Could Joseph Smith have written the Book of Mormon?

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

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

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

Overview of LDS position

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

Overview of Critics' position

The most important point the critics make concerning the writing of the Book of Mormon deals with the possible, the plausible and the probable which can be summarized by this question: What is more probable, that Joseph Smith wrote the book or that a divine being showed a treasure-hunting Joseph of 14 the location of golden plates and then through supernatural use of a scrying with rock in a hat those plates revealed a completely unknown civilization (traces of which still cannot be found)? Critics believe that Occam's razor be used to rule out option 2.

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

References

Member beliefs

Members of the LDS Church who have an intellectual testimony of the Church often say they believe in the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon (and therefore the LDS Church) because of the assertion that Joseph Smith could not possibly have written the Book of Mormon. "How could a young farm boy with limited education have written a fairly long, complex, flawless religious text like the Book of Mormon? If Joseph could not have written the book on his own, his story of the golden plates and the angel must be true," they say. (For example, in the Video Guide, Chapter 2, 1 Nephi 9, teachers are instructed to bear their testimony of the Book of Mormon and, "You could also indicate that a book this complex could not have been written by an uneducated young man like Joseph Smith.")

Could someone have written the Book of Mormon without divine help?

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

Our first response was made in the "Overview of Critics' Position" in the Introduction above: The most important point the critics make concerning the writing of the Book of Mormon deals with the possible, the plausible and the probable which can be summarized by this question: What is more probable, that Joseph Smith wrote the book or that a divine being showed a treasure-hunting Joseph of 14 the location of golden plates and then through supernatural use of a scrying with rock in a hat those plates revealed a completely unknown civilization (traces of which still cannot be found)? Critics believe that Occam's razor be used to rule out option 2.

The first edition of the Book of Mormon

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

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

Overall there have been some 3,913 changes to the first edition of Book of Mormon. This is the book Joseph called 'the most correct book on earth'. For more detail on the changes go to: Link is here.

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

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

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

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

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

For the complete review of the Book of Mormon by Mark Twain

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

…[T]here is a certain lack of perspective in the things the book relates as history that points quite clearly to an undeveloped mind as their origin. The narrative proceeds in characteristic disregard of conditions necessary to its reasonableness, as if it were a tale told by a child, with utter disregard for consistency… Is this all sober history…or is it a wonder-tale of an immature mind, unconscious of what a test he is laying on human credulity when asking men to accept his narrative as solemn history.

B. H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon, ed. Brigham D. Madsen (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985), 251.

In The New Yorker's review of The Lost Book of Mormon (by Avi Steinberg), the author says,

Steinberg rarely quotes directly from the Book of Mormon, which seemed odd until I tried to read it myself. As exciting as the plot sounds in paraphrase, the actual text smothers it in so many King Jamesian locutions that it’s barely discernable. No one’s ever claimed that the Book of Mormon rivals the literary achievements of the Bible or the poetic grace of the Koran in Arabic, but I was still surprised by the tedium.

"In Search of the Great American Bible" By Rollo Romig, The New Yorker, February 9, 2015.

Slate's review of Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide, by Grant Hardy, says,

Whatever one's views on the authenticity of the text, it has been widely regarded as a rather inferior work of literature, especially when compared to the King James Bible. "Chloroform in print," is Mark Twain's famous dismissal of it. I found myself willing—indeed eager—to go along with Hardy's suggestion. Mormonism has fascinated me ever since I developed an interest in religion. …If someone can convince me that the reason for Mormonism's success lies in the narrative structure of its sacred text, I am willing to be convinced. Hardy concludes his book by citing Twain's famous quip that Wagner's music "is better than it sounds." the Book of Mormon, he wants us to believe, is better than it reads. Here is where he loses me. I can get so absorbed in an opera like Siegfried that when it ends, six or so hours after it began, I cannot wait until the next one in the Ring, Die Götterdämmerung, starts. The same thing simply cannot be said about the Book of Mormon, at least to a non-Mormon like me. Hardy's heroic efforts to prove that there is literature somewhere buried in all those passages starting with "Behold" or "And so it came to pass" leave me, like Twain, gasping for air. Hardy does convince me that writing the Book of Mormon required an amazing amount of dedication. How else to explain its length and the fervent imagination clearly at work within it. He has not convinced me that what was written qualifies as great, or even good. Mormonism's success suggests that a religion can flourish in spite of rather than because of its founding texts. I do not doubt that Mormons are inspired by the words associated with Joseph Smith. But if another reference to music is permitted, I simply cannot imagine anyone setting those words to music the way Handel did with the Bible in his oratorios. the Book of Mormon has a structure. It does not sing.

"Chloroform in Print: Does the Book of Mormon get a bad rap?" By Alan Wolfe, Slate, 17 May 2010.

the Book of Mormon pales in comparison to such literary masterpieces as A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy or anything by William Shakespeare. Many books are far more complex and difficult to write than the Book of Mormon. In Tolkien's fictional Lord of the Rings series, not only are multiple interacting civilizations created, but also their own languages.

the Book of Mormon is not so spectacular of a book that it could only have been written with divine intervention—many authors in Joseph Smith's day could have written it. However, it's one thing to say a trained author could have written the Book of Mormon, and quite another to say Joseph Smith could have written it. So, could Joseph Smith have produced the book without divine help?

When the Book of Mormon was first published, Joseph claimed that a revelation told him to sell the copyright to the Book of Mormon to a publishing company in Canada to earn money; it was treated like any other book written by an author, as if there was nothing special about it. Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery went to Toronto for this purpose, but they failed to sell the copyright, returning without any money. (Revelation, circa Early 1830, ID #6473, The Joseph Smith Papers)

It should be noted that the first edition of the Book of Mormon has listed on its title page that Joseph Smith is the "author and proprietor" of the book, but the Preface of the same edition states that Joseph translated it. Subsequent editions changed the term "author and proprietor" to "translator." The word "author" is used by some critics to claim that Joseph admitted to having written the book on his own. However, this MT editor believes the reason "author and proprietor" was included was to comply with copyright laws of the time, and not an indication that Joseph was claiming to have written it on his own. See the then-existent copyright laws (1790) that frequently used the term "author or proprietor."

References

Joseph's life as a child

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

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

The principal surgeon, after a moment's conversation, ordered cords to be brought to bind Joseph fast to a bedstead; but to this Joseph objected. The doctor, however, insisted that he must be confined, upon which Joseph said very decidedly, "No, doctor, I will not be bound, for I can bear the operation much better if I have my liberty." "Then," said Dr. Stone, "will you have some brandy?…" "No," exclaimed Joseph, "I will not touch one particle of liquor, neither will I be tied down; but I will tell you what I will do—I will have my father sit on the bed and hold me in his arms, and then I will do whatever is necessary in order to have the bone taken out." Looking at me, he said, "Mother I want you to leave the room, for I know you cannot bear to suffer so; father can stand it, but you have carried me so much, and watched over me so long, you are almost worn out." Then looking up into my face, his eyes swimming in tears, he continued, "Now, mother, promise me that you will not stay, will you? The Lord will help me, and I shall get through with it."

Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith The Prophet, Lucy Mack Smith, p. 64.

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

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

Joseph's education

Joseph Smith had a limited formal education which is often used as a reason why he could not have written the Book of Mormon. However, just because his formal schooling was limited, that does not mean he did not have the mental acumen to produce a work like the Book of Mormon.

Education was important to the Smith family, and although Joseph may have only had limited formal education in a typical classroom, his parents undoubtedly schooled him at home. Joseph's mother wrote that they did not neglect the education of their children. This was an educated family: Joseph's father, Joseph Smith, Sr., was a school teacher during the off season. Joseph's brother, Hyrum, worked as a school teacher during the off season also. His mother and maternal grandmother were school teachers. One of his sisters may have also been a teacher at some point in her life. Joseph attended school when he was about 20 years old in Harmony, PA with the Stowell children. According to his own words, Joseph read and pondered scriptures. He had access to books and newspapers. He even held a position as "exhorter" at a local church and participated in the debate group in Palmyra.

Despite limited schooling Joseph Smith loved to study and learn. In part he was influenced by schoolteacher associates. His father once taught school. His maternal grandmother, a schoolteacher, taught his mother the rudiments of 'sums, 'write-o-hand' and spelling.' Joseph's wife was a schoolteacher, 'a woman of liberal culture and insistent on education.' And his primary scribe during the translating of the Book of Mormon was schoolteacher Oliver Cowdery.

"Joseph Smith and Nauvoo's Youth," By William G. Hartley. September 1979 Ensign.

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

Even Abraham Lincoln had a very limited formal education, and Benjamin Franklin also had only one year of formal education. Look at the amazing things they wrote and accomplished.

Today, many people home-school their children—are they to be considered uneducated? It's true that they do not have a "formal" education, but for the most part, home-schooled children have similar, and in some cases superior, education than traditionally-schooled children.

Religious education

Young Joseph was able to read and ponder scriptures. Joseph also attended Protestant church services and apparently studied the Bible in depth. According to Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, less than a year after first being visited by Moroni, Joseph said:

Mother, I do not wish to prevent your going to [church], or any of the rest of the family; or your joining any church you please; but, do not ask me to join them. I can take my Bible, and go into the woods and learn more in two hours than you can learn at meeting in two years, if you should go all the time.

Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853), p. 90.

Critic's comment: One has to wonder why a document translated in the 19th century uses 17th century English. Although, if Joseph was so well acquainted with the Bible, it may help explain why the Book of Mormon is so similar to the Bible. The English used in the 1830s certainly didn't match the Book of Mormon language. The "thees" and "thous" seem included so as to make the book sound more scripture-like. Additionally, why is the translation so inconsistent: sometimes "you" was used and other times "thou" was used; "shown" vs. "shewn;" "had" vs. "hath;" etc. Did Reformed Egyptian actually use two different words, one modern and one archaic, to mean the same thing? Does the Book of Mormon consistently use the different words in different contexts, or is it arbitrary? It must be noted that the bible also has the same issue.

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

The poor grammar in the 1830 Book of Mormon shows the lack of formal education that Joseph had. However, lack of education does not mean lack of intelligence or imagination. The original grammar and the errors in the Book of Mormon is what would be expected from someone with limited formal education (but not if the words were given to him by the power of God in the manner in which it is claimed to have happened—word for word and, according to Martin Harris, "if not written correctly it remained until corrected."). An example of Joseph's writing from before he published the Book of Mormon is in the section below 'What about Emma Smith?'

William E. McLellin, a schoolteacher, said of Joseph as an adult learner:

He attended my High school during the winter of 1834. He attended my school and learned science all winter. I learned the strength of his mind as <to> the study and principles of science. Hence I think I knew him. And I here say that he had one of <the> strongest, well balanced, penetrating, and retentive minds of any <man> with which <whom> I ever formed an acquaintance, among the thousands of my observation. Although when I took him into my school, he was without scientific knowledge or attainments.

"Inside the lost McLellin notebook," Michael De Groote, Deseret News, 28 January 2009.

Additional information and source material for some of the above points.

In his own handwriting, Joseph Smith claimed that by the age of twelve he spent time not just reading, but "searching the scriptures" and "applying [himself] to them." He knew them well enough that he could judge that the people he personally knew did not behave "agreeable to what I found contained in" the bible. "From the age of twelve years to fifteen," Joseph "pondered many things…of the world of mankind." But "by searching the scriptures [he] found that mankind did not come unto the Lord but they had apostatised from the true and liveing faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the new testament."

Also, through "searching the scriptures," Joseph said he "felt to mourn for my own sins and for the sins of the world;" knew that "God was the same yesterday to day and forever" and that "he was no respecter to persons for he was God…"

Full quote:

…we were deprived of the bennifit of an education suffice it to say I was mearly instructtid in reading writing and the ground rules of Arithmatic which constituted my whole literary acquirements. At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest with regard to the all importent concerns for the wellfare of my immortal Soul which led me to searching the scriptures believeing as I was taught, that they contained the word of God thus applying myself to them and my intimate acquaintance with those of differant denominations led me to marvel excedingly for I discovered that they did not adorn their profession by a holy walk and Godly conversation agreeable to what I found contained in that sacred depository this was a grief to my Soul thus from the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the sittuation of the world of mankind the contentions and divisions the wickedness and abominations and the darkness which pervaded the minds of mankind my mind become excedingly distressed for I become convicted of my sins and by searching the scriptures I found that mankind did not come unto the Lord but they had apostatised from the true and liveing faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the new testament and I felt to mourn for my own sins and for the sins of the world for I learned in the scriptures that God was the same yesterday to day and forever that he was no respecter to persons for he was God for I looked upon the sun the glorious luminary of the earth and also the moon rolling in their magesty through the heavens and also the stars shining in their courses and the earth also upon which I stood and the beast of the field and the fowls of heaven and the fish of the waters and also man walking forth upon the face of the earth in magesty and in the strength of beauty whose power and intiligence in governing the things which are so exceding great and marvilous even in the likeness of him who created them and when I considered upon these things my heart exclaimed well hath the wise man said it is a fool that saith in his heart there is no God my heart exclaimed all all these bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotant and omnipreasant power a being who makith Laws and decreeeth and bindeth all things in their bounds who filleth Eternity who was and is and will be from all Eternity to Eternity and when I considered all these things and that that being seeketh such to worshep him as worship him in spirit and in truth therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy…

Letterbook 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, p. 7. Spelling retained. Emphasis added.

During this period, Joseph, Senior, worked on the farm summers, and taught school part of the time winters. His son Joseph attended the school on Dewey Hill, and was taught his letters by Dea[con] Jonathan Kinney, the schoolmaster there.

