Subjects of criticism of the Book of Mormon include its origins, authenticity, and historicity, which have been subject to considerable criticism from scholars and skeptics since it was first published in 1830. The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421.Gordon B. Hinckley, "Praise to the Man" , 1979-11-04.Church Educational System (1996, rev. ed.). Book of Mormon Student Manual (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), ch. 6. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi, who said that it had been written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates.. Contemporary followers of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture, but also as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.
Mainstream scholarship concludes the Book of Mormon is not of ancient origin. The book is considered a creation by Smith and possibly one or more others, drawing on material and ideas from the contemporary 19th-century environment rather than translating an ancient record. Many scholars point to the fact that no evidence of a reformed Egyptian language has ever been discovered. The content found within the book has also been questioned. Scholars have pointed out a number of anachronisms within the text, and general archaeological or genetic evidence has not supported the book's statements about the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The text has also undergone many revisions with some significant changes, which critics argue have notably altered its meaning, and see as a rebuttal of its divine origins.Skousen, R. (2010). "The Book of Mormon: The earliest text" Appendix:Significant Textual Changes. New Haven: Yale University Press. page 739
Despite the many scholarly challenges to its authenticity, adherents and many Latter Day Saint scholars have repeatedly defended the book. The oldest, and most significant, defense of Smith's account of its origins comes from the accounts of eleven men in two groups, who claimed to have seen and handled the golden plates which the Book of Mormon was written on; they are known as the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses. More contemporary adherents have also sought to rebut critical viewpoints and provide general defenses of the book. A few Latter Day Saint scholars have also proposed archaeological findings which they say give credence to the book, although mainstream scholars disagree.
Background
Scholars reject Joseph Smith's explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Smith said that the text contained within the Book of Mormon was derived from an ancient Native American record written on golden plates, and that God gave him and a few others the power to translate it into English. Critics note that there has never been any physical proof of the existence of the golden plates; Smith said that the angel Moroni, who appeared to him and instructed him on how to recover the plates from where they were buried, reclaimed the plates once Smith had completed the translation. To provide support towards the existence of the plates, Smith included two statements in the Book of Mormon saying that several witnesses had been shown the plates, and their testimony is typically published at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. While none of these men ever retracted their statements, critics nevertheless discount these testimonies for varying reasons, one of which is because most of these men were closely interrelated. In later years Martin Harris, one of the witnesses, is recorded to have confessed that he saw the plates with a "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith".
Non-Mormon linguists, archaeologists, and historians do not regard the Book of Mormon to be of ancient origin. In 1834, a publication by Eber D. Howe claimed that Smith had plagiarized an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding. Some skeptics today conclude that Smith composed the book himself, possibly with the help of Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon, drawing from information and publications available in his time, including the King James Bible, The Wonders of Nature, and View of the Hebrews.
Text and language
Joseph Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon from a language called reformed Egyptian. Archaeologists and Egyptologists have found no evidence that this language ever existed.Standard language references such as Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds., The World's Writing Systems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) (990 pages); David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Cambridge University Press, 1997); and Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages (Cambridge University Press, 2004) (1162 pages) contain no reference to "reformed Egyptian." "Reformed Egyptian" is also ignored in Andrew Robinson, Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts (New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), although it is mentioned in Stephen Williams, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991). However, Mormon apologist Hugh Nibley has proposed that reformed Egyptian is the same or similar to the Meroitic language, a known ancient Egyptian dialect.
Furthermore, official LDS Church commentary on the Book of Mormon says that at least some ancestors of Native Americans came from the Jerusalem area; however, Native American linguistic specialists have not found any Native American language that appears to be related to languages of the ancient Near East.
Grant H. Palmer suggested that Smith borrowed the name "Cumorah" through his study of the treasure-hunting stories of Captain William Kidd, based on the similarity of the names from Smith's account—Moroni and Cumorah—to the location Moroni, Comoros, related to Kidd's hunt for treasure. (Smith was known as a treasure-hunter long before he said he found the golden plates.)
Contemporary parallels Early critic of Mormonism and contemporary of Joseph Smith, Reverend Alexander Campbell noted the Book of Mormon contains many theological answers to hotly debated questions in 19th century America:
Campbell argued that the presence of these topics represented a contemporary author rather than multiple authors writing in antiquity. Grant H. Palmer, too, argued that "the Book of Mormon reflects a keen awareness of evangelical Protestantism and the Bible," noting similarities in language and themes with the 19th century.Palmer, Grant H. An Insider's View of Mormon Origins. Signature Books, 2002. pp. 46-56, 69-133.
