Gives seventeen reasons listed by Lord Kingsborough why the Indians are Israelites.

Latter-day Saints are not unique in their belief that the Indians have Hebrew origins. Quotes The History of the American Indian by James Adair (1775) to support this claim.

A series of communications between A. T. Schroeder and D. H. Bays that appeared in the Christian Evangelist, 9 Aug. 1899—2 Nov. 1899, discussing the possibility that the Spaulding manuscript was the basis of the Book of Mormon.

Old Indian and Spanish histories that are preserved in Mexican libraries and museums provide evidence of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

A reprint of an article written in the Register and Leader by E. H. Robb who finds that America has been inhabited from a very early period of time, which recalls the statements of the Book of Mormon concerning the Nephites and Jaredites.

Analyzes 2 Nephi 3 and finds that a choice seer will be a blessing to the descendants of Lehi. The choice seer may be Jesus Christ, whose work was the Book of Mormon.

The mission of the Book of Mormon and the work of this dispensation is to save souls, to gather Israel, to teach the covenants of God, and to build Zion.

Building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ is essential to our happiness.

May we recalculate our route if need be and look forward with great hope and faith. May we “stand up inside” by being valiant and “all in.”.

Student Review once managed to interview Hugh Nibley; one of his students performed the interview for us in his office some Saturday. The guy came up with all sorts of questions, and Hugh answered them all. We all listened to the tape several times over; it was cool stuff. We ran it as “An (Almost) Uncensored Interview with Hugh Nibley,” from which my favorite line was a comment he made when asked about the BYU administration (as it existed circa 1994): “Lawyers! Lawyers everywhere! Nothing but lawyers!” Also, he called Supreme Court Justice Scalia “just plain stupid.” (from a comment at TimesandSeasons.org)

Additional Authors: Ronald W. Walker, James B. Allen, and Richard O. Cowan

Letters to the editor defend or condemn the advertising of a historical time chart containing biblical and Book of Mormon events. Some maintain that the events of the Book of Mormon do not represent a historical reality, while others believe that the events do represent reality.

Review of Spencer W. McBride, Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). 269 pages, $29.95 (hardcover). Abstract: Spencer McBride’s book is the deepest look yet into Joseph Smith’s 1844 campaign for president of the United States. In smooth-paced and readable detail, McBride’s work expertly demonstrates the unique Latter-day Saint genesis for the campaign and how it fit into the wider American social-political environment. Its message regarding religious liberty is as applicable today as it was nearly two centuries ago. [Editor’s Note: This review first appeared in The Civil War Book Review 24, no. 1 (2022). It is reprinted here with permission. Slight editorial changes have been made.]

This volume uncovers the significant but previously unknown contributions of the electioneers who advocated for Joseph Smith’s 1844 presidential campaign. The focus is the cadre of more than six hundred political missionaries—who they were before the campaign, their activities and experiences as electioneers, and who they became following the campaign’s untimely collapse. This book recounts their important and even crucial contributions they made in the succession crisis, the exodus from the United States, and the building of Zion in the Great Basin. Importantly, this narrative describes how their campaigning with the Quorum of Twelve Apostles using theodemocratic themes, coupled with the shock of Joseph Smith’s assassination, steeled and subsequently spurred many of them into effective religious, political, social, and economic leaders—leaders who shaped Latter-day Saint history. ISBN 978-1-9443-9492-9

The Book of Mormon’s claim that it is a record of God’s people in America cannot be sustained by archaeological evidence. Members of the LDS church approach archaeology only in an amateur way.

Author considers it his duty to warn humanity of the dangers of the Church and its false prophet. Joseph Smith was given power to translate the Book of Mormon by God and no other gift was given to him.

Review of William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffery. Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements.

The Creation from a scriptural and a scientific viewpoint

Review of Trent D. Stephens, D. Jeffrey Meldrum, with Forrest B. Peterson. Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding.

“This social justice commentary of the Book of Mormon empowers readers to understand the text as a book that speaks to issues of racism, sexism, immigration, refugees, and socioeconomic inequality. The Book of Mormon : For the Least of These offers an unflinching examination of some of the difficult and troubling sections of the Book of Mormon, while also advocating for a compassionate reading of holy text. As a verse-by-verse close reading, this book examines new layers of interpretation and meaning, giving even those deeply familiar with scripture innovative tools for engaging powerfully with the Book of Mormon.” [Amazon summary]

In this four part song, written in the key of D flat Major, Salter uses the words of Moroni 10:4-5 exhorting the listener to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true.

