Category: Translation
Weeping, Wailing, and Gnashing of Teeth? No Need to Grieve Over Another Case of Alleged Plagiarism in the Book of Mormon
“Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth” in the Book of Mormon has been criticized as an obvious mistake based on plagiarizing the New Testament. But there’s no need to grieve…
The FAIRMormon Conference: Dealing with Data on the Language of the Book of Mormon
FAIRMormon had its annual conference recently. Transcripts of some of the talks will be available soon, but I recommend watching the presentations by paying for video access. I got up…
The Straight and Narrow Path, the Rod, the Spacious Field, and the White Fruit: Further Thoughts on Lehi’s Dream
Not to beat a dead Nephite horse, but I’d like to say a few more things about Lehi’s dream and the lessons learned through exploring hypermodern theories of modern fabrication…
A Thought on Book of Mormon Origins
The full significance of Martin Harris’s visit to Charles Anthon has been diminished in the way Latter-day Saints typically retell the story. A consequence of that visit was an apparent…
What Did Joseph Know About the Structure of the Book of Mormon, and When Did He Know It?
The details of the translation process that gave us the Book of Mormon offer a variety of mysteries and challenges, but the greatest challenge is for theories based on Joseph…
Aural and Oral: The Raw Book of Mormon as Dictated By Joseph Smith
When I first examined the published text from the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, I was embarrassed at all the non-standard grammar. But now I find it to…
Did Joseph Use a Bible?
In discussions of Book of Mormon translation, many assume that Joseph must have turned to the KJV when quoting relevant passages. However, multiple witnesses of the translation process report that…
An Embarrassment . . . of Riches in the Book of Mormon Text–And a Surprise from “Them Days”
When I first opened up my newly purchased blue-bound volume from Royal Skousen containing the details of the surviving original text of the Book of Mormon, I was immediately disappointed….
Update on Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon: One Potential Test to Identify the Possible Influence of New England Dialect on the Dictated Text
Executive Summary: I remain impressed with the detailed, data-rich work of Carmack and Skousen regarding Early Modern English (EModE) influence in the original text of the Book of Mormon. However,…
The Increasingly Strange Text of the Book of Mormon
Stanford Carmack’s series of four articles at the Mormon Interpreter provide a large body of detailed data pointing to something strange, increasingly strange, in the Book of Mormon: the grammatical…
