The first section of this article dealt with Joseph Smith's background, the events leading up to the printing of the Book of Mormon, the missing 116 pages and the copyright. The second section contained information relating to the Book of Mormon on Archeology, Geography, Genetic Studies on the American Indians, Animals and Crops. You can refer to these sections by clicking on the relevant links:

The Book of Mormon Exposed, Part One

The Book of Mormon Exposed, Part Two

ANACHRONISMS IN THE BOOK OF MORMON

One of the tests used to establish the authenticity of supposed factual, historical writings is whether or not they contain anachronisms, which are things that could not have occurred during during that period; and names, places and languages about which there would have been no knowledge. And in this regard the Book of Mormon fails the test consistently. We will discuss a few of the anachronisms found in the Book of Mormon, but cannot tackle them all due to space constraints.

Because we are going to discuss Greek words that appear in the Book of Mormon, we need to note that in a letter to the Editor of "Times and Seasons," Volume 4, No.13, May 15, 1843, page 194, Joseph Smith declared that: "There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of the Lord, translated the Book of Mormon." His statement is reiterated in History of the Church, Volume 5, page 399.

The LDS has a long list of excuses for the Book of Mormon anachronisms, generally amounting to the fact that Joseph was merely trying to make the book sound more interesting, or some such thing. But these excuses are invalidated by his insistence not only that he had translated it accurately, but that it was the most accurate book on earth. Either he translated it accurately, or he didn't. And he says that he did, by the power of God.

The word "Bible" is used in 2 Nephi 29:3, 4, 6 and 10 in the same way as it was used in Joseph Smith's time, i.e. to denote the completed canon of scriptures, including both Old and New Testaments. But the word "Bible" is not of Hebrew or even Egyptian derivation. It is an anglicization of the Greek word "bibilia," meaning books, and Greek wasn't spoken in Israel until long after the departure of Lehi for the Americas in 600 BC. So the word "Bible" would not have been in their repertoire. Nor had the idea of a closed canon of scripture yet developed at the time Lehi was supposed to have left Jerusalem. So none of the Jews who had accompanied him would have had the faintest idea about what the canon of scripture was or of what a Bible was. Yet in this section of the Book of Mormon, Nephi prophesies that the gentiles who will claim that the Bible is adequate for their spiritual guidance are fools.

The word, "Epistle" is used in 3 Nephi 3:5. But this word is a transliteration of the Greek epistolos, and was unknown to the Book of Mormon people.

The word "Adieu"
Jacob 7:27 uses the French word, "adieu". But the French language only evolved from Latin in about 700 A.D; long after the Book of Mormon was recorded. I've heard three absolutely ludicrous and totally unsatisfactory explanations for this obvious slip. The first is that because he could quote in French, this proves that the recorder of the Book of Mormon was a true prophet. The second is that Joseph Smith used this French word merely as an expression to give more flavour to the text. And the third is that saying goodbye in a language other than our own is done all the time, i.e. adios, chow, au revoir, etc. And the first translation that came to Joseph Smith's mind was adieu, a foreign word, but one that he and most English speakers were familiar with. But these explanations are invalidated by the fact that the expression "adieu" wasn't used by the folk who lived in America at that time that Joseph wrote the Book of Mormon. And furthermore he insisted that he had translated the Book of Mormon accurately, and that it had been translated directly from reformed Egyptian. The LDS cannot claim on the one hand that he translated it accurately, and then on the other that he took the liberty of substituting his own wording whenever he felt the urge.

Bethabara
1 Nephi:10:9 mentions Bethabara as the place where John the Baptist was baptizing. Joseph Smith obviously took this name straight out of John 1:28, in the King James version of the Bible. The Greek manuscripts of the New Testament clearly identify the town as Bethany, which is the name uniformly used in translations other than the KJV.

Antipas
"Anti-" is a Greek prefix. Alma 47:7, 10 uses the name Antipas for a mountain. But this is a Greek name, and an abbreviation for 'Antipater.' The people in the Book of Mormon would not have been familiar either with this Greek name or with the Greek prefix, "Anti-."

The name "Jonas" is mentioned several times 3 Nephi 19:4. But Jonas is the Greek form of the Hebrew name "Jonah," and it would not have been known, let alone used by the Book of Mormon people.

Judea
Alma 56:9 and 15 mention the Nephite city of Judea. But Judea is the Greek form of the Hebrew name, "Judah."

Archeantus
The Greek prefix "arch" means great or chief, and is used in Greek names. Jewish and Egyptian names and words do not make use of that prefix, as it is foreign to their language, yet Moroni 9:2 talks about a Nephite commander named Archeantus. The Book of Mormon people had not had any exposure to the Greeks or to their influence, and would not have made use of a name such as this.

