Was the Book of Mormon dictated in the style of the King James Bible?

Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon

A new argument for divine involvement in Joseph Smith’s recovery of the Book of Mormon—an argument unforeseen by the Pratt brothers, B. H. Roberts, Sidney Sperry, or even Hugh Nibley—emerges from the remarkable work of Royal Skousen on the book’s textual history. As many readers will already be aware, Skousen and his more recent collaborator and “fellow traveler” Dr. Stanford Carmack have found unmistakable evidence of Early Modern English syntax and vocabulary in the original dictated text.

Early Modern English (EModE) is the form of the language that was being written between roughly 1470—when William Caxton was setting up the first English printing press in Westminster, near London—and 1670. More loosely but perhaps more memorably, we can say that its era extends from 1500 to 1700.

So why would EModE appear in the Book of Mormon as it was dictated in 1829? A common and superficially plausible answer to that question would be that, for whatever reason, the Book of Mormon was dictated in the style of the King James Bible (KJV), which appeared very nearly at the middle of the EModE period. The KJV represented the only “scriptural style” known to Joseph Smith and the vast majority of his English-speaking contemporaries.

But this answer doesn’t actually account for the facts. Many of the EModE features of the vocabulary and syntax of the dictated Book of Mormon don’t actually occur in the KJV and, accordingly, could not have been derived from it.

Another suggestion has been that the EModE features of the original Book of Mormon manuscript—which include many elements that, by modern and even by nineteenth-century standards, have seemed to be embarrassing errors—can be explained as reflecting Joseph Smith’s own uneducated rural American dialect. But there is, thus far, no evidence at all to support that idea.

So how does the presence of Early Modern English in the dictated Book of Mormon constitute evidence for the Book’s divine origin? Here’s my take:

The EModE nature of the Book of Mormon as it was originally given to Joseph Smith is undoubtedly surprising to believers. (Neither Dr. Skousen nor Dr. Carmack expected to find it, and they certainly didn’t set out looking for it.) However, for those who seek to account for the Book of Mormon on purely naturalistic grounds the existence in it of substantial and numerous Early Modern English features is virtually inexplicable. There was, quite simply, no readily available natural means—apart from the King James Bible (which, as we’ve noted, was inadequate for the task)—by which Joseph Smith could have gained access to EModE.

Why is there a significant Early Modern English aspect to the Book of Mormon? We don’t know. How did it come to be there? We can’t answer that question, except to say that it was given to Joseph Smith in the translation process. But we can surely say that an EModE Book of Mormon represents a major new challenge for reductionist critics of the Restoration.

Daniel C. Peterson
President, Interpreter Foundation

Daniel C. Peterson (PhD, UCLA) is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University and founder of the university’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. He has published and spoken extensively on both Islamic and Mormon subjects. Formerly chairman of the board of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and an officer, editor, and author for its successor organization, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, his professional work as an Arabist focuses on the Qur’an and on Islamic philosophical theology. He is the author, among other things, of a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007).

Events & Updates

Join us Sundays at noon MST for a FAIR Facebook Live Streaming event! Visit our Facebook page and click on “Get Reminder” to get a heads-up when the event starts! Details here.

Sunday 07 February – "Semitic Semiotics: The Symbolic, Prophetic, and Narratological Power of Names in Ancient Scripture" by Matthew Bowen, 2017 FairMormon Conference

Sunday 14 February – "Lost Teachings of the Prophets: Recently Uncovered Teachings of Joseph Smith and Others from the Council of Fifty Record" by Gerrit Dirkmaat, 2017 FairMormon Conference

The April 2021 General Conference Will Be Virtual Only

The Interpreter Foundation, with support from FAIR and Book of Mormon Central, has created a new website to highlight the experiences of witnesses of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It can be found at WitnessesoftheBookofMormon.org. This website is being created as a resource for people studying Church history and the Doctrine and Covenants this year, and for years to come. The creation of this site also coincides with the production of two films about the witnesses of the Book of Mormon: a feature film called Witnesses, and a documentary called Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon (Summer, 2021). People who watch the films and have more questions can go to the website to learn more about the Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses, others who saw and handled the golden plates, and people of the modern age who also believe the Book of Mormon is true. As further research is conducted regarding the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, this site will continue to grow to become one of the foremost tools in the study of the history of the witnesses and their testimonies of the Book of Mormon.

‘Actual’ or ‘Spiritual’ Witness?

Question: Did the three witnesses and eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon see actual gold plates, or was it all "spiritual"?

That is an interesting question. Some people doubt the truthfulness of the witnesses' testimonies because of the spiritual nature of their witnesses. Sometimes the witnesses used terms like "spiritual eyes" or "eye of faith" to describe their experiences. For example, "when pressed by various interviewers to clarify whether he actually saw the plates, [Martin Harris] spoke both of seeing them with 'a spiritual eye,' emphasizing the unusual and sacred quality of the experience, and also with his physical senses" (in "Witnesses of the Book of Mormon," below).

As David Whitmer explained, "Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time" (in "Witnesses of the Book of Mormon," below). Further, John Whitmer testified that the plates were real: "[Interviewer:] Did you handle the plates with your hands? [John Whitmer:] I did so! [Interviewer:] Then they were a material substance? [John Whitmer:] Yes, as material as anything can be" (in "The Eight Witnesses and their experience viewing the "gold" plates," below).

The three witnesses and the eight witnesses repeatedly testified that they actually saw the plates with their natural eyes. You can read more about their experiences at:

· Church History Topics entry "Witnesses of the Book of Mormon" (in Gospel Library)

· FairMormon page "The literal nature of the experiences of the Book of Mormon witnesses"

· FairMormon page "Martin Harris' "Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements"

· FairMormon page "The Eight Witnesses and their experience viewing the "gold" plates"

Shaken Faith Spotlight

“ When another anti-Mormon published an article claiming that David had denied his testimony, David printed a proclamation testifying to the truth of the Book of Mormon and reiterating the fact that neither he, nor Cowdery nor Harris had ever denied their testimonies. Attached to Whitmer’s proclamation was an accompanying statement signed by twenty-two of Richmond’s political, business, and professional leaders who certified that they had been “long and intimately acquainted” with
Whitmer and knew him to be “a man of the highest integrity and of undoubted truth and veracity.”

A few days before he died, an article in the Chicago Tribune read:
‘David Whitmer, the last one of the three witnesses to the truth of the Book of Mormon, is now in a dying condition at his home in Richmond. Last evening he called the family and friends to his bedside, and bore his testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the Bible.’

The Richmond Democrat also added this comment: “Skeptics may laugh and scoff if they will, but no man can listen to Mr. Whitmer as he talks of his interview with the Angel of the Lord, without being most forcibly convinced that he has heard an honest man tell what he honestly believes to be true." ― Mike Ash, Shaken Faith Syndrome, p 129

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