Book of Mormon historicity

From FAIRMormon

This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.

Contents 1 Question 1.1 Source(s) of the Criticism 2 Answer 3 Further reading 3.1 FAIR wiki articles 3.2 FAIR web site 3.3 Video 3.4 External links 3.5 Printed material

Question

Lately there has been increasing controversy among various academics regarding the veracity of the Book of Mormon's historical accounts. Several efforts have been made to "prove" that what the Book of Mormon has to say about the history of the new world cannot possibly have been the case. I even have some LDS friends whose faith seems to be shaken by the idea that the Book of Mormon may not be, in all respects, literally true.

And now my question: Does it really matter? Does the Church actually have some doctrine that requires its members to believe in the literalness of every word in the Book of Mormon? Other Christian religions, it seems to me, make room for members who see, for example, the creation story of Adam and Eve as a profound metaphor, a way of explaining the ultimate truth of the creation without requiring any definite belief in the literalness of the story as it comes down to us in Genesis.

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Anthony A. Hutchinson, “A Mormon Midrash? LDS Creation Narratives Reconsidered," Dialogue 21:4 (1988): 11–74.
• Anthony A. Hutchinson, "The Word of God Is Enough: The Book of Mormon as Nineteenth-Century Scripture," New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, edited by Brent Lee Metcalfe, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993), 1–29.
• Brent Lee Metcalfe, "Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity," Dialogue 26:3 (1993): 153–184
• Simon Southerton, Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2004) 206–207. ( Index of claims )
• David P. Wright, "A Continuing Journey," Sunstone 16:5 (July 1993): 12–14.
• David P. Wright, "Historical Criticism: A Necessary Element in the Search for Religious Truth," Sunstone 16:3 (September 1992): 28–38.

Answer

There is a fundamental difference between the Bible and the Book of Mormon that influences how we look at this issue. The Bible is a religious library that comes from many different sources, many different places and times. So you might disagree with a literal understanding of the portrayal of the creation from Genesis, but you might accept other events as reported in the Bible, such as the Assyrian conquest or the Babylonian captivity. In the case of the Book of Mormon, it all funnels through Joseph Smith, so if it is simply Joseph's creation, then none of it is historical.

Beyond this, the same issues are shared between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. The Book of Mormon discusses in places the process by which it was compiled. Some parts of the text (those books found at the beginning of the published Book of Mormon) claim to have been written by their authors without editing or copying by others. Other portions claim to be compilations of earlier sources and records, often hundreds and even thousands of years after the original accounts had been written. Some of these are not just compilations, but translations of earlier records. In this fashion, the Book of Mormon is no different than the Bible, and when taken as a literary text, can be viewed and read with the same kinds of literary criticism to which the Bible is exposed. Parts of the text of the Book of Mormon can be viewed as more literally accurate than other parts. To use the example from the question, the Book of Mormon, like the Bible, discusses Adam and Eve. Members who feel that the Adam and Eve narrative is more metaphorical as it is portrayed in the Bible will probably also approach the text of the Book of Mormon in the same fashion.

Does that ultimately matter? Some people have tried to make the case that historicity doesn’t matter at all, analogizing for instance to the parables of Jesus. Of course, the parables were put forward as parables, not as actual history, so that analogy breaks down pretty quickly.

Most Latter-day Saints have taken the view that the power of the message of the Book of Mormon would be lost if it were not in fact an historical document. If it is just a long, ahistorical allegory, then its influence would be severely truncated. If the Book of Mormon isn't what it claims to be, then we may as well close up shop and go home.

The Lord went to extreme lengths to show the Book of Mormon was indeed historical. In his first written account of Moroni's visits, Joseph said as clearly as he possibly could that

an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and...revealed unto me that in the town of Manchester Ontario County N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was engraven by Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days and deposited by the commandments of God and kept by the power thereof and that I should go and get them.

This is the foundation of the Restoration, important enough that the Lord called eleven witnesses of the plates, with "historicity" being a key element of their testimonies. Considering the fact that three of the standard works proclaim the Book of Mormon to be historical, this can hardly be considered a side issue. Some would argue that denying the historicity of the Book of Mormon is denying a fundamental doctrine of the Church.

LDS members may disagree in the details. Some may well believe that certain narratives are present to serve a rhetorical purpose and were not intended to portray a literal and completely accurate historical presentation. And usually, differences in opinion at this level have little impact (if any at all) on a person's membership and ability to function at any level within the Church.

If someone comes to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon is not historical at all, is there a place for him in the Church? Probably. We cast a very broad net. That person cannot go around teaching his heterodox views on the subject, but if he is willing to keep them to himself, he can be a contributing, active member of the Church, simply bracketing the historicity issue.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

• Book of Mormon and DNA evidence
• Book of Mormon "anachronisms"
• Book of Mormon witnesses

Book of Mormon authorship theories

• Authorship theories (Summary page)
  • Automatic writing
  • Epilepsy
  • Joseph Smith as "author and proprietor"
  • Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision
  • Seer stones, use of
  • Wordprint studies

Book of Mormon plagiarism accusations—wiki articles

• Plagiarism accusations (Summary page)
  • Apocrypha
  • The King James Bible
  • The Golden Pot
  • The Westminster Confession
  • The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed by Josiah Priest
  • The Spalding manuscript
  • View of the Hebrews
  • North American place names
  • The Comoros Islands and Moroni

Book of Mormon Geography

• Book of Mormon geography
  • Statements made by LDS leaders
    • First Presidency Letter
  • Old World
  • New World
    • Hemispheric geography theory (HGT)
    • Limited geography theory (LGT)
      • Plates to New York
      • Great Lakes geography?
      • DNA and geographic issues
        • Haplotype X2a?
    • Demographics and Population sizes
    • Lamanites in the Doctrine and Covenants
    • Book of Mormon and the Mound Builders
    • Zarahemla near Nauvoo?
    • Zelph
    • Place names from Joseph's environment?
      • Comoros Islands and Moroni
• New World geography models in table form
• Historicity of Book of Mormon
• Archaeology and the Bible

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: Environmental influences FAIR link
  
• FAIR Topical Guide: Textual issues FAIR link
  
• Brant A. Gardner, "The Case for Historicity: Discerning the Book of Mormon's Production Culture" FAIR link
• Brant A. Gardner, "The Gadianton Robbers in Mormon's Theological History: Their Structural Role and Plausible Identification” FAIR link

Video

The Case for Historicity: Discerning the Book of Mormon's Production Culture , Brant Gardner, 2004 FAIR Conference

• The Case for Historicity

External links

• William J. Hamblin, "The Latest Straw Man," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4/2 (1995): 82–92. off-site PDF link wiki
• William J. Hamblin, "An Apologist for the Critics: Brent Lee Metcalfe's Assumptions and Methodologies (Review of Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity by Brent Lee Metcalfe)," FARMS Review of Books 6/1 (1994): 434–523. off-site PDF link
• Louis Midgley, "Atheists and Cultural Mormons Promote a Naturalistic Humanism (Review of Religion, Femminism, and Freedom of Conscience: A Mormon/Humanist Dialogue by George D. Smith," FARMS Review of Books 7/1 (1995): 229–297. off-site PDF link
• Louis Midgley, "The Current Battle over the Book of Mormon: Review of The Word of God Is Enough: The Book of Mormon as Nineteenth-Century Scripture by Anthony A. Hutchinson," FARMS Review of Books 6/1 (1994): 200–254. off-site PDF link
• Dallin H. Oaks, "The Historicity of the Book of Mormon" off-site

Printed material

• C. Wilfred Griggs, "The Book of Mormon as an Ancient Book," in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds and Charles D. Tate (eds.), (Provo, Utah : Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University ; Salt Lake City, Utah : Distributed by Bookcraft, 1996 [1982]), 75–94. ISBN 0884944697 GospeLink GL direct link
• William J. Hamblin, "The Final Step," Sunstone (Issue #91) (July 1993): 11–12. off-site off-site
• Paul Y Hoskisson (editor), Historicity and the Latter–Day Saint Scriptures, (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001), ISBN 1577349288.
• Louis Midgley, "The Challenge of Historical Consciousness: Mormon History and the Encounter with Secular Modernity," in By Study and Also By Faith, 2 volumes, edited by John M. Lundquist, Stephen D. Ricks, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1990), 2: 502–551.
• Louis Midgley, "The Acids of Modernity and the Crisis in Mormon Historiography," in Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History, edited by George D. Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 189–225.
  Most of this volume takes the opposite view.
• Gary F. Novak, "Naturalistic Assumptions and the Book of Mormon," Brigham Young University Studies 30:3 (1990): 23–40. GL direct link

Selected general works on Book of Mormon historicity

• Alan Goff, "Historical Narrative, Literary Narrative—Expelling Poetics from the Republic of History," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5/1 (1996): 50–102. off-site PDF link wiki
• Paul Y. Hoskisson (ed.), Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001). ISBN 1577349288
• Robert L. Millet, "The Book of Mormon, Historicity, and Faith," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2/2 (1993): 1–3. off-site PDF link wiki
• Hugh W. Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, 3rd edition, (Vol. 6 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by John W. Welch, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), 1. ISBN 0875791387. GospeLink
• Hugh W. Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, the World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites, edited by John W. Welch with Darrell L. Matthew and Stephen R. Callister, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), 1. ISBN 0875791328. off-site GospeLink
• Hugh W. Nibley, The Prophetic Book of Mormon (Vol. 8 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1989), 1. ISBN 0875791794. GospeLink
• Hugh W. Nibley, Since Cumorah, 2nd edition, (Vol. 7 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by John W. Welch, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), 1. ISBN 0875791395. GospeLink
• Multiple, "All," in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds and Charles D. Tate (eds.), (Provo, Utah : Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University ; Salt Lake City, Utah : Distributed by Bookcraft, 1996 [1982]), 1. ISBN 0884944697 GospeLink
• Multiple, "All," Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds, (Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997), 1 ISBN 093489325X ISBN 0934893187 ISBN 0884944697. off-site GospeLink
• Multiple, "All" in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 1. ISBN 0875793002. GospeLink
• Multiple, "All," in Stephen D. Ricks & John W. Welch (editors), Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5 (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994), 1. ISBN 0875797679. GospeLink
• John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1996 [1985]), all. ISBN 1573451576. GospeLink
• John L. Sorenson, "Digging into the Book of Mormon: Our Changing Understanding of Ancient America and Its Scripture, Part 1," Ensign (September 1984): 27. off-site
• John L. Sorenson, "Digging into the Book of Mormon: Our Changing Understanding of Ancient America and Its Scripture, Part 2," Ensign (October 1984): 17. off-site
• John L. Sorenson, Mormon's Map (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2000), 1. ISBN 0934893489.
• Multiple, "All" in John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (eds.), Rediscovering the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Co. ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 1. ISBN 0875793878. off-site GospeLink
• Multiple, "All," in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch, (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992), 1–{{{end}}}. ISBN 0875796001 off-site FAIR link GospeLink