Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms — Chapter 7: Records, Writing, and Language

[Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present chapter 7 from a book entitled Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms. It is presented in serialized form in this volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.]

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 — Book of Mormon Animals

Chapter 2 — Warfare in the Book of Mormon

Chapter 3 — Metals and Metallurgy

Chapter 4 — Ancient Culture

Chapter 5 — Book of Mormon Names

Chapter 6 — Old World Journeys by Land and Sea

Chapter 7 — Records, Writing, and Language

Chapter 8 — Events in Third Nephi

Chapter 9 — Concluding Observations

Bibliography

Chapter 7: Records, Writing, and Language

Items mentioned in the Book of Mormon relating to ancient records and languages have been grouped under this category. These include alleged anachronisms relating to writing on metal plates, archaeological evidence for Hebrew and Egyptian writing, and pre-Columbian writing.

193. Jews Writing in Egyptian

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Book of Mormon writers said they wrote in “the language of the Egyptians” (1 Nephi 1:2) or used “reformed Egyptian” characters (Mormon 9:32). Some have claimed that Jews would never have written in ancient Egyptian.[1]

Response: Examples of Jewish texts written in Egyptian scripts are now attested from preexilic times in Israel and the ancient Near East.[2]

[Page 204]194. Scripture in Egyptian

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: The Book of Mormon also states that the writings on the plates of brass, which contained the five books of Moses, a history of the Jews, and the writings of prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah (1 Nephi 5), were in Egyptian (Mosiah 1:4). Some have specifically claimed that ancient Israelites and Jews would never have written scriptures in Egyptian.[3]

Response: Scriptural texts written in Egyptian are attested. For example, Amherst Papyrus 63 (figure 53), a papyrus from the second century BC, has a copy of Psalm 20:2–6 written in Demotic Egyptian script.[4]

Figure 53. Papyrus Amherst 63.4. (Wikimedia Commons, s.v. “Papyrus Amherst 63.4,” commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152360431.)

195. Anthon Transcript and Egyptian

Status: Partially Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: At the behest of Joseph Smith, Martin Harris delivered a transcript of characters copied from the plates of the Book of Mormon to a scholar named Charles Anthon to verify their authenticity and possibly provide a translation. The original copy of these characters is apparently no longer extant, but several other copies of a portion of those characters based upon that earlier copy have survived.[5] [Page 205]Some claim that these extant copies of Book of Mormon characters bear no resemblance to ancient Egyptian.[6]

Response: Although subsequently denied by Charles Anthon, historical evidence suggests that he told Martin Harris that the transcribed characters resembled “short-hand” Egyptian, a term that was used in literature in the professor’s personal library to refer to Egyptian hieratic script. The term “short-hand” Egyptian would not have likely been known to Harris before his visit to Anthon.[7]

While most of the relatively few scholars who have considered the issue have been dismissive of the so-called Anthon transcript, two non-Latter-day Saint Egyptologists suggested a resemblance to Egyptian scripts. William Hayes, former Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, thought it could conceivably have been an example of hieratic script.[8] Professor Richard A. Parker of the Department of Egyptology at Brown University thought the characters “could well be the latest form of the written language—demotic characters.”[9]

196. Metal Plates (OW)

Status: Confirmed (1829–1844)

Critics’ Claim: The Book of Mormon is presented as a translation from gold plates (Joseph Smith—History 1:34), and makes reference to several other records on metal plates throughout its pages (1 Nephi 3:24; 9:4; Mosiah 8:9; Mormon 2:18). Although there was some evidence for the ancient practice of writing on metal plates at the time the Book of Mormon was published, it is unclear if Joseph Smith was familiar with such sources. Some of his contemporaries claimed that important records were not kept on metal plates in ancient times. The missionary and Latter-day Saint Apostle John Taylor wrote in 1843 that he and others were told that “it was improbable, nay, almost impossible—notwithstanding the testimony of history to the contrary, that anything like plates could have been used anciently; particularly among this people.”[10] The general idea of metal plates in antiquity was dismissed by some critics as well as the possibility that such plates could have been found in the Americas.

Response: Since the publication of the Book of Mormon, thousands of examples of metal plates have been recovered from the past, pointing to the widespread nature of the practice across time and in various cultures. (See figure 54 for an example.) Additionally, many of these [Page 206]documents show affinities with the contents of metal plates described in the Book of Mormon.[11]

Figure 54. Kamauli copper plate inscription of Vaidadeva. (Arthur Venis, s.v. “Kamauli copper plate inscription of Vaidyadeva plate 3 obverse,” Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kamauli_copper_plate_inscription_of_Vaidyadeva_plate_3_obverse.jpg.)

197. Israelite Writing on Metal

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that ancient Israelites or Jews never kept records on metal. “The Jews never kept any of their records on plates of brass,” one critic asserted.[12] Another wrote, “The records of the Jews were not engraven on plates but written on skins.”[13]

When the Book of Mormon came to reveal to the world that these migrating people . . . had the custom of engraving their records on tablets of gold or copper to leave to posterity . . . the wise laughed heartily at these absurdities.[14]

Response: Examples of Israelite or Jewish metallic records include the silver Ketef Hinnom amulets, which date to before the destruction of the first Jerusalem temple, and also the copper scroll inscribed with a list of purported treasures from the Jerusalem temple that was [Page 207]found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The copper scroll is actually two metal copper plates that were then rolled together.[15]

A medieval Jewish text called The Treatise of the Vessels, recently translated into English, references a list of temple treasures that were hidden away in the earth and claims that “Shimmur the Levite and his companions wrote them on a tablet of bronze, along with all the vessels of the most holy sanctuary which Solomon the son of David made.”[16]

There is also a report from an eighteenth-century British sailor that a Jewish colony in India preserved a record of their people, written in Hebrew and inscribed on copper plates. Interestingly, this group of Jews reportedly belonged to the tribe of Manasseh and fled Israel close to the time of Lehi. Thus, although the account can’t currently be verified, it provides a close analogue to the story of the Book of Mormon.[17]

198. Scripture Inscribed on Metal

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have specifically claimed that ancient Israelites and Jews never wrote scripture on metal.[18]

Response: The preexilic silver Ketef Hinnom amulets bear an inscription from the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24–26.[19] Sacred texts considered scripture in other religious traditions were also sometimes engraved on metal plates.[20]

199. Writing on Metal Plates (NW)

Status: Unconfirmed

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that there are no New World archaeological examples of texts inscribed on metal plates from pre-Columbian times.[21]

Response: There is currently no evidence for this.

200. Pre-Columbian Writing

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that there is no evidence for writing in pre-Columbian times. Early Apostle Parley P. Pratt reported that a Reverend Peck, in 1831, rejected the Book of Mormon stating that [Page 208]there were no inscriptions from pre-Columbian times.[22] One critic in Great Britain stated in 1838,

According to Mormon, these native Americans could read and write . . . but when that country first became known to Europeans, the inhabitants knew no more about letters than the four-legged animal knows the rules of logic; and not a scrap of writing was to be found.[23]

Another in 1840 claimed that there was not “even so much as a shadow or proof that the sciences of reading and writing [and other evidences of advanced culture mentioned in the Book of Mormon] were ever known here.”[24] “When that country first became known to Europeans, the inhabitants knew no more about letters than a monkey knows about logic.”[25]

It is a well-known fact that the Indians had no books, and among the twenty millions who were found scattered about through the three Americas when Columbus made his discovery four hundred years ago, none of them could read, and consequently they had no literature to transmit.[26]

“There is no evidence that Indians had anything other than simple pictorial writing at that time. They wrote no books.”[27]

Response: The widespread practice of writing on stone and paper codices in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is now well known (figure 55).[28]

201. Early Pre-Columbian Writing

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that pre-Columbian writing did not develop until centuries after the period described in the Book of Mormon. “Literacy in Middle America came into its florescence many years after the Book of Mormon dates, and during most of the period ascribed to the Mormon record there was no true literacy known on the American continents.”[29]

