Criticism of Mormonism/Books/An Insider's View of Mormon Origins/Chapter 3

Response to claims made in "Chapter 3: The Bible in the Book of Mormon"


Claims made in "Chapter 2: Authorship of the Book of Mormon"
A work by author: Grant Palmer
 Claims made in "Chapter 4: Evangelical Protestantism in the Book of Mormon"

If Jesus visited ancient America, the 3 Nephi text is probably not an actual account of his appearances.
—An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, p. 82

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70-71, n3

Claim
  • Joseph Smith Sr.'s 1811 dreams are similar to Lehi's "first" vision and his "tree of life" dream.

Author's source(s)
  • Lucy Mack Smith, Preliminary Manuscript (MS), "History of Lucy Smith." published in Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents, 1:255n52.
  • Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,46-47 (hereafter History of Joseph Smith).
  • 1 Nephi 1꞉16
  • 1 Nephi 11-12
  • 1 Nephi 14-15
  • 1 Nephi 19-20
Response

74-78

Claim
  • The author claims that there are 20 shared "motifs" between the story of Lehi's journey to the New World a the story of the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

Author's source(s)
  • Various scriptural references from the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

82

Claim
  • There are no original motifs in 3 Nephi that are not found in the Gospels.

Response

82

Claim
  • Joseph had the words of Christ available to him, but "curiously chose not to use them" for at least half the verses in 3 Nephi 11-28.

Response

82

Claim
  • Joseph may have used a blanket to screen his use of the Bible from his scribe.

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

83

Claim
  •  Author's quote: Oliver was Joseph's main scribe day after day and perhaps the only one who really knew if a Bible was consulted. Oliver is silent on the matter. In fact, a Bible would have been needed only when quoting long passages; so again, Cowdery may be the only witness who knew about this, and he neglected to mention it.

Author's source(s)
  • The most significant thing about this claim is the lack of a source.
Response
  • In his zeal to provide supporting evidence for his theory that Joseph Smith consulted a King James Bible during the translation of the Book of Mormon, the author attempts to make Oliver Cowdery a "silent witness" for the prosecution by implying that he neglected to mention it!. See: Use of sources: The silent witness

83, n14

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon contains twenty-six full chapters from a 1769 edition of the KJV.

Author's source(s)
  • Walters, "Use of the Old Testament."
  • Kenneth D. Jenkins and John L. Hilton, "Common Phrases between the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon," 1983.
Response

83, n15

Claim
  • The Sermon at the Temple includes modern errors found in the KJV.

Author's source(s)
  • Stan Larson, "The Historicity of the Matthean Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi," in New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, ed. Brent Lee Metcalfe, 115-63.
Response

85, n18

Claim
  • A number of anonymous Palmyra residents said that the Book of Mormon was "chiefly garbled from the Old and New Testaments."

Author's source(s)
  • "Letter from Palmyra, NY," 12 Mar. 1831, Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 22 Mar. 1831, [2]; qtd. in Dan Vogel,ed., Early Mormon Documents, 3:9.
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

85

Claim
  •  Author's quote: It is hard to imagine that these are Christ's unique words to the Nephites, recorded soon after he uttered them and then included on the plates Joseph received.

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

86

Claim
  • The author makes the following comparison between the Book of Mormon and the Bible:

3 Nephi 17 [They did] bow down at his feet, and did worship him; and as many as could come for the multitude did kiss his feet, insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears ... Jesus groaned within himself, and said ... I am troubled ... [H]e wept ... and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them (10, 14, 21).

Luke 7, John 11, Mark 10 [She] stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears ... and kissed his feet ... When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, ... he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled. And ... Jesus wept ... And he took them [children] up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them

  • The author does the same thing when comparing 3 Nephi 18 with Matthew 7 and 1 Cor. 11.

Author's source(s)

Response

  • In order to "prove" that 3 Nephi 17:10-21 was derived from the Bible, the author has to conflate scriptural verses from three different books in the New Testament!
  • Luke 7: 38 And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
  • John 11: 33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
  • John 11: 35 Jesus wept.
  • Mark 10: 16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
  • Use of sources: Conflating scriptural verses


90

Claim
  • The Aramaic word "raca" would not have been intelligible to a Nephite.

Response

90

Claim
  • The author claims that Jesus' statement that ""Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" refers to a Roman law and that it "would presumably have had no meaning in the New World."

Author's source(s)
Response
  • Yet, the statement certainly has meaning to us, and we are not Romans either. Why would the inhabitants of the New World not have understood Christ's meaning?

90

Claim
  • The three days of sunlight is not mentioned in the Bible even though North America and Israel are both in the Northern hemisphere.

Author's source(s)
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
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