What About the Book of Mormon Witnesses?

I’m rerunning this article I wrote in 2014 so new readers can read and think about the truth here.

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Having done some reading about the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, here are some thoughts about how trustworthy these witnesses were.

David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris were finally chosen to be witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates' existence.  The four went to the woods to pray, but time passed with no action.  Harris felt ill and stated he was the reason for no word and then he left.  Immediately an angel appeared with the plates in his hands.  He demonstrated turning gold leaves and stated that God permitted the translation.  Joseph ran for Martin, who was kneeling elsewhere in prayer and he also saw the vision. Joseph then wrote up a "testimony" for them to sign and had it published at the end of the Book of Mormon.

The local press claimed that three original witnesses all told different versions of their experience with seeing the plates.  

Martin Harris told a lawyer that he saw the plates "with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see anything around me - though at the time they were covered with a cloth".

Whitmer said that Joseph led them to an open field where the plates were lying on the ground.

The testimony of the eight witnesses is even more suspect, since four of them were Whitmers, three were from Joseph's family and the eighth was Hiram Page, who married a Whitmer daughter. 

Witnesses were:

Christian Whitmer   

Jacob Whitmer 

Peter Whitmer, Jr.

John Whitmer

Hiram Page

Joseph Smith, Sr

Hyrum Smith

Samuel H. Smith

Illinois Governor Thomas Ford knew several of Joseph’s key men after they left the church.  They told Ford that the witnesses were "set to continual prayer, and other spiritual exercises," then Smith "assembled them in a room, and produced a box, which he said contained the precious treasure.  The lid was opened; the witnesses peeped into it, but making no discovery, for the box was empty, they said, 'Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates.'  The prophet answered them, 'O ye of little faith! how long will God bear with this wicked and perverse generation?  Down on your knees, brethren, every one of you, and pray God for the forgive-ness of your sins, and for a holy and living faith which cometh down from heaven.'  The disciples dropped to their knees, and began to pray in the fervency of their spirit, supplicating God for more than two hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking again into the box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates."

Martin Harris:  Had been a Quaker, then a Universalist, then a Restorationist.  Fawn Brodie says the following on p.81 of her book, No Man Knows My History (about events leading up to the publishing of the Book of Mormon): Martin Harris had been an embarrassingly zealous proselyter who advertised his own visionary experiences as freely as those of Joseph.  He had seen Jesus in the shape of a deer, he said, and had walked with Him two or three miles, talking with Him as familiarly as one man talks with another.  The devil, he said, resembled a jackass, with very short, smooth hair similar to that of a mouse.  He prophesied that Palmyra would be destroyed by 1836, and that by 1838 Joseph's church would be so large that there would be no need for a president of the United States.  Publicly Harris met with amused tolerance and only occasional bitter scorn.  Privately Palmyra gossiped about his scandalous conduct with his neighbor Haggard's wife.  Harris later left his wife.  In 1837 he followed a young girl seer when the church split, and later followed James Strange to Wisconsin.  He returned to Utah in his old age.

Oliver Cowdery was excommunicated in October 1834, but was restored to the church later.  In 1837 he followed the girl seer in the church split and then returned again the following year in Missouri.  In June 1838 he dissented and Danites forced his family from their home.  Oliver left the church.  In 1843 he joined the Methodist church, but returned in 1848 to the Mormons.

David Whitmer also followed the girl seer in 1837 and later returned to the fold.

If these witnesses truly saw what they did, would any of them doubt the faith to the point they departed the LDS church?  Does the character of any of these witnesses lead one to trust what they said about the Book of Mormon?

I doubt if any of the testimony of these witnesses would stand up in a court of law, and yet hundreds of thousands of people have been led to believe that the Book of Mormon is true based initially on the basis of the testimony of these  witnesses who, in my mind, have no credibility.

Questions Regarding the Book of Mormon - Part 4

This is my last post for now on the Book of Mormon.  I will finish with questions from 3 Nephi, Mormon, Ether and Moroni.  This series hasn’t included all my questions, but are those that immediately came to mind when I last read through the Book of Mormon.  I have started a collection of other questions, but those are for another time.  So now lets look at my questions.  Some of the last ones are statements about being plagiarisms from the KJV.

1.  3 Nephi 9:18 uses the Greek words "alpha" and "omega".  Wouldn’t the “reformed Egyptian” alphabet have different letters at the beginning and the end?  Why didn’t Smith translate to the English alphabet?  

2.  3 Nephi 11:17 uses the Hebrew "Hosanna" ("save us").  Again, why translate into Hebrew instead of English?

