Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon
Information
Religion	Latter Day Saint movement
Language	English
Period	19th century
Chapters	First Nephi Second Nephi Book of Jacob Book of Enos Book of Jarom Book of Omni Words of Mormon Book of Mosiah Book of Alma Book of Helaman Third Nephi Fourth Nephi Book of Mormon Book of Ether Book of Moroni
Book of Mormon at Wikisource

The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421.^[1][2] 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.^[3][4] The Book of Mormon is one of the earliest of the unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement, the denominations of which typically regard the text primarily as scripture, and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas.^[5][6] Many Mormon academics and apologetic organizations strive to affirm the book as historically authentic through their scholarship and research,^[7][8] and the majority of Latter Day Saints accept the book as historically accurate, but mainstream archaeological, historical and scientific communities do not consider the Book of Mormon to be a record of actual events.^[9]

According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian"^[10] engraved on golden plates. Smith said that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in the Hill Cumorah in present-day Manchester, New York, before his death, and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827 as an angel, revealing the location of the plates, and instructing him to translate the plates into English.^[2] Most naturalistic views on Book of Mormon origins hold that Smith authored it, whether consciously or subconsciously, drawing on material and ideas from his contemporary 19th-century environment, rather than translating an ancient record.^[11][12][13]

The Book of Mormon has a number of doctrinal discussions on subjects such as the fall of Adam and Eve,^[14] the nature of the Christian atonement,^[15] eschatology, agency, priesthood authority, redemption from physical and spiritual death,^[16] the nature and conduct of baptism, the age of accountability, the purpose and practice of communion, personalized revelation, economic justice, the anthropomorphic and personal nature of God, the nature of spirits and angels, and the organization of the latter day church. The pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection.^[17][18] Common teachings of the Latter Day Saint movement hold that the Book of Mormon fulfills numerous biblical prophecies by ending a global apostasy and signaling a restoration of Christian gospel. The book can also be read as a critique of Western society and contains passages condemning immorality, individualism, social inequality, ethnic injustice, nationalism, and the rejection of God, revelation, and miraculous religion.

The Book of Mormon is divided into smaller books, titled after individuals named as primary authors or other caretakers of the ancient record the Book of Mormon describes itself as and, in most versions, is divided into chapters and verses.^[19] Its English text imitates the style of the King James Version of the Bible,^[19] and its grammar and word choice reflect Early Modern English.^[20] The Book of Mormon has been fully or partially translated into at least 112 languages.^[21]

Origin[]

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Outline of the Book of Mormon
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According to Joseph Smith, he was seventeen years of age when an angel of God named Moroni appeared to him and said that a collection of ancient writings was buried in a nearby hill in present-day Wayne County, New York, engraved on golden plates by ancient prophets.^[22][23] The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before Jesus' birth.^[2] According to the narrative, Moroni was the last prophet among these people and had buried the record, which God had promised to bring forth in the latter days. Smith stated that this vision occurred on the evening of September 21, 1823, and that on the following day, via divine guidance, he located the burial location of the plates on this hill and was instructed by Moroni to meet him at the same hill on September 22 of the following year to receive further instructions, which repeated annually for the next three years.^[24][25] Smith's description of these events recounts that he was allowed to take the plates on September 22, 1827, four years after his initial visit to the hill, and was directed to translate them into English.^[22][26][27]

As Smith and contemporaries reported, the English manuscript of Book of Mormon was produced as scribes^[28] wrote down Smith's dictation in multiple sessions between 1828 and 1829,^[29][30] with the dictation of the extant Book of Mormon completed in 1829 in approximately 60–74 working days.^[31][32] Descriptions of the way in which Smith dictated the Book of Mormon vary. Smith himself called the Book of Mormon a translated work, but in public he generally described the process itself only in vague terms, such as saying he translated "by the gift and power of God."^[33] According to some accounts from his family and friends at the time, early on, Smith copied characters off the plates as part of a process of learning to translate an initial corpus.^[34] For the majority of the process, accounts describe Smith dictating the text by reading it as it appeared either on seer stones he already possessed or on a set of spectacles that accompanied the plates, prepared by the Lord for the purpose of translating.^[35] The spectacles, often called the "Nephite interpreters," or the "Urim and Thummim," after the Biblical divination stones, were described by witnesses as two clear seer stones bound together by a metal rim, and attached to a breastplate.^[33] Beginning around 1832, both the interpreters and the seer stone were at times referred to as the "Urim and Thummim",^[36] and Smith sometimes used the term interchangeably with "spectacles".^[33] Emma Smith's and David Whitmer's accounts describe Smith using the interpreters while dictating for Martin Harris's scribing and switching to only using his seer stone(s) in subsequent translation.^[37] Accounts of Smith's dictation process, such as Joseph Knight's, describe him placing the interpreters or stones in a top hat and, "Dark[ening] his eyes then he would take a sentence and it would appear in bright Roman letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it".^[33][36][38] Early on, Smith sometimes separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them, as he did while Martin Harris scribed his dictation.^[39][40] Later in the process, such as when Oliver Cowdery or Emma Smith scribed, the plates were left covered up in the open,^[41] and during some dictation sessions the plates were entirely absent.^[12][42]

Smith's first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold". They were described by Martin Harris, one of Smith's early scribes, as "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires."^[43] Smith called the engraved writing on the plates "reformed Egyptian". A portion of the text on the plates was also "sealed" according to his account, so its content was not included in the Book of Mormon.^[44]

In addition to Smith's account regarding the plates, eleven others were formally allowed to see the uncovered golden plates and, in some cases, handle them.^[45] Their written testimonies are known as the Testimony of Three Witnesses, who described seeing the plates in a visionary encounter with an angel,^[46] and the Testimony of Eight Witnesses, who described handling the plates as displayed by Smith.^[47] These statements have been published in most editions of the Book of Mormon.^[48] In addition to Smith and these eleven, several others described encountering the plates by holding or moving them wrapped in cloth, though without seeing the plates themselves, and two women reported seeing the plates directly in visionary angelic encounters.^[45] Josiah Stowell, an acquaintance, later testified under oath that he caught a glimpse of the plates uncovered, though he didn't describe an angel like the two women.^[45]

Smith enlisted his neighbor Martin Harris as a scribe during his initial work on the text.^[49] Harris later mortgaged his farm to underwrite the printing of the Book of Mormon.^[50] In 1828, Harris, prompted by his wife Lucy Harris, repeatedly requested that Smith lend him the current pages that had been translated.^[51] Smith reluctantly acceded to Harris's requests, within weeks the manuscript was lost. Lucy Harris is popularly thought to have stolen these initial manuscript pages,^[52][53] though historian Don Bradley contests this as probable rumor from after the fact and hypothesizes a member of Harris's extended family stole the pages.^[54] After the loss, Smith recorded that he had lost the ability to translate, and that Moroni had taken back the plates to be returned only after Smith repented.^[55][56][37] Smith later stated that God allowed him to resume translation, but directed that he begin where he left off (in what is now called the Book of Mosiah), without retranslating what had been in the lost manuscript.^[57] In 1829, work resumed on the Book of Mormon, with the assistance of Oliver Cowdery as scribe, and the manuscript was completed in a short period (April–June 1829).^[58][31] Smith said that he then returned the plates to Moroni upon the publication of the book.^[59][60][61] The Book of Mormon went on sale at the bookstore of E. B. Grandin in Palmyra, New York on March 26, 1830.^[62] Today, the building in which the Book of Mormon was first published and sold is known as the Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site. The first edition print-run was 5,000 copies.^[63] The publisher charged $3,000 for the production cost (wholesale to the author Joseph Smith at 60 cents per book; equivalent to $15 in 2020.

Since its first publication and distribution, critics of the Book of Mormon have claimed that it was fabricated by Smith^[64][65][66] and that he drew material and ideas from various sources rather than translating an ancient record. Works that have been suggested as sources include the King James Bible,^[67][68] The Wonders of Nature,^[69][70] View of the Hebrews,^[65][66][71] and an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding.^[72][73][74] Historians have considered the Spalding manuscript source hypothesis debunked since 1945,^[75] and no single theory has consistently dominated naturalistic views on the Book of Mormon.^[11] Mormon apologetics organizations typically maintain that all these arguments have been disproven by Mormon and non-Mormon sources.^[76] Though not universally embraced, the most popular naturalistic view of Book of Mormon authorship is that Smith wrote it himself.^[11] The position of most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement and the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is that the book is an authentic historical record, translated by Smith through divine revelation.^[77][8][78]

Content[]

Title[]

Smith said the title page, and presumably the actual title of the 1830 edition, came from the translation of "the very last leaf" of the golden plates, and was written by the prophet-historian Moroni.^[79][80] The title page states that the purpose of the Book of Mormon is "to [show] unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; ... and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations."^[81]

Organization[]

The Book of Mormon is organized as a compilation of smaller books, each named after its main named narrator or a prominent leader, beginning with the First Book of Nephi (1 Nephi) and ending with the Book of Moroni.^[82]

The book's sequence is primarily chronological based on the narrative content of the book. Exceptions include the Words of Mormon and the Book of Ether.^[83] The Words of Mormon contains editorial commentary by Mormon. The Book of Ether is presented as the narrative of an earlier group of people who had come to the American continent before the immigration described in 1 Nephi. First Nephi through Omni are written in first-person narrative, as are Mormon and Moroni. The remainder of the Book of Mormon is written in third-person historical narrative, said to be compiled and abridged by Mormon (with Moroni abridging the Book of Ether and writing the latter part of Mormon and the Book of Moroni).

Most modern editions of the book have been divided into chapters and verses.^[19] Most editions of the book also contain supplementary material, including the "Testimony of Three Witnesses" and the "Testimony of Eight Witnesses" which appeared in the original 1830 edition and every official Latter-day Saint edition thereafter.^[48]

Chronology[]

The books from First Nephi to Omni are described as being from "the small plates of Nephi".^[84] This account begins in ancient Jerusalem around 600 BC. It tells the story of a man named Lehi, his family, and several others as they are led by God from Jerusalem shortly before the fall of that city to the Babylonians in 586 BC. The book describes their journey across the Arabian peninsula, and then to the "promised land", the Americas, by ship.^[85] These books recount the group's dealings from approximately 600 BC to about 130 BC, during which time the community grew and split into two main groups, which are called the Nephites and the Lamanites, that frequently warred with each other.

Following this section is the Words of Mormon. This small book, said to be written in AD 385 by Mormon, is a short introduction to the books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Third Nephi, and Fourth Nephi.^[86] These books are described as being abridged from a large quantity of existing records called "the large plates of Nephi" that detailed the people's history from the time of Omni to Mormon's own life. The Book of Third Nephi is of particular importance within the Book of Mormon because it contains an account of a visit by Jesus from heaven to the Americas sometime after his resurrection and ascension. The text says that during this American visit, he repeated much of the same doctrine and instruction given in the Gospels of the Bible and he established an enlightened, peaceful society which endured for several generations, but which eventually broke into warring factions again.

The book or section within the greater Book of Mormon dealing with events during Mormon's life is also called the Book of Mormon. Mormon is said to have received the charge of taking care of the records that had been hidden, once he was old enough. The book includes an account of the wars, Mormon's leading of portions of the Nephite army, and his retrieving and caring for the records. Mormon is eventually killed after having handed down the records to his son Moroni.

According to the text, Moroni then made an abridgment (called the Book of Ether) of a record from a previous people called the Jaredites.^[86] The account describes a group of families led from the Tower of Babel^[87] to the Americas, headed by a man named Jared and his brother. The Jaredite civilization is presented as existing on the American continent beginning about 2500 BC,^[88]—long before Lehi's family arrived shortly after 600 BC—and as being much larger and more developed.

The Book of Moroni then details the final destruction of the Nephites and the idolatrous state of the remaining society.^[89] It also includes significant doctrinal teachings and closes with Moroni's testimony and an invitation to pray to God for a confirmation of the truthfulness of the account.^[90]

Doctrinal and philosophical teachings[]

Interspersed throughout the narrative are sermons and orations by various speakers, making up just over 40 percent of the Book of Mormon.^[91] These passages contain doctrinal and philosophical teachings on a wide range of topics, from basic themes of Christianity and Judaism to political and ideological teachings.^[92] Some of the teachings found in the Book of Mormon reiterate themes common to nineteenth-century American Christianity such as describing the Bible as scripture and affirming covenantal theology.^[93][94] Other teachings are unique and distinctive, such as its descriptions of Jesus and the Atonement, rejection of original sin doctrine, and depiction of dialogic revelation.^{[95][94][96][97]}

Jesus[]

As stated on the title page, the Book of Mormon's central purpose is for the "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations."^[3] Jesus is mentioned every 1.7 verses on average and is referred to by one hundred different names.^[98]

Though much of the Book of Mormon's internal chronology takes place prior to the birth of Jesus, prophets in the book frequently see him in vision and preach about him, and the people in the book worship Jesus as "pre-Christian Christians."^{[99][18][100][101][102]} For example, the book's first narrator Nephi describes having a vision of the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus, said to have taken place nearly 600 years prior to Jesus' birth.^[100][103] Later in the narrative (about 130 BC), King Benjamin dubs the Nephite believers "children of Christ".^[104] At another point in the book, faithful members of the church at the time of Captain Moroni (about 73 BC) are called "Christians" by their enemies because of their belief in Jesus Christ.^[105] By depicting ancient prophets and peoples as familiar with Jesus as a Savior, the Book of Mormon universalized Christian salvation as being the same in all times and places, and it implied that even more ancient peoples were familiar with Jesus.^[18][106]

In the Book of Mormon, Jesus visits some early inhabitants of the Americas after his resurrection, and this event is often described as the climax of the book.^[5][17][18] During this ministry, he reiterates many teachings from the New Testament and re-emphasizes salvific baptism.^[107] He also introduces the sacramental consumption of bread and water "in remembrance of [his] body," a teaching that became the basis for Latter-day Saints' "memorialist" view of their sacrament ordinance (analogous to communion).^[18][108] Jesus's ministry in the Book of Mormon has been compared to Jesus's portrayal in the Gospel of John, as Jesus similarly teaches without parables and preaches faith and obedience as a central message.^[109][110]

The Book of Mormon depicts Jesus with "a twist" on Christian trinitarianism.^[18] Jesus in the Book of Mormon is distinct from God the Father, much as he is in the New Testament, as he prays to God while during a post-resurrection visit with the Nephites. However, Turner explains that the Book of Mormon also emphasizes that Jesus and God have "divine unity," and other parts of the book call Jesus "the Father and the Son" or describe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as "one."^{[108][18][111]} As a result, beliefs among the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement range between nontrinitarianism (such as in the LDS Church) and trinitarianism (such as in Community of Christ).^[112][113]

Distinctively, the Book of Mormon describes Jesus as having, prior to his birth, a spiritual "body" "without flesh and blood" that looked similar to how he would appear during his physical life.^[114][18] According to the book, the Brother of Jared lived before Jesus and saw him manifest in this spiritual "body" thousands of years prior to his birth.^[18]

In the Bible, Jesus spoke to the Jews in Jerusalem of "other sheep" who would hear his voice.^[115] The Book of Mormon claims this meant that the Nephites and other remnants of the lost tribes of Israel throughout the world were to be visited by Jesus after his resurrection.^[116]

Plan of salvation[]

The Christian concept of God's plan of salvation for humanity is a frequently recurring theme of the Book of Mormon.^[117][118] While the Bible does not directly outline a plan of salvation,^[119] the Book of Mormon explicitly refers to the concept thirty times, using a variety of terms such as plan of salvation, plan of happiness, and plan of redemption.^[118] The Book of Mormon's plan of salvation doctrine describes life as a probationary time for people to learn the gospel of Christ through revelation given to prophets and have the opportunity to choose whether or not to obey God. Jesus' atonement then makes repentance possible, enabling the righteous to enter a heavenly state after a final judgment.^[118]

Although most of Christianity traditionally considers the fall of man a negative development for humanity,^[120] the Book of Mormon instead portrays the fall as a foreordained step in God's plan of salvation, necessary to securing human agency, joy, growth, and eventual righteousness.^[118][121] This positive interpretation of the Adam and Eve story contributes to the Book of Mormon's emphasis "on the importance of human freedom and responsibility" to choose salvation.^[118]

Dialogic revelation[]

In the Book of Mormon, revelation from God typically manifests as "personalized, dialogic exchange" between God and persons, "rooted in a radically anthropomorphic theology" that personifies deity as a being who hears prayers and provides direct answers to questions.^[122] Multiple narratives in the book portray revelation as a dialogue in which petitioners and deity engage one another in a mutual exchange in which God's contributions originate from outside the mortal recipient.^[123][95] The Book of Mormon also emphasizes regular prayer as a significant component of devotional life, depicting it as a central means through which such dialogic revelation can take place.^[124]

Distinctively, the Book of Mormon's portrayal democratizes revelation by extending it beyond the "Old Testament paradigms" of prophetic authority. In the Book of Mormon, dialogic revelation from God is not the purview of prophets alone but is instead the right of every person.^[125] Figures such as Nephi and Ammon receive visions and revelatory direction prior to or without ever becoming prophets, and Laman and Lemuel are rebuked for hesitating to pray for revelation.^[126] In the Book of Mormon, God and the divine are directly knowable through revelation and spiritual experience.^[127]

Also in contrast with traditional Christian conceptions of revelations is the Book of Mormon's broader range of revelatory content.^{[128][129][130]} In the Book of Mormon, revelatory topics include not only the expected "exegesis of existence" but also questions that are "pragmatic, and at times almost banal in their mundane specificity".^[131] Figures petition God for revelatory answers to doctrinal questions and ecclesiastical crises as well as for inspiration to guide hunts, military campaigns, and sociopolitical decisions, and the Book of Mormon portrays God providing answers to these inquiries.^[132]

The Book of Mormon depicts revelation as an active and sometimes laborious experience. For example, the Book of Mormon's Brother of Jared learns to act not merely as a petitioner with questions but moreover as an interlocutor with "a specific proposal" for God to consider as part of a guided process of miraculous assistance.^[133] Also in the Book of Mormon, Enos describes his revelatory experience as a "wrestle which I had before God" that spanned hours of intense prayer.^[134][135]

Teachings about political theology[]

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The book delves into political theology within a Christian or Jewish context. Among these themes are American exceptionalism. According to the book, the Americas are portrayed as a "land of promise", the world's most exceptional land of the time.^[136] The book states that any righteous society possessing the land would be protected, whereas if they became wicked they would be destroyed and replaced with a more righteous civilization.^[137]

On the issue of war and violence, the book teaches that war is justified for people to "defend themselves against their enemies". However, they were never to "give an offense," or to "raise their sword ... except it were to preserve their lives."^[138] The book praises the faith of a group of former Lamanite warriors who took an oath of complete pacifism, refusing to take arms even to defend themselves and their people.^[139] However, 2,000 of their descendants, who had not taken the oath of their parents not to take up arms against their enemies, chose to go to battle against the Lamanites, and it states that in their battles the 2,000 men were protected by God through their faith and, though many were injured, none of them died.^[140]

The book recommends monarchy as an ideal form of government, but only when the monarch is righteous.^[139][141] The book warns of the evil that occurs when the king is wicked, and therefore suggests that it is not generally good to have a king.^[142] The book further records the decision of the people to be ruled no longer by kings,^[143] choosing instead a form of democracy led by elected judges.^[144] When citizens referred to as "king-men" attempted to overthrow a democratically elected government and establish an unrighteous king, the book praises a military commander who executed pro-monarchy citizens who had vowed to destroy the church of God and were unwilling to defend their country from hostile invading forces.^[145] The book also speaks favorably of a particular instance of what appears to be a peaceful Christ-centered theocracy, which lasted approximately 194 years before contentions began again.^[146]

The book supports notions of economic justice, achieved through voluntary donation of "substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor."^[147] In one case, all the citizens held their property in common.^[146] When individuals within a society began to disdain and ignore the poor, to "wear costly apparel", and otherwise engage in wickedness for personal gain, such societies are repeatedly portrayed in the book as being ripe for destruction.^[148]

Religious significance[]

Joseph Smith[]

Like many other early adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement, Smith referenced Book of Mormon scriptures in his preaching relatively infrequently and cited the Bible more often, likely because he was more familiar with the Bible, which he had grown up with.^[149] In 1832, Smith dictated a revelation that condemned the "whole church" for treating the Book of Mormon lightly, though even after doing so Smith still referenced the Book of Mormon less often than the Bible.^[150][149] Nevertheless, in 1841 Joseph Smith characterized the Book of Mormon as the "keystone" of Mormonism, and he called it "the most correct of any book on earth."^{[5][151][152]} While they were held in Carthage Jail together, shortly before being killed in a mob attack, Joseph's brother Hyrum Smith read aloud from the Book of Mormon, and Joseph told the jail guards present that the Book of Mormon was divinely authentic.^[153][154]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[]

The Book of Mormon is one of four sacred texts or standard works of the LDS Church.^[155] Church leaders have frequently restated Smith's claims of the book's significance to the faith.^[156][157] According to the church's "Articles of Faith"—a document written by Joseph Smith in 1842 and canonized by the church as scripture in 1880—members "believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly," and they "believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God," without the translation qualification.^{[18][158][159]}

As it had been with early adherents, up through the mid-twentieth century, the Book of Mormon's significance to Latter-day Saints came more from its "status as a sign" than its specific content.^[160] Church leaders and missionaries emphasized it as part of a causal chain which held that if the Book of Mormon was "verifiably true revelation of God," then it justified Smith's claims to prophetic authority to restore the New Testament church.^[160]

In the 1980s, the church placed greater emphasis on the Book of Mormon as a central text of the faith and on studying and reading it as a means for devotional communion with Jesus Christ.^[18][161] In 1982 the church added the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" to its official editions of the Book of Mormon.^{[162][163][164]} Ezra Taft Benson, the church's thirteenth president (1985–1994), especially emphasized the Book of Mormon.^{[18][156][165][161]} Referencing Smith's 1832 revelation, Benson said the church remained under condemnation for treating the Book of Mormon lightly.^{[150][166][167][161]}

Since the late 1980s, the church has encouraged members to read from the Book of Mormon daily.^[18][166] In an August 2005 message, church president Gordon B. Hinckley challenged each member of the church to re-read the Book of Mormon before the year's end,^[168] and by 2016, "Increasing numbers of Latter-day Saints use[d] the [Book of Mormon] for private and family devotions."^[18] The Book of Mormon is "the principal scriptural focus" of the church and "absolutely central" to Latter-day Saint worship, including in weekly services, Sunday School, youth seminaries, and more.^[169]

The LDS Church encourages discovery of the book's truth by following the suggestion in its final chapter to study, ponder, and pray to God concerning its veracity.^[170][171] This passage is sometimes referred to as "Moroni's Promise."^[172][173]

As of October 2020, the LDS Church has published more than 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon.^[174]

Community of Christ[]

Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) views the Book of Mormon as scripture which provides an additional witness of Jesus Christ in support of the Bible.^[175] Community of Christ publishes two versions of the book through its official publishing arm, Herald House: the Authorized Edition, which is based on the original printer's manuscript, and the 1837 Second Edition (or "Kirtland Edition") of the Book of Mormon.^{[citation needed]} Its content is similar to the Book of Mormon published by the LDS Church, but the versification is different.^[176] The Community of Christ also publishes a 1966 "Revised Authorized Edition," which attempts to modernize some language.^{[citation needed]}

Use of the Book of Mormon varies among members of Community of Christ. The church describes it as scripture and includes references to the Book of Mormon in its official lectionary.^[177] In 2010, representatives told the National Council of Churches that "the Book of Mormon is in our DNA".^[175][178] At the same time, its use in North American congregations declined between the mid-twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and "Tens of thousands" of members in some congregations in other regions, such as Haiti and Africa, "have never used the Book of Mormon".^[177] Some Community of Christ members with "more traditional-thinking" on the Book of Mormon have in turn "either left the church or doubled their efforts to bring the Book of Mormon back to the center of the theological and scriptural life of the church."^[179]

In 2001, Community of Christ president W. Grant McMurray reflected on increasing questions about the Book of Mormon: "The proper use of the Book of Mormon as sacred scripture has been under wide discussion in the 1970s and beyond, in part because of long-standing questions about its historical authenticity and in part because of perceived theological inadequacies, including matters of race and ethnicity."^[180]

At the 2007 Community of Christ World Conference, church president Stephen M. Veazey ruled out-of-order a resolution to "reaffirm the Book of Mormon as a divinely inspired record." He stated that "while the Church affirms the Book of Mormon as scripture, and makes it available for study and use in various languages, we do not attempt to mandate the degree of belief or use. This position is in keeping with our longstanding tradition that belief in the Book of Mormon is not to be used as a test of fellowship or membership in the church."^[181]

Greater Latter Day Saint movement[]

There are a number of other smaller churches that are part of the Latter Day Saint movement.^[182] Most of these churches were created as a result of issues ranging from differing doctrinal interpretations and acceptance of the movement's scriptures, including the Book of Mormon, to disagreements as to who was the divinely chosen successor to Joseph Smith. These groups all have in common the acceptance of the Book of Mormon as scripture. It is this acceptance which distinguishes the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement from other Christian denominations. Separate editions of the Book of Mormon have been published by a number of churches in the Latter Day Saint movement, along with private individuals and foundations not endorsed by any specific denomination.

Claimed fulfillment of biblical prophecy[]

Latter-day Saints believe the Book of Mormon to be a second witness to the Bible and another testament of Jesus Christ.^[183] Joseph Smith is believed by the faithful to be a prophet of God and his church to be a restoration of the ancient Christian Church. The Saints cite various Biblical passages that they believe to prophecy of the Great Apostasy, the Restoration by Joseph Smith, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.^{[184][185][186][187]}

The Great Apostasy, as spoken of within the LDS Church, is a doctrinal teaching that sometime after the death of the New Testament Apostles was a falling away from the true religion, a confusion of doctrines, and a loss of divine authority.^[185] Numerous Biblical passages are said to prophecy of this Great Apostasy. 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 is one such passage. In the King James Version of the Bible, it reads:

"2. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition:"^[187]

Reformist and restorationist Christians believe this verse implied a "falling away" from the gospel must precede the Second Coming of Christ, an idea termed the Great Apostasy.^[187] Several other New Testament verses are also cited as detailing this event such as Acts 20:29, which speaks of "grievous wolves" entering the church, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, which states that the time would come that the people wouldn't "endure sound doctrine" and would "turn away from the truth," 2 Timothy 3:1-5, which spoke of "perilous times" ahead and described the spiritual depravity of future generations, and 2 Peter 2:1-3, which described "false prophets" and "false teachers" who would bring heresies into the church.^[187][185] Various Old Testament verses are also given, such as Amos 8:11 or Proverbs 29:18.

Latter-day Saints believe the Bible prophecies this general apostasy was to end with a restoration of the gospel. Acts 3:20-21 speaks of a restitution of all things in the last days, which is believed by the followers of Joseph Smith to be the formation of the church and restoration of the gospel.^[186] Ephesians 1:10 says that in the "dispensation of the fulness of times," all things that were "in Christ" would be gathered together, which, to Latter-day Saints, is another reference to the Restoration.^[186] Isaiah 2:2-3 is believed to speak of the Latter-day Saint temples and the gathering of Zion in the Rocky Mountains, where many of the early members of the church settled after Smith's martyrdom, and the angel Moroni is said to be the fulfillment of John's prophecy in Revelation 14:6, which speaks of an angel flying out of heaven in the last days "with the everlasting gospel to preach."^[188] The Book of Mormon is considered to be a part of this "everlasting gospel."

Many passages are also said to prophecy directly of the Book of Mormon or events described in it. The Biblical Joseph was blessed by Jacob in Genesis 49:22-26 to be a "fruitful bough," whose branches would run "over the wall" of a well, and whose descendants would be heir to divine blessings. Latter-day Saints identify his blessed descendants as the party of Lehi in the Book of Mormon, who the texts says were of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (the tribes of Joseph).^[184] The party of Lehi were thus a branch of Joseph that ran over "the wall" of the ocean when they sailed to the Americas.^[184]

Ezekiel 37:15-17 reads:

"15. The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

16. Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

17. And join them one to another into one stick: and they shall become one in thine hand."

This is believed to be a prophecy concerning the Book of Mormon. The stick of Judah is thought to be the record of the tribe of Judah: the Bible. The stick of Joseph is thought to be the record of the Nephites: the Book of Mormon.^[184] These two records would be joined together as one scripture and bring many different people together in the last days.^[184]

Isaiah 29:4,9-18 is thought to also speak directly of the Book of Mormon. In this chapter, the destruction of Jerusalem is described (the event which Lehi and his party are said to have fled into the wilderness to avoid), a people, identified by Mormons as the Nephites, speak from the dust, the eyes of the prophets and seers are covered, and "the vision of all is become... as the words of a book that is sealed."^[189][184] In Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision, Jesus paraphrased verse 13 of this chapter, which stated that people drew near to him with their mouths, but had their hearts far from him. The chapter also states that a marvelous work would occur, the deaf would hear the words of the sealed book, and the eyes of the blind would see in the darkness. To Latter-day Saints, the sealed book is the Book of Mormon, the covering of the eyes of the prophets and seers is the Great Apostasy, and the marvelous work is the restoration of the gospel.^[184] The book was also to be delivered to a learned person, who Latter-day Saints identify as Professor Charles Anthon, who would say they could not read a sealed book.^[184]

The "other sheep" mentioned by Christ in John 10:16 are identified with the Nephites, and this verse is said to allude to Christ's visit with them in the Book of Mormon.^[184]

Historical authenticity[]

Mainstream archaeological, historical and scientific communities do not consider the Book of Mormon an ancient record of actual historical events.^{[9][7][190][191]} Their skepticism tends to focus on four main areas:

• The lack of correlation between locations described in the Book of Mormon and known, intact American archaeological sites.^[192]
• References to animals, plants, metals and technologies in the Book of Mormon that archaeological or scientific studies have found little or no evidence of in post-Pleistocene, pre-Columbian America, frequently referred to as anachronisms.^[193] Items typically listed include cattle,^[194] horses,^[194] asses,^[194] oxen,^[194] sheep, swine, goats,^[195] elephants,^[196] wheat, steel,^[197] brass, chains, iron, scimitars, and chariots.^[198]
• The lack of widely accepted linguistic connections between any Native American languages and Near Eastern languages.^[199]
• The lack of DNA evidence linking any Native American group to the ancient Near East.^[200]

Despite this, most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon to generally be historically authentic.^{[201][202][78]} Within the Latter Day Saint movement there are several apologetic groups and scholars that seek to answer challenges to Book of Mormon historicity in various ways.^[203][204] Most Book of Mormon apologetics is done by Latter-day Saints,^[205] and the most active and well-known apologetic groups have been the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS; now defunct) and FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response; formerly FairMormon), both founded and operated by lay Latter-day Saints.^[206][207] Some apologetics aim to reconcile, refute, or dismiss criticisms of Book of Mormon historicity.^[208] For example, in response to linguistics and genetics rendering long-popular hemispheric models of Book of Mormon geography impossible, many apologists posit Book of Mormon peoples could have dwelled in a limited geographical region, usually either Mesoamerica or eastern North America, while indigenous peoples of other descents occupied the rest of the Americas.^[209][210] To account for anachronisms, apologists often suggest Smith's translation assigned familiar terms to unfamiliar ideas.^[211] Other apologetics strive to "affirmatively advocat[e]" historicity^[212] by identifying parallels between the Book of Mormon and antiquity, such as the presence of several complex chiasmi,^[213][214] a literary form used in ancient Hebrew poetry and in the Old Testament.^[215][216]

In an article for the Ensign, the LDS Church's former official magazine,^[217] apologist Daniel C. Peterson wrote, "much modern evidence supports" the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon,^[218] and literature promoting Book of Mormon historicity has influenced some Latter-day Saint views.^[219] Nevertheless, not all Mormons who affirm Book of Mormon historicity are universally persuaded by apologetic work,^[220] and some claim historicity more modestly, such as Richard Bushman's statement that "I read the Book of Mormon as informed Christians read the Bible. As I read, I know the arguments against the book's historicity, but I can't help feeling that the words are true and the events happened. I believe it in the face of many questions."^[221]

Though there is a "lack of specific response to"^[222] elements of the Book of Mormon that some Latter Day Saints consider evidence of ancient origins, when mainstream scholars do examine such they typically deem them "chance based upon only superficial similarities".^[223] One critic has dubbed alleged parallels an example of parallelomania.^[224][225]

In response to challenges to the Book of Mormon's historicity,^[180] some denominations and adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon a work of inspired fiction akin to pseudepigrapha or biblical midrash that constitutes scripture by revealing true doctrine about God, similar to a common interpretation of the biblical Book of Job.^{[201][226][227]} Many in Community of Christ hold this view,^{[205][175][228]} and the leadership takes no official position on Book of Mormon historicity while "Opinions about the Book of Mormon range from both ends of the spectrum" among members.^[229][230] Some Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon fictional, though this view is marginal in the community at large.^[231] Church leaders and apologists frequently contend that "what is most fundamentally at stake in historicity is not the book's status as scripture but Joseph Smith's claims to prophetic authority."^[232]

A few scholars propose considering the Book of Mormon an ancient and translated source text appended with modern pseudepigraphic expansions from Smith.^{[233][234][235][236]} Proponents hold that this model can simultaneously account for ancient literary artifacts and nineteenth-century influence in the Book of Mormon. However, the interpretation faces criticism "on multiple fronts" for either conceding too much to skepticism or for being more convoluted than straightforward historicism or unhistoricism.^[237]

Influenced by continental philosophy, a handful of academics argue for "rethink[ing] the terms of the historicity debates" by understanding the Book of Mormon not as historical or unhistorical (either factual or fictional) but as nonhistorical (existing outside history).^{[238][239][240][241][242]} Most prominently, James E. Faulconer contends that both skeptical and affirmative approaches to Book of Mormon historicity make the same Enlightenment-derived assumptions about scriptures being representations of external reality, and he argues a more appropriate approach might adopt a premodern understanding of scripture as capable of divinely ordering, rather than simply depicting, reality.^{[243][244][245]}

Historical context[]

American Indian origins[]

In the 1800s, most early European Americans had a biblical worldview, and numerous attempts were made to explain the origin of the Native Americans biblically.^[246] From the 16th century through the early 19th, a common belief was that the Jews, particularly the Lost Ten Tribes, were the ancestors of Native Americans.^[247] One of the first books to suggest that Native Americans were descended from Jews was written by Jewish-Dutch rabbi and scholar Manasseh ben Israel in 1650.^[248] The Book of Mormon provided theological backing to this proposition, and suggested that the lost Tribes of Israel would be found in other locations throughout the world as well.^[246]

Additionally, European settlers viewed the impressive earthworks left behind by the Mound Builder culture and had some difficulty believing that the Native Americans, whose numbers had been decimated over the previous centuries, could have produced them. A common theory was that a more technologically advanced people had built them, but were overrun and destroyed by a more savage, numerous group. Some observers have suggested that the Book of Mormon parallels others within the 19th-century "mound-builder" genre that was pervasive at the time.^{[249][250][251][252][253]} As historian Curtis Dahl wrote, "Undoubtedly the most famous and certainly the most influential of all Mound-Builder literature is the Book of Mormon (1830). Whether one wishes to accept it as divinely inspired or the work of Joseph Smith, it fits exactly into the tradition."^[254] Others have argued the Book of Mormon does not comfortably fit the genre, such as historian Richard Bushman who wrote, "When other writers delved into Indian origins, they were explicit about recognizable Indian practices", such as Abner Cole, who dressed characters in moccasins in his parody of the book.^[255] Meanwhile, the "Book of Mormon deposited its people on some unknown shore—not even definitely identified as America—and had them live out their history in a remote place in a distant time, using names that had no connections to modern Indians" and without including stereotypical Indian terms, practices, or tropes.^[255]

Critique of the United States[]

The Book of Mormon can be read as a critique of the United States during Smith's lifetime. Historian of religion Nathan O. Hatch called the Book of Mormon "a document of profound social protest",^[256] and Bushman "found the book thundering no to the state of the world in Joseph Smith's time."^[257] In the Jacksonian era of antebellum America, class inequality was a major concern as fiscal downturns and the economy's transition from guild-based artisanship to private business sharpened socioeconomic disparity.^[258] Poll taxes in New York limited access to the vote, and the culture of civil discourse and mores surrounding liberty allowed social elites to ignore and delegitimize populist participation in public discourse.^[258] Ethnic injustice was also prominent, as Americans typically stereotyped American Indians as ferocious, lazy, and uncivilized.^[259] Meanwhile, Antebellum disestablishment and denominational proliferation could be seen as undermining religious authority through ubiquity as "the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently", producing sectarian confusion that, for some, only obfuscated the path to spiritual security.^{[258][260][261]}

Against the backdrop of these trends, the Book of Mormon "condemned social inequalities, moral abominations, rejection of revelations and miracles, disrespect for Israel (including the Jews), subjection of the Indians, and the abuse of the continent by interloping European migrants."^[257] The book's narratives critique the "Nationalist puffery" of "bourgeois public sphere[s]" where rules of civil democracy silence the demands of common people.^[258] The Book of Mormon also "advocates the cause of the poor" "[a]gainst increasing wealth and inequality", condemning acquisitiveness as antithetical to righteousness.^[262][256] The book's Lamanites, whom readers generally identified with American Indians, at times were overwhelmingly righteous, even producing a prophet who preached to backsliding Nephites.^[259] The Book of Mormon declared natives to be the rightful inheritors to and leaders of the American continent, relegating European migrants to be "Gentiles . . . com[ing] onstage as interlopers".^[259] According to the book, implicitly-European Gentiles had an obligation to serve the native people and join their remnant of covenant Israel or else face a violent downfall like the Nephites of the text.^[263] And although a "classic version of America's past . . . makes a cameo appearance" in the Book of Mormon through a vision of Nephi, the Book of Mormon's doctrine "contests the amalgam of Enlightenment, republican, Protestant, capitalist, and nationalist values that constituted American culture."^[264] The Book of Mormon's message can be read as rejecting American denominational pluralism, religious rationalism, capitalist individualism, and nationalist identity, calling instead for ecclesiastical unity, miraculous religion, communitarian economics, and universal society under God's authority.^[265]

Manuscripts[]

The Book of Mormon was dictated by Joseph Smith to several scribes over a period of 13 months,^[266] resulting in three manuscripts.

Although 13 months elapsed, the actual translation time was less than 65 actual days of translating. / Translation Work Days

The 116 lost pages contained the first portion of the Book of Lehi; it was lost after Smith loaned the original, uncopied manuscript to Martin Harris.^[52]

The first completed manuscript, called the original manuscript, was completed using a variety of scribes. Portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting.^[267] In October 1841, the entire original manuscript was placed into the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, and sealed up until nearly forty years later when the cornerstone was reopened. It was then discovered that much of the original manuscript had been destroyed by water seepage and mold. Surviving manuscript pages were handed out to various families and individuals in the 1880s.^[268]

Only 28 percent of the original manuscript now survives, including a remarkable find of fragments from 58 pages in 1991. The majority of what remains of the original manuscript is now kept in the LDS Church's Archives.^[267]

The second completed manuscript, called the printer's manuscript, was a copy of the original manuscript produced by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes.^[267] It is at this point that initial copyediting of the Book of Mormon was completed. Observations of the original manuscript show little evidence of corrections to the text.^[268] Shortly before his death in 1850, Cowdery gave the printer's manuscript to David Whitmer, another of the Three Witnesses. In 1903, the manuscript was bought from Whitmer's grandson by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ.^[269] On September 20, 2017, the LDS Church purchased the manuscript from the Community of Christ at a reported price of $35 million.^{[267][270][271]} The printer's manuscript is now the earliest surviving complete copy of the Book of Mormon.^[272] The manuscript was imaged in 1923 and was recently made available for viewing online.^[273]

Critical comparisons between surviving portions of the manuscripts show an average of two to three changes per page from the original manuscript to the printer's manuscript, with most changes being corrections of scribal errors such as misspellings or the correction, or standardization, of grammar inconsequential to the meaning of the text.^[267] The printer's manuscript was further edited, adding paragraphing and punctuation to the first third of the text.^[267]

The printer's manuscript was not used fully in the typesetting of the 1830 version of Book of Mormon; portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting. The original manuscript was used by Smith to further correct errors printed in the 1830 and 1837 versions of the Book of Mormon for the 1840 printing of the book.^[267]

Ownership history: Book of Mormon printer's manuscript[]

In the late-19th century the extant portion of the printer's manuscript remained with the family of David Whitmer, who had been a principal founder of the Latter Day Saints and who, by the 1870s, led the Church of Christ (Whitmerite). During the 1870s, according to the Chicago Tribune, the LDS Church unsuccessfully attempted to buy it from Whitmer for a record price. LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith refuted this assertion in a 1901 letter, believing such a manuscript "possesses no value whatever."^[274] In 1895, Whitmer's grandson George Schweich inherited the manuscript. By 1903, Schweich had mortgaged the manuscript for $1,800 and, needing to raise at least that sum, sold a collection including 72-percent of the book of the original printer's manuscript (John Whitmer's manuscript history, parts of Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible, manuscript copies of several revelations, and a piece of paper containing copied Book of Mormon characters) to the RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ) for $2,450, with $2,300 of this amount for the printer's manuscript. The LDS Church had not sought to purchase the manuscript.

In 2015, this remaining portion was published by the Church Historian's Press in its Joseph Smith Papers series, in Volume Three of "Revelations and Translations"; and, in 2017, the LDS Church bought the printer's manuscript for US$35,000,000.^[275][276]

Editions[]

Chapter and verse notation systems[]

The original 1830 publication did not have verse markers, although the individual books were divided into relatively long chapters. Just as the Bible's present chapter and verse notation system is a later addition of Bible publishers to books that were originally solid blocks of undivided text, the chapter and verse markers within the books of the Book of Mormon are conventions, not part of the original text.

Publishers from different factions of the Latter Day Saint movement have published different chapter and verse notation systems. The two most significant are the LDS system, introduced in 1879, and the RLDS system, which is based on the original 1830 chapter divisions.^[277]

The RLDS 1908 edition, RLDS 1966 edition, the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) edition, and Restored Covenant editions use the RLDS system while most other current editions use the LDS system.

Current[]

The Book of Mormon is currently printed by the following publishers:

Church publishers	Year	Titles and notes	Link
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	1981	The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.[278] New introductions, chapter summaries, and footnotes. 1920 edition errors corrected based on original manuscript and 1840 edition.[279] Updated in a revised edition in 2013.[280]	link
Community of Christ	1966	"Revised Authorized Version", based on 1908 Authorized Version, 1837 edition and original manuscript.[281] Notable for the omission of repetitive "it came to pass" phrases.
The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)	2001	Compiled by a committee of Apostles. It uses the chapter and verse designations from the 1879 LDS version.[citation needed]
Church of Christ with the Elijah Message	1957	The Record of the Nephites, "Restored Palmyra Edition". 1830 text with 1879 LDS chapters and verses.	link
Church of Christ (Temple Lot)	1990	Based on 1908 RLDS edition, 1830 edition, printer's manuscript, and corrections by church leaders.	link
Fellowships of the remnants	2019	Based on Joseph Smith's last personally-updated 1840 version, with revisions per Denver Snuffer Jr.[282] Distributed jointly with the New Testament, in a volume called the "New Covenants".	link
Richard Drew	1992	Photo-enlarged facsimile of the 1840 edition[283]
Other publishers	Year	Titles and notes	Link
Herald Heritage	1970	Facsimile of the 1830 edition.[citation needed]
Zarahemla Research Foundation	1999	The Book of Mormon: Restored Covenant Edition. Text from Original and Printer's Manuscripts, in poetic layout.[284]	link
Bookcraft	1999	The Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saint Families. Large print with numerous visuals and explanatory notes.[citation needed]
University of Illinois Press	2003	The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition. The text of the 1920 LDS edition reformatted into paragraphs and poetic stanzas and accompanied by some footnotes.	link
Doubleday	2006[285]	The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Text from the current LDS edition without footnotes. First Doubleday edition was in 2004.[286]
Experience Press	2006	Reset type matching the original 1830 edition in word, line and page. Fixed typographical errors.[287]
Stratford Books	2006	Facsimile reprint of 1830 edition.[citation needed]
Penguin Classics	2008	Paperback with 1840 text.	link
Yale University Press	2009	The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Joseph Smith's dictated text with hundreds of corrections from Royal Skousen's study of the original and printer's manuscripts.[288]	link
The Olive Leaf Foundation	2017	A New Approach To Studying The Book Of Mormon. This contains the complete text of the 1981 edition, but with more modern text formatting. Cross-references and footnotes are replaced by the authors' own marginal notes, and chapter and verse breaks are also removed.[289]	link
Neal A. Maxwell Institute	2018	The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Maxwell Institute Study Edition. Text from the 1981/2013 LDS editions reformatted into paragraphs and poetic stanzas. Selected textual variants discovered in the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project appear in footnotes.[290]
Digital Legend Press	2018	Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon

Historic[]

The following non-current editions marked major developments in the text or reader's helps printed in the Book of Mormon.

Publisher	Year	Titles and notes	Link
E. B. Grandin	1830	"First edition" in Palmyra. Based on printer's manuscript copied from original manuscript.	link
Pratt and Goodson	1837	"Second edition" in Kirtland. Revision of first edition, using the printer's manuscript with emendations and grammatical corrections.[279]
Ebenezer Robinson and Smith	1840	"Third edition" in Nauvoo. Revised by Joseph Smith in comparison to the original manuscript.[279] Facsimiles of an original 1840 edition.	link
Young, Kimball and Pratt	1841	"First European edition". 1837 reprint with British spellings.[279] Future LDS Church editions descended from this, not the 1840 edition.[291]
Joseph Smith Jr.	1842	"Fourth American edition" in Nauvoo. A reprint of the 1840 edition. Facsimiles of an original 1842 edition.
Franklin D. Richards	1852	"Third European edition". Edited by Richards. Introduced primitive verses (numbered paragraphs).[279]	link
James O. Wright	1858	Unauthorized reprinting of 1840 edition. Used by the early RLDS Church in 1860s.[279]	link
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints	1874	First RLDS edition. 1840 text with verses.[279]	link
Deseret News	1879	Edited by Orson Pratt. Introduced footnotes, new verses, and shorter chapters.[279]	link
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints	1908	"Authorized Version". New verses and corrections based on printer's manuscript.[279]	link
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	1920	Edited by James E. Talmage. Added introductions, double columns, chapter summaries, new footnotes,[279] pronunciation guide.[292]	link

Non-print editions[]

The following versions are published online:

Online editions	Year	Description and notes	Link
Restoration Edition "New Covenants"	2019	The New Testament and Book of Mormon are published in one book. "It is not the will of the Lord to print any of the new Translation in the [Evening and Morning] Star; but when it is published, it will all go to the world together, in a volume by itself; and the New Testament and the Book of Mormon will be printed together."– Joseph Smith Jr. Letter, April 21, 1833. Also available in PDF	link
LDS Church internet edition	2013	Official Internet edition of the Book of Mormon for the LDS Church.	link
LDS Church audio edition	1994	Official LDS version of the Book of Mormon in mp3 audio format, 32 kbit/s	link

Textual criticism[]

Although some earlier unpublished studies had been prepared, not until the early 1970s was true textual criticism applied to the Book of Mormon. At that time BYU Professor Ellis Rasmussen and his associates were asked by the LDS Church to begin preparation for a new edition of the church's scriptures. One aspect of that effort entailed digitizing the text and preparing appropriate footnotes, another aspect required establishing the most dependable text. To that latter end, Stanley R. Larson (a Rasmussen graduate student) set about applying modern text critical standards to the manuscripts and early editions of the Book of Mormon as his thesis project—which he completed in 1974. Larson carefully examined the original manuscript (the one dictated by Joseph Smith to his scribes) and the printer's manuscript (the copy Oliver Cowdery prepared for the printer in 1829–1830), and compared them with the first, second, and third editions of the Book of Mormon; this was done to determine what sort of changes had occurred over time and to make judgments as to which readings were the most original.^[293] Larson proceeded to publish a set of well-argued articles on the phenomena which he had discovered.^[294] Many of his observations were included as improvements in the 1981 LDS edition of the Book of Mormon.

By 1979, with the establishment of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) as a California non-profit research institution, an effort led by Robert F. Smith began to take full account of Larson's work and to publish a critical text of the Book of Mormon. Thus was born the FARMS Critical Text Project which published the first volume of the three-volume Book of Mormon Critical Text in 1984. The third volume of that first edition was published in 1987, but was already being superseded by a second, revised edition of the entire work,^[295] greatly aided through the advice and assistance of a team that included Yale doctoral candidate Grant Hardy, Dr. Gordon C. Thomasson, Professor John W. Welch (the head of FARMS), and Professor Royal Skousen. However, these were merely preliminary steps to a far more exacting and all-encompassing project.

In 1988, with that preliminary phase of the project completed, Skousen took over as editor and head of the FARMS Critical Text of the Book of Mormon Project and proceeded to gather still scattered fragments of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon and to have advanced photographic techniques applied to obtain fine readings from otherwise unreadable pages and fragments.^[296] He also closely examined the printer's manuscript (then owned by RLDS Church) for differences in types of ink or pencil, in order to determine when and by whom they were made. He also collated the various editions of the Book of Mormon down to the present to see what sorts of changes have been made through time.^[297]

Skousen and the Critical Text Project have published complete transcripts of the Original and Printer's Manuscripts (volumes I and II), parts of a history of the text (volume III), and a six-part analysis of textual variants (volume IV).^{[298][299][300][301]} The remainder of the eigh-part history of the text and a complete electronic collation of editions and manuscripts (volumes 5 of the Project) remain forthcoming.^[298][302] In 2009, Yale University published an edition of the Book of Mormon which incorporates all aspects of Skousen's research.^[303]

Differences between the original and printer's manuscript, the 1830 printed version, and modern versions of the Book of Mormon have led some critics to claim that evidence has been systematically removed that could have proven that Smith fabricated the Book of Mormon, or are attempts to hide embarrassing aspects of the church's past.^[65][66] Latter-day Saint scholars view the changes as superficial, done to clarify the meaning of the text.^[304][267]

Non-English translations[]

The LDS version of the Book of Mormon has been translated into 83 languages and selections have been translated into an additional 25 languages. In 2001, the LDS Church reported that all or part of the Book of Mormon was available in the native language of 99 percent of Latter-day Saints and 87 percent of the world's total population.^[305]

Translations into languages without a tradition of writing (e.g., Kaqchikel, Tzotzil) have been published as audio recordings and as transliterations with Latin characters.^[306] Translations into American Sign Language are available as video recordings.^{[307][308][309]}

Typically, translators are members of the LDS Church who are employed by the church and translate the text from the original English. Each manuscript is reviewed several times before it is approved and published.^[310]

In 1998, the LDS Church stopped translating selections from the Book of Mormon and announced that instead each new translation it approves will be a full edition.^[310]

Representations in media[]

Events of the Book of Mormon are the focus of several LDS Church films, including The Life of Nephi (1915), How Rare a Possession (1987) and The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd (2000). Such films in Mormon cinema (i.e., films not officially commissioned by the LDS Church) include The Book of Mormon Movie, Vol. 1: The Journey (2003) and Passage to Zarahemla (2007).

Second Nephi 9:20–27 from the Book of Mormon is quoted in a funeral service in Alfred Hitchcock's film Family Plot.

In 2003, a South Park episode titled "All About Mormons" parodied the origins of the Book of Mormon.^[311]

In 2011, a long-running religious satire musical titled The Book of Mormon, written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone in collaboration with Robert Lopez, premiered on Broadway, winning nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical.^[312] Its London production won the Olivier Award for best musical. Though it is titled The Book of Mormon, musical does not depict Book of Mormon events, though characters do make references to the content of the Book of Mormon.^[313] Its plot tells an original story about Latter-day Saint missionaries in the twenty-first century.^[313]

In 2019, the LDS Church began producing a series of live-action adaptations of various stories within the Book of Mormon, titled Book of Mormon Videos, which it distributed on its website and YouTube channel.^{[314][315][316]}

Distribution[]

The LDS Church, which distributes free copies of the Book of Mormon, reported in 2011 that 150 million copies of the book have been printed since its initial publication.^[317]

The initial printing of the Book of Mormon in 1830 produced 5000 copies.^[318] The 50 millionth copy was printed in 1990, with the 100 millionth following in 2000 and reaching 150 million in 2011.^[318]

In October 2020, the church announced it had printed over 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon.^[174]

Literary criticism[]

This article is missing information about further criticism (positive or negative). Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (July 2018)

The Book of Mormon has occasionally been analyzed in a non-religious context for its literary merits.

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, Chapter XVI

Non-Mormons attempting psychiatric analyses [of Joseph Smith] have been content to pin a label upon the youth and have ignored his greatest creative achievement because they found it dull. Dull it is, in truth, but not formless, aimless, or absurd. Its structure shows elaborate design, its narrative is spun coherently, and it demonstrates throughout a unity of purpose. Its matter is drawn directly from the American frontier, from the impassioned revivalist sermons, the popular fallacies about Indian origin, and the current political crusades.

— Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History, (New York, 1945), pp. 68-69

Terryl Givens wrote,

Searching for literary wonders in the Book of Mormon is a bit like seeking lyrical inspiration in the books of Chronicles or Judges. The Book of Mormon is a work of substantial complexity, however, with numerous well-spun narratives subsumed with a larger comprehensive vision. There is a neat symmetry to the Bible as we have received it.^[319]

Grant Hardy wrote,

The Book of Mormon began as 588 densely printed pages in 1830, and the current official edition (reformatted with substantial grammatical editing) still runs to 531 pages. In some ways this is surprising. If the primary purpose of the Book of Mormon were to function as a sign—as tangible evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God—that mission could have been accomplished much more concisely. A fifty page book delivered by an angel is no less miraculous than a thick volume; it's the heavenly messenger part that makes it hard to believe.^[320]

True or not, the Book of Mormon is a powerful epic written on a grand scale with a host of characters, a narrative of human struggle and conflict, of divine intervention, heroic good and atrocious evil, of prophecy, morality, and law. Its narrative structure is complex. The idiom is that of the King James Version, which most Americans assumed to be appropriate for divine revelation.... The Book of Mormon should rank among the great achievements of American literature, but it has never been accorded the status it deserves, since Mormons deny Joseph Smith's authorship, and non-Mormons, dismissing the work as a fraud, have been more likely to riducule than to read it.

— Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848, Pg. 314

In 2019, Oxford University published Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon.^{[321][322][323]}

See also[]

• Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
• List of Gospels
• Mulek
• Studies of the Book of Mormon

References[]

Citations

Sources

Further reading[]

External links[]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Book of Mormon (1830 Edition)

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• Book of Mormon (the current official edition of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
• Project Gutenberg has the full text of the Book of Mormon in various formats (LDS chapters and numbering)
• RLDS 1908 Book of Mormon (RLDS chapters and numbering)
• The Book of Mormon; An Account Written By the Hand of Mormon Upon Plates Taken From the Plates of Nephi. From the Collections at the Library of Congress
• Photocopies and transcription of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon by the Joseph Smith Papers project