Posted in Book of Mormon Books Doctrine Evidence history Origins Problems Repentance Scholarship Scripture Translation

A Simple Example from the Book of Mormon Showing Why Scholarship Is Needed

Many Latter-day Saints seem unaware of the great body of scholarship that can strengthen faith and understanding for members of the Church and those exploring it. Such scholarship can be…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Book of Mormon Evidence history Origins Problems Scholarship Translation

New Scholarship on the Influence of the Small Plates on Mormon’s Writings

One of the things that fascinates me in my role as a co-editor for the Interpreter Foundation’s journal, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, is seeing how…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Ancient Near East Antiquity Asia Book of Mormon Critics Evidence Origins Problems

Plagiarism Made Harder, or, The Book of Ether and the Genius of Joseph’s Plagiarism

Students of the Book of Mormon have long noted that the brief book of Ether is quite different in its content and style than the rest of the Book of…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Book of Mormon Evidence Problems Scholarship Science

An Update, Barely, on Barley

A Dec. 23, 2019 news release from Washington University in St. Louis reports new research results about the “lost crops” of North America that could have been more productive than…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Ancient Near East Book of Mormon Evidence language Origins Problems

Romancing the Rio Wreck: Evidence for Ancient Transoceanic Contact in the Americas vs. a Romantic Notion of Peer Review

As a Ph.D. linguist providing his peer-review of Brian Stubbs’ work on linguistic evidence of ancient Old World contact with the Americas as evidence by the Uto-Aztecan language family, Dr….

Continue Reading...
Posted in Book of Mormon Problems Translation

Feeling Blue About the Red Sea in the Book of Mormon?

Criticism about the Book of Mormon’s references to the Red Sea came up in some recent comments, so I thought I’d share a couple of perspectives that might be helpful…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Book of Mormon Problems Scholarship Scripture Translation

The Last Section of the Words of Mormon May Be Part of the Book of Mosiah

The Book of Mosiah begins in a puzzling way relative to the other books before it. For a book that is supposed to be connected to Mosiah, it starts with…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Book of Mormon Critics Evidence Family Origins Problems Scholarship Witnesses

Joseph the Amusing Teller of Tall Tales: Lucy Mack Smith’s Puzzling Statement in Perspective

One of the pillars of disbelief for critics of the Book of Mormon is the notion that Joseph Smith was well known as an imaginative story teller. He was allegedly…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Ancient Near East Book of Mormon Critics Evidence Problems Scholarship Scripture

A Rookie Mistake in Forging an Ancient Document

Biblical Archaeology Review just shared an interesting story on a purportedly ancient Jewish document. As reported in October 2016, a papyrus mentioning the city of “Jerusalem,” “the king,” and “jars…

Continue Reading...
Posted in Book of Mormon Evidence history Mesoamerica Problems Scholarship

In Defense of Dr. John E. Clark’s “Ludicrous” Assessment of Early Criticism of the Book of Mormon

Dr. John E. Clark’s presentation on archaeology and the Book of Mormon, the subject of a recent post here, has been taken to task by one of our critics for…

Continue Reading...