American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon (Essays on Mormonism Series) [Paperback]

To be brief, I'll just point to the essay by Professor Edwin Firmage, who tells a compelling story of how he came to abandon his belief that the Book of Mormon is an ancient document. The other essays in this book are also fascinating. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Book of Mormon.

Professor Edwin Firmage, Jr. writes:

"Nearly twenty years ago, as a first year-graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, my ambition was to become another Hugh Nibley, whose writings I loved since I was twelve...."

"Still a neophyte, but armed with German and a little Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew, and intent on acquiring the requisite apologetic tools, I cameo Berkeley to study ancient Near Eastern languages, particularly Egyptian, the language of mysteries par excellence.

"Not long after my arrival, I was asked to teach the Book of Mormon in the Gospel Doctrine class in my Berkeley ward. I welcomed the opportunity, as it would give me a chance to delve deeper into the book. By any standard, my wife and I were faithful Mormons who attended church, visited the temple, and prayed together. I expected my study of the Book of Mormon to result in an increase of faith as it had done on my mission. But within six months, I no longer believed the Book of Mormon to be an ancient text.

"To this day, I am not sure how it happened, although I can isolate several issues that played a role in my change of mind....I have often thought that what happened to me in Berkeley was fundamentally a conversion, or, if you like, an anti-conversion. The process had all the inscrutable suddenness that characterized some of the conversions I had witnessed as missionary. Like a conversion to faith, the effect of my change of mind propagated with amazing speed. Almost overnight my whole outlook on life was different."

"The remaining pages of this essay will present a few of what, for me in 1984, were discoveries of some importance. These do not by any means constitute a comprehensive explanation of the Book of Mormon. Nor are they offered as proof of my thesis that the book is modern, but as examples of how the assumption that is modern resolves otherwise significant difficulties."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days (Mormons) teaches its members that if they want to know whether the Book of Mormon is true or not they should pray about the matter. If they receive a "burning in their bosom" they will know that the book and the accounts depicted inside are accurate. For faithful members of the church this is the only way to discover the "truth" of the Book of Mormon.

Brent Metcalfe and Dan Vogel take a different approach. They present a number of articles from scholars who have attempted to get at "the truth" of the Book of Mormon in a totally different manner. They apply the tools of the scientific method, historical research, and logical analysis to formulate hypotheses and draw conclusions. As a result, people who use logic and science to resolve issues are likely to be impressed by this book. On the other hand, those who believe in a religion purely because of faith and answers they have received in prayer are not likely to be impressed by this work, or to want to read it for that matter.

The articles are quite interesting. My favorite three included the one on "automatic writing", Tom Murphy's article on DNA and the Lamanites (which he came close to being excommunicated for writing), and the article on former "Seventy" B.H. Roberts and what he really believed about the Book of Mormon.

What comes through to the educated person is that many things that have long been presented "as facts" by the church are not. The truth is far more complicated. One can read the Book of Mormon and conclude that Nephites and Lamanites were supposedly the only groups present in the Americas between 600 BC and 400 AD. However, DNA testing shows this is simply impossible. The vast, vast bulk of Native Americans are related to groups in Asia that crossed the Bering Straits into this continent 10,000 to 50,000 years ago. In fact, its virtually impossible to find any connection between Native Americans and either Jews or Egyptians as claimed in the Book of Mormon.

The article on automatic writing challenges the allegation that it would be impossible for one uneducated person to "invent" or "write" the Book of Mormon by himself. In fact, such things have been documented to have been done several times in the past and perhaps on a more impressive scale.

This is a good book for a scholarly person who has questions about Mormon doctrine and seeks an answer that is not "faith-based". Whether all the writers have arrived at the correct conclusions or not, it does stimulate alot of powerful thinking.

Signature Books is famous for their "cutting edge" (OVER the edge, to most "traditionalists") books on Mormon subjects; e.g., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past (Essays on Mormonism Series), Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History (Essays on Mormonism Series), etc. This 2002 collection does not disappoint, in that regard.

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Both the brass plates and the Book of Mormon were written, according to Lehi, in the Egyptian language and not just Egyptian characters. Despite Hugh Nibley's efforts to make this extraordinary notion palatable, it is wildly improbable. Is one seriously to believe that for several generations Lehi's family was at home in the Egyptian language? Moreover, are we to believe that centuries before the Old Testament was translated into Greek (Septuagint), Lehi's kin had privately sponsored the translation of the entire Hebrew canon into Egyptian?" (Pg. 4)
"...we learn, for example, that the three (witnesses) did not experience the vision together; that Martin Harris's vision occurred separately. Both Harris and David Whitmer later testified that they also saw in their visions a table upon which rested a breastplate; the urim and thummim, the liahona, the sword of Laban, and brass plates---an interesting detail missing from the official testimony. The statement also fails to mention that the angel spoke, although it refers to the voice of God." (Pg. 81-82)
"Harris, for example, told several residents of Palmyra, New York, that he had seen the plates with his 'spiritual eyes.'" (Pg. 86)
"If the (eight) witnesses were shown an empty box or if ... it seems probable that at the signing of the testimony only some of the witnesses had handled them, that what was true for the group was not necessarily true for each man. Third, (Joseph) Smith may have produced a box containing the plates or perhaps something of similar weight. The witnesses were permitted to lift the box, but their view of the plates was visionary." (Pg. 104)
"During the last twelve years of his life, (B.H.) Roberts spoke with two voices regarding the Book of Mormon. When he could not come up with answers to his questions, he did not find it necessary to abandon his role as a general authority, nor to renounce his faith." (Pg. 145)
"The (Book of Mormon) conserves unacceptable translations of the KJV now clearly recognized as such from the stance of modern research." (Pg. 173)
"So far, I have tried to indicate that, far from being a miscnievous or malicious hoaxer, Joseph Smith was simply doing what the authors of the various biblical and extra-biblical pseudepigrapha were doing." (Pg. 333)
"A case in point would be Gordon H. Fraser, author of the polemical What Does the Book of Mormon Teach. One can scarcely imagine him welcoming Higher Critics of scripture to apply the same critical tools on Fraser's beloved Bible as he himself has used in vivisecting the Mormon scripture." (Pg. 334)