Main Page: Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ
The Book of Mormon Challenge
"If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages - especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers - if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit."
- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"I am quietly tearing my hair over the Book of Mormon again. Those chapters are the ones I have worked over the most and are still the least satisfactory."
- Fawn Brodie, author of No Man Knows My History, to Dale L. Morgan
"The Book of Mormon has not been universally considered by its critics as one of those books that must be read in order to have an opinion of it."
- Thomas F. O'Dea, Catholic sociologist
- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"I am quietly tearing my hair over the Book of Mormon again. Those chapters are the ones I have worked over the most and are still the least satisfactory."
- Fawn Brodie, author of No Man Knows My History, to Dale L. Morgan
"The Book of Mormon has not been universally considered by its critics as one of those books that must be read in order to have an opinion of it."
- Thomas F. O'Dea, Catholic sociologist
Where did the Book of Mormon come from? Joseph Smith said that he translated it by the gift and power of God from golden plates given to him by an angel. It takes faith to belief that story, but it takes a great deal more faith to believe any alternative. While actually reading the book it's hard to take seriously the notion that it was written by an uneducated farm boy. Critics have postulated various theories of plagiarism, but none of them has held up under scrutiny; hence new ones continue to be postulated even as the old ones are regurgitated by people who've never read the works in question. Anthropologist Michael Coe, himself very critical of the book, made the understatement of the decade when he said, "Even if it is all made up, to do something like that is really extraordinary... Really, it is. I mean, if it's a work of fiction, nobody has ever done anything like this before."
And indeed, nobody has ever done anything like it since, though many years ago the great Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley issued a challenge to do just that. Critics will deride the Book of Mormon until they're blue in the face, and mock anyone who believes it to be an authentic record, but not one of them - not one - has ever accepted this challenge. When faced with it they will start regurgitating unrelated (and long answered) criticisms, attempting to move the goal posts, and/or repeating their claim that it isn't really that impressive and anyone could do it but they just don't feel like it right now - in short, they go to any lengths to dismiss or ignore the challenge rather than taking it, as if that will make it go away and resolve their cognitive dissonance. I'm not sure whether to find it funny or sad.
"Since Joseph Smith was younger than most of you and not nearly so experienced or well-educated as any of you at the time he copyrighted the Book of Mormon, it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of the semester (which will give you more time than he had) a paper of, say, five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred book if you will, and give it the form of a history. Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of public and private vicissitudes; give them names - hundreds of them - pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names of circa 600 b.c.; be lavish with cultural and technical details - manners and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions, rites, and traditions, include long and complicated military and economic histories; have your narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps; keep a number of interrelated local histories going at once; feel free to introduce religious controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting; observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials.
"Above all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to the really hard part of this little assignment. You and I know that you are making this all up - we have our little joke - but just the same you are going to be required to have your paper published when you finish it, not as fiction or romance, but as a true history! After you have handed it in you may make no changes in it (in this class we always use the first edition of the Book of Mormon); what is more, you are to invite any and all scholars to read and criticize your work freely, explaining to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If they seem over-skeptical, you might tell them that you translated the book from original records by the aid of the Urim and Thummim - they will love that! Further to allay their misgivings, you might tell them that the original manuscript was on golden plates, and that you got the plates from an angel. Now go to work and good luck!
"To date no student has carried out this assignment, which, of course, was not meant seriously. But why not? If anybody could write the Book of Mormon, as we have been so often assured, it is high time that somebody, some devoted and learned minister of the gospel, let us say, performed the invaluable public service of showing the world that it can be done."
This was the original challenge, but if anyone was ever inclined to take it, he could go even farther for bonus points. Alan C. Miner has written, "To this I would like to add some additional challenges, though it shouldn't be hard, living as we do in the computer world of the internet: Because your story is supposed to be a religious record, include in your paper more than 500 different descriptive titles for deity, all within a proper religious context that will not only explain these titles in relation to what we have in the Bible, but give added meaning and understanding. Because this is supposedly an ancient Hebrew record, give numerous and multiple examples of ancient Parallelistic Hebrew literary forms. Have whole pages, even chapters and larger sections written in Parallelistic (chiastic) patterns. Weave in an underlying theme of covenants with the Lord, both culturally and scripturally. In fact, it would be a good idea to make every part of your narrative not only covenant-related, but Christ-related as well.
And indeed, nobody has ever done anything like it since, though many years ago the great Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley issued a challenge to do just that. Critics will deride the Book of Mormon until they're blue in the face, and mock anyone who believes it to be an authentic record, but not one of them - not one - has ever accepted this challenge. When faced with it they will start regurgitating unrelated (and long answered) criticisms, attempting to move the goal posts, and/or repeating their claim that it isn't really that impressive and anyone could do it but they just don't feel like it right now - in short, they go to any lengths to dismiss or ignore the challenge rather than taking it, as if that will make it go away and resolve their cognitive dissonance. I'm not sure whether to find it funny or sad.
