The Mormon Bible

The Mormon Bible,* both in a literary and a theological sense, is
just such a production as would be expected to result from
handing over to Smith and his fellow-"translators" a mass of
Spaulding's material and new doctrinal matter for collation and
copying. Not one of these men possessed any literary skill or
accurate acquaintance with the Scriptures. David Whitmer, in an
interview in Missouri in his later years, said, "So illiterate
was Joseph at that time that he didn't know that Jerusalem was a
walled city, and he was utterly unable to pronounce many of the
names that the magic power of the Urim and Thummim revealed."
Chronology, grammar, geography, and Bible history were alike
ignored in the work. An effort was made to correct some of these
errors in the early days of the church, and Smith speaks of doing
some of this work himself at Nauvoo. An edition issued there in
1842 contains on the title-page the words, "Carefully revised by
the translator." Such corrections have continued to the present
day, and a comparison of the latest Salt Lake edition with the
first has shown more than three thousand changes.

* The title of this Bible is "The Book of Mormon"; but as one of
its subdivisions is a Book of Mormon, I use the title "Mormon
Bible," both to avoid confusion and for convenience.


The person who for any reason undertakes the reading of this book
sets before himself a tedious task. Even the orthodox Mormons
have found this to be true, and their Bible has played a very
much less considerable part in the church worship than Smith's
"revelations" and the discourses of their preachers. Referring to
Orson Pratt's* labored writings on this Bible, Stenhouse says,
"Of the hundreds of thousands of witnesses to whom God has
revealed the truth of the 'Book of Mormon,' Pratt knows full well
that comparatively few indeed have ever read that book, know
little or nothing intelligently of its contents, and take little
interest in it."** An examination of its contents is useful,
therefore, rather as a means of proving the fraudulent character
of its pretension to divine revelation than as a means of
ascertaining what the members of the Mormon church are taught.

* Orson Pratt was a clerk in a store in Hiram, Ohio, when he was
converted to Mormonism. He seems to have been a natural student,
and he rose to prominence in the church, being one of the first
to expound and defend the Mormon Bible and doctrines, holding a
professorship in Nauvoo University, publishing works on the
higher mathematics, and becoming one of the Twelve Apostles.

** "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 553.


The following page(omitted in this etext) presents a facsimile of
the title-page of the first edition of this Bible. The editions
of to-day substitute "Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun.," for "By
Joseph Smith, junior, author and proprietor."

The first edition contains 588 duodecimo pages, and is divided
into 15 books which are named as follows: "First Book of Nephi,
his reign and ministry," 7 chapters; "Second Book of Nephi," 15
chapters; "Book of Jacob, the Brother of Nephi," 5 chapters;
"Book of Enos," 1 chapter; "Book of Jarom," 1 chapter; "Book of
Omni," 1 chapter; "Words of Mormon," 1 chapter; "Book of Mosiah,"
13 chapters; "Book of Alma, a Son of Alma," 30 chapters; "Book of
Helaman," 5 chapters; "Third Book of Nephi, the Son of Nephi,
which was the son of Helaman," 14 chapters; "Fourth Book of
Nephi, which is the Son of Nephi, one of the Disciples of Jesus
Christ," 1 chapter; "Book of Mormon," 4 chapters; "Book of
Ether," 6 chapters; "Book of Moroni," 10 chapters. The chapters
in the first edition were not divided into verses, that work,
with the preparation of the very complete footnote references in
the later editions, having been performed by Orson Pratt.

The historical narrative that runs through the book is so
disjointedly arranged, mixed up with doctrinal parts, and
repeated, that it is not easy to unravel it. The following
summary of it is contained in a letter to Colonel John Wentworth
of Chicago, signed by Joseph Smith, Jr., which was printed in
Wentworth's Chicago newspaper and also in the Mormon Times and
Seasons of March 1, 1842:--

"The history of America is unfolded from its first settlement by
a colony that came from the Tower of Babel at the confusion of
languages, to the beginning of the 5th century of the Christian
era. We are informed by these records that America in ancient
times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The
first were called Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower of
Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem
about 600 years before Christ. They were principally Israelites
of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about
the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded
them in the inhabitance of the country. The principal nation of
the second race fell in battle toward the close of the fourth
century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this
country."

