An up-to-date historical study of Joseph Smith’s use of a “seer stone”—which he had previously used in searching for buried treasure—in dictating the Book of Mormon.
An up-to-date historical study of Joseph Smith’s use of a “seer stone”—which he had previously used in searching for buried treasure—in dictating the Book of Mormon.
This is one of the earliest online articles on Joseph Smith’s dictating the Book of Mormon while looking at a “seer stone” in his hat, now vindicated by the LDS Church’s admission of this fact in recent years.
Joseph Smith claimed that he first learned about the Book of Mormon when an angel Moroni appeared to him in his bedroom at night. This article explains why this claim is implausible.
This paper examines the culture, credibility and relevance of the testimony of the eleven men the LDS Church presents as witnesses to the Book of Mormon. It draws extensively from early sources, both LDS and non-LDS, to provide an honest and balanced portrayal.
A short article on the Book of Mormon witnesses, whom Joseph Smith later criticized severely. His criticisms suggest that those “witnesses” were not reliable.
One of the original Book of Mormon Witnesses explains why he left the Mormon Church.
Respected historian of Mormonism, H. Michael Marquardt, explores the Book of Mormon’s literary dependence on the Bible and 19th century events.
Mormon General Authority B. H. Roberts concluded that this book, originally published in Poultney, Vermont in 1823 (7 years prior to the Book of Mormon) was available to Joseph Smith and contained enough parallel material to the Book of Mormon so as to furnish a virtual "ground-plan" for it.
Did classics scholar Charles Anthon validate a copy of characters from the gold plates and a translation of those characters by Joseph Smith?
Joseph Smith dictated 116 pages of manuscript that he said was an inspired translation of the gold plates. The loss of those pages raises crucial questions about Joseph’s claims and the Book of Mormon.
All of the supposed ancient Book of Mormon authors introduce themselves right at the beginning of their contributions—except Mormon. This article explains the significance of these facts.
The Book of Mormon claims to be a translation of an ancient text, the original- language version of which is not available. One Mormon scholar points out that there are other texts that are available only in translation but that scholars agree are ancient. Is this a sound defense of the Book of Mormon?
View scanned images of key altered passages from the original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, the 1833 Book of Commandments and the 1851 Pearl of Great Price.
This essay is a survey and critique of the main lines of evidence for the human origin of the Book of Mormon proposed by Mormon Historian and General Authority Brigham H. Roberts in an unpublished paper done in the early 1920’s.
A paper that documents specific Book of Mormon phrases and ideas that Joseph Smith borrowed from other books.