This song, written in the key of F Major for a soprano voice, uses the text of 3 Nephi 15:21-24, which states that the Nephites are the other sheep of whom Jesus spoke in John 10:16.

An examination of the Lord’s prayer in the Book of Mormon. Believes that Joseph Smith did not copy the Bible in translating the Book of Mormon. [A.C.W.] ook of Mormon. Believes that Joseph Smith did not copy the Bible in translating the Book of Mormon. [A.C.W.] ”

Presents a history, description, and photographs of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon.

Presents notes concerning the origin of the Book of Mormon. The nature of the book is sacred history as well as profane history, it teaches morality and spiritual truths, and it presents a perfect philosophy of life. Its primary purposes are to witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ and to combat the controversies that exist between the Bible and the modern philosophies of men.

Presents notes concerning the origin of the Book of Mormon. The nature of the book is sacred history as well as profane history, it teaches morality and spiritual truths, and it presents a perfect philosophy of life. Its primary purposes are to witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ and to combat the controversies that exist between the Bible and the modern philosophies of men.

A rather common fallacy accepted in society is that with graduation, one has finished her or his education. That is a serious misunderstanding if we are considering a truly educated person, particularly one with the lofty goal of achieving eternal life and eventually perfection.

My counsel to you…is to be clear in your priorities, in your understanding, in your faith, and in all your endeavors.

We believe with great confidence and conviction that you are optimally prepared for long lives of continued learning and substantial service in all that you do. We are proud of you and your accomplishments.

Whatever your circumstance, it will work out well eventually if you do your best to cause it to happen. Sometimes these trials are blessings in disguise, and what the Lord may have in store for you later could be dramatically better than your current conception of optimal achievement.

One area of confusion not rare among us is the notion that worthiness is synonymous with perfection. It is not! One can be fully worthy in a gospel sense and yet still be growing while dealing with personal imperfections.

A hallmark of BYU has always been that we have attempted to do all that we do with absolute integrity.

My question is: Who are the unsung heroes here at BYU who deserve our recognition and acclaim? I don’t know that we have many Congressional Medal of Honor recipients among us or serving largely behind the scenes at BYU. I do know that in this extraordinary community of students, staff, faculty, and administrators there are many who deserve our respect, admiration, and appreciation.

The doctrine of continuing and even continuous revelation is a fundamental and distinctive tenet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In it we find the seeds of the Restoration and also the basis for our understanding concerning the importance of learning. In fact, in the face of obvious differences between revelation from heaven and the kind of learning more common to our university experiences, we also find some significant commonalities of which we should be constantly aware.

All of you have a story and are part of a grand legacy that will bless not only you and those with you today but will reach on through the generations and over space to bless many others for years to come.

How do you view the changing world? I hope it is with optimism and encouragement rather than with the disappointment or dismay that we find in some circles.

I hope in our time together this morning we can think carefully and seriously about what we really are and, more important, what we desire and need to become. I am satisfied that this aim of a BYU education—to build character—cannot be neglected or diminished because all of the aims and the mission of this great university are so intimately related to one another.

One of the blessings of your BYU experience is that you should be familiar with the promise of the Lord that “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.”

…my hope is that we can as colleagues across campus think faithfully and diligently together about how we can make inquiry, creativity, and research a more effective part of how we not only transmit known information but, more important, how we enhance teaching by participating personally in the process of discovery and the creation of new knowledge.

I believe being acceptable to God and having the approval of the right kind of men and women are the ultimate accreditation that we should each personally seek. And the basic standard by which we will be measured is whether or not we serve Christ.

“God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.” You have knowledge and skill and know how to learn so that you may acquire wisdom.

Personal growth comes from being stretched, and you will likely find yourselves challenged in ways you have never previously experienced or expected.

The Lord’s hand is on BYU and that the work of BYU is a vital part of the Lord’s work. We are thus entitled to seek His blessings and are also entitled to be guided and protected.

My list could go on, but the central point is that your BYU education has been much, much more than the mastery of academic subjects or preparation for further education or employment in the workplace, as important as these are. You have been given the extraordinary and unique opportunity to prepare for devoted discipleship and competent leadership to assist you in your families, communities, and professions as well as in your primary quest to obtain eternal life.

We promise we will never forget you and expect that you will not forget BYU. You will demonstrate your great love for this institution and all that it represents by the way you live your life. You will live in such a way that objective observers will be able to tell that you are different—in a very positive way. They will usually not know exactly how or why, but they will appreciate the goodness and example of your life.

We are here not only to “save” ourselves—meaning to advance our careers, accomplish our personal and academic goals, and increase our individual spirituality—but we are also here to do the same for all of our students, however it is and in whatever ways they hear us.

May the Lord continue to guide us and bless us as we do our very best to move Brigham Young University forward in its ordained charge to bless Heavenly Father’s children here and throughout the world.

One of the key ways that we learn—not only here at BYU but throughout life—is by asking questions.

We “enter to learn [and] go forth to serve.” While we are here learning, we also gain much by serving. As we go forth to serve, we strive to continue to learn.

In retrospect, our time, like yours, passed quickly while being fully immersed in what transpires in this very special place. What does not pass quickly, and perhaps is even permanently enduring, is the influence for good that emanates from BYU.

This university has the protection and guidance of heaven, and we individually do as well—when we act as we should. Let my advice to you be that which I received from my trusted mentor: “Above all else, you need to protect your integrity.”

Joyful living in the here and now is an important antecedent to the complete joy that we know can be ours in the eternities, which is made possible by the presence with us of our families in the company of the Father and the Son.

We hope and expect that you have grown in your understanding of the knowledge of the world and also in your convictions concerning the truthfulness of the revelations from heaven. Most important, we pray with confidence that the skills you have acquired and the talents you have magnified will allow and assist you to continue to learn throughout your lives “by study and also by faith.”

For you to remain as relevant at the end of your career as you are now or when you finally finish your formal academic preparations, you will be required to know how to keep on learning and hopefully contribute to the continued learning of others.

I would like to spend our precious moments this morning in continuing to reflect on the legacy of learning that we enjoy, largely influenced by the example and efforts of living prophets from Joseph Smith to Gordon B. Hinckley.

It has been said that one of the purposes of education is to learn to avoid mistakes. While this is true, it is also important to understand that we can learn very significant lessons from mistakes.

I am grateful that I can bear a solemn but happy witness that these men, and all others who have held this highest office in the Lord’s Church, are true servants of our living Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son.

The help we need is provided by our loving Heavenly Father and His Son, our Savior, through other people who have been prompted to help, guide, and rescue us in times of need or consequential decision making.

While the reputation and standing of this remarkable institution are measured and evaluated in a number of different ways, ultimately the real value of its contribution is reflected in the graduates that it produces.

If I had been more meek, more patient, more understanding of the challenges or problems facing others…it is quite possible that my judgment would have been improved and I might have been more open to being taught by the Spirit in my actions.

The seeds of faith and light are planted, cultivated, nurtured, and grow bathed in the glow of His tender care—the behavioral and verbal testimony examples of Latter-day Saint BYU students and graduates on campus and around the world.

We know who we are. We know that we have made the commitment to do our parts in advancing scholarly excellence while lifting and strengthening the faith and testimonies of our students. Without apology, we affirm the supremacy of Deity, the reality of the Restoration unfolded through the Prophet Joseph, and our allegiance to today’s presiding high priests who are also the officers of our board of trustees.

As this group all appreciates, BYU is absolutely unique in the universe of American higher education. Not everyone—individuals or institutions—understands or appreciates who and what we are. Because we are different, aspiring for greatness in both our religious and academic missions, it is absolutely essential that we represent ourselves in the very best and most accurate light.

President Samuelson’s Neal A. Maxwell Lecture, delivered 23 March 2007, highlights the life and scholarship of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the man for whom the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship was named.

Hopefully we are clear that the confidence and blessings bestowed upon us as the result of our BYU experience raises much more than a suggestion that we will “go forth to serve” with commitment, effectiveness, and appreciation.

Holding the priesthood and doing your duty to God is not only a very serious responsibility but also a remarkable privilege.

While the notion of BYU becoming the best it can be has a number of dimensions, part of “becoming” and “being” the best BYU can be is to live with integrity; that is, to say what we mean and mean what we say.

May we take heed of ourselves in the light of our doctrine and the counsel of our leaders with the confidence that we—and others—will be blessed through our devoted and thoughtful expressions of who we really are and who we wish to be.

How grateful I am, in these perilous times, for the protection and guidance given to us by the sacred assurance that Jesus Christ lives today.

An important part of being self-aware is to understand how we influence for good or ill others around us by how we act, speak, and respond.

