Three early critics set the agenda for the first sustained criticisms of the book. After spaldings death, a number of individuals suggested that spaldings work was used as a source by joseph smith for the book of mormon, a scripture in the latter day saint movement. Cowdrey is an exmormon whose interest in the origins of the book of mormon derives from his familys tradition that they are relatives of the oliver cowdery who figures so prominently in the spalding enigma. One of the most damaging refutations of the spaulding theory comes from oliver cowdery, who served as the principal scribe during the majority of the book of mormons translation. There are only a ten mentions of sam, but many church leaders have noted there are interesting lessons to be learned from this valiant young man who appears never to have held a leadership position and who is often not even mentioned in accounts of the events in which he participated. Mormonism the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.
Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The book of mormon original broadway cast recording licensed to youtube by. You try spraying, scrubbing, and still were left with so many persons whose testimonies of the physicality of the golden plates, angels, and other artifactsnever wavered. The spaldingrigdon theory of book of mormon authorship is the theory that the book of mormon was plagiarized in part from an unpublished manuscript written by solomon spalding. Other online mormon texts collections our sister sites. On the first day he traveled 25 miles, but people treated him unkindly and did not want to listen. Village performing arts centre full time 2014 perform turn it off from the book of mormon. Historians and scholars can no longer acquiesce in perpetuating the myth that the spalding theory has been refuted, repudiated, demolished, or disproved. Samuel spaulding, a presbyterian minister, wrote a novel about early america and gave it to a publisher to look over and give his assessment regarding its worth to be published. The book of ether comes next, which is a flashback to the story of a completely different group of people from the middle east, fleeing from the tower of babel, who came to the americas centuries before lehi and nephi.
The book of mormon represents the mind and will of god for the people of these last days. There is a theory that sidney rigdon helped joseph smith create the book of mormon based on a manuscript written by a man named solomon spaulding. The most interesting literary controversy of the time, and the only one which has important practical bearing, is raging around the book of mormon, sometimes but. The faithpromoting series book 11 volume 11 reynolds, george, spaulding, samuel on. What does the spauldingrigdon timeline mean exploring.
Mormonism the church of jesus christ of latter day. Finally, another founding mormon, martin harris, revealed the true source of the book of mormon to r. The authorship of the book of mormon has been hotly debated since it was first published. The book of mormon certainly has difficulty demonstrating that it is ancient history, so does most of the old testament, the conflicting narratives of the gospels, the bhagavad gita, the upanishads and a number of sacred texts. Solomon spaulding and the book of mormon fairmormon. I have read every word of both it and the book of mormon, and i compiled a list of what i thought were the most noteworthy similarities between the two books. Since the book of mormon was first published, many have been unwilling to accept joseph smiths account of how it was produced. Evidence for solomon spaulding authorship of the book of. Did solomon spaulding write the book of mormon by robert c. Madsen is professor emeritus of history at the university of utah, salt lake city. One of the earliest theories of book of mormon authorship was that joseph plagiarized the unpublished manuscript of a novel written by the reverend solomon spalding. We do have the original spalding manuscript and the book of mormon, which do not appear to have enough in common to insist that the latter came from the former.
Naturalistic explanations of the origin of the book of. In the book, howe reproduced eight affidavits from spaulding acquaintances who recalled remarkable similarities between manuscript found and the book of mormon. Lead vocals by tom ragen, logan dunstan, sam malseed and aj nerona. Alderman in 1852 harris was one of the three witnesses to the book of mormon but had by this time left the church. The theory first appeared in print in the book mormonism unvailed sic, published in 1834 by e. The strength of the argument that the book of mormon is a remix of the late war rests on the cumulative improbability of finding all of these phrases somewhere else. An ongoing study of shared language in spaldings manuscript pages and the book of mormon demonstrates that certain sections of the book of mormon overlap the known spalding writings to a greater degree than do other sections of that book. While there, they preached from the book of mormon. Howe each alleged joseph smith used the book of mormon as part of an elaborate scheme to defraud the public.
These plates were handed down from prophet to prophet until the. I think even most antimormons gave up on that years ago but you never know. Josephs plagiarism in book of mormon and other revelations. Roberts studies of the book of mormon introduction by brigham d. Bp samuel fallows, helen may fallows williams 1903. No other book, aside from the first book of napoleon, approaches the density of rare phrases 4grams, specifically that are shared by the book of mormon. Inside of both the spaulding document, and in the book of mormon, are movements that appear to be copied out of an earlier text about george washington. Description too many cases have been written against mormonism out of impetuosity, and their lack of scholarly.
Is the book of mormon ancient history or a work of. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading myth of the manuscript found and the complete original spaulding. He forthrightly affirmed, i wrote, with my own pen, the entire book of mormon save a few pages. Fairchild concluded that the theory of the origin of the book of mormon in the traditional manuscript of solomon spaulding will probably have to be relinquished. He goes to samuel lawrences house the night joseph is getting the plates and evesdrops. In all cases, fivethousandword blocks of text were used. In 1977 wayne cowdrey, howard davis, and donald scales published who really wrote the book of mormon. Lehi saw sam in his vision of the tree of life, noting that he ate the precious fruit, symbolizing the righteousness of sam, and that he would be saved. Solomon spalding 17611816 was a lapsed calvinist evangelist, a failed new york businessman, and hopeful author of a prehistoric american epic story giving an account of the vanished mound builders of the ohio valley. In the early 1830s he was identified by some witnesses and writers as the original author of part of the book of mormon. It may be possible for literary analysts to recreate portions of the nephite record attributable to. Myth of the manuscript found and the complete original. For example, jerald and sandra tanner, who wrote critically of joseph smith and the book of mormon, rejected the theory.
The question of book of mormon authorship cannot be solved by dismissing or excising solomon spalding. In my previous post about unconventional book of mormon geography theories, doug g made a comment claiming that the book of mormon is related to the solomon spaulding manuscript, so i want to address this theory. We build enduring faith in jesus christ by making the book of mormon accessible, comprehensible, and defensible to the entire world. Samuel went to teach people the gospel and tell them about the book of mormon. The solomon spalding theory chapter 9 of joseph smiths. This sacrifice made the printing of the book of mormon possible. The hope is found in the true gospel of the kingdom, not in the book of mormon. This list is in no way meant to prove or disprove the spaldingrigdon theory, nor should it be considered exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination. Chapter 9 of joseph smiths plagiarism of the bible in the book of mormon. When rice, fairchild, and several others compared the spaulding manuscript with the book of mormon they could detect no resemblance between the two, in general or detail.
And the book of mormon ends with the book of moroni, who is mormons son. Book of mormonauthorship theoriesspalding manuscript. This timeline is a summary of all events that indicate that this theory may be true based on my notes collected over a sixyear period. In the book of mormon, sam was the third son of lehi, and elder brother to the prophet nephi. Nehemiah king, a resident of conneaut who knew spalding when he lived there, felt that the mormon text resembled the story written by spalding years before. Although some of the documentary evidence from the 1977 book is reproduced, this is not a revision of the earlier work, but. According to the latterday saints official historical account, the book of mormon bom was the work of ancient american jewish prophets who wrote their inspired accounts on plates of gold. If true, it is one of the most important messages ever sent from godif false, it is one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deeplaid impositions ever palmed upon the world. One of the earliest theories was that the book of mormon was based on a manuscript by solomon spaulding also spelled spalding, a fictional story about early inhabitants of america. Myth of the manuscript found and the complete original spaulding manuscript, the faithpromoting series book 11 illustrated kindle edition by george reynolds, samuel spaulding. Solomon spaulding 17611816 is considered by some researchers to be the original author of the book of mormon.
Joseph smith jr could not have written the b of m nor could he have used spaulding as the basis for it. Being somewhat acquainted with elder rigdon, in the early history of the church, and have heard him interrogated both in public and in private concerning his knowledge of the book of mormon, and the spaulding romance, and at one particular time and place while preaching to a large congregation, bore his testimony with such power in the spirit. Samuel smith was the first missionary for the church. Featuring many online historic texts and excerpts cowderys bookshelf old newspapers smiths history vault old spalding library new spalding library special collections for many historic mormonism texts on check out. Early in the book of mormon, nephi confided in sam. One aspect not addressed in the research is that spalding engages in an acceptable practice of the day, namely heavy borrowing and outright plagiarism. The earthquake yesterday caused moronis trumpet to fall to the ground, reminding me of the word that samuel received long ago.
Andrew ainsworth did a post in february on the curious case of solomon spaulding, which talks more about the legal aspects of proving plagiarism. See his manuscript of solomon spaulding and the book of mormon in magazine of western history 4 mayoctober 1886, pp. Solomon spalding was the author of two related texts. Additional information from part 1 of joseph smiths plagiarism of the bible in the book of mormon, pages 3738 in 2008 another computer study was done by matt jockers, craig criddle and daniela witten, comparing various authors word prints, including solomon spalding and sidney rigdon, with that of the book of mormon. An account written by the hand of mormon upon plates. Among the works studied were texts by samuel johnson, mark twain, oliver cowdery, solomon spaulding, and samples of joseph smiths holographic and dictated writings see figure 1.
Coming forth of the book of mormon and restoration of the. The spaulding fable by common consent, a mormon blog. Early mormon apostle orson pratt made a statement concerning the book of mormon. Who really wrote the book of mormon solomon spalding. But, what never seems to go away for book of mormon critics are those pesky witnesses. Smith and orson hyde visited conneaut, ohio, and preached from the book of mormon. Wordprints and the book of mormon book of mormon central. Solomon spaulding, the b of mormon joseph smith was. The most controversial view of book of mormon origins is the spalding theory, the hypothesis that the book of mormon was based in large measure on a novel by an early nineteenthcentury writer, solomon spalding also spelled spaulding. Now cowdrey and davis have teamed with hugh oneal and arthur vanick to produce the spalding enigma. Smith and orson hyde, missionaries for the church of jesus christ, were in conneaut, ohio, where spaulding began writing his manuscript.
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