3.  3 Nephi 11:33-34 is almost a direct quotation from Mark 16:16.  Modern Greek scholars have determined that Mark 16:16 of the King James version was a translational error and wasn't in the original manuscript.  So how did it end up in the Book of Mormon?

4.  3 Nephi 12:3-48 is KJV Matthew 5, with problems as previously noted when copying from KJV.  Verse 22 leaves in the word "Raca", which is Aramaic for "empty-head".  Why is Aramaic in an English translation of “reformed Egyptian?”

5.  3 Nephi 13 is Matthew 6 KJV with the normal problems, including the use of the Greek word hypocrite (meaning "actor").  In verse 23 Smith uses the Jewish evil eye idea, which Nephites would not know!  And why are they using the cubit for measure (vs27)?

6.  3 Nephi 14 is KJV Matthew 7, with the usual problems.  Along with chapters 12 and 13, these were supposedly words spoken by Jesus during his visit to America in A.D. 34, whereas the words in Matthew are part of the Sermon on the Mount. Would Jesus have repeated himself word for word like that, speaking in a different language  to a different audience at a different time and place?  And if he did, would a translation from Reformed Egyptian come out to be identical with a translation from Greek manuscripts, which in turn were a translation of the Aramaic words Jesus used with his Jewish audience?

7.  3 Nephi 15:17 and 21 are both KJV John 10:16! How?

8.  3 Nephi 16:18-20 is Isaiah 52:8-10, but is not identical with Mosiah 15:29-31. Why?

9.  3 Nephi 18:29 is copied from I Corinthians 11:27.  Why was Jesus not so specific with the Jews in Israel?

10.  3 Nephi 19:4 has the Greek name Timothy. How?

11.  In the 3rd chapter of Acts, Peter's sermon at Pentecost paraphrases Deuteronomy 18:15-19.  While in the process of writing 3 Nephi 20 (which is KJV Acts 3:23-26), Joseph Smith puts Peter's paraphrase in the mouth of Jesus when he was allegedly preaching to the Nephites. Joseph overlooked the fact that at the time that Christ was allegedly preaching His sermon, the sermon itself had not yet been preached by Peter! How can this be?

12.  3 Nephi 20:31-45 are KJV Isaiah 52:1-15 with the verses somewhat out of order.  Chapter 21:8 is Isaiah 52:15 KJV.

13.  3 Nephi 22 is KJV Isaiah 54 with the usual problems.

14.  3 Nephi 24 is KJV Malachi 3, while chapter 25 is Malachi 4, with the usual problems.

15.  3 Nephi 27:29 is KJV Matthew 7:7.

16.  Mormon 9:22 ends with KJV Mark 16:15, while 9:23-24 is Mark 16:16-18.

17.  Ether 2:3 has bees in the New World yet they were not brought over until the Spanish explorers came in the 16th century.  How is this accounted for?

18.  Ether 2:20.  Doesn't God know which end is up?

19.  Ether 5:18 is again KJV Mark 16:16-17

20.  Ether 6:5,11  tells us that a "furious" wind propelled the "vessels or barges" (which were they?) to the Promised Land.  It took the furious wind 344 days to blow the barges to the New World.  Even if the furious wind could only push the barges at 10 mph, the distance traveled would have been 82,560 miles - three times around the globe.  Is this reasonable?

21.  Ether 10:5 again tells us polygamy is not right in God's sight.  Again, how does this relate to D&C 132?

22.  Ether 15:31 tells of a fight to the death between Coriantumr and Shiz.  Shiz gets his head cut off, after he had already fainted from loss of blood, and then raises up on his hands before falling back, while struggling for breath!  This defies all medical knowledge.  (no, it is not analogous with the reflexes of a chicken’s body with the head chopped off)

23.  Moroni 7:45,46 is KJV 1 Corin. 13:4 on.

24.  Moroni 10:9-16 is basically KJV I Cor. 12:8-11.

24.  The last great battle at Hill Cumorah in A.D. 385 killed about 500,000 people with all manner of weapons of war, yet no archaeological evidence can be found for this battle.  Why?

Explain how an inspired translation from Reformed Egyptian directly to the English language of 1830 becomes virtually word-for-word identical with the 1611 English translation from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; how do the words become the same?  (Especially explain how the italicized words in the KJV - those not in the original but put there by the translators to help make sense - are included in the Book of Mormon.)  

The text shown to Smith on his seer stone in his hat over his face would not move until the scribe copied everything accurately - so why have there been over 4000 changes to the text since 1830?

Last, but not least, the Lamanites are supposed to be descendants of Jewish people — Semites — and the American Indian is descended from the Lamanites.  Anthropologists state that the American Indian is Mongoloid — descended from Asian peoples who crossed the Bering Strait.  This has been demonstrated conclusively by recent DNA studies.

"The nature of the message in the Book Of Mormon is such, that if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it."  Orson Pratt.

Questions Regarding the Book of Mormon - Part 3

This time I’ll address problems with Jacob, Mosiah, Alma, and Helaman.  I want to note that in these postings, I have read many — if not most — of the typical LDS responses.  I just want to challenge any Mormon to give me a response and see if it can hold water.  So let’s look at today’s list of problems in the Book of Mormon.

1.  Jacob 1:15 calls polygamy a wicked practice, yet God later gave Joseph Smith the revelation approving it.  Is God inconsistent? 

2.  Jacob 2:24, 27 also vilify polygamy.  Jacob 3:5 again reiterates the command.  How does this square with D&C 132?

3.  Jacob 4:1 tells us that only a little of the words can be written because of the difficulty of engraving the plates.  Why then are the Nephite prophets so wordy?  There are numerous examples; many sentences are 200 to 300 words long, there are 2000 "and it came to pass" phrases, and in 4 Nephi 1:6 there are 57 words just to say 59 years passed by.  Alma 13:7 even has the phrase, "or in other words," a phrase that should have been left out of difficult writing.

4.  Jacob 7:27 ends with the French word "adieu"!  Why would God have Smith translate suddenly into French?

5.  Mosiah 2:3 says, "And they also took of the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses."  According to the law of Moses the firstlings of their flocks were never offered as burnt offerings or sacrifices.  All firstlings belonged to the Lord and could not be counted as a man's personal property - whereas all burnt offerings, or sacrifices for sin of every kind, must be selected from the man's own personal property, or be purchased with his own money for that purpose, while all firstlings of the flock, as the Lord's property, came into the hands of the high priest, and by him could be offered up as a peace offering, not as a burnt offering or a sin offering, himself and family eating the flesh.  This error in Mosiah proves that the Book Of Mormon could not have come from God.

6.  Mosiah 13:12-24 is Exodus 20:5-17 KJV, including the error of "kill" for "murder".  Why wouldn’t God have had Smith translate the word to “murder” rather than follow KJV?

7.  Mosiah 14 is Isaiah 53 KJV with the usual problems.  Mosiah 15:14-17 is Isaiah 52:7-10 and Mosiah 15:29-31 is Isaiah 52:8-10.

8.  Mosiah 21:28, in the original 1830 version, stated that King Benjamin had a gift from God, corrected to King Mosiah in later versions.  If Joseph dictated from what he was seeing translated by a gift of God, how did he make this error?

9.  Mosiah 27:13. The use of the word "Church" throughout this book is anachronistic, but this verse in particular contradicts Matthew 16:18.

10.  Why does Alma 7:10 says that Jesus will be born in Jerusalem when the Bible says Bethlehem? 

11.  Alma 10:3 says that Nephi and Lehi were descendants of Manasseh, yet in Mosiah 2:3 we found them offering sacrifices according to the law of Moses.  The Bible says only the descendants of Aaron can offer these sacrifices (Ex. 28:40-43; Num. 3:3-10; 1 Chron. 23:13; 2 Chron. 26:18; Heb. 7:12-14).  How is this contradiction explained?

12.  Alma 13:15.  "...tithes of one-tenth part..."  Tithe means one tenth; did God not know that?

13.  In the book of Alma 28:14-29:1-11, more than 30 changes have been made from the 1830 edition, and page 303 of the original edition had the statement, "Yea, decree unto them that decrees which are unalterable" (Alma 29:4), which has been deleted.  Why has this been removed?

14.  Alma 46:15 tells us there were people called Christians in 73 BC.  The Bible tells us the first use of the word "Christian" was in Antioch.  Which is correct?

15.  Alma 54:4 uses the Greek word "epistle", which means "letter".  This word continues to be used throughout the text.  Why would God have Smith translate Egyptian into a Greek word when he could have just used “letter”?

16.  Helaman 8:20 talks of Ezias and Isaiah.  Ezias is Greek for Isaiah - they are the same person. Did God not know this?

17.  Helaman 9:6 says, "Now, immediately when the judge had been murdered - he being stabbed by his brother by a garb of secrecy."  "Garb" is a piece of clothing; how do you stab with clothing?

