The Book of John is a Mandaean text compiled in the early Islamic period (Buckley, Great Stem of Souls, 227). However, it does not appear to have been written as a consistent narrative by a single author. Rather it is better characterized as a compilation of narratives, some earlier than others, arranged and recomposed to…

Article Encounters with material objects lie at the heart of Mormonism’s origin story. The story goes like this: Late one night in September 1823, an angel visited the bedside of a young Joseph Smith to tell him of one of these objects—a sacred book written on plates of gold, buried on a hillside not far…

Treasure digging is widely attested about Joseph Smith which gives us some background behind the golden plates thing. Joseph Smith lived in a time where some people believed and participated in what is sometimes called a magical worldview or ‘folk magic.’ Visions were common, revivals were sweeping the area in the mid 1820s, and some…

The oral composition model is discussed in some detail by William Davis in his dissertation, Performing Revelation: Joseph Smith and the Creation of the Book of Mormon, and book Visions in a Seer Stone: Cultural immersion: Joseph was immersed in a cultural and religious milieu that seems proportional to the contents of the Book of…

In the first edition of the Book of Mormon, in Mosiah 21:28 (continuing from Mosiah 8:13-14) Ammon tells Limhi that King Benjamin has the ability to translate the ancient records his people found. Problem is, Benjamin was not the king at this point in Nephite history. It was actually his son Mosiah. Joseph Smith realized…

It seems that the book of Mormon is dependent on the Late War.Parallels between the LW and BoM:A battle at a fort where righteous white protagonists are attacked by an army made up of dark-skinned natives driven by a white military leader. The white protagonists are prepared for battle and slaughter their opponents to such…

In the 1840s, Joseph Smith adopted the idea (to some degree) that the Book of Mormon occurred in Central America. This is likely because he received a copy of the book Incidents of Travel in Central America in 1841.https://rsc.byu.edu/approaching-antiquity-joseph-smith-ancient-world/joseph-smith-central-american-ruins-book-mormon Book of Mormon parallels to 1800s thought Richard Bushman, well-known Mormon historian, stated: … there is…

The Traditional View of Geography According to Joseph Smith and subsequent presidents and apostles of the LDS Church, the geographical extent of Book of Mormon lands included virtually all of North and South America. Joseph Smith identified the coast of Chile as the place where Lehi’s party arrived in the New World, while he located…

Anachronisms and archaeological findings 📚━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Horses:The Book of Mormon mentions horses in five incidences, and are portrayed as being in the forest upon first arrival of the Nephites, “raise(d)”, “fed”, “prepared” (in conjunction with chariots), used for food, and being “useful unto man” (1 Nephi 18:25, Enos 1:21, Alma 18:9,10,12, Alma 20:6, 3 Nephi 3:22, 3…

Metcalfe on the shift of his use of the phrase therefore and wherefore for Joseph Smith Mosian priority “Enveloping is particularly evident in discussion of the advent of Jesus. For example, early in the narrative Nephi relates that Lehi (1 Ne. 10:4), an angel (19:8), and “the prophets” (2 Ne. 25:19) had all predicted that…