Response: Evidence now indicates that pre-Columbian writing was known from an early period in Mesoamerica. Recently, multispectral imaging was done on bark paper fragments, the remains of a Maya codex found in lowland Guatemala dating to the Early Classic. Researchers discovered that the codex had been painted over, [Page 209]concealing an earlier text so that the paper could be transcribed with a newer one.[30] Pre-Columbian codices may have been used as early as Olmec times in the Early Preclassic Period.[31]

Figure 55. Replica of a Classic Maya Codex. (Gary Todd, s.v. “Classic Maya Codex, Replica,” Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Classic_Maya_Codex,_Replica.jpg.)

202. Reformed Egyptian (OW)

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that there has been no such thing as “reformed Egyptian” (Mormon 9:32).[32]

Response: “Reformed” (that is, modified forms of) Egyptian script are now well-known, of which hieratic and Demotic Egyptian are two examples.[33]

203. Evidence of Egyptian Language (NW)

Status: Partially Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that there is no evidence that Egyptian was ever known in pre-Columbian times.[34]

Response: Linguistic evidence from Uto-Aztecan languages that [Page 210]were spoken in Mexico and the North American southwest suggests a significant influence from ancient Egyptian.[35]

204. Egyptian or Reformed Egyptian Inscriptions (NW)

Status: Unconfirmed

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that no pre-Columbian inscriptions of Egyptian script have been discovered in the New World.[36]

Response: It is true that no authentic Egyptian inscriptions have thus far been discovered from pre-Columbian times.

205. Evidence of Hebrew Language (NW)

Status: Partially Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that there is no evidence that the Hebrew language was known in ancient America.[37]

Response: Research on Uto-Aztecan languages provides evidence suggesting a significant influence from ancient Aramaic and Hebrew.[38]

206. Hebrew Inscriptions (NW)

Status: Unconfirmed

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that no pre-Columbian Hebrew inscriptions have been found in the Americas.[39]

Response: No authentic Hebrew inscriptions have been identified thus far.

207. Inscriptions with Book of Mormon Names (OW)

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that not a single place mentioned in the Book of Mormon has been identified in ancient writings.[40]

Response: Nephi mentions a place called Nahom on his family’s journey through the wilderness (1 Nephi 16:34). The name NHM, which is a viable ancient spelling for Nahom, has been identified with a tribe and location in ancient Yemen. Inscriptions rediscovered in the twentieth century show that the name for this region and tribe was extant at the time of Lehi. This is significant because unlike other names mentioned in Nephi’s account to which his family gave their own personal [Page 211]names, the place of Ishmael’s burial was previously called by that name (1 Nephi 16:34).[41]

208. Inscriptions with Book of Mormon Names (NW)

Status: Unconfirmed

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that no Book of Mormon names have been discovered in pre-Columbian inscriptions.[42]

Response: No such inscriptions have been found thus far.

209. Inscriptions with Book of Mormon Texts

Status: Unconfirmed

Critics’ Claim: Some have claimed that no pre-Columbian inscriptions with texts from the Book of Mormon have been found.[43]

Response: No such inscriptions have so far been found.

210. Practice of Hiding Up Records

Status: Confirmed (1966–2023)

Critics’ Claim: Early critics of the Book of Mormon claimed that the practice of hiding up records (Mormon 1:3, 6:6; Joseph Smith—History 1:51–52) is suspicious and not authentic.[44]

Response: The practice of hiding or burying sacred records in the earth, often with the intention to bring them forth for a later time, is now a well-attested ancient and pre-modern historical practice.[45]

211. Inscribed Stone Monuments (NW)

Status: Confirmed (1829–1844)

Critics’ Claim: The Book of Mormon mentions “a large stone . . . with engravings on it” (Omni 1:20). Some have claimed that there is no evidence of stone monuments in pre-Columbian times.[46]

Response: Illustrated examples of stone monuments with inscriptions were described by Stephens and Catherwood in their 1841 publication Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan.[47] According to David Stuart, “Mayanists are now accustomed to the idea that ancient Maya artisans and scribes, when composing and carving monumental inscriptions, were principally concerned with the [Page 212]commemoration of historical events surrounding kings, their families, and their courts.”[48]

Summary of Results

During the first period (1830–1844), nine items relating to language, writing, and records had been mentioned by writers, two of which found confirmation by 1844. Two others were partially confirmed and five were unconfirmed (figure 56). In the second period (1845–1965), the total had risen to eighteen items, six confirmed, one partially confirmed, and eleven unconfirmed (figure 57). During the third period (1966–2024), there were nineteen items, eleven confirmed, three partially confirmed, and five unconfirmed (figure 58).

[Page 213]

Figure 56. Anachronisms for records, writing, and language in the Book of Mormon (1830–1844).

[Page 214]

Figure 57. Anachronisms for records, writing, and language in the Book of Mormon (1845–1965).

[Page 215]

Figure 58. Anachronisms for records, writing, and language in the Book of Mormon (1966–2024).

[Page 216]1. E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH: printed by the author, 1834), 60; J. M. Burgess, The Book of Mormon Contradictory to Common Sense, Reason, and Revelation (Liverpool: J. Blevin, 1850), 12; The Doctrines of Mormonism (London: Religious Tract Society, 1850), 8; Edward B. Hickman, Mormonism Sifted (London: Jarrold and Sons, 1850), 8–9; Reasons Why I Cannot Become a Mormonite (London: Religious Tract Society: 1852), 3; Charles Day, The Latter-day Saints, or, Mormonites: Who and What Are They? (London: Wertheim and Macintosh, 1854), 13–14, 18; John Hyde Jr., Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs (New York: W. P. Fetridge, 1857), 220; T. B. H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints (New York: D. Appleton, 1873), 526, 532–33; M. T. Lamb, The Golden Bible, or, The Book of Mormon: Is It from God? (New York: Ward & Drummond, 1887), 89–90; Marvin Cowan, Mormon Claims Answered (Salt Lake City: printed by the author, 1979), 39.

2. Scripture Central Staff, “Egyptian Writing,” Evidence 33, 19 September 2020, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-egyptian-writing; Scripture Central Staff, “Did Ancient Israelites Write in Egyptian?,” KnoWhy 4, 5 January 2016, scripturecentral.org/knowhy/did-ancient-israelites-write-in-egyptian; Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 311; David Calabro, “The Hieratic Scribal Tradition in Preexilic Judah,” in Evolving Egypt: Innovation, Appropriation, and Reinterpretation in Ancient Egypt, ed. Kerry Muhlestein and John Gee (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2012), 77–85; John S. Thompson, “Lehi and Egypt,” in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS], 2004), 266–67. See Aaron P. Schade, “The Kingdom of Judah: Politics, Prophets, and Scribes in the Late Preexilic Period,” in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. Welch, Seely, and Seely, 315–19.

3. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 60; Hyde, Mormonism, 220; Lamb, Golden Bible, 90–92; Davis H. Bays, Doctrines and Dogmas of Mormonism: Examined and Refuted (St. Louis, MO: Christian Publishing, 1897), 273–75; William Alexander Linn, The Story of the Mormons (New York: Macmillan, 1902), 92; T. C. Smith, The Credentials of the Book of Mormon and Mormonism, 10 parts (Denver: printed by the author, 1912), 1:43–44.

4. Raymond A. Bowman, “An Aramaic Religious Text in Demotic Script,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 3, no. 4 (1944): 219–31; Karel van der Toorn, “Eshem-Bethel and Herem-Bethel: New Evidence from Amherst Papyrus 63,” Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 128, no. 4 (2016): 668–80; Karel van der Toorn, Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019), 62–63; Menahem Kister, “Psalm 20 and Papyrus Amherst 63: A Window to the Dynamic Nature of Poetic Texts,” Vetus Testamentum 70, fasc. 3 (2019): 1–32; Scripture Central Staff, “Did Ancient Israelites Write in Egyptian?”