True loyalty (or those who stand by him): Some, and I hope this includes you, have a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his unique and special mission. It is to you that I frame my question: What does it mean to “stand by my servant Joseph”?

BYU and its graduates—you—excel in almost every category and consideration. I am convinced that we will never forget our significant debt and will ever recognize the privilege it is to be part of this grand and heaven-blessed institution.

While love and trust are often linked and even intertwined, there are some very significant differences. We hold unconditional love to be a very high virtue. Trust, on the other hand, is conditional in that it must be earned and can be very easily and quickly forfeited.

The fundamentals of gaining and retaining a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ are straightforward, clear, and within the capacity of every person.

I hope we will commit ourselves today and continue this commitment throughout our lives to contribute in every way that we can to building the kingdom of God on earth and also in supporting our alma mater.

God does live and loves us as the Eternal Father He is. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and His effectuation of the Atonement makes all things possible for those who fully take upon themselves His name, make and keep sacred covenants, and do their very best to keep and obey the commandments.

We know how things in the big picture will turn out and have great confidence that you also in your individual lives and careers will turn out as you wish and as heaven intends.

We should reflect on and glory in the successes, accomplishments, and growth that have occurred while you studied here. Your progress and contributions have been truly remarkable. We should also now be focusing on where we are going in the future, what we will next accomplish, and how we will best continue to learn and grow.

I have much to learn, and I am sure that I continue to learn. This is one of the joys of being at Brigham Young University. And, I might add, one of the major reasons for you to be here—not only to learn while you are on campus but to learn how to continue to learn throughout your lives.

The Honor Code is not primarily a law of health or blind conformity. It is a principle of obedience. It is an outward manifestation of our inner appreciation for and understanding of the privilege of being at BYU.

We have all learned much at BYU, but none of us knows everything. Thus it behooves us to listen to and trust the Spirit of the Lord, which will guide and help us in our quest to keep the commandments, to do all that our great blessings require that we do, and to faithfully endure to the end.

As a university dedicated to education for eternity, we do believe in intensive learning, in stimulating inquiry, in commitment to excellence, and in pursuing the full realization of human potential.

Our BYU mission is chartered in the great opportunity and challenge to be learning and teaching all the time in a world of change while remaining true and firm in our values and moral compass, which do not change.

What we do say will be almost in shorthand form, but hopefully it will reflect our appreciation and gratitude for what has shaped and is influencing the lives of those who are able to have a BYU experience. We believe BYU helps us all be better people, but we must always remember that does not mean that anyone here is better than anyone else not directly connected to this unique university.

BYU is a great institution established by the Lord’s prophets to fulfill sacred purposes. It is prospered under the hand of heaven. We can never adequately express our appreciation for being associated with BYU and hope you sense the same feeling.

Sometimes the wisdom of God comes directly, as with the experience of young Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove or as with the teaching of the Holy Ghost that can come to us when we are spiritually prepared. Sometimes wisdom comes in less direct but unmistakable ways.

We hope you will study seriously and with great effort both the Constitution and your other course work. More important, in all that you expect of yourselves, be sure that you do not neglect your private and personal prayers, your scripture study, or your appropriate acts of anonymous service as well as the public manifestations you make of your devotion to God and country.

There is significant truth in the notion that much of what happens to us is unexpected and not in our control. However—and this is most vital and critical to understand—the things of greatest ultimate importance to us are largely in our control and are within the scope of our agency.

Throughout your life you will have opportunities each day to be reminded of the admonition that was followed by a prophet of the Lord: “Whate’er thou art, act well thy part.”

Our reason for being a university is to encourage and prepare young men and women to rise to their full spiritual potential as sons and daughters of God.

The paths your lives take today have areas that could be marked by the phrase “Here Be Dragons” as a warning that you should and must avoid them. A firm testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is so necessary to maintain the proper perspectives and withstand the buffetings of the adversary that can and often will bombard you from all directions.

Each one of us here is writing the book of his or her life, and reading, learning, loving, serving, and worshipping are integral parts of the process.

You have loved ones in your past who created pathways and bridges to connect you to them and thus enable you to benefit from their dreams, experiences, sacrifices, and teachings—necessary components of bridge building.

I do have a testimony that you can stand up to worldly influences that would draw you away from your beliefs and say, in mighty voices, “Even if all, not I.” Those who see and hear you can know of your testimonies of the Savior and our Father in Heaven.

There is another name by which we should all be known besides the one we received from our earthly fathers. That is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All of you are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. He loves you and has given you many blessings to help you build a testimony of Him and His teachings. Find your gifts and talents, acknowledge them in the spirit of thankfulness, develop them, and use them to serve others as well as His kingdom.

