Hi everyone! My name is Danny – and I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ for 60 years. I had read the Book of Mormon many times and taught it in Gospel Doctrine classes and High School Seminary as a full-time teacher for the LDS Church.
As you probably know – Joseph Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was the most correct book on earth. That is a high bar to set for this book considered to be ancient scripture.
I have found it fascinating now as a former Latter-day Saint to carefully examine the Book of Mormon in determining its truthfulness and authenticity. It has really opened my eyes to the actual origin of its storyline and the doctrine it prescribes.
In this video, we are going to do a critical analysis of the most important event recorded in the Book of Mormon. That being, the visitation and appearance of the Jesus Christ in the Western Hemisphere following His resurrection as recorded in the book of 3rd Nephi.
While the claim of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been that the Book of Mormon is an ancient record engraved on golden plates and translated by Joseph Smith using a rock in a hat - there are problems we will see in this video which prove the Book of Mormon to be nothing more than a 19th century text, written by someone with access to the King James Bible.
The entire Book of Mormon narrative has been leading up to this grand pinnacle event when Jesus appears to the Nephite and Lamanite survivors following the destruction of 16 cities, resulting in the death of the thousands of men, women, and innocent children. Those survivors of that catastrophic incident had gathered at the temple in Bountiful where Jesus supposedly descended from heaven and began ministering to them.
He announces in 3 Nephi 11:10 “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.” Like most believing Latter-day Saints, I didn’t see a problem with calling Himself, “Jesus Christ.” Not until I realized His Aramaic name and title was really, Yeshua Mashiach. The anglicized name, Jesus Christ, didn’t come along until the 16th century. So, how did “Jesus Christ” get onto the gold plates?
The first thing Jesus does is teach the Nephites and Lamanites almost the exact same thing He delivered to the Jewish people in Israel called the “Sermon on the Mount.” In the Book of Mormon it is referred to as the “Sermon at the Temple.”
The most striking and lengthy parallel between the Book of Mormon and the New Testament is the Savior’s sermon in Judea and this sermon in Bountiful. Not only is the subject matter formatted in the same sequence, but the phraseology is similar in numerous passages.
The Book of Mormon incorporates the “Sermon on the Mount” from the book of Matthew in an undeniable fashion in 3 Nephi, which is again anachronistic due to the King James text itself not being created until 1611. While some LDS apologists would suggest that Jesus simply spoke the same words to the Book of Mormon people that He did to those in Israel - there are words and concepts left in the Book of Mormon that would have no meaning to those living in the Western Hemisphere. I am going to show you important examples of this.
The bottom line is that the KJV text was copied into the Book of Mormon by adding and deleting various words and phrases between the two.
Here are some important facts: Comparing Matthew chapters 5-7 with 3 Nephi chapters 12-14: 382 words (16%) of the original 2431 words of Matthew 5-7 were deleted and 481 new words (19%) were added to the text to create 3 Nephi 12-14, which has a total of 2543 words, of which 81% of the words are directly copied from the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7 directly into 3 Nephi 12-14.
Right now, I’m not going to read the entire “Sermon at the Temple.” I’m only going to highlight where Joseph Smith made changes to the Sermon and the problematic words he copied into the BoM.
3 Nephi 12:1-2. From the first two verses, we learn that this sermon is directed to baptized members of the Nephite Church, and to those who soon will be baptized.
In 3 Nephi 12:3-12, these verses are commonly known as the “Beatitudes” in the New Testament account. Now keep in mind, these are two vastly different cultures – a Middle Eastern society and a Western Hemispheric people.
3 Nephi 12:6 “And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” In other translations leading up to the 1611 King James Version and those translations after the KJV, the term used was not “Holy Ghost,” it was “Holy Spirit.” It was the King James translators who adopted the term “Holy Ghost.” This raises the question - Why did Jesus in the Book of Mormon use the phrase “Holy Ghost?” Oddly that phrase first shows up early in the Book of Mormon at 1 Nephi 10:11, which was supposedly recorded on plates in 600 BC. Do you see the problem?
3 Nephi 12:22 “But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of his judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Here is another problematic example that the Book of Mormon retains from the New Testament. It is the word “raca,” which means “vain, empty, worthless.” The Jews used it as a word of contempt. The word is Aramaic, which is what Yeshua spoke in his lifetime, but it is not a term anyone in the Americas would understand. Big mistake on Joseph Smith’s part!
3 Nephi 12:26 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence until thou hast paid the uttermost senine. And while ye are in prison can ye pay even one senine? Verily, verily, I say unto you, Nay.” Jesus here in America is replacing a New Testament silver coin, the “shekel” used in ancient Israel. The KJV translators used the English “farthing” instead of “shekel.” And Joseph Smith changed it to a Nephite coin called a, “senine.” When Smith came across Matthew 5:26 and saw the phrase “thou hast paid the uttermost farthing,” he knew farthing was English currency and would have no meaning to people living in the ancient Americas. So, he cleverly changes it to “until thou hast paid the uttermost senine.” Senine is the Nephite coinage mentioned in Alma (written just two books, previously) and then never mentioned again after this chapter.
3 Nephi 12:41 “And whosever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” Jesus here refers to the Roman law of going a mile. It is a reference to a Roman custom, where a Roman soldier could grab any Jewish citizen, they chose and force that person to carry the soldier’s belongings or other items for a standard mile. But a “mile” is not a measurement of distance the Nephites would be at all familiar with. In the Book of Mormon, it is used exactly as in the KJV. This teaching of Jesus would have absolutely no meaning to people in the Americas who had no knowledge of Roman law.
3 Nephi 13 can be compared to Matthew 6, in the Bible. To the modern Latter-day Saint who is reading this - Jesus continues teaching and explaining personal attributes that a Mormon would need to be perfect for entrance into celestial glory.
3 Nephi 13:1 “VERILY, verily, I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor; but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.” Here, the term “Alms” are money or food that were given to the poor. It was a word created in the 12th century AD in England and was used by King James translators. Jesus would not have used that English word. So how did “alms” make it into the BoM? Again, another mistake of Joseph Smith.
3 Nephi 13:5 “And when thou prayest thou shall not do as the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” The word “synagogue” or “synagogues” is another huge problem. It appears 25 times in the, Book of Mormon. The earliest reference is in 2 Nephi 26:26, which was written about 550 BC. There has been no archaeological evidence of these synagogue buildings being found in pre-Columbian Americas. How could the Nephites know the Jews built synagogues, when the Jews were not building them before Lehi left for the new world in 600 BC? But a writer in the early 19th century, who was able to read the entire Bible would certainly know. Most Bible scholars believe that synagogues did not come into existence until the Babylonian captivity, which was after Lehi had left Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple had been destroyed.
What options are left for Latter-day Saints considering this? They could simply ignore the evidence and pretend all is well, and that the Book of Mormon is still God’s Word. Or they can recognize that to use the term “synagogues” in the Book of Mormon is a complete anachronism, which proves the book to be fiction.
In the “Sermon on the Mount,” the “Lord’s Prayer” is found in Matthew 6 as it is in 3 Nephi 13. The ending of the “Lord’s Prayer” is considered a psalm or hymn of praise that was not present in the earliest manuscripts of Matthew. Specifically, Matthew 6:13 which is the same as 3 Nephi 13:13 “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
This hymn in Matthew is not found in the two earliest manuscripts that exist of Matthew. And as such the ending of Matthew 6:13 in the King James Bible is not currently used in the more widely used and accurate translations such as the New International Version. Neither is that phrase used in Luke’s version of the “Lord’s Prayer.” The author of the Book of Mormon didn’t have that knowledge and mistakenly copied the ending of the Lord’s prayer from the, King James Bible into his book.
3 Nephi 13:26 “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” The word “barn” is an English word created in the 1500’s, meaning a “place for storage.” King James translators used “barn” in their Bible. Anachronistically, Jesus uses that term in His Sermon to the Nephites in 34 AD.
3 Nephi 13:27 “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit into his stature?” A cubit is about 18 to 22 inches. This ancient unit of measure was based on the distance of the forearm from elbow to fingertip. The word “cubit” was created in the 15th century and would not have been used by Jesus in the Sermon to the Nephites, who would not understand this teaching at all.
3 Nephi 14. This is the concluding chapter of the “Sermon at the Temple” in Bountiful and corresponds to the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 7.
3 Nephi 14:6 “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” The animals, swine or pigs were never found in the Americas in pre-Columbian times. Those Nephites and Lamanites at the “Sermon at the temple” would not have recognized those terms Jesus was using.
3 Nephi 14:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Again, Smith wasn’t aware that there were no sheep existing in the Americas in pre-Columbian times. How would those Nephites and Lamanites know what Jesus was even talking about?
3 Nephi 14:16 “Ye shall know them by their afruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Finally, we end with this reference to “figs.” The fig tree was first introduced to the Americas by Spanish explorers in 1575 AD. The Book of Mormon people would not have any idea what Jesus was talking about in 34 AD.
Even if we are to believe the LDS apologetic argument that Jesus was merely repeating His exact Sermon on the Mount, it is highly problematic from a historical standpoint. We would need to believe that Jesus changed one term that meant nothing to the people of the Americas like “farthing,” while neglecting to remove references to a Roman practice of walking an extra mile, or the Aramaic insult, “Racca” - that they would not have known or spoken. Nor would Jesus have spoken about animals and fruits that didn’t even exist in the Western Hemisphere.
Another critical issue worth mentioning here - Joseph Smith changed the wording from the KJV to avoid carrying italicized words from the Bible into the Book of Mormon. But because it is tedious and time consuming, he inadvertently missed some of those words. Italicized words were those the King James translators inserted into the text to make the Bible more readable. They weren’t in the original ancient manuscripts and the translators wanted to identify them by using italics. I counted a total of 18 italicized words in the KJV that were accidentally put into the “Sermon at the Temple” – without them being italicized. These weren’t big words, but included: “are, is, for, it, can, thy, men, and clothe.” Just more evidence of Smith plagiarizing from the New Testament.
The Book of Mormon is a retelling of the King James translation of the “Sermon on the Mount” - including late additions, italics, and words and phrases that would have no meaning in the Americas.
It cannot be overstated how problematic the use of the King James Bible is for the authenticity and historicity of the Book of Mormon. Not only is Joseph Smith using words and phrases that are unique to the King James translation of the Bible he happened to own and use - but the Book of Mormon includes material from the “Sermon on the Mount” that would only serve to confuse people in the ancient Americas.
We can see from biblical scholarship alone that the Book of Mormon is a 19th century text, and that the church’s foundational truth claims regarding the Book of Mormon being the “most correct book on earth” - are simply not true.
As a Latter-day Saint, I heard Apostle Jeffrey Holland proclaim, “Either the Book of Mormon is what the Prophet Joseph said it is or this Church and its founder are false, fraudulent, a deception from the first instance onward. Not everything in life is so black and white, but it seems the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and its keystone role in our belief is exactly that.”
Because I wasn’t a “lazy learner” or “lax disciple,” I set out with the sincere intention to prove the Book of Mormon true. However, by using biblical scholarship and critical analysis - I discovered the Book of Mormon is nothing more than a 19th century book of fiction written by Joseph Smith.
I now have my answer, how about you?
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Until next time, God Bless!