Subjects of criticism of the Book of Mormon include its origins, authenticity, and historicity, which have been subject to considerable criticism from scholars and skeptics since it was first published in 1830. The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi, who said that it had been written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates. Contemporary followers of the Latter Day Saint movement typically regard the text primarily as scripture, but also as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. Mainstream scholarship concludes the Book of Mormon is not of ancient origin. The book is considered a creation by Smith and possibly one or more others, drawing on material and ideas from the contemporary 19th-century environment rather than translating an ancient record. Many scholars point to the fact that no evidence of a reformed Egyptian language has ever been discovered. The content found within the book has also been questioned. Scholars have pointed out a number of anachronisms within the text, and general archaeological or genetic evidence has not supported the book's statements about the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The text has also undergone many revisions with some significant changes, which critics argue have notably altered its meaning, and see as a rebuttal of its divine origins. Despite the many scholarly challenges to its authenticity, adherents and many Latter Day Saint scholars have repeatedly defended the book. The oldest, and most significant, defense of Smith's account of its origins comes from the accounts eleven men in two groups, who claimed to have seen and handled the golden plates which the Book of Mormon was written on; they are known as the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses. . Eleven witnesses altogether confirm its authenticity. More contemporary adherents have also sought to rebut critical viewpoints and provide general defenses of the book. A few Latter Day Saint scholars have also proposed archaeological findings which they say give credence to the book, although mainstream scholars disagree.

Background

Scholars reject Joseph Smith's explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Smith said that the text contained within the Book of Mormon was derived from an ancient Native American record written on golden plates, and that God gave him and a few others the power to translate it into English. Critics note that there has never been any physical proof of the existence of the golden plates; Smith said that the angel Moroni, who appeared to him and instructed him on how to recover the plates from where they were buried, reclaimed the plates once Smith had completed the translation. To provide support towards the existence of the plates, Smith included two statements in the Book of Mormon saying that several witnesses had been shown the plates, and their testimony is typically published at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. While none of these men ever retracted their statements, critics nevertheless discount these testimonies for varying reasons, one of which is because most of these men were closely interrelated. In later years Martin Harris, one of the witnesses, is recorded to have confessed that he saw the plates with a "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith". Non-Mormon linguists, archaeologists, and historians do not regard the Book of Mormon to be of ancient origin. In 1834, a publication by Eber D. Howe claimed that Smith had plagiarized an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding. Many critical scholars today conclude that Smith composed the book himself, possibly with the help of Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon, drawing from information and publications available in his time, including the King James Bible, The Wonders of Nature, and View of the Hebrews.

Text and language

Joseph Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon from a language called reformed Egyptian. Archaeologists and Egyptologists have found no evidence that this language ever existed. However, Mormon apologist Hugh Nibley has proposed that reformed Egyptian is the same or similar to the Meroitic language, a known ancient Egyptian dialect. Furthermore, official LDS Church commentary on the Book of Mormon says that at least some ancestors of Native Americans came from the Jerusalem area; however, Native American linguistic specialists have not found any Native American language that appears to be related to languages of the ancient Near East. Grant H. Palmer suggested that Smith borrowed the name "Cumorah" through his study of the treasure-hunting stories of Captain William Kidd, based on the similarity of the names from Smith's account—Moroni and Cumorah—to the location Moroni, Comoros, related to Kidd's hunt for treasure. (Smith was known as a treasure-hunter long before he said he found the golden plates.)

Contemporary parallels

Early critic of Mormonism and contemporary of Joseph Smith, Reverend Alexander Campbell noted the Book of Mormon contains many theological answers to hotly debated questions in 19th century America: "This prophet Smith, through his stone spectacles, wrote on the plates of Nephi, in his book of Mormon, every error and almost every truth discussed in N. York for the last ten years. He decides all the great controversies – infant baptism, ordination, the trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church government, religious experience, the call to the ministry, the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry, republican government, and the rights of man. All these topics are repeatedly alluded to. How much more benevolent and intelligent this American Apostle, than were the holy twelve, and Paul to assist them!!! He prophesied of all these topics, and of the apostacy, and infallibly decided, by his authority, every question. How easy to prophecy of the past or of the present time!!" Campbell argued the presence of these topics represented a contemporary author rather than multiple authors writing in antiquity. Grant H. Palmer, too, argued "the Book of Mormon reflects a keen awareness of evangelical Protestantism and the Bible," noting similarities in language and theme to the 19th century.