18.  Helaman 12:25-26:  What was Helaman reading when he quotes John 5:29?  John wasn't written for at least another 90 years.

19.  Helaman 14:20,27 says the earth would be darkened for three days at Jesus' death.  The Bible says the darkness lasted three hours.  Which is correct?

 These are not insignificant problems!!

Questions Regarding the Book of Mormon - Part 2

In this post I will be questioning things in 2 Nephi.

1.  2 Nephi 2:6, 8 uses the word “Messiah.”  Why not use “Christ” as with chapter 10?

2.  2 Nephi 5:  How could Nephi and just a small handful of men, in less than 20 years, build a temple like Solomon's, when it took Solomon 7 1/2 years using 180,000 workers to complete his temple?

3.  2 Nephi 5:15, 16:  What is the difference between precious "ores" and "things"?  vs 15 says that precious "ores" were in great abundance, but in the next verse he says that "precious things" were not to found upon the land!  Isn’t this contradictory?

4.  2 Nephi 6:16-18 is a copy of Isaiah 49:24-26 KJV.  This problem is the same as addressed in 1 Nephi in Part 1 of this series.

5.  2 Nephi 7 is Isaiah 50 KJV with minor changes.

6.  2 Nephi 8 is Isaiah 51 KJV with minor changes.

(The problem with these two is the same as noted about 1 Nephi.)

7.  2 Nephi 9:18.  Enduring crosses is an idiom based on the crucifixion.  It is anachronistic here.

8.  2 Nephi 10:3 uses the term "Christ".  This is a Greek word for the Hebrew "Messiah".  Both mean "The Anointed".  Why would this be translated as “Christ” rather than “The Anointed?”  The name "Christ" is then used throughout the text of the Book of Mormon.  If these people are Jews, why aren’t they using Hebrew instead of Greek?

9.  2 Nephi 12 through 2 Nephi 24 are Isaiah 2 through 14 KJV with aforementioned problems associated with being identical to KJV.

10.  2 Nephi 14:5 copies the King James error in Isaiah 4:5 by saying, "For upon all the glory shall be a defense."  The Hebrew word mistranslated by King James translators was "chuppah", which means a protective curtain or canopy, not "defense".  The only way this error could be present is if the author was copying KJV instead of translating “Reformed Egyptian.”

11.  2 Nephi 17:14 uses the word "virgin" as does KJV, but the original Hebrew was merely, "young girl", who may or may not be virgin.  "Virgin" comes from the Greek Septuagint.  How is it that ‘Reformed Egyptian” translates like Greek?

12.  2 Nephi 22:2 would not use the word JEHOVAH.  This is a Latinized transliteration of YHWH in Hebrew, which combines the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai.

13.  2 Nephi 24:12 uses the word "Lucifer".  This is a Latin word from the Vulgate.  The Hebrew word meant "morning star" or "star of the morning".  KJV just kept the Latin, and Joseph Smith copied KJV!  (See my article about “Lucifer”).  I think this error, along with all the copying of KJV, is one of the proofs that Smith wrote the Book of Mormon rather than translated it from an unknown language.

14.  2 Nephi 25:19  We have now added "Jesus" to Christ, another Greek name for the Hebrew "Y'shua" or "Joshua".  Why do Jews in the Americas use Greek before Greek was used in the empire in Asia?

15.  2 Nephi 26 begins the use of the word "Gentile", another Greek word.  Hebrew calls them "Goyim".

16.  2 Nephi 29 talks of a "Bible".  The word is from Greek, not Egyptian.  It merely means "book".  The Bible was not named as such until it was canonized.  Otherwise, the material is known as the Scripture.  It also discusses the lost tribes of Israel.  At this time they were not "lost", but to God they are never lost anyway!  Another problem is that it states the Bible came from the Jew, but only the O.T. came from them.

17.  2 Nephi 30:6, until 1981, said that the Lamanites would turn “white and delightsome” when they embraced the Mormon doctrine.  In 1981 this was changed to read, not “white,” but “pure.”  Could it be because no one was turning white as Smith claimed?

18.  2 Nephi 30:9, 11-15 is copied from Isaiah 11:4-9 KJV.   The same KJV problem.

19.  2 Nephi 31 has baptism following Jesus' example, yet Jesus has not come yet?!?  How does anyone follow an example which hasn’t been demonstrated?

20.  2 Nephi 31:21 is a clear statement of the doctrine of the Trinity that LDS now claim is an error. Why were the Nephites given all the knowledge of Jesus Christ, whereas the Jews in Israel were not?

Again, how are these oddities explained?