HOW did Joseph Smith write the BOM?
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2021 4:44 pm
I think this is STILL a good question; and I think it deserves better answers from both sides (believer or skeptic) of the question. What I hope to find is new insights into the process. Did Joseph have a photographic memory or an unusual imagination? Did he hear stories from other people? How did losing the 116 pages affect what we have as the BOM? Did God use the seer stone and/or the plates? How? Is there any evidence of an unknown manuscript, perhaps with scratch-outs, like D&C manuscripts? I've read recent versions of the Spaulding theory, are there any obscure insights into that. What does the evidence tell us?
I'll start with one insight. People often forget the first part of the Book of Mormon that we have was produced was almost certainly Mosiah. That's where the 116 pages left off. The first part of the first manuscript (Mosiah to Alma 9) are lost, probably from damage incurred while in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo temple, unless I am mistaken. Fragments, starting with parts of Alma 10 are in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery. It opens the possibility that some and perhaps all of Mosiah was written before Oliver arrived on the scene, perhaps by Emma.
Also, the Book of Mormon apparently demands a literal interpretation of Genesis. How could it be reconciled without accepting a literal Noah, Adam, and Tower of Babel, with the traditional Bishop Ussher timeline. That is Tower of Babel around 2200 B.C.? How can a literal Noah be reconciled with archaeology?
I know there are skeptics who are reading this. It would be cool it there was a faithful reader or two who could offer a new insight based on evidence, not just warm fuzzies.
I'll start with one insight. People often forget the first part of the Book of Mormon that we have was produced was almost certainly Mosiah. That's where the 116 pages left off. The first part of the first manuscript (Mosiah to Alma 9) are lost, probably from damage incurred while in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo temple, unless I am mistaken. Fragments, starting with parts of Alma 10 are in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery. It opens the possibility that some and perhaps all of Mosiah was written before Oliver arrived on the scene, perhaps by Emma.
Also, the Book of Mormon apparently demands a literal interpretation of Genesis. How could it be reconciled without accepting a literal Noah, Adam, and Tower of Babel, with the traditional Bishop Ussher timeline. That is Tower of Babel around 2200 B.C.? How can a literal Noah be reconciled with archaeology?
I know there are skeptics who are reading this. It would be cool it there was a faithful reader or two who could offer a new insight based on evidence, not just warm fuzzies.