Timothy
3 Nephi 19:4 mentions the name "Timothy." But this is a Greek name derived from Timotheus, and it would have been unknown to the Book of Mormon people.

Isabel
Alma 39:3 talks about a harlot named Isabel. But this name wasn't used prior to the middle ages, when it was first introduced into France and Italy. It would have been unheard of in the Americas during the Book of Mormon period and would also have been unknown in Israel at the time that Lehi left.

Scholars who have examined the Book of Mormon have concluded that its many anachronisms, the technology and types of animals mentioned and so on, clearly reveal a 19th century influence on its text. In other words, its content places it as having been composed in the 19th century.

It is a fact that issues that were facing Joseph's culture at that time in history, became issues in the Book of Mormon. There was a tremendous amount of speculation doing the rounds concerning the type of people who may have inhabited the early Americas, and the Book of Mormon is a reflection of their misconceptions in this regard. Several books were written on this subject, to which Joseph had access. And because of this some have accused him of plagiarizing ideas directly out of these books. (He wasn't the only author who thought that the American Indians had Jewish roots.)



THE LANGUAGE ISSUE

The original language spoken by the Book of Mormon people was Hebrew, but they recorded their history in reformed Egyptian. Although language does evolve, the time period of 2,000 years is insufficient to have completely eradicated all traces of both of these languages; especially seeing that they took care to keep their language from becoming corrupted (Omni 1:17-18).

How does one account for the fact that although evidence has been found of thousands of dialects prior to the advent of the Europeans in the 11th century, nothing has ever been discovered that could have evolved from either Hebrew or Egyptian? How could a people who were so numerous that they were forced to spread themselves over the entire continent, have disappeared without a trace?



THE PROBLEM OF CHANGING OF SKIN COLOUR

In quite a few places the Book of Mormon talks about the skin colour of the early inhabitants of the Americas changing to "dark and loathsome" because of sin, and to "exceedingly fair and delightsome" when the people concerned become godly. And this is the explanation given for the dark skins of the American Indians (c/f 1 Nephi 13:15, 2 Nephi 5:21; 30:6, Jacob 3:8; 3 Nephi 2:15-16; 4 Nephi 1:10; Mormon 9:6). But if our skin colour depended upon our faithfulness to God or to "the true gospel," why is there no evidence of it ever happening outside the pages of the Book of Mormon? And why don't American Indians turn white after they become Mormons? This is a very far fetched story indeed. Not only is it disproved by the true facts, but it points to the Book of Mormon being purely a work of fiction.

Mormons need to know that amongst many other alterations to this "most accurate book on earth," for reasons best known to themselves, the LDS authorities altered the wording of 2 Nephi 30:6 so that instead of their skins being changed to white, they would be changed to pure. You can read all about this in "3913 Changes in the Book of Mormon," written by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. This book is based on the changes they discovered after obtaining photographic reproductions of the original 1830 edition from The University of Utah Library and comparing them with the 1964 edition. You can obtain this book at a reasonable price through their website, at this link 3913 Changes in the Book of Mormon (Tanner)



JUDAISM

The content of the Book of Mormon consistently reveals that Joseph Smith had a very limited understanding about the Jewish religion as practised during the time period of his book.

He claimed that the Book of Mormon had been written in "reformed Egyptian." However, because the Jews were God's chosen nation they believed that they were superior to other nations, and their culture, their scriptures and their own Hebrew language were highly revered. The Egyptians were idolaters, and so nothing would have induced the Jews either to speak the Egyptian language or to record their scriptures in any form of Egyptian, reformed or otherwise. They would have considered that to be sacrilege, and it would never have happened. Smith's claim is utterly ridiculous.

The Jewish race was fanatical about their genealogy, and from a young age each and every Jew could trace his own genealogy right back to Abraham, the father of their race. Lehi was a devout Jew, yet 1 Nephi 5:16 would have us believe that that prior to having perused a record inscribed on brass plates, he hadn't known from whom he had descended. But that could not possibly have been the case. All Jews in that time period knew their genealogies.

The lives of the Jews were literally governed by the temple, their feasts and sacrifices (especially the Passover) and their holy days. Everything they did was centred around these things. Yet we don't see this in the Book of Mormon.The Nephites' apparent ignorance and disregard for Judaism as it was practised during that period in history, indicates either that they could not possibly have been Jews, or else that the Book of Mormon was a work of fiction, written by someone who had a very limited knowledge of Old Covenant Judaism.

