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A Surprise in Alma 7:11

Thomas Wayment’s “The Hebrew Text of Alma 7:11” in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14/1 (2005) makes a surprising observation (the link is to the PDF file — there…

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Posted in Book of Mormon Evidence Scholarship Translation

FairMormon 2017 Conference, Day Two

Day two of the FairMormon 2017 Conference offered another series of outstanding speakers with messages covering a broad spectrum of topics. (See also my summary of day one.) Ben Spackman…

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Posted in Book of Mormon Critics Evidence Problems Scholarship Science Scripture

The Great and Spacious Book of Mormon Arcade Game

My two recent articles on Lehi’s Trail at The Interpreter  (“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map, Part 1” and Part 2) have been noted and responded to by RT…

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What Paper and Wood Tell Us About the Gold Plates

When Joseph Smith finally received the gold plates from the stone box that had been buried on the tiny hill we now call th Hill Cumorah, he did not bring…

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Posted in Book of Mormon Origins Translation

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…

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Posted in Book of Mormon Evidence Origins Scholarship Translation Witnesses

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…

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Posted in Book of Mormon Translation

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…

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Daniel Johnson on Horses and the Book of Mormon: New Publication at BYU Studies

Just published: “‘Hard’ Evidence of Ancient American Horses” by Daniel Johnson, BYU Studies, vol. 54, no. 3, 2015. Recommended reading! One of the best reviews of the data and theories…

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An Old Story Gets a New Face: The Seer Stone and the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon

Photo of the long-discussed seer stone used by Joseph Smith. What’s interesting news for many Latter-day Saints is, for some of our critics, simply earth-shattering and hopely faith-shattering for benighted…

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The Book of Mormon’s Command Performance: The Late War and Other KJV-Style Texts Don’t Help

Stanford Carmack’s discussion of the unusual grammar in the original Book of Mormon text creates a case that the unusual English of the original Book of Mormon cannot be readily…

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