This history purports to have been handed down, on metallic
plates, from one historian to another, beginning with Nephi, from
the time of the departure from Jerusalem. Finally (4 Nephi i. 48,
49*), the people being wicked, Ammaron, by direction of the Holy
Ghost, hid these sacred records "that they might come again unto
the remnant of the house of Jacob."

* All references to the Mormon Bible by chapter and verse refer
to Salt Lake City edition of 1888.


To bring the story down to a comparatively recent date, and
account for the finding of the plates by Smith, the Book of
Mormon was written by the "author." This subdivision is an
abridgment of the previous records. It relates that Mormon, a
descendant of Nephi, when ten years old, was told by Ammaron
that, when about twenty-four years old, he should go to the place
where the records were hidden, take only the plates of Nephi, and
engrave on them all the things he had observed concerning the
people. The next year Mormon was taken by his father, whose name
also was Mormon, to the land of Zarahemla, which had become
covered with buildings and very populous, but the people were
warlike and wicked. Mormon in time, "seeing that the Lamanites
were about to overthrow the land," took the records from their
hiding place. He himself accepted the command of the armies of
the Nephites, but they were defeated with great slaughter, the
Lamanites laying waste their cities and driving them northward.

Finally Mormon sent a letter to the king of the Lamanites, asking
that the Nephites might gather their people "unto the land of
Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we would
give them battle." There, in the year 384 A.D., Mormon "made this
record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah
all the records which have been entrusted to me by the hand of
the Lord, save it were those few plates which I gave unto my son
Moroni."* This hill, according to the Mormon teaching, is the
hill near Palmyra, New York, where Smith found the plates, just
as Mormon had deposited them.

* Hyde gives a list of twenty-four additional plates mentioned in
this Bible which must still await digging up in the hill near
Palmyra.


In the battle which took place there the Nephites were
practically annihilated, and all the fugitives were killed except
Moroni, the son of Mormon, who undertook the completion of the
"record." Moroni excuses the briefness of his narrative by
explaining that he had not room in the plates, "and ore have I
none" (to make others). What he adds is in the nature of a
defence of the revealed character of the Mormon Bible and of
Smith's character as a prophet. Those, for instance, who say that
there are no longer "revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor
healing, nor speaking with tongues," are told that they know not
the Gospel of Christ and do not understand the Scriptures. An
effort is made to forestall criticism of the "mistakes" that are
conceded in the title-page dedication by saying, "Condemn me not
because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his
imperfection, neither them who have written before him" (Book of
Mormon ix. 31).

Evidently foreseeing that it would be asked why these "records,"
written by Jews and their descendants, were not in Hebrew, Mormon
adds (chap. ix. 32, 33):--

"And now behold, we have written this record according to our
knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the
reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according
to our manner of speech.

"And if our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have
written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also;
and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had
no imperfection in our record."

Few parts of this mythical Bible approached nearer to the
burlesque than this excuse for having descendants of the Jews
write in "reformed Egyptian."

The secular story of the ancient races running through this Bible
is so confused by the introduction of new matter by the "author"*
and by repetitions that it is puzzling to pick it out. The Book
of Ether was somewhat puzzling even to the early Mormons, and we
find Parley P. Pratt, in his analysis of it, printed in London in
1854, saying, "Ether SEEMS to have been a lineal descendant of
Jared."