"Since Joseph Smith was younger than most of you and not nearly so experienced or well-educated as any of you at the time he copyrighted the Book of Mormon, it should not be too much to ask you to hand in by the end of the semester (which will give you more time than he had) a paper of, say, five to six hundred pages in length. Call it a sacred book if you will, and give it the form of a history. Tell of a community of wandering Jews in ancient times; have all sorts of characters in your story, and involve them in all sorts of public and private vicissitudes; give them names - hundreds of them - pretending that they are real Hebrew and Egyptian names of circa 600 b.c.; be lavish with cultural and technical details - manners and customs, arts and industries, political and religious institutions, rites, and traditions, include long and complicated military and economic histories; have your narrative cover a thousand years without any large gaps; keep a number of interrelated local histories going at once; feel free to introduce religious controversy and philosophical discussion, but always in a plausible setting; observe the appropriate literary conventions and explain the derivation and transmission of your varied historical materials.
"Above all, do not ever contradict yourself! For now we come to the really hard part of this little assignment. You and I know that you are making this all up - we have our little joke - but just the same you are going to be required to have your paper published when you finish it, not as fiction or romance, but as a true history! After you have handed it in you may make no changes in it (in this class we always use the first edition of the Book of Mormon); what is more, you are to invite any and all scholars to read and criticize your work freely, explaining to them that it is a sacred book on a par with the Bible. If they seem over-skeptical, you might tell them that you translated the book from original records by the aid of the Urim and Thummim - they will love that! Further to allay their misgivings, you might tell them that the original manuscript was on golden plates, and that you got the plates from an angel. Now go to work and good luck!
"To date no student has carried out this assignment, which, of course, was not meant seriously. But why not? If anybody could write the Book of Mormon, as we have been so often assured, it is high time that somebody, some devoted and learned minister of the gospel, let us say, performed the invaluable public service of showing the world that it can be done."
This was the original challenge, but if anyone was ever inclined to take it, he could go even farther for bonus points. Alan C. Miner has written, "To this I would like to add some additional challenges, though it shouldn't be hard, living as we do in the computer world of the internet: Because your story is supposed to be a religious record, include in your paper more than 500 different descriptive titles for deity, all within a proper religious context that will not only explain these titles in relation to what we have in the Bible, but give added meaning and understanding. Because this is supposedly an ancient Hebrew record, give numerous and multiple examples of ancient Parallelistic Hebrew literary forms. Have whole pages, even chapters and larger sections written in Parallelistic (chiastic) patterns. Weave in an underlying theme of covenants with the Lord, both culturally and scripturally. In fact, it would be a good idea to make every part of your narrative not only covenant-related, but Christ-related as well.
![Chiastic pattern from Helaman 6:7-13 in the Book of Mormon. A. And behold, there was *peace* in all the land, B. [Freedom of travel and trade in both lands is discussed] C. And it came to pass that they became exceedingly *rich*, both the Lamanites and the Nephites. D. And they did have an exceeding plenty of *gold*, and of *silver*, and of all manner of precious metals, both in the land south and in the land north. a. Now the *land south* b. was called *Lehi* and c. the *land north* d. was called *Mulek*, e. which was after the son of Zedekiah; e'. for the Lord d'. did bring *Mulek* c'. into the *land north*, b'. and *Lehi* a'. into the *land south*. D.' And behold, there was all manner of *gold in both these lands, and of *silver*, and of precious ore of every kind; C'. and there were also curious workmen, who did work all kinds of ore and did refine it; and thus they did become *rich*. B'. [Economic prosperity in both lands discussed] A.' And thus the sixty and fourth year did pass away in *peace*. / I guess Joseph Smith spent all his time studying ancient Hebrew literary patterns instead of English. I guess that would explain why he](/uploads/4/9/4/8/49486603/8302105.jpg?583)
"Dictate your story to a scribe. Confirm spelling of proper names so they correctly reflect the language found in the ancient setting of your story. Leave your script as you dictate it, and never ask your scribe to tell you where you left off after lunch or the end of a day. On his own, your scribe can adjust capitalization, punctuation, the spelling of traditional words, and some simple grammar, but that is all. Dictate parts of your story in non-chronological order. Be sure to credit these parts of your story to different writers, varying your manner of using words and phrases so that a distinct separation of language style can be detected by modern word print analysis. These requirements demonstrate that Joseph Smith was quoting from a previously written script (the Gold Plates) rather than making it up as he went along. Add twelve witnesses who verified that in the case of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon, all the above requirements were met."
And to all this I would add: Make sure that even if some of your witnesses get angry at you and abandon the scheme, every one of them continues to testify that your book is genuine for the rest of their lives. Continue to stand by it yourself even if people start to tar and feather you, burn the homes of your followers, and continually arrest you on false or trumped-up charges. At the end of the semester, for your final exam, allow yourself and your brother to be shot by an angry mob rather than renounce your ingenious fraud. And make sure that millions of people continue to feel that God has told them your fraud is true, so that they believe in it and align themselves with the religion you based around it, long after your death.
And to all this I would add: Make sure that even if some of your witnesses get angry at you and abandon the scheme, every one of them continues to testify that your book is genuine for the rest of their lives. Continue to stand by it yourself even if people start to tar and feather you, burn the homes of your followers, and continually arrest you on false or trumped-up charges. At the end of the semester, for your final exam, allow yourself and your brother to be shot by an angry mob rather than renounce your ingenious fraud. And make sure that millions of people continue to feel that God has told them your fraud is true, so that they believe in it and align themselves with the religion you based around it, long after your death.
Main Page: Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ
