The Inquisitive Christian

I’ve heard many a Mormon insist that the Book of Mormon absolutely must have divine origins due to Joseph Smith’s lack of education (which they exaggerate), the short time in which it was “translated” (roughly 65 days), and how cohesive it is (even though it really isn’t, as we have seen thus far). If the Book of Mormon didn’t repeatedly contradict the Bible and documented historical facts, I and many others would probably be more willing to take the claim of its divinity a bit more seriously. However, that isn’t reality, and the fact that it was compiled in such a short time isn’t remarkable when you consider the amount of plagiarism in it and how Smith began telling these tales long before his supposed discovery of the golden plates. Over the course of four years, Smith claimed he was visited by the angel Moroni, and he would tell his family “the most amusing recitals” of ancient civilizations in the Americas. You can read more about this here: A Mother’s Testimony.

1 Nephi Chapter 21

The Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles and will free the prisoners. Israel will be gathered with power in the last days. Kings will be their nursing fathers. Compare Isaiah 49. About 588-570 BC.

1: “And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.”

Actually, this first verse in the KJV reads, “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.” There are several issues with this first verse in 1 Nephi 21. Everything before “Listen, O isles” is fabricated. Mormons will tell you this simply contains missing words from the original Isaiah 49. The problem is that assertion is based on absolutely nothing. No ancient manuscript contains additional phrases written in the Book of Mormon, not even the Dead Sea Scrolls. I think the phrase “that are scattered abroad, who are of my people” was simply added so these fictional Hebrews in the Americas could be included in this address.

Another glaring issue is the word “pastors,” which did not exist in the Old Testament. In fact, that word is only used once in the entire Bible, in Ephesians 4:11. Pastors are a Christian concept, not an ancient Hebrew one. Using New Testament concepts and language in an Old Testament era is an extremely common theme in the Book of Mormon, so we will certainly continue to see this issue.

It’s also interesting to note the timing of these two chapters. As reported in my previous post, most scholars believe Isaiah 40-55 was written during the Babylonian exile, which began around 586 BC. If Nephi wrote this chapter between 588-570 BC, that would mean he was either already in the Americas, on his way there, getting ready to depart, or was at least in the wilderness when the Babylonians carried the Israelites off into exile. He would not have had access to the writings of Isaiah during this time, even though chapter 22 claims these were written on the plates of brass that he decapitated Laban over. That lovely event took place in 1 Nephi, chapter 4, which, according to the introduction to that chapter, took place between 600-592 BC. According to Biblical scholarship, Isaiah 40-55 hadn’t even been written yet, much less engraved on brass plates. For more information on Isaiah, see this: Who Wrote the Book of Isaiah? | Zondervan Academic

8: “Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, O isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

The KJV reads: “Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;”. The phrase “O isles of the sea,” was added, probably to try and emphasize the inclusion of the fictitious Nephi and his descendants. Even if the Book of Mormon was true, that phrase would be redundant. They would naturally already be included in all prophesies by virtue of them being Israelites, and verse 1 in the KJV already addresses the “isles” and “people from far.”

There were quite a few more differences between these two chapters in the form of adding unnecessary phrases, but none of them altered the basic meaning of these passages. It reads more like a kid in junior high who is adding extra words here and there so his teacher doesn’t catch him plagiarizing someone else’s research.

The real smoking gun here is the chronological disaster in regard to when Isaiah 49 was written and when Nephi allegedly read it from the brass plates. It simply could not have happened. This is my first time reading through the Book of Mormon, and I’m writing these posts as I go through it. I initially thought it was presenting this chapter as if Nephi wrote it and it was strikingly similar to Isaiah 49 (as I also believed with the previous chapter). However, I skipped ahead briefly and saw the claim that he read all this from brass plates. That takes this chapter to highly unlikely to impossible.