5. Michael Hubbard MacKay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, and Robin Scott Jensen, “The ‘Caracters’ Document: New Light on an Early Transcription of the Book of Mormon Characters,” Mormon Historical Studies 14, no. 1 (2013): 131–52.

[Page 217]6. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 272; Bays, Doctrines and Dogmas of Mormonism, 263–66; Charles A. Shook, Cumorah Revisited (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1910), 538–41.

7. John S. Thompson, “Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s),” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 63 (2025): 353–66; Scripture Central Staff, “The Anthon Account,” Evidence 219, 31 July 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-the-anthon-account; Scripture Central Staff, “What Do We Know about the ‘Anthon Transcript’?,” KnoWhy 515, 9 May 2019, scripturecentral.org/knowhy/what-do-we-know-about-the-anthon-transcript; FARMS Staff, Martin Harris’ Visit with Charles Anthon: Collected Documents on the Anthon Transcript and Shorthand Egyptian, ” FARMS Papers (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1990).

8. William C. Hayes to Paul M. Hanson, 8 June 1956, published in Hanson, “The Transcript from the Plates of the Book of Mormon,” Saints’ Herald, 12 November 1956, 1098.

9. Richard Parker to Marvin W. Cowan, 22 March 1966, copy in author’s possession; see also Richard Bushman to Marvin S. Hill, 30 March 1985, cited in FARMS Staff, “Martin Harris’ Visit with Charles Anthon,” 13n27.

10. “Ancient Records,” Times and Seasons, 1 May 1843, 185–86. See also Hyde, Mormonism, 217–18.

11. Scripture Central Staff, “Gold Books,” Evidence 265, 1 November 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/gold-books; Scripture Central Staff, “Bronze Buddhist Records,” Evidence 237, 13 September 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-bronze-buddhist-records; Scripture Central Staff, “Apocalypse of Enosh,” Evidence 126, 18 December 2020, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-apocalypse-of-enosh; Scripture Central Staff, “Copper Grants,” Evidence 246, 27 September 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-indian-copper-plate-grants; Scripture Central Staff, “Egyptian Metal Plates,” Evidence 316, 1 March 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/egyptian-metal-plates; Scripture Central Staff, “Foundation Deposits,” Evidence 347, 13 June 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/foundation-deposits; Scripture Central Staff, “Lengthy Plates,” Evidence 248, 4 October 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/foundation-deposits; Scripture Central Staff, “Many Plates,” Evidence 242, 20 September 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-many-plates; Scripture Central Staff, “Plates and Genealogies,” Evidence 227, 16 August 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-plates-and-genealogies; Scripture Central Staff, “Plates and History,” Evidence 266, 8 November 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/metal-plates-and-history; Scripture Central Staff, “Plates and Laws,” Evidence 323, 29 March 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/metal-plates-and-laws; Scripture Central Staff, “Plates and Prophecies,” Evidence 296, 10 January 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/metal-plates-and-prophecies; Scripture Central Staff, “Plates and Rituals,” Evidence 228, 23 August 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-plates-and-ritual; Scripture Central Staff, “Plates and Warfare,” Evidence 275, 29 November 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/metal-plates-and-warfare; Scripture Central [Page 218]Staff, “Plates, Curses, and Blessings,” Evidence 333, 25 April 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/metal-plates-curses-and-blessings; Scripture Central Staff, “Priestly Records,” Evidence 256, 15 October 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-plates-and-priestly-records; Scripture Central Staff, “Sacred Plates,” Evidence 334, 25 April 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/sacred-metal-plates. See also William J. Hamblin, “Sacred Writing on Metal Plates in the Ancient Mediterranean,” FARMS Review 19, no. 1 (2007): 37–54.

12. LaRoy Sunderland, “Mormonism,” Zion’s Watchman (New York), 24 February 1838.

13. Doctrines of Mormonism, 9.

14. L. A. Bertrand, Memoires d’un Mormon (Paris: Collection Hetzel, 1862), 41. See also W. Sparrow Simpson, Mormonism: Its History, Doctrines, and Practices (London: A. M. Pigott, 1853), 31; Hyde, Mormonism, 217–18; Bays, Doctrines and Dogmas of Mormonism, 263; G. B. Hancock, Mormonism Exposed (Marionville, MO: A. Doggett, 1902), 87–89.

