Question: Could the Book of Mormon be a clumsy, amateurish forgery?

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Question: Could the Book of Mormon be a clumsy, amateurish forgery?

The obvious complexity, textual depth, and beauty of the Book of Mormon has led most modern critics to abandon the claim that it is simply a clumsy or amateurish pastiche

Early critics of Mormonism charged that even a cursory examination reveals the Book of Mormon to be a clumsy, amateurish forgery.

The obvious complexity, textual depth, and beauty of the Book of Mormon has led most modern critics to abandon the claim that it is simply a clumsy or amateurish pastiche. This has led later critics to insist that Joseph was either much more gifted than his contemporaries believed him to be, or to attribute the Book of Mormon to another author altogether.

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Source(s) of the criticism

Critical sources

A Letter to Those Who Have Attended Mormonite Preaching (London: J. B. Bateman, 1840), 1–4. off-site A Little Talk, Between John Robinson and his Master about Mormonism, Shewing its Origin, Absurdity, and Impiety (Bedford: W. White, 1840), 1–8. off-site A, “‘When ignorance is bliss tis folly to be wise.’” The Reflector (Palmyra, New York) 3d series, no. 1 (1 May 1830): 6. off-site A.H.M., “Ancient and Modern Mormonism,” Western Examiner (St. Louis, Missouri) 2, no. 46 (10 December 1835): 366-67. off-site C. C. Blatchley, “Caution Against the Golden Bible,” New-York Telescope 6, no. 38 (20 February 1830): 150. off-site “Mormonism,” Boston Recorder (Boston, Massachusetts) 17, no. 41 (10 October 1832). Reprinted from Lockport Balance (New York), circa September 1832. off-site J. Newton Brown, “Mormonites,” Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Boston: Shattuck & Company, 1835), 844. Reprinted from Cross and Baptist Journal, Fall 1834. off-site Alexander Campbell, “The Mormon Bible,” Millennial Harbinger 3, no. 6 (June 1839): 267–68. off-site Thomas Campbell, “The Mormon Challenge,” Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Ohio) 2, no. 35 (15 February 1831): 2. off-site Alexander Campbell, “Signs of the Times,” Millennial Harbinger 5, no. 4 (April 1834): 148, note. off-site Henry Caswall, America, and the American Church (London: J.G. & F. Rivington, 1839), 322–23. off-site Cincinnati Advertiser and Ohio Phoenix (2 June 1830). Reprinted from Wayne County Inquirer, Pennsylvania, circa May 1830. off-site John A. Clark, “Gleanings by the Way No. X,” Episcopal Recorder (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) (10 October 1840): 114-15. off-site “The Golden Bible,” The Cleveland Herald (Ohio) (25 November 1830): 3. off-site “Mormonism,” Supplement to the Connecticut Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) 5, no. 22 (15 December 1838): 175–76. off-site Benjamin Dobson to the editor, June 16, 1839, “The Mormons,” Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer (Peoria, Illinois) 3, no. 13 (27 July 1839). off-site James H. Eells to Joshua Leavitt, 1 April 1836, New York Evangelist (New York) 7, no. 15 (9 April 1836): 59. off-site Ephraim Ensley to Brother Badger, 1835, Reading, New York Christian Palladium (Union Mills, New York) 4, no. 18 (15 January 1836): {{{pages}}}. off-site “Imposition and Blasphemy!!—Moneydiggers, Etc.” The Gem (Rochester, New York) (15 May 1830): 15. off-site Gimel, “Book of Mormon,” The Christian Watchman (Boston) 12, no. 40 (7 October 1831). off-site D. Griffiths, Jun., Two Years’ Residence in the New Settlements of Ohio, North America: With Directions to Emigrants (London: Westley and Davis, 1835), 132. off-site H., Letter to the Editor, Observer and Telegraph (Hudson, Ohio) (30 December 1830). off-site Samuel Haining, Mormonism Weighed in the Balances of the Sanctuary, and Found Wanting: The Substance of Four Lectures (Douglas: Robert Fargher, 1840), 22-23, 41-42. off-site Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 18, 35. (Affidavits examined) David Marks, The Life of David Marks (Limerick, ME: Printed at the Office of the Morning Star, 1831), 340-342. off-site Full title David Marks, [Untitled