Translation

The only statement Joseph Smith ever made about the translation process was "through the medium of the urim and thummim I translated the record, by the gift and power of God." Martin Harris, Smith's second scribe, and David Whitmer, who witnessed Smith dictating the translation of the plates to Oliver Cowdery, both describe the process as an exact word-for-word translation. Modern LDS scholars tend to fall into two schools regarding the nature of the translation process: tight control and loose control. Those who believe in the tight control interpretation argue that Smith had very little leeway in the words used in dictating the Book of Mormon, but was not restricted to an exact word-for-word translation. Those who believe in the loose control interpretation argue that ideas were revealed to Joseph Smith' and he put them 'into his own language. Some critics such as Alexander Campbell have argued that the voice and tone of the Book of Mormon are unchanging, rather than reflective of a translation constituting multiple authors writing across a thousand year time span.

Textual revisions

Critics also challenge the divine origin of the Book of Mormon by noting the numerous revisions that have been made to the text. Though most changes are small spelling and grammar corrections, critics claim that even these are significant in light of Smith's claims of divine inspiration. Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was "the most correct of any book on earth," and Martin Harris said that the words which appeared on the seer stone would not disappear until they were correctly written; critics assert that some of these changes were systematic attempts to hide the book's flaws.

Biblical language

The Book of Mormon claims to be the original writings of Nephite leaders in ancient America, yet it contains a mix of verbatim and paraphrased quotations of the 17th-century edition of the King James Bible (KJV) and the deuterocanonical books, which Joseph Smith's bible had as well. Furthermore, the language of the Book of Mormon closely mimics the Elizabethan English used in the KJV, with 19th-century English mixed into it. The Book of Mormon quotes 25,000 words from the KJV Old Testament (e.g., 2 Nephi 30:13-15; cf. Isaiah 11:7-9) and over 2,000 words from the KJV New Testament. There are numerous cases where the Nephite writers mimic wording from the New Testament, a document to which they would have had no access. Below are five examples out of a list of 400 examples created by Jerald and Sandra Tanner: Here are some parallels with the Deuterocanonical Books and the Book of Mormon. In particular, 2 Maccabees includes the name "Nephi". Examples of purported parallels include:

Names

Critics believe Joseph Smith came up with all the names in the Book of Mormon, noting that Joseph owned a King James Bible with a table listing all the names used in the Bible. Many Book of Mormon names are either biblical, formed from a rhyming pattern, or changed by a prefix or suffix. Furthermore, Jaredites and Nephites shared names despite the Jaredites being of a different place and language than the Nephites; one possible explanation for the cross-pollination is that the Nephites incorporated the people of Zarahemla into their polity, which is said to have briefly co-existed in time and place with the Jaredites.

Views toward women

The Book of Mormon has been criticized for its lack of significant female characters in the narrative. In the Old Testament, male pronouns "he" and "his" are mentioned 6.5 times more than female pronouns "she" and "her", but in the Book of Mormon, the ratio is 31 times more often, and in the small plates of Nephi, it is 46 times more often. Only six female characters are explicitly named in the Book of Mormon (Sariah the wife of Lehi, Abish a Lamanitish woman, Isabel the harlot, Eve, Sarah, and Mary), compared to 188 in the Bible. No woman, except perhaps the wife of King Lamoni, in the Book of Mormon is portrayed as having her own independent connection with heaven.

Views toward race

Harvard PhD Max Perry Mueller has pointed out the complicated picture of race presented in the Book of Mormon, saying the "Book of Mormon's racial hermeneutic equates whiteness with righteousness, civilization, and Christianity. It defines blackness as heathenism, apostasy, and savagery."

Historical accuracy

Most, but not all, Mormons hold the book's connection to ancient American history as an article of their faith. According to Professor John-Charles Duffy this view finds little acceptance outside of Mormonism because "scholars realize that accepting the Book of Mormon's antiquity also means coming to terms with LDS beliefs about Joseph Smith's access to supernatural powers." The theory that the Book of Mormon is an ancient American history is thus considered to fall outside academic credibility. Mormon apologetics have proposed multiple theories tying Book of Mormon places to modern locations.

Anachronisms

There are a number of words and phrases in the Book of Mormon that are anachronistic—their existence in the text of the Book of Mormon is at odds with known linguistic patterns, archaeological findings, or known historical events. Each of the anachronisms is a word, phrase, artifact, or other concept that critics, historians, archaeologists, or linguists believe did not exist in the Americas during the time period in which the Book of Mormon was said to have been written. (See anachronisms in the Book of Mormon for more details, including apologetic viewpoints and discussion.)

Archaeology

Since the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, both Mormon and non-Mormon archaeologists have attempted to find archaeological evidence to support or criticize it. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and other denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement generally believe that the Book of Mormon describes ancient historical events in the Americas, but mainstream historians and archaeologists do not regard it as a work of ancient American history. Some early 20th century researchers presented various archaeological findings such as place names, and ruins of the Inca, Maya, Olmec, and other ancient American and Old World civilizations as giving credence to the Book of Mormon record. Others disagree with these conclusions, arguing that the Book of Mormon mentions several animals, plants, and technologies that are not substantiated by the archaeological record between 3100 BC to 400 AD in America.

Native American genetics

Mainstream scientists have found that the Native Americans have very distinctive DNA markers, and that some of them are most similar, among old world populations, to the DNA of people anciently associated with the Altay Mountains area of central Asia. This conclusion from a genetic perspective supports a large amount of archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic evidence that Native American peoples' ancestors migrated from Asia at the latest 16,500–13,000 years ago. The mainstream scientific consensus about the origin of the ancient Americans and peoples is apparently at odds with the claims put forth in the Book of Mormon, although Mormon apologists have made efforts to reconcile these apparent contradictions. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints released an essay on their website titled "Book of Mormon and DNA Studies". The essay argues that "the evidence is simply inconclusive."

Population size and the Book of Mormon

Based on details and events in the Book of Mormon narrative which establish minimum population sizes, and the timelines between those events, critics challenge the viability of the population size and growth of the Book of Mormon people. M. T. Lamb was perhaps the first to suggest that the Book of Mormon has an unrealistic population growth rate. Modern studies on population size and growth have been done by John Kunich. Kunich's analysis agrees with Lamb's that the Book of Mormon presents an unrealistic growth rate for the population.

Chronological problem

The Book of Mormon claims that Lehi left Jerusalem "in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah," which was 597 BC. The Book of Mormon also claims that Christ was born precisely "six hundred years from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem." However, Jesus is now understood to have likely been born circa 6 to 4 BC. Therefore, there were between 593 and 591 years between the referenced dates, instead of the 600 cited in the Book of Mormon.

Theology

Scholars such as Fawn M. Brodie have pointed out that the theology presented in the Book of Mormon diverges from traditional Mormon beliefs (e.g., the belief of an eternal damnation in hell in the Book of Mormon vs Universalism). Universalism, or the doctrine that all humanity would be saved, was a prominent theology that peaked in popularity in the northeastern United States in the 1820s and 1830s. The Book of Mormon contains a number of sermons and passages that use anti-Universalist religious arguments common to that time and place, not known to have occurred in any ancient American setting. The existence of 19th century anti-Universalist arguments and rhetoric in the Book of Mormon has been pointed out as anachronistic by various scholars, including Fawn M. Brodie and Dan Vogel. In response, Mormon apologists argue that, because Book of Mormon prophets were miraculously shown the peoples of the 19th century, and the audience of the Book of Mormon was people in the 19th century, that Book of Mormon prophets would have been intimately familiar with anti-Universalist rhetoric and purposefully used it to convince modern-day readers. The satisfaction theory of atonement was a medieval theological development, created to explain how God could be both merciful and just through an infinite atonement. It is considered anachronistic, as it is not known to have appeared in any ancient American setting.

General defenses

Existence of golden plates

Two separate sets of witnesses, a set of three and a set of eight, testified as having seen the golden plates, the record from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Additionally, each of the Three Witnesses (Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer) left the church during Joseph Smith's lifetime and considered Smith to have been a fallen prophet. Harris and Cowdery later returned to the church. Josiah Stowell, not one of the original sets of witnesses, under oath of the court, indicated that he saw a portion of the plate stack. Apologists note that the witnesses in most cases affirmed their testimonies until their death such as Whitmer who issued an affidavit in 1881 reaffirming his testimony of the experience.

Chiasmus

Supporters of the Book of Mormon say it uses chiasmus—a figure of speech utilizing inverted parallelism—and point to it as evidence supporting the book's ancient origin. Critics such as Jerald and Sandra Tanner argue that chiasmus in the Book of Mormon is a characteristic of Joseph Smith's speech pattern and not evidence of antiquity. They cite the use of chiasmus in the Doctrine and Covenants, which was not translated from an ancient text, as evidence. Scholar D. Michael Quinn argues that chiasmus was publicly known in Joseph Smith's environs, and that two books describing chiasmus were available in a Palmyra book store and advertised for sale in a local newspaper prior to the production of the Book of Mormon.

Explanatory footnotes