of Mormon. The complete text of the 1981 edition organized in paragraphs and poetic stanzas, annotated with marginal notes, and divided into event-based chaptering.[274]
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition. Text from the church's 1981 and 2013 editions reformatted into paragraphs and poetic stanzas. Selected textual variants discovered in the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project appear in footnotes.[275]
Digital Legend Press
2018
Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon. Text from the 1920 edition footnoted and organized in paragraphs.[276]
The Latter-day Saints version of the Book of Mormon has been translated into 83 languages and selections have been translated into an additional 25 languages. In 2001, the LDS Church reported that all or part of the Book of Mormon was available in the native language of 99 percent ofLatter-day Saints and 87 percent of the world's total population.[278]
Translations into languages without a tradition of writing (e.g.,Kaqchikel,Tzotzil) have been published as audio recordings and as transliterations with Latin characters.[279] Translations intoAmerican Sign Language are available as video recordings.[280][281][282]
Typically, translators are Latter-day Saints who are employed by the church and translate the text from the original English. Each manuscript is reviewed several times before it is approved and published.[283]
In 1998, the church stopped translating selections from the Book of Mormon and announced that instead each new translation it approves will be a full edition.[283]
Artists have depicted Book of Mormon scenes and figures in visual art since the beginnings of the Latter Day Saint movement.[284] The nonprofit Book of Mormon Art Catalog documents the existence of at least 2,500 visual depictions of Book of Mormon content.[285] According to art historian Jenny Champoux, early artwork of the Book of Mormon relied on European iconography; eventually, a distinctive "Latter-day Saint style" developed.[284]
In "one of the most complex uses of Mormonism in cinema,"Alfred Hitchcock's filmFamily Plot portrays a funeral service in which a priest (apparently non-Mormon, by his appearance) readsSecond Nephi9:20–27, a passage describing Jesus Christ having victory over death.[287]
^The "hemispheric model" refers to a belief that the Book of Mormon's setting spanned North and South America and that Indigenous peoples of the Americas principally descended from Book of Mormon peoples.[185] Linguistically, the diversity of Native American languages that exists could not have developed in the time frame required by Lehi's arrivants being the sole ancestors of Indigenous peoples in the Americas.[202] Genetically, DNA evidence links the Indigenous peoples of the Americas to Asia.[209]
^For example, Abner Cole's parody of the Book of Mormon,The Book of Pukei, described characters wearing moccasins.[240]
^Southerton 2004, p. xv. "Anthropologists and archaeologists, including some Mormons and former Mormons, have discovered little to support the existence of [Book of Mormon] civilizations. Over a period of 150 years, as scholars have seriously studied Native American cultures and prehistory, evidence of a Christian civilization in the Americas has eluded the specialists... These [Mesoamerican] cultures lack any trace of Hebrew or Egyptian writing, metallurgy, or the Old World domesticated animals and plants described in the Book of Mormon."
^The materiality of the plates Smith said he translated from has long been a matter of controversy in historical studies of Smith and the Book of Mormon. Those who for religious reasons accept Smith's account of the book as having miraculous and ancient origins by corollary also have tended to believe there were authentic, ancient plates. Meanwhile, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, naturalistic interpretations of Smith's history and the Book of Mormon generally took for granted the plates had no material existence and were fictitious due to either delusion or deception, or otherwise existed only in the religious imaginary. However, "believing historians" have argued that the documentary evidence points to Smith and eyewitnesses to him consistently behaving as though he did possess material plates. Religious studies scholar Ann Taves summarizes, "that there were no actual golden plates... is so obvious to some historians that they are taken aback when they discover that many Mormon intellectuals believe there were", while "Many believing historians... in turn wonder how well-trained, non-believing historians can dismiss so much evidence" (2). In the twenty-first century, naturalistic interpretations have posited that the plateswere materially real, but that Smith crafted them himself (possibly out of tin or copper), either to match his vision of the plates or after being inspired by seeing copper stereotyped printing plates (perhaps at a printing shop or, by happenstance, literally buried in the ground). Taves argues Smith nevertheless believed the plates constituted an authentic, ancient record and that crafting plates himself "can be understood as representing or even co-creating the reality of the plates... the way Eucharistic wafers are thought to be transformed into the literal body of Christ" (9). For this historiography and an argument that Smith crafted the plates in a process of materialization, seeTaves (2014, pp. 1–11). For another view on this historiography and an argument that an encounter with printing plates inspired or shaped Smith's concept of the Book of Mormon plates, seeHazard, Sonia (Summer 2021). "How Joseph Smith Encountered Printing Plates and Founded Mormonism".Religion & American Culture.31 (2):137–192.doi:10.1017/rac.2021.11.S2CID237394042.
^Emma Smith, Reuben Hale, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and John and Christian Whitmer all scribed for Joseph Smith to varying extents. Emma Smith likely scribed the majority of the early manuscript pages that were lost and never reproduced; Harris scribed about a third. Cowdery scribed the majority of the manuscript for the Book of Mormon as it was published and exists today. SeeEaston-Flake & Cope (2020, p. 129);Welch (2018, pp. 17–19);Bushman (2005, pp. 66, 71–74).
^Interpretations of accounts purporting to describe what Smith saw in his seer stone (or in the Urim and Thummim) vary. Many share some basic characteristics centering around reading words which miraculously appear, such as Jesee Knight's account: "Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes then he would take a sentance and it would appear in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on." SeeBushman (2005, p. 72) for Knight's account andHardy (2020, pp. 209–210) for an interpretation arguing for this understanding of Smith's experience. Hardy contends understanding Smith reading a text best accounts for the documentary evidence of how he dictated and how his scribes wrote. Nevertheless, scholar Ann Taves points out that although such accounts share major characteristics, they are not fully consistent with each other. She hypothesizes "observers madeinferences about what Smith was experiencing based on what they saw, what they learned from discussion with Smith, what they believed, or some combination thereof" and that accounts of what Smith did or did not see as he dictated do not necessarily describe Smith's experience (emphasis added). SeeTaves (2020, p. 177) In light of this, other scholars have hypothesized Smith's ecstatic experience as a translator was more like "panoramic visions" than reading, which he then orally described to his scribes. SeeBrown (2020, p. 146).
^Bushman 2005, pp. 66, 71. "When Martin Harris had taken dictation from Joseph, they at first hung a blanket between them to prevent Harris from inadvertently catching a glimpse of the plates, which were open on a table in the room."
^Bushman 2005, p. 71. "When Cowdrey took up the job of scribe, he and Joseph translated in the same room where Emma was working. Joseph looked in the seerstone, and the plates lay covered on the table."
^abHarris's wife Lucy Harris was long popularly thought to have stolen the pages. SeeGivens (2002, p. 33). Historian Don Bradley contests that this was a rumor that circulated only in retrospect. SeeBradley (2019, pp. 58–80).
^Hazard, Sonia (Summer 2021). "How Joseph Smith Encountered Printing Plates and Founded Mormonism".Religion & American Culture.31 (2):137–192.doi:10.1017/rac.2021.11.S2CID237394042.
^SeeDavis 2020, p. 160: "Whatever position the reader might take on the origins of the Book of Mormon, a careful review of historical claims favors the idea that Joseph Smith himself sincerely believed, to one degree or another, that his epic work contained an authentic historical account of ancient American civilizations"; andTaves 2014, p. 13: "If we consider Joseph's directive, the obedient response of insiders, and their willingness to protect the plates from skeptical outsiders, we can envision an alternative way to view the materialization of the plates that involved neither recovery and translation in any usual sense nor necessarily deception or fraud, but rather a process through which a small group—who believed in the power of revelatory dream-visions, in ancient inhabitants of the Americas, and in golden records buried in a hillside—came to believe that a material object covered by a cloth or hidden in a box were the ancient plates revealed to Smith by the ancient Nephite Moroni. Either/or views of the plates rest on a narrow conception of the materialization process, such that he either dug them up or he did not. Highlighting the crucial role played by those who believed in the reality of the ancient plates suggests a broader view that embeds the recovery of the plates in a process of materialization". For the significance of these interpretations in scholarship on Book of Mormon provenance, seeMason, Patrick Q. (2022)."History, Religious Studies, and Book of Mormon Studes". Roundtable Discussion: The Present of Book of Mormon Studies.Journal of Book of Mormon Studies.31:35–55.doi:10.14321/23744774.37.03 (inactive 11 July 2025).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^There is some disagreement over this point and whether eyewitnesses may have exaggerated. William L. Davis notes some authors on the subject,Hugh Nibley andB. H. Roberts among others, believe Smith might have consulted a King James Bible while dictating.Davis 2020, p. 199n4
^Davis 2020, p. 35–37, 165–168. Though Smith never became an ordained exhorter, perhaps because he was not a Methodist member in full standing (36).
^Davis describes a "ubiquitous presence of nineteenth-century compositional techniques", and "sermonizing strategies" in the Book of Mormon's text (such as figures describing their preaching in terms of "heads" as an outline to "touch upon" in further detail as the text progresses) which "point directly and specifically to Joseph Smith as the source and assembler of these narrative components" (seeDavis 2020, pp. 63, 91). A review published inChoice disagrees as to whether there is sufficient evidence of these oratorical techniques in the Book of Mormon; seeAlexander, Thomas G. (September 2021). "Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon".Choice (review). Vol. 59, no. 1.
^"Thus in 1945 the Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon was still strongly in vogue, most scholarly works accepting it as the explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Following [Fawn Brodie's] trenchant attack on the theory its popularity quickly declined. Today nobody gives it credence" (Hill 1972, p. 73); and "Brodie demolished the theory" (Albanese 2008, p. 148).
^Elizabeth Fenton summarizes, "Some argue that [Oliver] Cowdery must have readView of the Hebrews and shared its contents with Joseph Smith, laying the groundwork for the latter's development ofThe Book of Mormon's Hebraic Indian plotlines. Others contend that it is unlikely Cowdery ever interacted with Ethan Smith—indeed, to date no archival evidence has surfaced to link them directly—and highlight the numerous differences in style and content betweenView of the Hebrews andThe Book of Mormon." SeeFenton 2020, pp. 71, 224n16, 224n17
^Cross & Livingstone 1997, p. 597. "[A]ll human life has been radically altered for the worse, so that its actual state is very different from that purposed for it by the Creator."
^Coviello (2019, p. 8) summarizes, "bodies are not the seats of wickedness or Pauline corruption but something else entirely: the vehicles for exaltation... As the Book of Mormon observed, 'men are, that they might have joy.'"The Book of Mormon reference is to2 Nephi2:22–––25: "And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden... And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin... all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
^Givens 2002, pp. 219–220. Givens refers to Nephi's encounter with Laban in which he is "constrained by the spirit" and to Enos's back-and-forth with the Lord as two examples of "conversational revelation" (1 Nephi 4:10–13; Enos 1:3–17).
^"Christianity is centered on revelation, which contains within it a message ("good news") meant for the believer. Given this message, what is important is thecontent of revelation, while scripture is usually regarded as a mere means of transmission" inBiderman, Shlomo (1995).Scripture and Knowledge: An Essay on Religious Epistemology.Brill. p. 11.ISBN978-90-04-37891-9;Cross & Livingstone 1997, p. 1392: "[T]hecorpus of truth about Himself which God discloses to us";Givens 2002, p. 226: "We may contrast these examples with Shlomo Biderman's assertion .... In the Book of Mormon, what is important is not one ultimate Truth it embodies, but rather the ever-present reality of revelation it depicts".
^Welsh, Robert (November 3, 2010)."Memorandum to the 2010 General Assembly of the NCC"(PDF).'Witnesses of These Things: Ecumenical Engagement in a New Era,' 2010 Centennial Ecumenical Gathering and General Assembly of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and Church World Service.National Council of Churches. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on August 19, 2014. RetrievedJune 2, 2021.
^abPeter, Karin; Mackay, Lachlan; Chvala-Smith, Tony (August 16, 2022)."Theo-History | Early Church".Project Zion (Podcast). Publisher. Event occurs at 1:33:33.Archived(PDF) from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved22 October 2022.
^abHowlett, David J. (December 11, 2022)."Community of Christ".World Religions and Spirituality Project.
^Coe 1973, pp. 41–42: "Let me now state uncategorically that as far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who isnot a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing [the historicity of The Book of Mormon], and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group";Southerton 2004, p. xv: "Anthropologists and archaeologists, including some Mormons and former Mormons, have discovered little to support the existence of [Book of Mormon] civilizations. Over a period of 150 years, as scholars have seriously studied Native American cultures and prehistory, evidence of a Christian civilization in the Americas has eluded the specialists... These [Mesoamerican] cultures lack any trace of Hebrew or Egyptian writing, metallurgy, or the Old World domesticated animals and plants described in the Book of Mormon";Williams 1991, pp. 162–166: "I will admit that I am skeptical of the original discovery [of the Book of Mormon]; the absence of the actual ancient documents makes detailed analysis impossible today." The exceptions are a handful of predominantly Latter-day Saint organizations that attempt historical and archeological research on the premise of ancient Book of Mormon historicity, such asFAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response), theFoundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (now defunct), and theInterpreter Foundation.
^Coe 1973, p. 46. "[A]bsolutely nothing, has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon... is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants to our hemisphere."
^One popular traditional view of the Book of Mormon suggested that Native Americans were principally the descendants of an Israelite migration around 600 BC. However, DNA evidence shows no Near Eastern component in the Native American genetic make-up. " ...[T]he DNA lineages of Central America resemble those of other Native American tribes throughout the two continents. Over 99 percent of the lineages found among native groups from this region are clearly of Asian descent. Modern and ancient DNA samples tested from among the Maya generally fall into the major founding lineage classes... The Mayan Empire has been regarded by Mormons to be the closest to the people of the Book of Mormon because its people were literate and culturally sophisticated. However, leading New World anthropologists, including those specializing in the region, have found the Maya to be similarly related to Asians"; seeSoutherton (2004, p. 191). Defenders of the book's historical authenticity suggest that the Book of Mormon does not disallow for other groups of people to have contributed to the genetic make-up of Native Americans—seeDuffy (2008, pp. 41, 48)—and in 2006, the church changed its introduction to the official LDS edition of the Book of Mormon to allow for a greater diversity of ancestry of Native Americans; seeMoore (2007).
^Southerton (2004, pp. 49). A "large volume of research... has revealed continuous, widespread human occupation of the Americas for the last 14,000 years. Such research conflicts with popular LDS views patterned on the Book of Mormon." See also pg. 125: after a survey of relevant genetic research, Southerton concludes that "the peoples of the Pacific Rim who met Columbus and Cook were not Israelites. They were descendants of a far more ancient branch of the human family tree."
^Hardy (2010, p. 291n28), summarizes, "The level of consensus on this issue, especially in a field as contentious as biblical studies, is remarkable (and certainly includes scholars who believe in inspiration and prophecy)."
^"Most members of... groups tracing their origins to Joseph Smith, believe that the Book of Mormon is a literal history of the inhabitants of the ancient Americas" (Vogel 1986, p. 3). See alsoSoutherton 2004, p. 201
^Duffy 2008, pp. 41–42, 48;Bushman 2005, p. 93.Coe (1973, pp. 42–45) identifies several twentieth-century Latter-day Saint advocates of Book of Mormon historicity. In an exception to the general trend, he also states that the most careful scholar in "the early-twentieth-century intellectual movement of 'Book of Mormon geography' was Louis E. Hills, a member of what was then the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, today known as Community of Christ.
^Duffy 2008, pp. 41, 46. "Apologists reply that these arguments do not invalidate Book of Mormon historicity, only a hemispheric scenario for Book of Mormon history."
^Duffy 2008, p. 45. "Apologists' ... response to anachronisms is to argue that Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon may apply familiar words to unfamiliar but comparable items. 'Cimeter' may refer to some other, loosely similar weapon; 'flocks' may refer to turkeys or dogs; 'horses' may refer to deer. Apologists note that reapplying familiar names has historical precedent: it was done by the Spanish conquistadors as well as by the King James translators, who anachronistically used the word 'steel' to refer to other kinds of metal."
^SeeHardy (2010, pp. 291n31–292n31), who also suggests how a reader who considers the Book of Mormon authentically ancient might account for the presence of post-exilic Isaiah in the text. He adds, "I don't expect that non-Mormons will find any of [these explanations] remotely plausible."
^"One of the most popular has been chiasmus, a stylistic feature of the Hebrew Bible which John Welch first identified in the Book of Mormon while a missionary in the 1960s. Welch was particularly impressed to find that the entire chapter of Alma 36 is a complex, extended chiasm" (Duffy 2008, p. 51). For more on chiasmus in the Bible, seeBreck, John (1994).The Shape of Biblical Language: Chiasmus in the Scriptures and Beyond. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. pp. 33–37, 39.ISBN0-88141-139-6.
^Duffy 2008, p. 42. "Thanks to the Internet, the number of Saints engaged in written apologetics, and the size of their audience, has grown. Thus the DNA controversy has done much to privilege a limited Book of Mormon geography within the Church, over the more fundamentalistic understandings of earlier authorities such as Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie."
^Duffy 2008, p. 57. "However, this historical development should not entirely eclipse the fact that LDS thinking about Book of Mormon historicity has been, and continues to be, diverse. Granted that revisionists constitute a stigmatized and evidently very small minority, who differ among themselves in their understanding of the book's status as scripture. But even Latter-day Saints who accept historicity hold differing views regarding how accurately or transparently the Book of Mormon reports the ancient past or to what extent the translation process may have allowed Joseph Smith's nineteenth-century ideas to be incorporated into the text."
^"Some of [Community of Christ]'s senior leadership consider the Book of Mormon to be inspired historical fiction" (Southerton 2004, p. 201). For a comparison to the Book of Job, seeDuffy 2008, pp. 54–55. "Denise Hopkins, a professor of Hebrew Bible at Wesley Theological Seminary", Gregory Prince reports, described the Book of Mormon as "a book-length midrash on the King James Bible." SeePrince, Gregory (Fall 2018)."Own Your Religion".Sunstone. No. 187.
^The revised text was first published in 1981 and the subtitle was added in October 1982:Packer, Boyd K. (November 1982)."Scriptures".Ensign.You should know also that by recent decision of the Brethren the Book of Mormon will henceforth bear the title 'The Book of Mormon,' with the subtitle 'Another Testament of Jesus Christ.'
^Fales, Susan L. (Fall 1992). "Encyclopedia of Mormonism".RQ (review).32 (1):111–112.ISSN0033-7072.JSTOR25829209.
^Poll, Richard D. (Fall 1992). "Encyclopedia of Mormonism: The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".Journal of Mormon History (review).18 (2):205–213.ISSN0094-7342.JSTOR23286410.
^Ellwood, Robert (August 2008). "The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition. Edited by Grant Hardy".Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions.12 (1):130–131.doi:10.1525/nr.2008.12.1.130.JSTOR10.1525/nr.2008.12.1.130;Brown, Samuel Morris (January 27, 2012)."Five Best: Samuel Morris Brown".The Wall Street Journal.Archived from the original on August 15, 2022. Ellwood gives the publication date of the edition as 2005; this refers to the paperback edition of theReader's Edition. The hardcover was published in 2003, as Brown writes.
^Frederick, Nicholas J. (2022). "'It Is Not an Easy Task, but It Cannot Be Avoided': On the Contribution of Royal Skousen". Roundtable Discussion: The Present of Book of Mormon Studies.Journal of Book of Mormon Studies.31:152–175.doi:10.14321/23744774.37.08 (inactive 11 July 2025) – via Scholarly Publishing Collective.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
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Easton-Flake, Amy; Cope, Rachel (2020). "Reconfiguring the Archive: Women and the Social Production of the Book of Mormon".Producing Ancient Scripture.MacKay, Ashurst-McGee & Hauglid 2020, pp. 105–134.
Hardy, Grant (2020). "Ancient History and Modern Commandments: The Book of Mormon in Comparison with Joseph Smith's Other Revelations".Producing Ancient Scripture.MacKay, Ashurst-McGee & Hauglid 2020, pp. 205–227.
Scherer, Mark A. (Fall 2001). "'Called by a New Name': Mission, Identity, and the Reorganized Church".Journal of Mormon History.27 (2):40–63.JSTOR23288258.
Taves, Ann (2020). "Joseph Smith, Helen Schucman, and the Experience of Producing a Spiritual Text: Comparing the Translating of the Book of Mormon and the Scribing ofA Course in Miracles".Producing Ancient Scripture.MacKay, Ashurst-McGee & Hauglid 2020, pp. 169–186.