Remarks on Mormonism], Morning Star (Limerick, Maine) 7, no. 45 (7 March 1833): 177. James M’Chesney, Supplement to an Antidote to Mormonism, &c. (Brooklyn, 1839), 1–4. off-site “Mormonism,” New York Weekly Messenger and Young Men’s Advocate (29 April 1835). Reprinted from The Pioneer (Rock Springs, Illinois), March 1835. off-site “We have received the following letter,” Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Ohio) (22 March 1831), ??. off-site “The Book of Mormon,” Painesville Telegraph (Ohio) (30 November 1830). Plain Truth, “Mr Editor,” The Reflector (Palmyra, New York) 2, no. 10 (6 January 1831): 77. off-site Josiah Priest, American Antiquities (Albany: Hoffman and White, 1833), ??. off-site “The Marion Monk,” The Reflector (Palmyra, New York) 3d series, no. 16 (13 September 1830): 124-125. off-site “A hungry lean-faced villain,” The Reflector (Palmyra, New York) 3d series, no. 7 (30 June 1830): 53-54. off-site “Blasphemy–‘Book of Mormon,’ alias The Golden Bible,” Rochester Daily Advertiser (New York) (2 April 1830). off-site “Golden Bible,” Rochester Advertiser and Daily Telegraph (New York) (31 August 1829). Reprinted from Palmyra Freeman, 11 August 1829. off-site "The subject was almost invariably treated as it should have been—with contempt." “Book of Mormon,” Rochester Republican (New York) (28 December 1830). off-site S. Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate (Utica, New York) new series 2, no. 6 (5 February 1831): 47. off-site H. Stevenson, A Lecture on Mormonism (Newcastle: J. Blackwell and Co., 1839), 3-32. off-site John Storrs, “Mormonism,” Boston Recorder (Boston, Massachusetts) 24 (19 April 1839). off-site La Roy Sunderland, “Mormonism,” Zion’s Watchman (New York) 3, no. 2 (13 January 1838): 6. off-site “The Mormon Mystery Developed,” Wayne Sentinel (Palmyra, New York) (20 December 1833). off-site The Wayne Sentinel (Palmyra, New York) (26 June 1829). off-site [the earliest mention of this concept which FAIR has identified] "Most people entertain an idea that the whole matter is the result of a gross imposition and a grosser superstition. Western Traveller, “Mormonism,” Christian Advocate and Journal (New York) 7, no. 30 (22 March 1833): 1. off-site Alphonoso Wetmore, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri (St. Louis: C. Keemle, 1837), 93-96. off-site “The Mormons,” Religious Herald (Richmond, Virginia) (9 April 1840). off-site Critical works that do not adopt this posture “The Book of Mormon and the Mormonites,” Athenaeum, Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art 42 (July 1841): 370–74. off-site [Letter on Mormonism, 26 July 1841,] Christian Advocate and Journal (New York) 15, no. 52 (11 August 1841). off-site “Mormonism,” Christian Advocate and Journal (New York) 16, no. 6 (22 September 1841). off-site Doctrine of the Mormonites (London: J. Wertheimer & Company, 1842.), 1-4. off-site “The Book of Mormon,” The New-Yorker (New York) (12 December 1840): ??. off-site “Gold Bible, No. 3,” The Reflector (Palmyra, New York) 2, no. 12 (1 February 1831): xxx. off-site Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary (London: Thomas Tegg, 1841), 537–38.; citing Cross and Baptist Journal, 1834. off-site Full title J.A.H., “Origin of Mormonism,” Wayne County Whig (Lyons) 3, no. 51 (14 September 1842). off-site James H. Hunt, Mormonism: Embracing the Origin, Rise and Progress of the Sect (St. Louis: Ustick and Davies, 1844), 13-14, 86. off-site E. G. Lee, The Mormons, or Knavery Exposed (Frankford, Philadelphia: Webber & Fenimore, 1841), 2-3. off-site Full title One Who Hates Imposture, Mormonism Dissected, or, Knavery “On Two Sticks,” Exposed (Bethania, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Reuben Chambers, 1841), 2. off-site Full title Walter Scott, “Mormon Bible–No. I,” The Evangelist (Carthage, Ohio) 9, no. 1 (1 January 1841): 17–21. off-site G.C. Stewart, “The Book of Mormon,” The Perfectionist (Putney, Vermont) 3, no. 7 (15 May 1843): 28. off-site

Past responses

Anon., "Difference Between the Baptists & Latter-Day Saints. From the North Staffordshire Mercury," Millennial Star 1 no. 12 (April 1841), 296–99. off-site

Notes