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——————   9   ——————

Non-Biblical Scriptures:
Book of Mormon

“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

                                                – Joseph Smith[1]

“All Scripture [Bible] is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

    –       2 Timothy 3:16

Part One

Creation of the Book of Mormon

    The Book of Mormon is one of three books the RLDS consider to be sacred scripture. It is purported to be a history of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and spans the time period from 2200 BC to 42l AD. In addition to the historical accounts it contains teachings of a religious nature.

            The preface to the Book of Mormon claims the following reasons for its existence:

1.      To convince both Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ

2.      To educate the American Indians regarding their origins, and to reveal to the American Indians the covenants of the Lord

      Most Latter Day Saints consider the Book of Mormon to be more trustworthy than the Bible because it was “translated” only once, and with divine assistance at that. They believe because the books of the Bible have been translated many times since they were first written, that many of the plain and precious truths originally contained in those writings have been lost. They believe these truths may be found in the pages of the Book of Mormon. Thus, they declare, it contains the fullness of the gospel.

      The Book of Mormon saga, which begins at the time of the Tower of Babel and ends 2600 years later, relates the stories of three different groups of people who migrated from the Near East to the Americas.

      The first group consisted of several families who left from the region of the Tower of Babel approximately 2200 B.C. The leader, known only as “the brother of Jared” led his followers to the seashore where he was commanded by God to build barges for an ocean journey to the New World. After a rough sea voyage that lasted almost a year, the Jaredites landed on the American continent and established a vast civilization. Over a period of 1,600 years, numerous civil wars erupted, climaxing in a final battle in which more than two million people were slain. The history of the Jaredites was recorded by the prophet Ether and then translated by members of the second migration, the Nephites.

      The story of the Nephites makes up the major portion of the Book of Mormon. It begins with Lehi, a Jewish prophet of the tribe of Manasseh, who was prophesying in Jerusalem of the impending destruction of the city. Because he confronted the people concerning their iniquity, they sought to destroy his life and God warned him to flee out of the land. He, his wife, and four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi, journeyed three days into the wilderness near the Red Sea. Here the Lord instructed Lehi to send his sons back to Jerusalem to the house of Laban to obtain some plates of brass, upon which were engraved the record of the Jews and the genealogy of their forefathers.

      In obedience to God’s command the sons went back to Jerusalem. Nephi records the following events.

“As I came near unto the house of Laban, I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was drunken with wine…. I found that it was Laban…. And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me…Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands.… Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword. And after I had smitten off his head with his own sword, I took the garments of Laban and put them upon mine own body…. And as I went forth toward the treasury of Laban, behold I saw the servant of Laban, who had the keys of the treasury. And I commanded him in the voice of Laban, that he should go with me into the treasury; and he supposed me to be his master Laban, for he beheld the garments” (I Nephi 1:107-126). (Apparently the decapitation, severing two main arteries in the neck, did not bloody Laban’s clothing since Nephi’s appearance did not alarm Laban’s servant). 

      After obtaining the brass plates of Laban, the four sons returned to their father’s tent, accompanied by Laban’s servant Zoram and a man named Ishmael, along with his wife and daughters. Lehi’s followers then continued their journey and arrived at the ocean shore where they built a ship and embarked on a journey to the “promised land” in the Americas.

      Soon after their arrival, strife between Lehi’s sons became so severe they divided into two rival factions. Laman led the rebellious group, known as the Lamanites, which were cursed by the Lord with a skin of blackness, because of their wickedness. They supposedly are the ancestors of the modern American Indians. Nephi led the light-skinned righteous group, who became known as the Nephites. In 545 B.C. the Nephites built a temple in which they observed the Law of Moses and practiced Christianity at the same time (2 Nephi 11:45). They steadily grew to become a great nation.

      The third and smallest migration, the Mulekites, left Jerusalem several years after Lehi’s departure in 600 B.C. Mulek, whom the group was named after, was allegedly one of the sons of Zedekiah, King of Judah.[2] Upon arriving in the Americas, they established the city of Zarahemla where they were eventually discovered by the Nephites and united with them.