In order to live with God once again, you cannot deviate from the strait and narrow path or lose your firm grip on the iron rod or you will be as those who were lost in Lehi’s vision.

Each one of you has the light of Jesus Christ within you. How wonderful that is for you as you strive to discern what is truly of great worth in your life.

The help we need is provided by our loving Heavenly Father and His Son, our Savior, through other people who have been prompted to help, guide, and rescue us in times of need or consequential decision making.

Our eternal worth is given to us by God. We do not have to let it be determined by others—only by God and ourselves. We can lose sight of our self-worth if we do not keep the commandments and consequently disregard the divinity within us.

As you take the sacrament each Sunday, you do it in remembrance of the Savior and the covenants you made at your baptism. You are recommitting to serve as His witness to the world. It is a time for you to remember your baptismal covenants and let them guide your lives each day so that you do not forget as John did.

Sometimes life’s circumstances may seem to be in turmoil, and you may have so much on your so-called “plate” that you don’t know where to begin or what to do. This is when I believe humor and the ability to be optimistic can enhance the quality of your life.

The Holy Ghost can communicate with you if you but seek this communication and are worthy to receive it. Revelation from the Holy Ghost is often described as a “still small voice” and most often comes as words you feel more than hear.

I have a testimony that assisting our Father in Heaven in teaching children to love and serve the Lord is one of the most important blessings and responsibilities He has given us. The Savior loved and taught the little children, and we are to follow His example.

I still can vividly recall the time I realized that I should savor and treasure each day and be thankful for and appreciate life. I somehow realized that each day is a gift from a loving Heavenly Father and that if I did not view each day as such, I would be ungrateful.

We are blessed to know that the Lord has established a means of communication with His children through His ordained prophets. Our prophet’s voice and the message it shares can be trusted to teach and guide us in the will of the Lord.

What we do say will be almost in shorthand form, but hopefully it will reflect our appreciation and gratitude for what has shaped and is influencing the lives of those who are able to have a BYU experience. We believe BYU helps us all be better people, but we must always remember that does not mean that anyone here is better than anyone else not directly connected to this unique university.

BYU is a great institution established by the Lord’s prophets to fulfill sacred purposes. It is prospered under the hand of heaven. We can never adequately express our appreciation for being associated with BYU and hope you sense the same feeling.

We hope you will study seriously and with great effort both the Constitution and your other course work. More important, in all that you expect of yourselves, be sure that you do not neglect your private and personal prayers, your scripture study, or your appropriate acts of anonymous service as well as the public manifestations you make of your devotion to God and country.

Contains essays on the Book of Mormon including José Sánchez, “Las Traducciones y Ediciones del Libro de Mormón al Espa–ol”; José Sánchez, “MuŽstrenme a un ‘Lamanita’ “; José Sánchez, “Bibliograf’a Selecta del Libro de Mormón”; José Sánchez, “El Libro de Mormón y Yo”; Mark L. Grover, “Bibliograf’a de la Iglesia Mormona en LatinoamŽrica”; and a small “Encuesta S—bre el art’culo MuŽstrenme a un ‘Lamanita,’ ” compiled by Sánchez.

Healing is much more than “getting better” or “having our problems go away.” Healing is growth, development, and maturation. In a word, healing is change. It takes time and energy and struggle, but healing teaches us.

I know that Jesus Christ is the light that makes forgiveness possible and that as we forgive each other and ourselves, we will feel His love and experience His light in this life and even more fully in the eternal world to come.

Letters responding to C. L. Sainsbury’s letter (July/August issue) seeking inclusion of Nephite history on an international timeline. Contributors contend that no archaeological evidence exists for the Book of Mormon, point out the book’s similarity to the Bible, and enclose the Smithsonian Institution’s statement concerning the Book of Mormon.

There is much evidence of an ancient civilization in Arizona. According to the author, the legends that surround these people closely resembled the story of the Nephites chronicled in the Book of Mormon.

There is much evidence of an ancient civilization in Arizona. The legends that surround these people closely resemble the story of the Nephites chronicled in the Book of Mormon.

A poem about Moroni and the Title of Liberty.

A poem about Moroni and the Title of Liberty.

A poem about Moroni and the Title of Liberty.

Each one of us has the opportunity to join a winning team by being full of integrity, following the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and persevering through the rough waters of life. I am grateful for the Savior and testify that He lives!