*Professor Whitsitt, of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, in his article on Mormonism in
"The Concise Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, and Gazetteer"
(New York, 1891), divides the Mormon Bible into three sections,
viz.: the first thirteen books, presented as the works of Mormon;
the Book of Ether, with which Mormon had no connection; and the
fifteenth book," which was sent forth by the editor under the
name of Moroni. "He thus explains his view of the "editing" that
was done in the preparation of the work for publication:--

"The editor undertook to rewrite and recast the whole of the
abridgment (of Nephi's previous history), but his industry failed
him at the close of the Book of Omni. The first six books that he
had rewritten were given the names of the small plates.... The
book called the 'Words of Mormon' in the original work stood at
the beginning, as a sort of preface to the entire abridgment of
Mormon; but when the editor had rewritten the first six books, he
felt that these were properly his own performance, and the 'Words
of Mormon' were assigned a position just in front of the Book of
Mosiah, when the abstract of Mormon took its real
commencement....

"The question may now be raised as to who was the editor of the
Book of Mormon.... In its theological positions and coloring the
Book of Mormon is a volume of Disciple theology (this does not
include the later polygamous doctrine and other gross Mormon
errors). This conclusion is capable of demonstration beyond any
reasonable question. Let notice also be taken of the fact that
the Book of Mormon bears traces of two several redactions. It
contains, in the first redaction, that type of doctrine which the
Disciples held and proclaimed prior to November 18, 1827, when
they had not yet formally embraced what is commonly considered to
be the tenet of baptismal remission. It also contains the type of
doctrine which the Disciples have been defending since November
18, 1827, under the name of the ancient Gospel, of which the
tenet of socalled baptismal remission is a leading feature. All
authorities agree that Mr. Smith obtained possession of the work
on September 22, 1827, a period of nearly two months before the
Disciples concluded to embrace this tenet. The editor felt that
the Book of Mormon would be sadly incomplete if this notion were
not included. Accordingly, he found means to communicate with Mr.
Smith, and, regaining possession of certain portions of the
manuscript, to insert the new item.... Rigdon was the only
Disciple minister who vigorously and continuously demanded that
his brethren should adopt the additional points that have been
indicated."


Very concisely, this Bible story of the most ancient race that
came to America, the Jaredites, may be thus stated:--

This race, being righteous, were not punished by the Lord at
Babel, but were led to the ocean, where they constructed a vessel
by direction of the Lord, in which they sailed to North America.
According to the Book of Ether, there were eight of these
vessels, and that they were remarkable craft needs only the
description given of them to show: "They were built after a
manner that they were exceeding tight, even that they would hold
water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like
unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish;
and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight
like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a
tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto
a dish" (Book of Ether ii. 17). This description certainly
establishes the general resemblance of these barges to some kind
of a dish, but the rather careless comparison of their length
simply to that of a "tree" leaves this detail of construction
uncertain.

Just before they embarked in these vessels, a brother of Jared
went up on Mount Shelem, where the Lord touched sixteen small
stones that he had taken up with him, two of which were the Urim
and Thummim, by means of which Smith translated the plates. These
stones lighted up the vessels on their trip across the ocean.
Jared's brother was told by the spirit on the mount, "Behold, I
am Jesus Christ. "A footnote in the modern edition of this Bible
kindly explains that Jared's brother "saw the preexistent spirit
of Jesus."

When they landed (somewhere on the Isthmus of Darien), the Lord
commanded Nephi to make "plates of ore," on which should be
engraved the record of the people. This was the origin of Smith's
plates. In time this people divided themselves, under the
leadership of two of Lehi's sons--Nephi and Laman--into Nephites
and Lamanites (with subdivisions). The Lamanites, in the course
of two hundred years, had become dark in color and "wild and
ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people; full of idolatry and
filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents and
wandering about in the wilderness, with a short skin girdle about
their loins, and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the
bow and the cimeter and the ax" (Enos i, 2o). The Nephites, on
the other hand, tilled the land and raised flocks. Between the
two tribes wars waged, the Nephites became wicked, and in the
course of 320 years the worst of them were destroyed (Book of
Alma).