15. Jeremy D. Smoak, The Priestly Blessing in Inscription and Scripture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016); Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 35; Hamblin, “Sacred Writing on Metal Plates,” 41.

16. James R. Davila, “The Treatise of the Vessels (Massekhet Kelim): A New Translation and Introduction,” in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Non-Canonical Scriptures, vol. 1, ed. Richard Bauckham, James R. Davila, and Alexander Panayotov (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013), 404–5.

17. See Jeff Lindsay, “The Words of Gad the Seer: An Apparently Ancient Text with Intriguing Origins and Content,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 54 (2022): 156–60, journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-words-of-gad-the-seer-an-apparently-ancient-text-with-intriguing-origins-and-content/.

18. Hyde, Mormonism, 217–18.

19. Smoak, Priestly Blessing; Hamblin, “Sacred Writing on Metal Plates,” 40; William J. Adams Jr., “Lehi’s Jerusalem and Writing on Silver Plates,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 23–26.

20. Scripture Central Staff, “Gold Books”; Scripture Central Staff, “Bronze Buddhist Records.”

21. Hancock, Mormonism Exposed, 87–89; Gordon H. Fraser, What Does the Book of Mormon Teach? (Chicago: Moody Press, 1964), 55–57; Anthony A. Hoekema, Mormonism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1963), 88–90; Latayne Colvette Scott, The Mormon Mirage: A Former Mormon Tells Why She Left the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1979), 82.

22. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 69.

23. H. Stevenson, A Lecture on Mormonism Delivered at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Alston, December 7th, 1838 (Newcastle, UK: J. Blackwell, 1839), 12.

[Page 219]24. Philanthropist of Chester County, Mormonism Unmasked (Philadelphia: T. K. & P. G. Collins, 1840), 5–6.

25. Anonymous, Latter-day Saints: The Dupes of a Foolish and Wicked Imposture (Cape Town: 1853), 18.

26. William Baxter Godbey, Mormonism (Cincinnati: God’s Revivalist Press, 1920), 1.

27. Thomas Key, A Biologist Looks at the Book of Mormon (Marlow, OK: Utah Missions, 1985), 5; see also Thomas Key, The Book of Mormon in the Light of Science, 15th ed. (Marlow, OK: Utah Missions, 1997), 67.

28. Michael D. Coe and Justin Kerr, The Art of the Maya Scribe (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998), 63. Scripture Central Staff, “Pre-Columbian Books,” Evidence 214, 19 July 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-pre-columbian-books; John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013), 184–232.

29. Gordon H. Fraser, Joseph and the Golden Plates (Eugene, OR: Industrial Litho, 1978), 52.

30. Nicholas P. Carter and Jeffrey Dobereiner, “Multispectral Imaging of an Early Classic Maya Codex Fragment from Uaxactun, Guatemala,” Antiquity 90, no. 351 (2016): 711–25; Ludo Snijders, Tim Zaman, and David Howell, “Using Hyperspectral Imaging to Reveal a Hidden Precolonial Mesoamerican Codex,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 9 (2016): 143–49.

31. Scripture Central Staff, “Pre-Columbian Books”; Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex, 184–232; Coe and Kerr, Art of the Maya Scribe, 63.

32. Sunderland, “Mormonism.”

33. See William J. Hamblin, “Reformed Egyptian,” FARMS Review 19, no. 1 (2007): 31–35; Scripture Central Staff, “Why Did Mormon and Moroni Write in Reformed Egyptian?,” KnoWhy 513, 2 May 2019, scripturecentral.org/knowhy/why-did-mormon-and-moroni-write-in-reformed-egyptian.