Evelyn M. Wood Lovejoy, History of Royalton, Vermont, with family genealogies, 1769-1911, p. 646. (1911)

Father Smith taught common school for several winters while the Smiths lived in the Prophet's birthplace. But young Joseph was not ready for regular instruction until after his family had moved to neighboring Royalton Township, where Joseph Smith Sr. appears on the tax records from 1809 to 1811. A granddaughter of Royalton deacon Jonathan Kinney said he "oft repeated" that "I taught Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, his letters while teaching school upon Dewey Hill about the year 1810-15."

Richard Lloyd Anderson, "The Early Preparation of the Prophet Joseph Smith," December 2005 Ensign.

From 1812-13, while living in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Joseph Sr. and Lucy sent their children to school, until, apparently, the typhoid fever outbreak of 1813:

…as my children had been deprived of school we made every arrangement to suply that deficency our second son we sent to the accademy in Hanover the remmainder who were old enough [which would include Joseph, then 6 or 7] attended a school near by whilst I their Father and myself were industriously laboring late and early to do all in our power for their future wellfare We met with success on every hand[.]

By Lucy Mack Smith, first draft as found in Lucy's Book, Edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson. Signature Books, (2001).

Someone familiar with the Smith family when they lived in Palmyra, New York, recollected the following in 1851:

Joseph had a little ambition, and some very laudable aspirations; the mother's intellect shone out in him feebly, especially when he used to help us solve some portentous questions of moral or political ethics in our juvenile debating club, which we moved down to the old red schoolhouse on Durfee street, to get rid of the critics that used to drop in upon us in the village. And subsequently, after catching a spark of Methodism in the camp meeting, away down in the woods, on the Vienna road, he was a very passable exhorter in the evening meetings.

Personal recollection of O. Turner, author of History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, p. 214.

Herbert S. Salisbury, grandson of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s sister, Katherine Smith Salisbury, said the following about Joseph Smith:

The enemies of the Prophet Joseph Smith accuse him of being an ignorant young man at the time he received the first revelation. The defenders of the church have exaggerated his lack of learning. … He was not as ignorant as his enemies would have us believe, anyhow. I have his New England Reader, used by him in school, and afterwards by his sister Catherine, who gave it to me, and it would take some of our college and university men to fully appreciate its lofty sentiment, expressed in the sesquipedal verbiage of the noted scholars and writers of the great Puritan age, from Milton up to the beginning of our Constitutional Period. He, and many of the early church men, were the product of the best Puritan stock, with whom education was one of the first considerations. Joseph Smith, jr.'s, maternal grandmother, Lydia Gates Mack, was a school-teacher and taught his mother. Joseph Smith, sr., was a public-school teacher in Royalton, Vermont. His wife, Emma Hale, was also a school-teacher, a woman of liberal culture and insistent on education. Inasmuch as New England had enjoyed free public schools for nearly two centuries before Joseph Smith appeared upon the stage of action, and in light of the fact that his immediate ancestors were people of high rank in Massachusetts, and of the teaching profession, it is unreasonable to suppose that he had absolutely no common education.

H. S. Salisbury, "History of Education in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," Journal of History, Vol. XV, No. 3 (July, 1922), pp. 257-58.

Besides his ability to read and think about the bible, Joseph could write. Although he felt a need to have a scribe to help with the Book of Mormon, Joseph had good penmanship. His spelling and punctuation may not have been the best, but he could compose and write, as the already quoted 1832 history attests. To see his penmanship, see his 1832 history and also his letter to his wife, Emma, June 6, 1832

These writings were a mere 3-4 years after the writing of the Book of Mormon. It could be that in those years Joseph had learned to write, but more likely than not he was already a capable writer when the Book of Mormon was penned.

Although apparently aided by an angelic being with the content (Moroni), Joseph was capable of telling stories as a 16 year old:

In the course of our evening conversations Joseph would give us some of the most ammusing recitals which could be immagined he would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent their dress thier maner of traveling the animals which they rode The cities that were built by them the structure of their buildings with every particular of their mode of warfare their religious orship-as particularly as though he had spent his life with them[.]

By Lucy Mack Smith, first draft as found in Lucy's Book, Edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson. Signature Books, (2001).

It is not implausible for those with little to no formal education to be intelligent and creative individuals. The following are several examples of such people from approximately the same time period as Joseph Smith.

[Abraham] Lincoln's education was typical, fulfilling Joseph Kett's image of adolescents practicing "a mixture of formal schooling and private self-education." Lincoln reminisced that "the aggregate of his schooling did not amount for one year." Instead, he joined several self-improvement groups, including the New Salem Debating Society and the Springfield Lyceum. By and large, however, self-education was solitary, even secretive. Self-education, however, was a rare achievement in a pioneer culture, even one on the verge of a commercial revolution. Like most farmboys, Lincoln received little encouragement from his family to forego manual labor to read and think. Back in Indiana, for example, his love of reading and writing earned him little more than a reputation for laziness. John Romine, who hired the boy, recalled that "Abe was awful lazy: he worked for me-was always reading&thinking-used to get mad at him." Lincoln's second cousin Dennis Hanks remembered that "Lincoln was lazy-a very lazy man-He was always reading-scribbling-writing-Ciphering-writing Poetry &c. &c." Even in Illinois, Lincoln's solitary reading habits earned him an unflattering reputation. Stephen T. Logan, cousin of Mary Todd and later Lincoln's law partner, heard about the lazy young newcomer and later reminisced that "The impression that I had at the time was that he was a sort of loafer." Only much later did anyone recognize this diligent reading, thinking, and writing as hard work, in fact a new kind of labor, mental work.

Kenneth J. Winkle, "Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made Man," Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Volume 21, Issue 2, Summer 2000.

Horace Greeley was born on February 3, 1811, on a farm about five miles from Amherst, New Hampshire. He could not breathe for the first twenty minutes of his life. It is suggested that this deprivation may have caused him to develop Asperger's syndrome-some of his biographers, such as Mitchell Snay, maintain that this condition would account for his eccentric behaviors in later life. Greeley was the son of poor farmers Zaccheus and Mary (Woodburn) Greeley. Zaccheus was not successful, and moved his family several times, as far west as Pennsylvania. Horace attended the local schools, and was a brilliant student… Seeing the boy's intelligence, some neighbors offered to pay Horace's way at Phillips Exeter Academy, but the Greeleys were too proud to accept charity. In 1820, Zaccheus's financial reverses caused him to flee New Hampshire with his family lest he be imprisoned for debt, and settle in Vermont. Even as his father struggled to make a living as a hired hand, Horace Greeley read everything he could-the Greeleys had a neighbor who let Horace use his library. In 1822, Horace ran away from home to become a printer's apprentice, but was told he was too young. In 1826, at age 15, he was made a printer's apprentice…

"Horace Greeley," Wikipedia.

In later life Horace Greeley started the New-York Tribune (1841-1966) and was influential in journalism in general. He was a US Congressman and helped start the Republican Party.