Then the Lord commanded those who would hearken to his voice to
depart with him to the wilderness, and they journeyed until they
came to the land of Zarahemla, which a footnote to the modern
edition explains "is supposed to have been north of the head
waters of the river Magdalena, its northern boundary being a few
days' journey south of the Isthmus" (of Darien). There they found
the people of Zarahemla, who had left Jerusalem when Zedekiah was
carried captive into Babylon. New teachers arose who taught the
people righteousness, and one of them, named Alma, led a company
to a place which was called Mormon, "where was a fountain of pure
water, and there Alma baptized the people. The Book of Alma, the
longest in this Bible, is largely an account of the secular
affairs of the inhabitants, with stories of great battles, a
prediction of the coming of Christ, and an account of a great
migration northward, and the building of ships that sailed in the
same direction.

Nephi describes the appearance of Christ to the people of the
western continent, preceded by a star, earthquakes, etc. On the
day of His appearance they heard "a small voice" out of heaven,
saying, "Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in
whom I have glorified my name; hear ye him." Then Christ appeared
and spoke to them, generally in the language of the New Testament
(repeating, for instance, the Sermon on the Mount*), and
afterward ascended into heaven in a cloud. The expulsion of the
Nephites northward, and their final destruction, in what is now
New York State, followed in the course of the next 384 years.

* In the Mormon version of this sermon the words, "If thy right
eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee," and "If thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee," are
lacking. The Deseret Evening News of February 21, 1900, in
explaining this omission, says that the report by Mormon of the
"discourse delivered by Jesus Christ to the Nephites on this
continent after his resurrection from the dead... may not be full
and complete."


There is throughout the book an imitation of the style of the
Holy Scriptures. Verse after verse begins with the words "and it
came to pass," as Spaulding's Ohio neighbors recalled that his
story did. The following extract, from 1 Nephi, chap. viii, will
give an illustration of the literary style of a large part of the
work:--

"1.. And it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner
of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of
the seeds of fruit of every kind.

"2. And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the
wilderness, he spake unto us, saying, Behold, I have dreamed a
dream; or in other words, I have seen a vision.

"3. And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I have
reason to rejoice in the Lord, because of Nephi and also of Sam;
for I have reason to suppose that they, and also many of their
seed, will be saved.

"4. But behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because of
you; for behold, methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary
wilderness.

"5. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a
white robe; and he came and stood before me.

"6. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow
him.

"7. And it came to pass that as I followed him, I beheld myself
that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

"8. And after I had travelled for the space of many hours in
darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy
on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.

"9. And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord, I
beheld a large and spacious field.

"10. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was
desirable to make one happy.

"11. And it came to pass that I did go forth, and partake of the
fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all
that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit
thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever
seen."

Whole chapters of the Scriptures are incorporated word for word.
In the first edition some of these were appropriated without any
credit; in the Utah editions they are credited. Beside these,
Hyde counted 298 direct quotations from the New Testament, verses
or sentences, between pages 2 to 428, covering the years from 600
B.C. to Christ's birth. Thus, Nephi relates that his father, more
than two thousand years before the King James edition of the
Bible was translated, in announcing the coming of John the
Baptist, used these words, "Yea, even he should go forth and cry
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his
paths straight; for there standeth one among you whom ye know
not; and he is mightier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not
worthy to unloose" (1 Nephi x. 8). In Mosiah v. 8, King Benjamin
is represented as saying, 124 years before Christ was born, "I
would that you should take upon you the name of Christ as there
is no other name given whereby salvation cometh."

The first Nephi represents John as baptizing in Bethabara (the
spelling is Beathabry in the Utah edition), and Alma announces
(vii. 10) that "the Son of God shall be born of Mary AT
JERUSALEM." Shakespeare is proved a plagiarist by comparing his
words with those of the second Nephi, who, speaking twenty-two
hundred years before Shakespeare was born, said (2 Nephi i. 14),
"Hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs you must soon
lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveller
can return."

The chapters of the Scriptures appropriated bodily, and the
places where they may be found, are as follows:--

First Edition Utah Edition

Isaiah xlviii and xlix pp. 52 to 56 1 Nephi, ch. xx, xxi Isaiah 1
and li ...pp. 76 2 Nephi, ch. vii Isaiah lii .... . pp. 498 3
Nephi, ch. xx Isaiah liv .... . pp. 501, 502 3 Nephi, ch. xx
Isaiah ii to xiv . . pp. 86 to 101 2 Nephi, ch. xii to xxiv
Malachi iii, iv ... pp. 503 to 505 3 Nephi, ch. xxiv, xxv Matthew
v, vi, vii . .pp. 479 to 483 3 Nephi, ch. xii to xix 1
Corinthians xiii ... pp. 580 Moroni, ch. vii

Among the many anachronisms to be found in the book may be
mentioned the giving to Laban of a sword with a blade "of the
most precious steel" (1 Nephi iv. 9), centuries before the use of
steel is elsewhere recorded. and the possession of a compass by
the Jaredites when they sailed across the ocean (Alma xxxvii.
38), long before the invention of such an instrument. The ease
with which such an error could be explained is shown in the
anecdote related of a Utah Mormon who, when told that the compass
was not known in Bible times, responded by quoting Acts xxviii.
13, where Paul says, "And from thence we fetched a compass." When
Nephi and his family landed in Central America" there were beasts
in the forest of every kind, both the cow, and the ox, and the
ass, and the horse" (ix Nephi xviii. 25). If Nephi does not
prevaricate, there must have been a fatal plague among these
animals in later years, for horses, cows, and asses were unknown
in America until after its discovery by Europeans. Moroni, in the
Book of Ether (ix. 18, 19), is still more generous, adding to the
possessions of the Jaredites sheep and swine* and elephants and
"cureloms and cumoms." Neither sheep nor swine are indigenous to
America; but the prophet is safe as regards the "cureloms and
cumoms," which are animals of his own creation.

* "And," it is added, "many other kinds of animals which were
useful for the use of man, "thus ignoring the Hebrew antipathy to
pork.


The book is full of incidental proofs of the fraudulent
profession that it is an original translation. For instance, in
incorporating 1 Corinthians iii. 4, in the Book of Moroni, the
phrase "is not easily provoked" is retained, as in the King James
edition. But the word "easily" is not found in any Greek
manuscript of this verse, and it is dropped in the Revised
Version of 1881.

Stenhouse calls attention to many phrases in this Bible which
were peculiar to the revival preachers of those days, like
Rigdon, such as "Have ye spiritually been born of God?" "If ye
have experienced a change of heart."

The first edition was full of grammatical errors and amusing
phrases. Thus we are told, in Ether xv. 31, that when Coriantumr
smote off the head of Shiz, the latter "raised upon his hands and
fell." Among other examples from the first edition may be quoted:
"and I sayeth"; "all things which are good cometh of God";
"neither doth his angels"; and "hath miracles ceased." We find in
Helaman ix. 6, "He being stabbed by his brother by a garb of
secrecy." This remains uncorrected.

Alexander Campbell, noting the mixture of doctrines in the book,
says, "He [the author] decides all the great controversies
discussed in New York in the last ten years, infant baptism, the
Trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of
man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church
government, the call to the ministry, the general resurrection,
eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the questions of
Freemasonry, republican government and the rights of man."*

* "Delusions: an Analysis of the Book of Mormon" (1832). An
exhaustive examination of this Bible will be found in the "Braden
and Kelley Public Discussion."


Such is the book which is accepted to this day as an inspired
work by the thousands of persons who constitute the Mormon
church. This acceptance has always been rightfully recognized as
fundamentally necessary to the Mormon faith. Orson Pratt
declared, "The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is
such that, if true, none can be saved who reject it, and, if
false, none can be saved who receive it." Brigham Young told the
Conference at Nauvoo in October, 1844, that "Every spirit that
confesses that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that he lived and died
a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is true, is of God, and
every spirit that does not is of Anti-Christ." There is no
modification of this view in the Mormon church of to-day.


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