Alma 10:3 tells us that the Nephites were the descendants of Manasseh. This meant that they were not in the priestly line of Levi. And under the Mosaic Law only those in the direct bloodline of Levi could officiate at either the altar or the temple. In other words the Jewish religion could not be practised apart from the ministry of priests who were of the bloodline of Levi. And that was one of the reasons why they were so fanatical about their genealogy.

A devout Jew would never ever put himself in a situation where he would be precluded from participating in the practice of Judaism. So If this had been a true story, Lehi would have ensured that people of the priestly line of Levi were included amongst those who had migrated to the Americas. All Jews were aware of the fact that the penalty was death for anyone who was not of the bloodline of Levi and who dared to attempt to undertake the priestly duties of that line. Yet the Book of Mormon has the Nephites offering sacrifices. And Joseph Smith has Alma, who was a descendant of Joseph and not of the line of Levi, consecrating others who were also of the line of Joseph, as priests (Alma 4:7). In the Judaism of that day this would never have happened.

If the Book of Mormon had genuinely been a history of Jews who had migrated to the Americas, and if God had truly given Joseph Smith the power to translate inscriptions on golden plates that had actually existed, none of these errors and misconceptions concerning Judaism would ever have occurred, regardless of Joseph's own personal lack of knowledge or otherwise, for the simple reason that he would only have been the translator, not the author.



WRONG TIMEFRAMES

The Bible teaches us that the New Covenant of forgiveness of sins only came into existence after Christ had ratified it with his shed blood on the cross at Calvary. And that's when Christ's church first came into existence. Prior to that, God was still dealing with the nation of Israel under the Old Covenant of Law that He had made with them. This means that Christ lived under the Old Covenant, as the New Covenant could only be ratified by his death. However, long before Christ's birth, and therefore prior to his crucifixion and the ratification of the New Covenant, the Book of Mormon is filled with Christian teachings and matters that only apply to the church of Christ under the New Covenant. As this is a vast subject, it will have to be dealt with in a separate article at a later stage. But the point needs to be made that major errors of this type confirm the fact that the Book of Mormon was authored by a fallible man with a very limited understanding of the Old and New Covenants.

We have only scratched the surface of a very deep subject, touching on just a few of the very many evidences that prove the Book of Mormon to be a work of fiction. Nevertheless, there is sufficient data here to enable you to realize that the Book of Mormon is not what it is claimed to be.



SUMMARY

PART ONE
To summarize our findings, after carefully investigating Joseph Smith's background, we discovered that he was a persuasive orator and talented story teller with a seemingly boundless imagination, that he was a confidence trickster who had chosen a career of deception early in his life, and that he was not in the habit of telling the truth. Prior to his Book of Mormon days he had invented similar stories about imaginary early inhabitants of the Americas. Then too, there was his father's dream that he quoted as having been a vision of Lehi in 1 Nephi chapter 8. Another important point was that Joseph Smith had declared himself to be the author and owner of the copyright of the Book of Mormon, and this information was recorded on the first edition, as his initial plan had been to make a lot of money by selling the copyright. It was only after his attempts to do so had failed, that he started up his own church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Furthermore he was a practicing occultist and remained one until his death. And there are spiritual powers behind the occult that oppose the purposes of God.

This does not inspire us to have confidence in any of his claims. And we can only conclude that it would be most unwise to put our trust in him, especially when it comes to spiritual or eternal matters. It is unlikely that a person with his type of character would ever come up with the truth, and it is even more unlikely that God would have chosen him either to be His prophet or to restore the "true" church.

PART TWO
Part Two revealed that no archeological evidence has ever been discovered that could confirm the existence of the civilization described in the Book of Mormon, and contains the testimonies of prominent Mormons to the effect that they believe The Book of Mormon to be a work of fiction.

PART THREE
Part Three reveals that the Book of Mormon is filled with anachronisms, indicating that it was a work of fiction written by someone from a much later period in time.

It gives me no pleasure to write articles such as this one. Many of my close relatives are Mormons, and when as a Mormon I first began to have doubts, I would far rather have discovered proof that confirmed not only the Book of Mormon to be truth, but also the rest of Joseph Smith's claims as being legitimate. But this was not the case. Evidence proves him to have been a liar, a fraud, a deceiver and a false prophet.

I would encourage any Mormons who may have read this article, not to lose heart. I understand the feelings of betrayal and disillusionment that you are experiencing. But there is a God of infinite and indescribable love, truth, mercy and faithfulness, who has provided a way of salvation apart from and distinct from Mormonism. And so I encourage you to embark on the exciting journey of learning to know Him. You are very welcome to contact me in this regard. My email address is response@bibtruth.com

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Copyright 2009 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.

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