Translation
The only statement Joseph Smith ever made about the translation process was "through the medium of the urim and thummim I translated the record, by the gift and power of God." Martin Harris, Smith's second scribe, and David Whitmer, who witnessed Smith dictating the translation of the plates to Oliver Cowdery, both describe the process as an exact word-for-word translation.
Modern LDS scholars tend to fall into two schools regarding the nature of the translation process: tight control and loose control. Those who believe in the tight control interpretation argue that Smith had very little leeway in the words used in dictating the Book of Mormon, but was not restricted to an exact word-for-word translation. Those who believe in the loose control interpretation argue that ideas were revealed to Joseph Smith' and he put them 'into his own language.
Some critics, such as Alexander Campbell, have argued that the voice and tone of the Book of Mormon are unchanging rather than reflective of a translation by multiple authors over a thousand-year time span.Campbell, Alexander. Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of Mormon: With an Examination of Its Internal and External Evidences, and a Refutation of Its Pretenses to Divine Authority. Benjamin H. Greene, 1832. pp. 13. "The book professes to be written at intervales and by different persons during the long period of 1020 years. And yet for uniformity of style, there never was a book more evidently written by one set of fingers, nor more certainly conceived in one cranium since the first book appeared in human language, than this same book. If I could swear to any man's voice, face or person, assuming different names, I could swear that this book was written by one man."
Although scholars could not analyze the Golden Plates to evaluate the accuracy of Smith's translation, parts of the Egyptian papyrus Joseph Smith used to translate the Book of Abraham have survived. Egyptologists rejected Smith's translation and recognized that the Book of Abraham papyrus was nothing more than "ordinary funeral documents such as can be found on thousands of Egyptian graves." Palmer uses this discrepancy as part of his ultimate conclusion that "there is no evidence that [Smith] ever translated a document as we would understand that phrase."
Textual revisions
Critics also challenge the Book of Mormon's divine origin by noting the numerous revisions to the text.There have been numerous changes to the text of the Book of Mormon between the 1830 edition and modern LDS editions, almost four thousand changes according to one count by Jerald and Sandra Tanner; see: . Though most changes are small spelling and grammar corrections,The majority of these changes are spelling and grammar corrections; see: . critics claim that even these are significant in light of Smith's claims of divine inspiration. Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was "the most correct of any book on earth," and Martin Harris said that the words which appeared on the seer stone would not disappear until they were correctly written;see: . critics assert that some of these changes were systematic attempts to hide the book's flaws.Some critics claim that some revisions are systematic attempts to remove evidence that Joseph Smith fabricated the Book of Mormon, and other revisions were made to hide embarrassing aspects of the church's past; see: .
Biblical language The Book of Mormon claims to be the original writings of Nephite leaders in ancient America, yet it contains a mix of verbatim and paraphrased quotations of the 17th-century edition of the King James Bible (KJV) and the deuterocanonical books, which Joseph Smith's bible had as well. Furthermore, the language of the Book of Mormon closely mimics the Elizabethan English of the KJV, with 19th-century English mixed in.
The Book of Mormon quotes 25,000 words from the KJV Old Testament (e.g., 2 Nephi 30:13-15; cf. Isaiah 11:7-9) and over 2,000 words from the KJV New Testament.
There are numerous cases where the Nephite writers mimic wording from the New Testament, a document to which they would have had no access. Below are five examples out of a list of 400 examples created by Jerald and Sandra Tanner:
Book of Mormon Text KJV Text "the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world (2 Nephi 9:18) "the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34) "he judgeth, and his judgment is just" (Mosiah 3:18) "I judge: and my judgment is just" (John 5:30) "he who is filthy shall remain in his filthiness" (Alma 7:21) "he which is filthy, let him be filthy still" (Revelation 22:11) "that one man should perish than that a nation should ... perish in unbelief (1 Nephi 4:13) "that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" (John 11:50) "the dog to his vomit, or like the sow to her wallowing in the mire" (3 Nephi 7:8) "the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire (2 Peter 2:22)