By following the directions to which simple ideas and simple discoveries lead, one can be swept off into all sorts of adventures.

We can plan to give service—and I think that is excellent—but I believe the Savior taught and exemplified a better way. Christ most often blessed others when He was on His way to do something else.

Diseases and health issues

This chapter examines the importance of written text in the Book of Mormon and the way in which its writers transcend time, communicating directly with readers in the present day. It argues that the Latter-day Saint community is influenced largely by voices from the past, and that similarly, America’s national culture formed due to the societal connections created by print culture.

A polemical work against Mormonism. The writer notes what he perceives to be several anachronisms in the Book of Mormon, asserting that there is not a “scrap of evidence” in support of the antiquity of Book of Mormon names. The Book of Mormon is merely the “production of an over-imaginative mind”

A detailed polemic against the Book of Mormon that claims that the Spaulding manuscript was the primary source of the Book of Mormon. Includes background historical material, a brief bibliography, and eight appendices. Attempts to demonstrate a connection between Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spaulding.

Despite deep popular interest in Mormon culture, scholars have not given significant attention to the religion’s central scripture. The Book of Mormon is relevant to literary studies at a moment when the turn to religion and debates over the secularization thesis have captured scholarly attention. Until recently, scholarship on The Book of Mormon was largely polemical and divided between apologists and skeptics. The rise of the new Mormon history beginning in the 1960s helped bring studies of Mormonism tentatively into the mainstream academy. Historians and scholars of religious studies have examined the reception of The Book of Mormon, the rise of the religion in early American culture, and the story of its founder, Joseph Smith. By studying the long-neglected internal workings of the text, literary critics have the opportunity to bring new scholarly techniques to bear on this highly influential American scripture. [Article’s abstract]

“The Book of Mormon is the story of how ancient Israelites established a civilization in the Americas, but it is also the story of the book itself : how the records were acquired, composed, labored over, protected, lost, abridged, preserved for a thousand years, and finally buried so that the plates could, as prophesied, be discovered by Joseph Smith centuries later. The prominence of the reader and writer is not just an incidental feature of this scripture, but is essential to the Mormon understanding of the relationship between human and divine. This essay identifies three key narrative features of The Book of Mormon : the centrality of readers and witnesses to the creation of scripture, the primacy of the act of writing in revelation and prophecy, and the mediation that allows a single person to inhabit multiple narrative categories. Biblical prophets, especially “writing prophets” like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, share some features with the prophets of The Book of Mormon , such as first-​person narration and dialogue with God. Yet there is little biblical precedent for The Book of Mormon’s intense focus on its own textuality and its own narrative practices or for the ways in which prophets transcend their passive, anointed roles and become authors of scripture in their own right. Its insistent textuality does, however, link The Book of Mormon to other scriptural and prophetic forms that arose in the antebellum United States. While the Mormon prophets vary in their literary style, narrative techniques, and personal presence, the centrality of reading, writing, and the system of scripture-​craft is persistent.” [Author]

Over the last twenty years, various objective author-attribution techniques have been applied to the English Book of Mormon in order to shed light on the question of multiple authorship of Book of Mormon texts. Two methods, one based on rates of use of noncontextual words and one based on word-pattern ratios, measure patterns consistent with multiple authorship in the Book of Mormon. Another method, based on vocabulary-richness measures, suggests that only one author is involved. These apparently contradictory results are reconciled by showing that for texts of known authorship, the method based on vocabulary-richness measures is not as powerful in discerning differences among authors as are the other methods, especially for works translated into English by a single translator.

Review of Fingerprints of God: Evidences from Near-Death Studies, Scientific Research on Creation, and Mormon Theology (1999), by Arvin S. Gibson

The abundance of skeptical theories about who wrote the Book of Mormon has led many scholars to seek scientific data to discover the answer. One technique is stylometry. Having first been developed in the 1850s, stylometry seeks to find the ” wordprint” of a text. Although these stylistic studies are not as accurate as a human’s fingerprint, they can give researchers a good idea either of differences in style between authors or of who might have written a text from a list of possible authors. Beginning in the 1960s individuals have completed four major stylometric studies on the Book of Mormon, studies that varied in both findings and quality of research. In addition to these four studies, this article presents a fifth study—using extended nearest shrunken centroid (ENSC) classification—that incorporates and improves on the earlier research.

Additional authors: Tad R. Callister, John Gee, Joel A. Flake, and Gerald N. Lund.