Samuel [Clemen]'s father was a judge, and he built a two-story frame house at 206 Hill Street in 1844. As a youngster, Samuel was kept indoors because of poor health. However, by age nine, he seemed to recover from his ailments and joined the rest of the town's children outside. He then attended a private school in Hannibal. When Samuel was 12, his father died of pneumonia, and at 13, Samuel left school to become a printer's apprentice. After two short years, he joined his brother Orion's newspaper as a printer and editorial assistant. It was here that young Samuel found he enjoyed writing.

Mark Twain's Biography, from The Official Web Site of Mark Twain.

See An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer, pp 42-44, for more information.

Essay: “Reassessing Joseph Smith Jr.’s Formal Education”

Anyone interested in knowing just how much formal schooling Joseph Smith had should read Bill Davis’ essay “Reassessing Joseph Smith Jr.’s Formal Education” in the latest issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Winter 2016). It is a year-by-year assessment of the documentary evidence, and while an exact number is not possible due to the incompleteness of the sources, Bill can show that “the overall estimated time that Joseph spent in formal education to the equivalent of approximately seven full school years—a notable increase to that proposed in previous historical representations ....” This does not include instruction he probably received from his teacher father and brother Hyrum. I highly recommend Bill’s well-researched and reasoned essay.

Dan Vogel

Joseph's age

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

Joseph's imagination

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

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

Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith The Prophet, Lucy Mack Smith, p. 92.

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

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

THE IMAGINATIVE MIND OF PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH: EVIDENCE OF ITS EXISTENCE-EXAMPLES OF ITS FORCE One other subject remains to be considered in this division of the "study" here conducted, viz.-was Joseph Smith possessed of a sufficiently vivid and creative imagination as to produce such a work as the Book Mormon from such materials as have been indicated in the preceding chapters-from such common knowledge as was extant in the communities where he lived in his boyhood and young manhood; from the Bible, and more especially from the View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith? That such power of imagination would have to be of a high order is conceded; that Joseph Smith possessed such a gift of mind there can be no question. The fact of it is first established by the testimony of the mother who bore him, Lucy Smith. Speaking of the days immediately following the revelation making known the existence of the Book of Mormon to her son-the ever memorable 23rd day of September, 1823-Lucy Smith in her History of the Prophet Joseph Smith, recounts how in the evening of that day, the young prophet sat up late detailing to the family the wonderful conversations he had with the angel; until the elder brother, Alvin, noting how exhausted the youthful prophet was suggested an adjournment of the story being related until the following evening. And this was done. This seems to have been the inauguration of a long series of such evenings according to the History by "Mother Lucy Smith" for she writes: "From this time forth, Joseph continued to receive instructions from the Lord, and we continued to get the children together every night evening, for the purpose of listening while he gave us a relation of the same. I presume our family presented an aspect as singular as any that ever lived upon the face of the earth-all seated in a circle, father, mother, sons and daughters, and giving the most profound attention to a boy, eighteen years of age, who had never read the Bible through in his life; he seemed much less inclined to the perusal of books than any of the rest of our children, but far more given to meditation and deep study..During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them." (History of the Prophet Joseph, 1901 edition, Salt Lake City, Utah. Published under the sanction and direction of the late President Joseph F. Smith). It must be remembered that the above took place before the young prophet had received the plates of the Book of Mormon: these were the evenings immediately following the first interviews with Moroni. Whence came his knowledge for these recitals of "the dress," "the mode of the ancient inhabitants of America of traveling," "the animals on which they rode," "their cities," "their buildings," "their mode of warfare," "their religious worship"? And all this given "with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them"? Whence indeed, since all this happened before even the second interview with Moroni had taken place, and between three and four years before the translation of the Book of Mormon began. And yet it must be from that book that he would get his knowledge of the ancient inhabitants of America, unless he has caught suggestions from such common knowledge, or that which was taken for "knowledge," as existed in the community concerning ancient American civilization, and built by imagination from this and possible contact with Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews his description of the ancient inhabitants of the land, their life, religion and customs. A year later he will be helped by Josiah Priest's book, The Wonders of Nature and Providence, published only twenty miles away, and it will have much to say about the Hebrew origin of the American Indian, and his advanced culture and civilization. Whence comes the young prophet's ability to give these descriptions "with as much ease as if he had spent his whole life" with these ancient inhabitants of America? Not from the Book of Mormon, which is, as yet, a sealed book to him; and surely not from Moroni, since he had had but one day and night of interviews with him, during which there had be several interviews, it is true, but these had been occupied with other subject matter than the things enumerated by Lucy Smith. These evening recitals could come from no other source than the vivid, constructive imagination of Joseph Smith, a remarkable power which attended him through all his life. It was as strong and varied as Shakespeare's and no more to be accounted for than the English Bard's.

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

B.H. Roberts Conclusion

In his book Studies of the Book of Mormon, Roberts concluded that Joseph Smith had sufficient imagination and was capable of producing the Book of Mormon even though he had little formal education. He was, however, prone to make silly mistakes, such as: 1) evidence of an undeveloped mind, 2) repetition of the same themes, 3) repetition of the same villains, 4) repetition of same battles and wars, 5) conversions typical of 19th century conversions.

In light of this evidence, there can be no doubt as to the possession of a vividly strong, creative imagination by Joseph Smith, the Prophet. An imagination, it could with reason be urged, which, given the suggestions that are to be found in the 'common knowledge' of accepted American Antiquities of the times, supplemented [sic] by such a work as Ethan Smith's, View of the Hebrews, would make it possible for him to create a book such as the Book of Mormon is. … There is a certain lack of perspective in the things the book relates as history that points quite clearly to an undeveloped mind as their origin, The narrative proceeds in characteristic disregard of conditions necessary to its reasonableness, as if it were a tale told by a child, with utter disregard for consistency… Is this all sober history…or is it a wonder-tale of an immature mind, unconscious of what a test he is laying on human credulity when asking men to accept his narrative as solemn history." … was Joseph Smith possessed of a sufficiently vivid and creative imagination as to produce such a work as the Book of Mormon from such materials as have been indicated in the preceding chapters …? That such power of imagination would have to be of a high order is conceded; that Joseph Smith possessed such a gift of mind there can be no question.

Studies of the Book of Mormon, B.H. Roberts, p. 243.

Book of Mormon – evidences of other sources

Editor's Note:

The following are ideas as to how Joseph Smith may have used available sources while writing the Book of Mormon. Some of these ideas are more probable sources than others, although none of them are a silver bullet. MormonThink does not necessarily believe any of these sources were actually used; we merely present them to show there other possibilities for the genesis of the Book of Mormon besides just a supernatural explanation.

From time to time the word "plagiarized" is used to describe Joseph Smith's writing of the book of Mormon. It must be kept in mind that there is a difference between the plagiarism of words and that of ideas. Although some critics believe Joseph Smith took actual words from various sources (most definitely from the Bible, and some believe other sources), this editor believes it is more likely that he was informed by the ideas expressed in other writing and simply the climate of his time and place, so while interesting, the parallels presented between the Book of Mormon and other writings of his day do not necessarily prove Joseph plagiarised words.

Lucy Mack Smith reported that her husband, Joseph Smith Sr., had the following dream when Joseph Smith Jr. was 5 years old:

"I thought," said he, "I was travelling in an open, desolate field, which appeared to be very barren. As I was thus travelling, the thought suddenly came into my mind that I had better stop and reflect upon what I was doing, before I went any further. So I asked myself, 'What motive can I have in travelling here, and what place can this be?' My guide, who was by my side, as before, said, 'This is the desolate world; but travel on.' The road was so broad and barren that I wondered why I should travel in it; for, said I to myself, 'Broad is the road, and wide is the gate that leads to death, and many there be that walk therein; but narrow is the way, and straight is the gate that leads to everlasting life, and few there be that go in thereat.' Travelling a short distance further, I came to a narrow path. This path I entered, and, when I had travelled a little way in it, I beheld a beautiful stream of water, which ran from the east to the west. Of this stream I could see neither the source nor yet the termination; but as far as my eyes could extend I could see a rope, running along the bank of it, about as high as a man could reach, and beyond me was a low, but very pleasant valley, in which stood a tree such as I, had never seen before. It was exceedingly handsome, insomuch that I looked upon it with wonder and admiration. Its beautiful branches spread themselves somewhat like an umbrella, and it bore a kind of fruit, in shape much like a chestnut bur, and as white as snow, or, if possible, whiter. I gazed upon the same with considerable interest, and as I was doing so, the burs or shells commenced opening and shedding their particles, or the fruit which they contained, which was of dazzling whiteness. I drew near, and began to eat of it, and I found it delicious beyond description. As I was eating, I said in my heart, 'I cannot eat this alone, I must bring my wife and children, that they may partake with me.' Accordingly, I went and brought my family, which consisted of a wife and seven children, and we all commenced eating, and praising God for this blessing. We were exceedingly happy, insomuch that our joy could not easily be expressed. While thus engaged, I beheld a spacious building standing opposite the valley which we were in, and it appeared to reach to the very heavens. It was full of doors and windows, and they were all filled with people, who were very finely dressed. When these people observed us in the low valley, under the tree, they pointed the finger of scorn at us, and treated us with all manner of disrespect and contempt. But their contumely we utterly disregarded. I presently turned to my guide, and inquired of him the meaning of the fruit that was so delicious. He told me it was the pure love of God, shed abroad in the hearts of all those who love him, and keep his commandments. He then commanded me to go and bring the rest of my children. I told him that we were all there. 'No,' he replied, 'look yonder, you have two more, and you must bring them also.' Upon raising my eyes, I saw two small children, standing some distance off. I immediately went to them, and brought them to the tree; upon which they commenced eating with the rest, and we all rejoiced together. The more we eat, the more we seemed to desire, until we even got down upon our knees, and scooped it up, eating it by double handfulls. After feasting in this manner a short time, I asked my guide what was the meaning of the spacious building which I saw. He replied, 'It is Babylon, it is Babylon, and it must fall. The people in the doors and windows are the inhabitants thereof, who scorn and despise the Saints of God, because of their humility.' I soon awoke, clapping my hands together for joy."

Reference: Lucy's Book, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson, Chapter 2, pp. 297-98.

Critic's comment: This is the "Tree of Life" story as told in the Book of Mormon starting in 1 Nephi 11:25. If Lucy recalled Joseph Sr.'s dream with this much detail in 1844-45 (when she wrote the first draft of the above quote), one must assume that Joseph Sr. told it many times. Surely Joseph Jr. was well-acquainted with it when he wrote the Book of Mormon. Although faithful LDS try to explain this as evidence that Joseph's father was also inspired, there is another more plausible explanation: Joseph Jr. simply incorporated this dream experience, that had such an impact on his father, into the Book of Mormon.

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

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

Problems with portions of the Bible in the Book of Mormon

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

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

Some LDS apologists admit that Joseph must have used the King James Bible when bringing forth the Book of Mormon. They explain that when Joseph recognized parts of the plates that were identical to the Bible, he used the Bible instead, as expressed in the Ensign:

In fact, the language in the sections of the Book of Mormon that correspond to parts of the Bible is quite regularly selected by Joseph Smith, rather than obtained through independent translation. For instance, there are over 400 verses in which the Nephite prophets quote from Isaiah, and half of these appear precisely as the King James version renders them. Summarizing the view taken by Latter-day Saint scholars on this point, Daniel H. Ludlow emphasizes the inherent variety of independent translation and concludes: “There appears to be only one answer to explain the word-for-word similarities between the verses of Isaiah in the Bible and the same verses in the Book of Mormon.” That is simply that Joseph Smith must have opened Isaiah and tested each mentioned verse by the Spirit: “If his translation was essentially the same as that of the King James version, he apparently quoted the verse from the Bible.” 31 Thus the Old Testament passages from Isaiah display a particular choice of phraseology that suggests Joseph Smith’s general freedom throughout the Book of Mormon for optional wording.

"By the Gift and Power of God," By Richard Lloyd Anderson, Ensign, September 1977. (emphasis in original)

It is clearly obvious that Joseph looked at a Bible, but this brings up a cunundrum: Witnesses to the translation process either do not mention, or vehemently deny, that any materials were consulted during the translation process other than the seer stones/urim & thummim.

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

Book of Mormon Difficulties

The Bible in the Book of Mormon BY Curt van den Heuvel (1999).

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

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

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

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

Parallels between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon

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

Origin of the inhabitants of the American continents

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

Destruction of Jerusalem

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

Stories of a "lost book"

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

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

Breastplate and the Urim and Thummim

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

Egyptian hieroglyphics

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

Barbarous and civilized people

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

Isaiah and the scattering and gathering of Israel

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

Quetzalcoatl

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

Additional parallels include:

the future gathering of Israel and restoration of the Ten Lost Tribes

the peopling of the New World from the Old via a long journey northward which encountered "seas" of "many waters"

a religious motive for the migration

the description of extensive military fortifications with military observatories or "watch towers" overlooking them

a change from monarchy to republican forms of government

the preaching of the gospel in ancient America.

Both tell of prophets in ancient America

Both maintain that the purpose of America in the last days is to gather up the remnants of Israel, bringing them into Christianity, and bringing forth the millennium.

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

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

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

( Joseph Smith, Jr., "From Priest's American Antiquities," (1 June 1842) Times and Seasons 3:813-815.)

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

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

Drugs

See this very interesting Sunstone Symposium article discussing possible drug use by the early saints:

Restoration and the Sacred Mushroom: Did Joseph Smith use Psychedelic Substances to Facilitate Visionary Experiences? Presented at the Sunstone Symposium, August 2007 by Robert T. Beckstead. Revised.

Similar to the above article, the following article discusses the visions reported by many of the early saints and possible links to alcohol and hallucinogenic mushrooms: Mormon Visions and the Gift of the Holy Ghost

The Westminster Confession of Faith was produced about 1646. There are several parallels to the Book of Mormon. Westminster Confession.

References

Early American influences in the Book of Mormon.

Early American influences in the Book of Mormon stand in direct contradiction to the testimonies of witnesses to Joseph Smith's translation process. "Translation" is a generous term considering the word-for-word dictation method as observed by those closest to Smith: scrying with his seer stone in his hat, delivering each word from the plates in order. This leaves little room for Smith to add to what he saw in his stone. (See the 2014 essay, "Book of Mormon Translation," published on the LDS.org website verifying his scrying method, as well as MormonThink's comprehensive response to that essay.) Yet, when compared to available contemporary writing, the Book of Mormon is shown repeatedly to borrow verbiage and phrases from its time (examples of contemporaneous texts below).

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery always gave as their response to the translation method that they used the Urim and Thummim, which they always identified as the "Nephite Interpreters" found with the golden plates, in direct contrast to the rock-in-the-hat method as verified in the 2013 LDS essay linked to above. It is readily apparent that the King James Bible was used to directly quote from, especially the Isaiah passages (see MormonThink's treatment of this issue). One must come to the conclusion that Joseph and Oliver were willing to, at the least, stretch the truth of the "translation" method. Since we know the KJV bible was copied from directly, couldn't they have easily copied from other sources as well?

Defenders of Smith counter that any duplication of phrases between his Book of Mormon and contemporary sources are merely accidental anomalies generated through the permutation of a finite number of words. If this be the case then the chiasmus and Hebraisms, often pointed to by many of Smith's defenders, must suffer the same fate. However, in the world of Book of Mormon apology, a faith-promoting parallel is taken as evidence of its divinity while more suspicious evidence of borrowing and plagiarism is considered insignificant.

Larry Morris of the pro-LDS group FARMS took the proper perspective in relation to this material when he said:

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

"The Book of Abraham: Ask the Right Questions and Keep on Looking," FARMS Review 16/2 (2004), p. 370, fn. 29.

A two edged sword indeed it is. However, we believe there was enough material available in Joseph Smith's environment to show that at the least, Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon was simply a product of his time, nicely fitting in with the many other contemporaneous works that used scriptural language and covered many of the same themes as the Book of Mormon.

Contemporaneous texts to the Book of Mormon

This list is not exhaustive, but there is enough of a sample to show that the Book of Mormon is not unique to its time. It must be stressed that although there are often strong parallels in some cases, it is not necessarily every critic's belief that Joseph Smith directly plagiarized from any other source, but rather that he may have been influenced by these sources in some way. If nothing else, it demonstrates that it was possible to create a book like the Book of Mormon without any supernatural means. However, as noted above, it is not being completely ruled out that Joseph and Oliver may have had texts directly available in the place in which they penned the Book of Mormon.

The Late War Between the United States and Great Britain, by Gilbert Hunt (1816). An analysis of The Late War and Book of Mormon parallels was presented in January of 2014. There are some very interesting parallels that seem more than coincidental. See the results of the analysis.

Click for larger image.

The First Book of Napoleon, The Tyrant of the Earth, by Eliakim the Scribe (pseudonym of Michael Linning) (1809). The same people who analyzed The Late War also analyzed The First Book of Napoleon (much of this page actually has more information about The Late War, but some of it does cover The First Book of Napoleon).

Click for larger image.

Some writing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, like the Book of Mormon, were purported by their authors to be translations of ancient work, such as:

Chronicles of Eri; Being the History of the Gaal Sciot Iber: or, the Irish People; translated from the original manuscripts in the Phoenician dialect of the Scythian language, by Roger O'Connor (1822). Vol I and also Vol II

"Translation from an Ancient Chaldee Manuscript," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 2 No. 12 (October 1817) 89-96. An easier-to-read text version.

The Book of Jasher, by Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus (pseudonym for Jacob Ilive) (November 1751).

The Chronicle of Charles, The Young Man, (Edinburgh? 1745?). (If you have trouble reading the "s" written as an "f" this copy might work better)

The Chronicle of the Kings of England, Written in the Manner of the Ancient Jewish Historians, By Nathan Ben Saddi, A Priest of the Jews (pseudonym of Robert Dodsley) (1741).

Additional titles written in the scriptural style (links to the texts are available here) :

A Chronicle of the Chiefs of Muttonville, by White Griswold (1830)

Chapter 37th (1782)

Chronicles, by Massachusetts Centinal (1786)

Chronicles of Andrew, by Jesse Denson (1815)

Chronicles of Nathan Ben Saddi (1758)

Chronicles, The Maryland Journal (1766)

History of Anti-Christ, by Elias Smith (1811)

Parable Against Persecution, by Benjamin Franklin (1755)

Reformer Chronicles (1832)

The American Revolution, by Richard Snowden (1802)

The Book of America (1766)

The Book of Preferment, by Horace Walpole (1742)

The Conquest of Canaan, by Timothy Dwight (1785)

The Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp (1827)

The Fall of Samuel the Squomicutite (1763)

The First Book of the American Chronicles, by John Leacock (1775)

The First Book of the Chronicles of John (1812)

The French Gasconade Defeated (1743)

True Relation of the Holy War (1806)

Additional Sources

An insightful essay by Tom Donofrio on Early American Influences on the Book of Mormon.

Could others have helped Joseph?

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

The Spalding theory often does not get much attention these days, although some feel there is significant information that worthy of further study. It should be noted that most critics these days do not accept the theory as a source for the Book of mormon.

From the "Formerly Mormon" blog:

The Spalding-Rigdon Theory proposes that the Book of Mormon is the product of a pious fraud orchestrated by Sidney Rigdon, a popular preacher in the 1820's Christian Restoration movement. More specifically, it proposes that Rigdon added Restoration doctrines and his own theology to the unpublished narratives of Spalding, then deceased, to create documents that were subsequently compiled and edited to produce the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon. In executing this plan, Rigdon understood that the Book of Mormon would only be accepted as divinely approved if it could be brought to light through means that would appear supernatural. He was also well known for the theology that he had added to the Book of Mormon, and thus needed a way to reveal the book without exposing his own role in its creation. The answer came in the person of Joseph Smith, Jr., a con man and master of the gold digging scam. Smith's charm and ability to induce belief made him an excellent Revelator. For Smith, the "gold bible business" was a way to make money and to help his family escape poverty. For Rigdon it was the springboard to leadership of a religious movement. In carrying out this plan, however, Rigdon and Smith were concerned that their lack of education and "weakness in writing" would prevent timely completion of the book and its public acceptance. So they secured the editorial assistance of Smith's distant cousin - Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher with editing experience. Historical evidence connecting Rigdon to Spalding Rigdon shared a post office with Solomon Spalding and evidently frequented a print ship where Spalding had left a manuscript entitled Manuscript Found. For a time, the manuscript disappeared. Spalding reportedly suspected Rigdon had taken it. John Winter reported that Rigdon kept a copy of a Spalding manuscript in his study. Witnesses familiar with Spalding's Manuscript Found testified that it was similar to the Book of Mormon but lacked the religious content. Rigdon and Spalding were independently named as authors before anyone was aware of a connection between them. In 1839, Rigdon wrote a letter denying his role in the composition of the Book of Mormon. His letter contained demonstrable falsehoods. In 1888, Walter Sidney Rigdon - Sidney Rigdon's grandson - said that his grandfather's role in fabrication of the Book of Mormon was a family secret. Textual and theological evidence implicating Rigdon The theology of Alexander Campbell, Rigdon's mentor, is sprinkled throughout the Book of Mormon. On those issues where Rigdon and Campbell disagreed prior to 1830, the Book of Mormon strongly endorses Rigdon's views. Sections of the Book of Mormon likely added after loss of the first 116 pages in June 1828 describe spiritual rebirth after baptism, consistent with Rigdon's changed beliefs after meeting with Walter Scott in March 1828. The phrase "children of men" appears with exceptionally high frequency in those parts of the Book of Mormon that contain theological content reflecting Rigdon's pre-1830 views. Rigdon is known to have worked with Smith to produce The Book of Moses. The phrase "children of men" appears with high frequency in those parts of The Book of Moses that contain theological content reflecting Rigdon's pre-1830 views. Historical evidence connecting Rigdon to Smith before 1830 Prior to 1830, Rigdon reportedly made several statements in which he indicated his foreknowledge of the Book of Mormon and the impending rise of a new religion. At a Reformed Baptist convention in Aug 1830, Rigdon spoke of a fuller revelation about to come forth and the need for a complete restoration of the gospel. Rigdon denied meeting Smith before 1830, but several people reported seeing him at or near the Smith's prior to that date and Rigdon's calendar contains gaps at critical time periods when he would have had time to visit Smith. In 1868 Rigdon wrote a letter in which he claimed to know the contents of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon. James Jeffery, a friend of Rigdon's, testified that in 1844 he heard Rigdon say that Smith used a Spalding manuscript to fabricate the Book of Mormon. Historical evidence related to the long-term relationship between Rigdon and Smith Almost immediately after his baptism, Rigdon acted as though he was in charge of the church. As soon as he officially met Smith, they began work on The Book of Moses, a scripture that endorses Rigdon's 1828 "discovery" of spiritual rebirth after baptism. In March of 1828, the "Revelator" of The Book of Commandments and the Book of Mormon attempted to limit Smith's role to translation only. In 1863 Rigdon said that Smith was supposed to be the Translator and Ridgon the Gatherer of Israel. Rigdon and Smith engaged in a see-saw power struggle that can be understood considering their vulnerabilities and co-dependency. Rigdon and Smith collaborated on joint revelations recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. They collaborated in changing revelations after the fact. They collaborated on illegal financial transactions. In 1844 Sidney Rigdon seized upon the opportunity of Smith's death, instigating a cynical power grab, threatening to "expose the secrets of the church" and professing new revelations and visions

"Plagiarism from Spaulding’s Manuscript Found," Formerly Mormon blog

Further Insightful Reading on the Spalding Theory

Craig Criddle gave a presentation on the Spalding Theory at the Ex-Mormon conference in 2009 in SLC. It was an excellent presentation and attended by several MormonThink writers. It is available on YouTube "Authorship - Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?"

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

Statements of the Witnesses

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

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

More from Craig Criddle: Tracking Book of Mormon Authorship

Oxford Journal - Literary and Linguistic Computing

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

Statement of Issac Butts, Naked Truths About Mormonism by Arthur B. Deming, Oakland, California: Deming & Co. (1888)

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

STATEMENT OF JAMES JEFFERY. I know more about the Mormons than any man east of the Alleghenies, although I have given no attention to the matter for twenty-five years. I did not know I was in possession of any information concerning the Book of Mormon unknown to others. I supposed that as Rigdon was so open with me, he had told others the same things. Forty years ago I was in business in St. Louis. The Mormons then had their temple in Nauvoo, Ill. I had business transactions with them. Sidney Rigdon I knew very well. He was general manager of the affairs of the Mormons. Rigdon, in hours of conversation told me a number of times there was in the printing office with which he was connected in Ohio, a manuscript of Rev. Spaulding, tracing the origin of the Indian race from the lost tribes of Israel; that this manuscript was in the office for several years; that he was familiar with it; that Spaulding had wanted it printed, but had not the money to pay for the printing; that he (Rigdon) and Joe Smith used to look over the manuscript and read it over Sundays. Rigdon and Smith took the manuscript and said—"I'll print it," and went off to Palmyra, N. Y. I never knew the information was of any importance—thought others were aware of these facts. I do not now think the matter is of any importance. It will not injure Mormonism. That is an "ism," and chimes in with the wishes of certain classes of people. Nothing will put it down but the strong arm of the law. Otherwise it will go on forever, like Tennyson's "Brook." This is the substance of what I remember about the matter. JAMES JEFFERY. . I hereby certify that I wrote the above paper at the dictation of Mr. James Jeffery, in the presence of Mrs. James Jeffery, and and Dr. John M. Finney. (Rev.) CALVIN D. WILSON. Mrs. James Jeffery. | J. M. Finney, M. D. |Witnesses. Churchville, Hartford Co., Md., Jan. 29, 1884.

Statement of James Jeffrey, Presbyterian Banner, Pittsburgh, February 13, 1884, Vol. LXX No. 25.

Dale Broadhurst has amassed a collection of various 1800s newspaper articles that report many accounts of those that support the Spalding Theory and witnesses that claimed Sidney Rigdon admitted his involvement in producing the Book of Mormon. LMisc. Pennsylvania Newspapers 1850-1899 Articles

PALMYRA, Wayne Co., N.Y. May 2, 1879.

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

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

ABEL D. CHASE.

Reference: Joseph Smith, His Family and Friends

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

PLINY T. SEXTON,

J. H. GILBERT. *

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

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

''He 'found' Joe Smith and they had a great many talks together befores they brought out the plates. None of us ever doubted that they got the whole thing up; but father always maintained that grandfather helped get up the original Spaulding book. At any rate he got a copy very early and schemed on some way to make it useful. Although the family knew these facts, they refused to talk on the subject while grandfather lived. In fact, he and they took on a huge disgust at the whole subject.'' Reference: Interview with Sidney Rigdon's Grandson - 1888, The Salt Lake Tribune, April 15, 1888

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

Ethan Smith - the author of A View of the Hebrews was Oliver Cowdery's minister from 1823-1828 - they both are from Poultney, VT. This is also where the book was published. Solomon Spalding was also a classmate of Ethan Smith and both were graduates of the same religious college. Some people believe that both Ethan and Solomon's works are plagiarized in the Book of Mormon. Read this entire link for more info on this, note reference 34 for the link used here…Link is here.