      Bloody wars between the Nephites and Lamanites were frequent throughout the next 600 years. The story climaxes with the visit of Jesus to the American continent after his resurrection. Jesus’ appearance was accompanied by great earthquakes, fires and violent storms which he sent to destroy all the wicked people, leaving only the “more righteous” alive.

      During his visit, Jesus taught the Nephites essentially the same message he had preached in Jerusalem, but included a promise that a “New Jerusalem” would be established in America by the descendants of the tribe of Joseph (i.e., the American Indians).

      Following Jesus’ return to heaven, the Nephites enjoyed 200 years of peace before gradually drifting into wickedness. This resulted in their destruction by the Lamanites in a battle near present-day Palmyra, New York. The lone Nephite survivor, Moroni, a leader of the Nephite army, inscribed the history of his people on gold plates and buried them in a hill (later to be called Cumorah), in upstate New York. Fourteen hundred years later, this same Moroni (who had now become an angel), revealed the plates to Joseph Smith. (Note: Many RLDS, and others as well, believe that humans become angels when they die, but this is a myth. wo distinct creations.) 

      The transformation of the golden plates into the Book of Mormon is described in the following excerpts from the official RLDS Church History account.

“The twenty-first of September [1823]…while I was thus in the act of calling upon God…a personage appeared at my bedside…. He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name was Nephi.[3] That God had a work for me to do…. He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.[4] He also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it. Also that there were two stones in silver bows, and these stones fastened to a breastplate constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim, deposited with the plates…and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book…. (Book of Mormon 4:100). [I] went to the place [on September 22] where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited…. I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger…. He told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me (Every year for the next 3 years Joseph was required to return to the same place on the same date, September 22, to meet with the angel)…. At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim and the Breast-plate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven … the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me.”[5]

      Lucy Smith, Joseph Smith’s mother, tells of Joseph’s struggle to get the plates home safely after retrieving them from an old birch log where he had hidden them. She recalls that as he started through the woods a man came up from behind and gave him a heavy blow, knocking him to the ground. Joseph then knocked the man down and began “running at the top of his speed.” This occurred a total of three times while he was carrying the gold plates[6] (that weighed approximately 235 lbs).

      With the plates safely in his house Joseph began translating them from ‘reformed Egyptian’ into English. The resulting book was published as the Book of Mormon in March of 1830.

      Considering Joseph’s previous occultic activities, for which he was arrested in 1826, it is important to note that the dates of September 21 and 22, the time of the autumnal equinox, are very significant days in the world of the occult. D. Michael Quinn, a former Mormon historian who holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, explains the occult connection in Joseph’s l823 vision.

“Smith began praying late Sunday night on 21 September 1823. According to astrological guides, Sunday night was the only night of the week ruled by Jupiter…. Smith’s ruling planet, the most prominent astrological symbol on the Smith family’s golden lamen [occultic parchment], for summoning a good spirit. Pseudo-Agrippa’s Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy also specified that ‘the Lord’s day’ was the occasion for man ‘to receive an Oracle from the good spirits’…. Oliver Cowdery [a Book of Mormon Witness] wrote that Smith began praying earnestly that Sunday night [September 21] about ‘11:00 or 12:00’ in order ‘to commune with some kind of messenger.’ ” [7] 

The Translation of the Book of Mormon

      At a church conference held in 1831 Joseph Smith declared that “it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.”[8] Joseph did however, give the following brief explanation which he related in the Elder’s Journal of July 1838.

“I obtained them [the plates] and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates and thus came the Book of Mormon.” In March l842, in response to a letter from John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, Joseph stated, “With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called ‘Urim and Thummim’ which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God.”[9] 

      There are also several recorded eyewitness accounts of the translation process. Below are the testimonies of individuals who acted as scribes for Joseph or were closely associated with him during this time. 

1.      Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, related the following to her son.

“In writing for your father, I frequently wrote day after day…he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us…. He had neither manuscript nor book to read from…. The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment wrapped in a small linen tablecloth.”[10] Emma’s testimony differentiates between the stone and the Urim and Thummim as seen in the following statement: “Now the first that my husband translated was translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, [the 116 pages], after that he used a small stone…rather a dark color.”[11] (According to Emma’s testimony the entire Book of Mormon was translated with a seer stone, not the Urim Thummim as Joseph Smith claimed.)  

2.      William Smith, brother of Joseph, recalls: “The manner in which this [translation] was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light (the plates lying nearby covered up), and reading off the translation which appeared in the stone by the power of God.”[12] 

3.      Isaac Hale, Emma Smith’s father wrote, “The manner in which he [Joseph] pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the money diggers, with the stone in his hat and his hat over his face, while the book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods” [13] 

4.      Michael Morse was married to Trial Hale, one of Isaac Hale’s daughters, and sister of Emma Smith. In an l879 interview with W. W. Blair of the Reorganized Church, Morse stated that when Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon, he [Morse] “…had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph’s placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating, word after word, while the scribe–Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other, wrote it down.” [14]

5.      Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon said,

“The prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate, as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone…. By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, ‘Written’ and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used. Harris said…that the seer stone differed in appearance entirely from the Urim and Thummim that was obtained with the plates, which were two clear stones set in two rims.”[15]  

Martin Harris also said, “Joseph had a stone which was dug from the well of Mason Chase…. It was by means of this stone he first discovered these plates”[16] (Note: If Martin Harris’s statement is true, then there was no need for the angel Moroni to inform Joseph where to find the plates!) 

6.      Oliver Cowdery, another of the “three witnesses” to the Book of Mormon, and scribe to Joseph Smith, stated, “I have sometimes had seasons of skepticism in which I did seriously wonder whether the prophet and I were men in our sober senses when he would be translating from plates through the Urim and Thummim and the plates not be in sight at all.”[17]

7.      David Whitmer, the third of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon stated,

“I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to see if it was correct, then it would disappear and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God.”[18] 

In an interview granted to the Kansas City Journal, Whitmer stated that Joseph, did not use the plates in the translation.[19] He also stated, “after the translation of the Book of Mormon was finished, early in the spring of l830, before April sixth, Joseph gave the stone to Oliver Cowdery and told me as well as the rest that he was through with it, and he did not use the stone any more.”[20]

In another interview which appeared in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, October 17, 1886, David Whitmer, speaking of the Urim and Thummim said, “This unpardonable carelessness [Martin Harris losing the first 116 pages] evoked the stormiest kind of chastisement from the Lord, who took from the prophet the Urim and Thummim and otherwise expressed his condemnation. By fervent prayer and by otherwise humbling himself, the prophet, however, again found favor, and was presented with a strange, oval-shaped, chocolate-colored stone, about the size of an egg…which, it was promised, should serve the same purpose as the missing Urim and Thummim.”

Some logical questions arise from these testimonies.

·        With the exception of Joseph Smith, all of the above eyewitnesses agree that the Book of Mormon was translated from a stone buried in a hat, not from gold plates. If the plates were not needed in the translation, why were they preserved for hundreds of years?

·        Why did the Lord bother to prepare special instruments to be used in translating the Book of Mormon if Joseph was going to use a stone that was found in his neighbor’s well? (Book of Mormon 4:100)

·        According to David Whitmer’s testimony, there would be no room for error in the translation process. This being the case, why were there over 3,000 changes made in the Book of Mormon between the first and second editions, many of them substantive? [21]

·        Why did Joseph Smith state that he only used the Urim and Thummim while translating, when David Whitmer, Martin Harris and Emma Smith all testified that he used both the Urim and Thummim and a seer stone?

·        How could the Urim and Thummim, as described by Joseph Smith (two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow and fastened to a breastplate), fit into a hat? 

      As the above questions illustrate, there are obvious problems with the translation accounts. More difficulties appear below. 

Credibility of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses

            A common argument for the validity of the Book of Mormon is the testimony of witnesses who claimed they actually saw the gold plates Joseph Smith used while translating. However, Martin Harris, David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, never actually saw the gold plates “except in vision,” according to their own testimony.[22]

            When Mr. John H. Gilbert, Esq., the printer who set the type for the Palmyra edition of the Book of Mormon, asked Martin Harris if he saw the plates with his naked eyes, Harris told him no, that he only saw them with his “spiritual eyes.”[23] He related to some church members in Ohio that, “…he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David and also that the eight witnesses never saw them and hesitated to sign that instrument [testimony of the eight witnesses] for that reason, but were persuaded to do it”[24]

Stephen Burnett, an elder, was among the church members who heard Martin Harris’ public statement. On April l5, l838, while lamenting over the deplorable conditions in the church, Burnett wrote a letter to Lyman E. Johnson in which he stated,

“I have reflected long and deliberately upon the history of this church & weighed the evidence for & against it–loth to give it up–but when I came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundations was sapped & the entire superstructure fell a heap of ruins…. I therefore…renounced the Book of Mormon with the whole scene of lying and deception. I was followed by W. Parish, Luke Johnson & John Boynton all of who concurred with me.”[25]  

      William Smith, Joseph Smith’s younger brother, said that Joseph Sen., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel H. Smith only saw the gold plates when they were covered with a cloth. He told E. C. Briggs in an interview published January 13, 1894, that he had not seen the plates uncovered, but handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a frock and when asked if any other of the family saw them, he replied, yes…father and my brother Samuel saw them as I did while in the frock…so did Hyrum and others of the family.”[26]

      Governor Ford of Illinois was well acquainted with several of Joseph’s key men. After these men became disaffected and left the church they told Governor Ford that Joseph had assembled the eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon in a room and produced a box, which he said contained the treasure.

“The lid was opened; the witnesses peeped into it, but making no discovery, for the box was empty, they said, ‘Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates.’ The prophet answered them, ‘O ye of little faith! How long will God bear with this wicked and perverse generation? Down on your knees, brethren, every one of you, and pray God for the forgiveness of your sins, and for a holy and living faith which cometh down from heaven.’ The disciples dropped to their knees, and began to pray in the fervency of their spirit, supplicating God for more than two hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking again into the box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates.”[27] (Emphasis added) 

Professor Anthon’s Denial

      Upon completion of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith instructed Martin Harris to take a sample of the characters copied from the plates, along with the translation, to Professor Charles Anthon of Columbus University in New York. Martin Harris records that Professor Anthon examined the characters and pronounced them a “correct translation” and said the language consisted of Egyptian, Chaldean, Assyrian and Arabic and that they were true characters.[28]

      But according to the Book of Mormon, Professor Anthon could not have pronounced the translation correct because he didn’t have the means for deciphering an unknown language (reformed Egyptian). The Book of Mormon states, “The Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language…therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof”(Book of Mormon 4:100).

            When the story reached Professor Anthon that he had pronounced the translation correct, he wrote a letter refuting the claim, “The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be ‘reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics’ is perfectly false…. I well remember that the paper contained anything else but Egyptian hieroglyphics.” (This entire letter is reproduced on the following page).

No Reformed Egyptian Language

      These claims are made in the Book of Mormon:  

1.      The brass plates Lehi’s family obtained from Laban’s house (containing the five books of Moses, Lehi’s genealogy, and many prophecies), were written in “reformed Egyptian.”[29]

2.       Lehi’s son Nephi, was a Jew who was raised in Jerusalem. Upon his arrival in the Americas he began writing a history of his family’s proceedings in reformed Egyptian. 

      In light of these statements the following questions need to be answered by those who believe in the Book of Mormon.

·        Who translated the Hebrew Pentateuch which Laban possessed, into reformed Egyptain and why?

·        If a reformed Egyptian language was so commonly used in Palestine in 600 B.C. why is there no Biblical record of it?

·        Why would any Hebrews, whose language was very sacred to them, write their history in the language of their enemies, the Egyptians?

·        Why was the Book of Mormon written in reformed Egyptian when the Book itself says that the Hebrew language is superior to the Egyptian language? Bemoaning the fact that his record was imperfect, Moroni who was abridging the record wrote, “And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also: and if we could have written in the Hebrew, behold ye would have had no imperfection in our record.” [30] (Emphasis added)

·        Since the Nephites were able to read and write both Hebrew and Egyptian, and their record would have been perfect had it been written in Hebrew, why didn’t these men choose to write in the superior language?

·        Does it seem likely, that God would allow His sacred book to be written in a language that would leave an imperfect record simply because of a lack of space?

·        Why didn’t they make larger plates?

·        Why didn’t they write smaller?

One theory Mormons give for Nephi and other Book of Mormon scribes writing in Egyptian, was that they were descendants of Joseph who had lived in Egypt. While this is true, it is also true that the entire nation of Israel lived in Egypt for over 400 years, yet they did not speak or write in Egyptian, but Hebrew. Moses, who himself was trained in all the culture of the Egyptians, wrote in Hebrew not Egyptian. [31]

It is interesting to note that while the origin of ancient writings could be determined in the 1830’s it wasn’t until the 1860’s that the science of Egyptology had advanced to the point where it could be used to test Joseph Smith’s ability as a translator. Therefore, Joseph felt ‘safe’ in saying that he made his translation from reformed Egyptian. But although the Nephites supposedly recorded their history in reformed Egyptian, there is absolutely no trace of that language anywhere in the new world, and in fact, no place in the entire world! 

Conclusion

      The contradictory accounts of the eye-witnesses and the fact that the Book of Mormon was written in a non-existent language, creates serious doubts as to its credibility. In part two we will look at sources Joseph Smith may have used to write the Book of Mormon.

Part Two

Possible Sources for the Book of Mormon

            A traditional argument against Joseph Smith being the author of the Book of Mormon was the claim that he was an unlearned fourteen-year-old farm boy who could not have made up the story. But long before the gold plates were ever heard of, Joseph’s mother recorded the following.

“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 travelling, (sic) 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 with them.”[32] 

      In addition to Joseph’s creative imagination, several other resources appear to have been utilized in the production of the Book of Mormon. The reader will notice undeniable similarities to the Book of Mormon in each of them as they are presented in some detail below. 

View of the Hebrews

      View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith, was first published in 1823 in Poultney Vermont, seven years before the Book of Mormon was printed. This was the same small town in which Oliver Cowdery lived until 1825, when he moved to New York State near his distant relatives, the Joseph Smith Sr. family. It is likely that Oliver was aware of this publication before becoming Joseph Smith Jr.’s scribe for the Book of Mormon. Ethan Smith produced this work of fiction to expound his theory that the American Indians were of Hebrew origin. Following are but a few of the many similarities between his story and the Book of Mormon.

1. both tell of an ancient book hidden in a hill

2. both tell of prophets inspired by God

3. both speak of the Urim and Thummim, a breastplate and High Priests

4. both tell of numerous wars in which the more civilized faction is eventually exterminated by the more barbaric group

5. both quote extensively from the book of Isaiah in the Bible

6. both speak of a great gentile nation to be raised up in America

7. both tell of a mysterious visitor to America who preached peace, possessed immortality and promised to return someday

8. both claim a form of Egyptian hieroglyphics was used by the ancient Americans to record their histories

9. both speak of the destruction of Jerusalem

10. both speak of the conversion of the Jews to Christianity

The Spaulding Manuscripts

      An unpublished novel, The Manuscript Story, written by the Rev. Solomon Spaulding about 1812, is believed by some to have been a source in writing the Book of Mormon. Spaulding died in 1816 but his widow made the following observation about the Book of Mormon, which was published in 1830.

“After the Book of Mormon came out, a copy of it was taken to New Salem…the place where the…[Spaulding’s manuscript] was written. A Mormon preacher…repeated copious extracts from the Book of Mormon. The historical part was immediately recognized by all the older inhabitants, as the identical work of Mr. Spaulding in which they had been so deeply interested years before.”[33] 

      Vernal Holley, a former Mormon, believes Joseph Smith used the Spaulding Manuscript in writing the Book of Mormon. He spent more than 3000 hours in over 12 years researching the Book of Mormon–Spaulding connection and has discovered many compelling similarities between the two works.[34] Listed below are examples of these similarities.

    In his research, Vernal Holley plotted the “land northward” and the “land southward” on a map which includes Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania. It is amazing how many of the modern place names are virtually identical to those found in the Book of Mormon. In looking at these maps, it seems likely that the person who wrote the Book of Mormon knew the modern areas well and wrote a fictitious account based on this geographical setting. (For further information on the Book of Mormon/Spalding connection, see the website of Dale Broadhurst, www.solomonspalding.com). 

Joseph Smith Sr.’s 1811 Dream  

      Joseph Smith Sr.’s dream as recorded by his wife Lucy Smith,[35] parallels nearly exactly Lehi’s vision in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 2:43-92).  Note the similarities.

The King James Version of the Bible

      The King James Version of the Bible was not published until 1611. However, significant portions of it are found in the Book of Mormon, supposedly written hundreds of years earlier.[36]hat Joseph Smith borrowed from the New Testament of the King James Version is indisputable. The following examples are taken from Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s book, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality, with RLDS references.

1.      KJV: he that endureth to the end shall be saved (Matthew 10:22)
BOM: he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved (2 Nephi 13:20) 

2.      KJV: O wretched man that I am (Romans 7:24)
BOM: O wretched man that I am (2 Nephi 3:31) 

3.      KJV: the sin which doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1)
BOM: the sins which doth so easily beset me (2 Nephi 3:33) 

4.      KJV: death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them (Revelation 20:13)
BOM: death and hell must deliver up their dead (2 Nephi 6:28) 

5.      KJV: that old serpent which is the Devil (Revelation 20:2)
BOM: that old serpent who is the Devil (2 Nephi 1:104) 

6.      KJV: the wind ceased and there was a great calm (Mark 4:39)
BOM: the winds did cease … and there was a great calm (I Nephi 5:210) 

7.      KJV: he that is righteous let him be righteous still (Revelation 22:11)
BOM: they who are righteous shall be righteous still (2 Nephi 6:38) 

8.      KJV: cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:10)
BOM: cast into a lake of fire and brimstone (Alma 10:56) 

9.      KJV: to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life (Romans 8:6)
BOM: to be carnally minded is death and to be spiritually minded is life (2 Nephi 6:74) 

10.  KJV: till I shall dig about it and dung it (Luke 13:8)
BOM: and I have digged about it … and I have dunged it (Jacob 3:102) 

11.  KJV: thy faith hath made thee whole (Matthew 9:22)
BOM: thy faith hath made thee whole (Enos 1:11) 

12.  KJV: the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)
BOM: the thoughts and intents of his heart (Mosiah 3:l7) 

13.  KJV: a leathern girdle about his loins (Matthew 3:4)
BOM: a leathern girdle about their loins (Mosiah 6:38) 

14.  KJV: this mortal shall have put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:54)
BM: this mortal shall put on immortality (Mosiah 8:83) 

15.  KJV: stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free
(Galatians 5:1)
BOM: stand fast in this liberty wherewith ye have been made free (Mosiah 11:14) 

16.  KJV: and then will I profess unto them I never knew you (Matthew 7:23)
BOM: and then I will confess unto them that I never knew them (Mosiah 11:135)