34. Shook, Cumorah Revisited, 465–66.

35. Scripture Central Staff, “Uto-Aztecan,” Evidence 131, 28 February 2022, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-uto-azteca; Brian D. Stubbs, Exploring the Explanatory Power of Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan (Provo, UT: Grover Publications, 2015); Brian D. Stubbs, Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now (Blanding, UT: Four Corners Digital Design, 2016); Mary LeCron Foster, “The Transoceanic Trail: The Proto-Pelagian Language Phylum,” Pre-Columbiana: A Journal of Long-Distance Contacts 1, nos. 1–2 (1998): 88–113.

36. Lamb, Golden Bible, 268–75; Jonas, Mormon Claims Examined, 15; Hal Hougey, Archaeology and the Book of Mormon (Concord, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1976), 12; Cowan, Mormon Claims Answered, 59–60; Ronald Puening, “More on the Nephites and the Book of Mormon,” Biblical Archaeology Review 14, no. 6 (1988): 12.

37. Jack Free, Mormonism and Inspiration (Concord, CA: Pacific Publishing, 1962), 161–65; Theophiel Boucher, Mormonism: Faith or Fallacy? (New York: Pageant [Page 220]Press, 1959), 50–51; H. Michael Marquardt, “Early Nineteenth Century Events Reflected in the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Pastoral Practice 3, no. 1 (1979): 131.

38. Scripture Central Staff, “Uto-Aztecan”; Stubbs, Semitic and Egyptian in Uto-Aztecan; Stubbs, Changes in Languages.

39. Larry Jonas, Mormon Claims Examined (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1965), 15; Cowan, Mormon Claims Answered, 59–60; Hougey, Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, 12; Marquardt, “Early Nineteenth Century Events,” 131; Puening, “Nephites and the Book of Mormon,” 12.

40. “No mention of Book of Mormon . . . places have been found.” Hougey, Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, 12.

41. Warren P. Aston, “The Origins of the Nihm Tribe of Yemen: A Window into Arabia’s Past,” Journal of Arabian Studies: Arabia, the Gulf, and the Red Sea 4, no. 1 (2014): 134–48; Warren P. Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 2 (2012): 78–98, scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol51/iss2/6/; Neal Rappleye, “The Place—or the Tribe—Called Nahom? NHM as Both a Tribal and Geographic Name in Modern and Ancient Yemen,” BYU Studies 62, no. 2 (2023): 49–72, scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol62/iss2/4/; Scripture Central Staff, “Nahom,” Evidence 163, 9 March 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-nahom.

42. Lamb, Golden Bible, 273–83; Edgar E. Folk, The Mormon Monster (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1900), 175–76; G. B. Hancock, Mormonism Exposed (Marionville, MO: A. Doggett, 1902), 108–14; Hougey, Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, 12; Marquardt, “Early Nineteenth Century Events,” 131.

43. Hougey, Archaeology and the Book of Mormon, 12.

44. David Marks, The Life of David Marks [. . .] (Limerick, ME: Morning Star, 1831), 340; Tyler Parsons, Mormon Fanaticism Exposed (Boston: printed for the author, 1841), 26. For a negative example, note the Gadianton robbers’ practice mentioned in Helaman 11:10, 26.

45. Scripture Central Staff, “Hidden Records,” Evidence 111, 19 November 2020, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-hidden-records; Scripture Central Staff, “Records Hidden in Boxes,” Evidence 112, 19 November 2020, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-records-hidden-in-boxes; Scripture Central Staff, “Apocalypse of Enosh”; Scripture Central Staff, “Copper Grants.”

46. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 69.

47. John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1841), 1:150–57; “Zarahemla,” Times and Seasons, 1 October 1842, 927.

48. David Stuart, “A Foreign Past: The Writing and Representation of History on a Royal Ancestral Shrine at Copan,” in Copan: The History of An Ancient Maya Kingdom, ed. E. Wyllys Andres and William L. Fash (Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2005), 373. On this, see Kerry Hull, “War Banners: A Mesoamerican Context for the Title of Liberty,” Journal [Page 221]of Book of Mormon Studies 24, no. 1 (2015): 84–118, scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol24/iss1/5/; Scripture Central Staff, “War Banners in Mesoamerica,” Evidence 151, 15 February 2021, scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-mesoamerican-war-banners.

Contents