Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 2

Response to claims made in "Chapter 2: Authorship of the Book of Mormon"


Claims made in "Chapter 1: Joseph Smith as Translator/Revelator"
A work by author: Grant Palmer
 Claims made in "Chapter 3: The Bible in the Book of Mormon"

[T]he church has encouraged a thorough and impartial examination of the Book of Mormon, including questions regarding its authorship.
 —An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, p. 39

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39

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "...the church has encouraged a 'thorough and impartial examination' of the Book of Mormon, including questions regarding its authorship."

Author's source(s)
  • Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 273.
  • Widtsoe, In Search of Truth: Comments on the Gospel and Modern Thought, 80.
  • Quinn, J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years, 24.
Response

40

Claim
  • Joseph Smith was intellectually capable of writing the Book of Mormon himself.

Author's source(s)
Response

40

Claim
  • B.H. Roberts is claimed to have wondered if the Book of Mormon stories were just inspirational tales, and questioned whether it was history or the product of a "pious but immature" mind.

Author's source(s)
Response

41-42

Claim
  • The story of Zelph.

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2:79-80.
Response

42

Claim
  • Joseph reported that the Kinderhook Plates contained a genealogy back to Ham.

Author's source(s)
Response

42

Claim
  • Joseph gave many descriptions of heroes and their treasures hidden in the New York hills.

Author's source(s)
Response

42

Claim
  • B.H. Roberts concluded that Joseph Smith was capable of writing the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)
Response

46

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon reflects evangelical Protestantism.

Author's source(s)
  • Alexander Campbell, Delusions: An Analysis of the Book of Mormon, 19.
Response

48

Claim
  • The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is the source of Alma 19.

Author's source(s)
Response

48

Claim
  • Alma 19 is claimed to have been derived from evangelical conversion experiences common in the 19th century.

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

49

Claim
  •  Author's quote: Joseph said the Book of Mormon was translated "by the gift and power of God," coming "forth out of the treasure of the heart ... thus bringing forth out of the heart, things new and old." The evidence indicates that the Book of Mormon is in fact an amalgamation of ideas that were inspired by Joseph's own environment (new) and themes from the Bible (old).

Author's source(s)
  • Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 229.
Response
  • From the cited source:

For the work of this example, see the book of Mormon, coming forth out of the treasure of the heart; also the covenants given to the Latter Day Saints: also the translation of the bible: thus bringing forth out of the heart, things new and old: thus answering to three measures of meal, undergoing the purifying touch by a revelation of Jesus Christ, and the ministering of angels... (emphasis added)

  • The author neglects to note Joseph's inclusion of covenants and the Bible in his statement in order to strengthen his own conclusion that the Book of Mormon came from Joseph's own heart. It is a stretch to interpret this phrase as some sort of admission by the Prophet that he actually created the Book of Mormon from his own mind and experience.
  • Use of sources: Treasures of the heart?


49

Claim
  • Alma 32 is claimed to have been derived from Jesus's parable of the sower.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

49

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon was an amalgamation of ideas from Joseph Smith's own environment.

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

50-53

Claim
  • It is claimed that many Book of Mormon stories are derived from the New Testament.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

55

Claim
  • The decapitation of Laban parallels the story of Judith in the Apocrypha.

Author's source(s)
Response

57

Claim
  • LDS position is that the Lamanites are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.

Author's source(s)
  • Book of Mormon, xii, "A Brief Explanation about the Book of Mormon."
Response

57, n38

Claim
  • No Hebrew or Egyptian writing or language has been discovered in the New World. The Book of Mormon provides too short a time for the disappearance of the Nephite/Lamanite language.

Author's source(s)
  • Thomas Stuart Ferguson, "Written Symposium on the Book of Mormon Geography: Response of Thomas S. Ferguson to the Norman and Sorenson Papers," 12 Mar. 1975, printed and updated in Stan Larson, Quest for the Gold Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson's Archaeological Search for the Book of Mormon, 175-268
  • B.H. Roberts, Brigham D. Madsen (ed.), Studies of the Book of Mormon (Signature Books, 1992), 91-94 ( Index of claims ).
Response

58, n40

Claim
  • B.H. Roberts thought that View of the Hebrews could be a basis for the Book of Mormon. Roberts concluded that there was a great probability that the Smith family read View of the Hebrews.

Author's source(s)
Response

60

Claim
  • Roberts concluded that a copy of View of the Hebrews could have been supplied by Oliver Cowdery.

Author's source(s)
  • Studies, 27, 151-61.
  • "Poultney Church Records," bk. 3, Poultney Vermont, 1793-1828, Poultney Historical Society.
Response

60-64

Claim
  • B.H. Roberts' parallels between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)
Response

65-66

Claim
  • Joseph Smith received a revelation to send people to Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright for $8000. After expenses, the money was to go to the Smith family.

Author's source(s)
  • Hiram Page to William E. McLellin, 2 Feb. 1848, in RLDS Library Archives.
  • Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, 30-31.
Response

66

Claim
  • The writing of the 116 pages served as an "apprenticeship" to learning to write the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion
Response
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