Brent Metcalfe, Ed., New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1993, 446 pages, hardcover, ISBN 1-56085-017-5.
This book brings together the work of ten
contemporary scholars who reflect on challenges to the
authenticity of the Book of Mormon in a manner that is
rigorous but fair. Most of the contributors are LDS, and a
number have advanced degrees in fields relating to their
topics. The central question under consideration in New
Approaches is whether the Book of Mormon is a
translation of ancient scripture, or is a nineteenth-century
creation of Joseph Smith. The authors employ a number of
scholarly disciplines to weigh the evidence, including
textual criticism, archaeology, and ancient languages.
In "Book of Mormon Christology," Melodie Moench Charles
considers a puzzling question: If Jesus and the Father are
separate Gods, as the LDS church now teaches, why does the
Book of Mormon repeatedly present them as one and the same
person? For instance, in Alma 11:38-39 we read: "Now Zeezrom
saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal
Father? And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very
Eternal Father of heaven and of earth." Or consider Mosiah
15:1-4:
And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son — The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son — And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth (see also Mormon 9:11-12; Mosiah 16:15; Helaman 14:12; 16:18).
"Modalism" is the best description of this early Mormon
view of God, according to Charles. Christ and the Father
were not considered separate beings, but simply different
"modes" in which the one God reveals himself (New
Approaches, pp. 100, 110). This fits with Joseph's
original First Vision story, in which he claimed to see only
one divine personage (New Approaches, pp. 103ff). However,
five years after the publication of the Book of Mormon,
Joseph began teaching in the Lectures on Faith (1835) that
the Father and Son — but not the Holy Ghost — were distinct
beings. Then, his teaching changed yet again in 1842 with
the publication of chapters 4-5 of the Book of Abraham,
which introduced the full-fledged plurality of Gods
doctrine.
In another chapter entitled "The
Historicity of the Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi," Stan
Larson uses his training in textual criticism (he holds a
Ph.D. in New Testament studies) to compare Jesus' Sermon on
the Mount in Matthew 5-7 with the almost identical sermon in
3 Nephi 12-14. Larson's thesis: If 3 Nephi is a translation
of an ancient account of Jesus appearing in the New World,
it wouldn't copy minor errors that occur in the KJV that are
the result of the late, inferior Greek manuscripts used by
the KJV translators. While these minor errors affect no
point of doctrine, they allow us to test the claim that the
Book of Mormon is a translation of ancient scripture:
... if the Book of Mormon text sides with the later Greek text as seen in the KJV, this dependence would be strong evidence against its historicity. The reason for this is that the Book of Mormon on the American continent should know nothing of changes and additions to the Sermon on the Mount made in the Old World centuries after the original sermon, but should be a direct link to the real words of Jesus (New Approaches, p. 117).
For purposes of comparison, Larson takes eight verses
from Matthew 5-7 in which scholars have detected minor
errors in the Greek text that was used in 1611 to produce
the KJV Bible. One example is the KJV rendering of Matthew
5:27, paralleled in 3 Nephi 12:27, where Jesus says, "You
have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt
not commit adultery." The earliest Greek manuscripts do not
contain the phrase "by them of old time," which indicates
that these words were not a part of what Matthew wrote.
Thus, the phrase is omitted from all modern scholarly
editions of the Greek New Testament, and from modern
scholarly translations of the Bible such as the New
International Version and the New Revised Standard Version.
All the modern scholarly editions of the Greek New Testament
have identical readings of these eight verses, thanks to the
superior — that is more ancient — Greek manuscripts of the
New Testament now available. Larson selected these verses
for his study because we can be confident they are identical
— or virtually so — with what Matthew originally wrote.
However, Larson found that in all eight test cases, 3 Nephi
consistently follows the erroneous readings of the KJV, and
never agrees with the original text or any known variant
from the earliest Greek manuscripts. Larson's verdict: 3
Nephi 12-14 is not an ancient account of a sermon given by
Jesus in the Americas, but instead was plagiarized by Joseph
Smith from the King James Version:
"The Book of
Mormon account of Jesus' sermon in 3 Nephi 12-14 originated
in the nineteenth century, derived from unacknowledged
plagiarism of the KJV" (New Approaches, pp. 131-132).
New Approaches also contains excellent chapters that
investigate other key issues, including Book of Mormon
archaeology and geography (Dr. Deanne G. Matheny) and the
claim that the Book of Mormon reflects Egyptian or Hebrew
literary features (Edward H. Ashment).
Readers
willing to consider the work of thoughtful individuals who
are honestly grappling with fundamental questions about the
Book of Mormon, will find New Approaches of
considerable value.