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

Editor Comments: We don't necessarily support the Spalding theory; however, if this theory is true then it neatly answers many of the concerns that faithful members have who question the Church. It may or may not be true, but it's certainly an interesting proposition.

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

NEAR the west Bank of the Coneaught River there are the remains of an ancient fort. As I was walking and forming various conjectures respecting the character situation & numbers of those people who far exceeded the present Indians in works of art and inginuety, I hapned to tread on a flat stone. This was at a small distance from the fort, it lay on the top of a great small mound of Earth exactly horizontal. The face of it had a singular appearance. I discovered a number of characters, which appeared to me to be letters, but so much effaced by the ravages of time, that I could not read the inscription. With the assistance of a leaver I raised the stone. But you may easily conjecture my astonishment when I discovered that its ends and sides rested on stones & that it was designed as a cover to an artificial Cave. I found by examining that its sides were lined with stones built in a connical form with down, & that it was about eight feet deep. Determined to investigate the design of this extraordinary work of antiquity, I prepared myself with the necessary requisites for that purpose and descended to the Bottom of the Cave. Observing one side to be perpendicular nearly three feet from the bottom, I began to inspect that part with accuracy. Here I noticed a big flat stone fixed in the form of a doar. I immediately tore it down and lo, a cavity within the wall presented itself; it being about three feet in diameter from side to side and about two feet high. Within this cavity I found an earthen box with a cover which shut it perfectly tight. The box was two feet in length one and half in breadth and one and three inches in diameter. My mind filled with awful sensations which crowded fast upon me (( and )) would hardly permit my hands to remove this venerable deposit, but curiosity soon gained the ascendancy (( and )) the box was taken and raised to open (( its cover. )) When I had removed the cover I found that it contained twenty-eight (( rolls )) of parchment; and that when (( examined )) appeared to be manuscripts written in elegant hand with ROMAN letters and in the Latin Language. They were written on a variety of subjects. But the roll which principally attracted my attention contained a history of the author's life and that part of America which extends along the Great Lakes and the waters of the Mississippi. Extracts of the most interesting and important matters contained in this roll I take the liberty to publish. Gentle Reader, tread lightly on the ashes of the venerable dead. Thou must know that this country was once inhabited by great and powerful nations, considerably civilized and skilled in the arts of war; and that on ground where thou (( now )) treadest many a bloody battle hath been fought, and heroes by thousands have been made to bite the dust.

This sounds familiar.

References

Modern contextual analysis - Chris Johnson

As more books from the early 1800s are digitized and made available, large computer databases are being developed with thousands of books leading to computer-aided studies looking for commonalities and word phrase matches between various books. There are similarities and word phrases common among almost all contemporary books. Chris Johnson developed computer algorithms to analyze a database of over 100,000 books and compare them to the Book of Mormon. One of the more interesting matches was with The Late War Between the United States and Great Britain - see the comparison study.

Read online The late war, between the United States and Great Britain, from June 1812, to February 1815 : written in the ancient historical style, Gilbert J. Hunt (1816).

Chris Johnson's Presentation at the 2013 Ex-Mormon Conference: How the Book of Mormon Destroyed Mormonism

We looked forward to continued research in this area.

Translating speed of the Book of Mormon

One marvel is the very rapidity with which Joseph was translating—at an estimated average rate of eight of our printed pages per day! The total translation time was about 65 working days. (See "How long did it take Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon?" Ensign, Jan. 1988, 47.) By comparison, one able LDS translator in Japan, surrounded by reference books, language dictionaries, and translator colleagues ready to help if needed, indicated that he considered an output of one careful, final page a day to be productive. And he is retranslating from earlier Japanese to modern Japanese! More than 50 able English scholars labored for seven years, using previous translations, to produce the King James Version of the Bible, averaging about one precious page per day. The Prophet Joseph Smith would sometimes produce 10 pages per day!

"By the Gift and Power of God," Elder Neal A. Maxwell Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Ensign, January 1997.

Devout Mormons believe Joseph translated the Book of Mormon in 60-90 days. If true this would lend credibility to Joseph Smith's explanation of the Book of Mormon's existence as it would have been difficult for Joseph (or perhaps anyone) to come up with the whole Book of Mormon in such a short period of time.

The writing of the first 116 pages was "painfully slow…since Joseph was just learning to translate," a long and difficult process at best. Yet less than a year later he completes a 275,000 word manuscript in three months. [This three month's translation feat is something Nibley and other apologists frequently flaunt as 'proof' of the Book of Mormon's authenticity. I heard Nibley claim on another occasion that it took only 60 days to write the entire Book of Mormon.

The methodology used in computing translation time is seriously flawed. The lost 116 pages, according to the text of the Book of Mormon itself, is essentially duplicated in the subsequent version which we now have as First and Second Nephi. That takes up a significant amount of the 275,000 words. The first 116 pages took months to create alone. During the interim period, after the manuscript was lost, of about a year (which Nibley and others don't include in the calculation) Joseph wasn't doing much of anything. He didn't have a job. He could have easily been coming up with text for the book. Joseph Smith's mother stated that Joseph was telling stories about the Indians from the time he was young. The plot and narrative could have been worked on for two or three years or more. Nibley's assertion that it was done in only two or three months is pure speculation at best. Considering that the content of the Book of Mormon is largely borrowed and adapted from the KJV of the Bible, the time involved to 'translate' need not be significant anyway.

Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon April, May, and June 1829. However, he was thinking about it since at least 1823 and he had a practice run doing the lost 116 pages in April-June 1828 with Martin Harris.

Per LDS Historian Grant Palmer

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

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

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

References

What about Emma Smith?

When answering critics about if Joseph could have written the Book of Mormon, Joseph's wife Emma has stated that he was incapable of writing anything like the Book of Mormon. Two issues are often brought up by supporters of Joseph regarding Emma: 1) the walls of Jerusalem and 2) that Joseph could pick up dictation where he left off.

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

…one time while he was translating he stopped suddenly, pale as a sheet, and said, "Emma, did Jerusalem have walls around it?" When I answered, "Yes," he replied "Oh! I was afraid I had been deceived." He had such a limited knowledge of history at that time that he did not even know that Jerusalem was surrounded by walls

Edmund C. Briggs, "A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856," Journal of History Vol. 9 No. 2.

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

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

1 Kgs. 3:1 - 1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. 1 Kgs. 9:15 - 15 And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 2 Kgs. 14:13 - 13 And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits. 2 Kgs. 25:10 - 10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Neh. 2:13, 17 - 13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. 17 ¶ Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. 2 Chr. 25:23 - 23 And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. 2 Chr. 36:19 - 19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. Ezra 4:12 - 12 Be it known unto the king, that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations. Neh. 1:3 - 3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Neh. 4:7 - 7 ¶ But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem w