Who wrote the least amount of words in the book of mormon

How the book of mormon was translated let us reason. Mormons who use his words as evidence that the book of mormon has this same familiar spirit, are bearing witness to witchcraft, sorcery which god forbids. The book of mormon that follows 4 nephi is split into mormon 17, which is credited to the nephite prophet mormon, and mormon 89, which is an appendix to the book credited to his son moroni. They compared twentyfour book of mormon authors each having at least 1,000 words to each other, and concluded on the basis of three separate statistical tests that these authors were distinct from each other and oliver cowdery, joseph smith, jr. The most common belief of adherents is that promoted by joseph smith, who said he translated ancient golden plates inscribed by prophets. At the beginning of the words of mormon, written in approximately ad 385, mormon tells us that he is about to turn the record he has been making over to his son moroni. Could joseph smith have written the book of mormon. If so, his words align well not only with the words of ammon, both almas, and king benjamin, but also with nephis commandments about keeping the smallplate record and with mormons statement that omni was a prophet see words of mormon 1. As a coauthor of the 1977 work who really wrote the book of mormon. Howe suggested, basing himself on witnesses collected by doctor hurlbut, that the book of. Besides such inclusions as lord and god and all the thees, thys, and thous, most of the words are pretty commonly used. In other words, joseph smith recited the book of mormon when he was in his. The prophets who wrote the book of omni interpreter.

Lets say that joseph smith wrote the book of mormon. See book of mormon central, why did the book of mormon come forth as a miracle. The words of mormon contains editorial commentary by mormon. An account written by the hand of mormon upon plates taken from the plates of nephi. Take the creators of south park and the composer of avenue q. The book of mormon is a complex book covering a variety of historical, religious, political, and military events in a variety of ancient communities.

Opponents of the book have claimed that joseph smith wrote it himself, or that an accomplice such as solomon spaulding or sidney rigdon penned it and somehow transferred it to joseph smith. Weve all heard the story of solomon spaulding, that he wrote several romances, and that at least one of them was written in the ancient style, according to witnesses. Is it possible that a single author wrote the book of mormon. At some point in your doorstep dialogue, these earnest young men will ask you to accept a copy of the book of mormon, read it, and pray about it, asking the lord to send the holy ghost to witness that it is true.

Criticism of mormonismbookswho really wrote the book of. The book of mormon joseph smith explained, the titlepage of the book of. Since the total number of missing words is unknown, the 1830 book of. The book of mormon claims to be the original writings of nephite leaders in. These books bring the small plates to a conclusion. In total, the book of mormon contains 28 distinct voices that are. Early in the book of mormon, the lehite tribes are numbered at seven, consisting of the nephites, jacobites, josephites, zoramites, lamanites, lemuelites, and ishmaelites. Joseph smith was a con man who was brought before the bar of justice in 1826 for engaging in a confidence scheme. Why would god choose an uneducated man to translate the.

I speak somewhat concerning that which i have written. Top basic words and phrases unique to mormonism august 30, 2012 in mormon culture tags. Assuming twenty words per minutewhich may be on the fast side the time it would take to dictate and transcribe these individual sections computes to another 306 minutes, or at least five hours, or close to one more full day, allowing time for stopping, discussing, and interviewing and seeking, receiving, recording, and. The book of mormon is a sacred text of the latter day saint movement, which adherents. The sorry tale, a 325,000 word book 50,000 words longer than the book of mormon of the life of a parallel christ was written in 108 days, a rate of 3,000 words per evening. Ap the book of mormon, which they wrote with robert lopez, exemplifies the pairs skill. Lots of answers here with an incredible amount of evidence.

The book of mormon is a sacred text of the latter day saint movement, which, according to adherents, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the american continent from approximately 2200 bc to ad 421. Then, very solemnly, theyll testify to you that they. The work in question is who really wrote the book of mormon. The total number of words in these thirteen revelations is 6,124. Introducing the book of mormon for the least of these by. Previous studies have shown that the book of mormon contains multiple. The book of mormon is a musical comedy with music, lyrics and book by trey parker, robert lopez, and matt stone first staged in 2011, the play is a satirical examination of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints beliefs and practices that ultimately endorses the positive power of love and service. Book of mormon, the lyrics song lyrics for musical.

Most adherents to the latter day saint movement view the book as a work of inspired scripture. When using the mosian priority to analyze the book of mormon, words drift consistently from mosiah to moroni, and then back to 1 nephi through words of mormon as would be expected if a single author had written the book of mormon. Title word count age when published year published author the house without. Smith, who was the least educated and experienced of them all. I took the text of the book of mormon not including chapter summaries that were added later and ran each book through a program that looks at everything from the mostused words and phrases in the text to its level of readability, number of characters, longest sentence captain moroni holds the record with a sentence of 5 words in alma 60. I speak somewhat concerning that which i have written cheryl brown. Several studies are underway to examine distinctive words and phrases in the book of mormon. We compared these two using word frequencies for the portions available in the book of mormon. There are at least185 quotations and 2,500 unique vocabulary words from the new testame. Parker and stone were best known for creating the animated comedy south park. Response to claims made in who really wrote the book of mormon. Howard davis and arthur vanick, recently published by concordia, the highly respected publishing arm of the lutheran church missouri synod. The spalding enigma, our authors set out to accomplish a monumental task.

For the lord god hath said that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead. If the rest of the book of mormon history were written as briefly as these four books, the book of mormon would be a 20 page pamphlet instead of a 531 page book. Davis has made numerous public lecture and media appearances on the subject. Book of mormon wordprints reexamined a look at the byu. The remaining nine verses simply provide a word bridge needed to carry the history down to the time of king benjamin. It was first published in march 1830 by joseph smith as the book of mormon. When oliver wrote it down, he would then repeat it back to joseph to see if it was correct. The book of mormon text contains logical impossibilities.

Careful analysis shows that the book of mormon depends on the kjv itself, rather than independent sources from the brass plates for the old or the words of jesus for the new. The book of mormon contains confessions of other prophets that are similar to those of omni and alma. By this stage, patience had dispensed with the ouija board, and transmitted her thoughts directly to mrs currans pen. The amount of original material in these was less than 30% at best. The book of mormon appears to do this very thing in at least three instances. This cluster analysis was for the 24 book of mormon authors using one observation consisting of each authors total words combined. These writers include sidney rigdon, solomon spalding, w. The book of mormon is a sacred text of the latter day saint movement, which, according to. I would think, in regards to the having 74 of the same words as the bible version of this quiz, that most bookswritings in general would have a high concordance rate. The book of mormon has a number of original and distinctive doctrinal discussions.

An american, james adair, wrote a book a history of the american indians in 1775. The book of mormon is a second witness, confirming the validity of biblical doctrine and verifying the divinity of christ through the inspired words of other sheep in christs fold see john 10. Treasures await the pondering mind that contemplates virtually every word, idiom, figure of speech, or semantic value in the texts of this remarkable record. A readers guide, have attempted to move the discussion away from. Add solid musical storytelling, mormons, uganda, aids, a chorus line and a healthy amount of smut and you have the book of mormon. He subsequently brought forth the book of mormon as another confidence scheme. This is true even for the five in the book of omni, each of whom has at least one such statement the last of the. What it can reliably demonstrate, and what valid data from the above studies collectively argue, is that 1 the book of mormon was written in multiple, distinct authorship styles.

Book of mormon word count hi guys, ive never posted here but im working on a proposal for an article and it deals with word count of the book of mormon. Nephi wrote his words and created an expectation for keeping records so that everyone would be able to read of christ see 1nephi 6. The book of mormon quotes 25,000 words from the kjv old testament and over. It seems after reading these posts that the only possible answer is that the book of mormon happened just like joseph and others claim.

For the book of mormons literary complexity, see grant hardy, understanding the book of mormon. There are at least three instances in the book of mormon where evidence suggests that other writing materials were used. Virtually all other scholars and students of the book of mormon who have written commentary about the title page have reached exactly the same two conclusions. Even with access to these tapes, the researchers performed a prodigious amount of computer work which involved sorting words from the book of mormon and assigning them to authors. Many presentday bible scholars accept the theory that there were at least two authors of the book of isaiah.

Words of mormon mosiah alma helaman 3 nephi 4 nephi mormon ether moroni plates of mormon records compiled and abridged by mormon and moroni sealed portion not translated information in this chart was compiled from the preface and the text in the book of mormon. The words and phrases of the book of mormon are powerful and great ether 12. All forms of exegesis, or the critical interpretation of holy text, use some kind of personal interpretation, even if that personal lens goes unrecognized or unacknowledged. In my opinion, the evidence points to joseph smith being the sole author of the book of mormon. It attempted to prove that natives had descended from the ancient israelites. Proximity searches boolean searches browse the book of mormon main page.

The problem of book of mormon authorship has challenged historians and. Mormon scholars and apologists respond to the anachronisms in several ways. It should be understood that stylometry cannot prove that the book of mormon was written by multiple ancient american prophets. This book, the first in a trilogy, is a social justice exegesis of the first third of the book of mormon, from 1 nephi to the words of mormon. The book of mormons score of 1150 represents an eighthgrade reading level with a span between sixth and eleventh. There is much corroborative evidence that rigdon somehow procured one of spaldings manuscripts from a print shop in pittsburgh, at the time he lived there in 1822 or 23. Lest anyone be misled, this is a scholarly undertaking, not a religious work. The fourth column names the author of each book, ignoring selfnaming statements attributed to the writers or speakers of the sources that the. Smith claimed the angel moroni, a prophet in the book of mormon, directed him in the 1820s to a. Book of mormon numerology rational faiths mormon blog. The accounts contained in the books of enos, jarom, omni, and words of mormon span 350 years of nephite history. Although joseph smith used the words king of kings 228 times in the book of mosiah the book that precedes alma, he never mentioned a queen until the chapter in question, alma 19, and while it appears a number of times in the book of alma, it is not used in any of the other books found in the book of mormon, but is obviously taken from a.

What is the original language of the book of mormon. Words of mormon connects the small plates and the abridgment of the large plates. Additional convergences are found in the book of mormon account, including the destruction in 3 nephi 810, which is consistent with volcanic events accompanied by earthquakes. Each of the anachronisms is a word, phrase, artifact, or other concept that critics, historians, archaeologists, or linguists believe did not exist in the americas during the time period in which the book of mormon claims to have been written. This book sets out to show that joseph smith, far from translating the book of mormon from mysterious golden plates revealed to him by the angel moroni, actually plagiarized the book from a stolen manuscript. In the process of assigning words to authors, they assumed that when one author described a speech given by another, the first author quoted the second word for word. There are several theories as to the origin of the book of mormon.

The methodological errors in thinking book of mormon locations ought to be identified today are thoroughly and insightfully addressed in a 1993 article by william hamblin, entitled basic methodological problems with the antimormon approach to the geography and archaeology of the book of mormon journal of book of mormon studies 21 spring. Book of mormon 9 the fry graph plots the number of sentences per 100 words book of mormon is 2. The problem of book of mormon authorship has challenged historians and theologians since the book was published in 1830. According to brant gardner, what this small account w of m 1.

The book of mormons old testament portion bmot quotes heavily from the new testament of the bible. The book of mormon is nothing but straight fiction, with no basis whatsoever in reality. Words of mormon step by step through the book of mormon. The initial book of mormon wordprint studies were carried out by larsen, rencher, and layton. Internal evidence of widespread literacy in the book of mormon. Thats right, i looked at detailed information regarding the entire 1,417,809 characters, 267,931 words, 7,679. This book attempted to revive the moribund spalding manuscript theory for the book of mormon. The spalding enigma by wayne cowdery, howard davis, and donald scales summary. Each comparison is assessed based upon the number of rejections provided by the model. Moreover, previous stylometric studies have demonstrated that none of the 19th century writers usually suspected of authoring the book of mormon have writing samples that match any of its distinct styles. In these latter days, there are few people who havent been visited at least once by mormon missionaries. This conclusion from a genetic perspective supports a large amount of. Some mormon scholars, like grant hardy, who wrote understanding the book of mormon. The other nine books are attributed to two authors.