“If such may have been the fact, that a part of the Ten Tribes came over to America, in the way we have supposed, leaving the cold regions of Assareth behind them in quest of a milder climate, it would be natural to look for tokens of the presence of Jews of some sort, along countries adjacent to the Atlantic. In order to this, we shall here make an extract from an able work: written exclusively on the subject of the Ten Tribes having come from Asia by the way of Bherings Strait, by the Rev. Ethan Smith, Pultney, Vt., who relates as follows:…” – Times and Seasons, “Truth will prevail”, Vol. III. No. 15, CITY OF NAUVOO, ILL. JUNE 1, 1842, No. 51, Joseph Smith
The quote above comes from the Mormon periodical Times and Seasons which Joseph Smith used to post a quote from a book called ‘View of the Hebrews’, authored by the Minister Ethan Smith (no relation).
[As a side note for this post – the Church held its biannual conference earlier this week (April 2019), and while we wait for their texts, we think it’s a good idea to remember where their founder got his info to build the story they believe! The warning of their premiere historian should give all Mormons pause. Please, pray for them today!!! Here’s what we wrote back in 2014…]
Ethan Smith was a minster at a church in a neighboring community in Vermont when Joseph Smith came up with the idea to write, and publish the Book of Mormon. He used the minister’s book as ‘proof’ in 1842 to further his claim the lost ten tribes of Israel had migrated over the Behring Strait to build a new life on the American continent.
Questions arise when we look at what was going on during this time frame so let’s have a quick look at events from the early nineteenth century. As you may already know, America was going through its Second Great Awakening during this time and along with that phenomena another interesting fact was sweeping the country.
It was all the rage to believe that American Indians had descended from the ‘Lost Ten Tribes of Israel’. Those tribes were supposedly the people that were scattered circa BC 700 when the Assyrians pummeled the Northern Kingdom of Israel where ten of the tribes of Israel resided. Early nineteenth century Americans believed the Israelites had traveled over the Behring Strait and scattered once again and over time became the various American Indian tribes that resided here on the North American continent. This is where Ethan Smith enters the picture with his book ‘View of the Hebrews’.
Ethan Smith pastored a church in Poultney, VT which was adjacent to the county where Joseph Smith lived in NY. Oliver Cowdery, one of the BoM Witnesses, just so happened to be a member of Ethan Smith’s church from 1821-1825 or 1826 during which time Ethan Smith wrote and published his book.
Cowdery met Joseph Smith on or near April 5-7, 1829 and within days of meeting each other Cowdery becomes a scribe for Joseph Smith and his publication of the Book of Mormon. In the Pearl of Great Price 1:67 Joseph Smith writes; “Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of April) I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to write for me.”
As luck would have it, the two works were so similar that it drew the immediate and undying attention of many from Smith’s time until today.
In 1927 the well respected LDS historian BH Roberts wrote a letter to LDS Apostle Richard R. Lyman with a laundry list of concerns he had with the Book of Mormon stating his conviction the prophet had ‘borrowed’ from Ethan Smith’s work, View of the Hebrews. As time went on people in and out of the Church heard about this comparison compiled by Roberts and was circulated amongst several groups.
You can find a scaled down version of his parallels in Roberts’ scholarly work, ‘Book of Mormon Studies’, pp 324-344. This is what we’ve used in our comparison chart today – if you’d like to read all of his comparisons his book is available on Amazon. I guarantee that if you’re a student of Mormon history, this is a must have for your library! You can read View of the Hebrews online at no charge at olivercowdery.com in addition to that there’s a lot of great information at the website mormonhandbook.com as well.
Studies of the Book of Mormon, p.240; “Did Ethan Smith’s View of the Hebrews furnish structural material for Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon? It has been pointed out in these pages that there are many things in the former book that might well have suggested many major things in the other. Not a few things merely, one or two, or half dozen, but many; and it is this fact of many things of similarity and the cumulative force of them that makes them so serious a menace to Joseph Smith’s story of the Book of Mormon’s origin.” – B.H. Roberts
Let me ask you Michelle…because Oliver Cowdery knew Ethan Smith and familiar with ” View of the Hebrews”; do you think Cowdery had more input with the BOM than just documenting word for word what Joesph Smith revealed to him?
Thanks, Melissa
Yeah, I think he, along with Sidney Rigdon,Martin Harris, and others, helped write the BoM. It’s well documented that Emma Smith stated on more than one occasion Smith didn’t know how to spell, nor did he know the Bible, it’s geography etc.
Smith was a charlatan, womanizer, and well known scam artist.
FWIW, when I say Smith didn’t know how to spell, I’m not talking about the average bad speller – or a document laden w/ typos. Many people don’t know how to spell properly, but they’re geniuses, The point to my comment is that he was barely literate, yet claimed to have all this knowledge from God and to top it off claimed to know more than the whole world combined. I should have included David Whitmer as well…sigh…
Wow!!! Thank you, Michelle. I have heard about the View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith, however, reading this post is the first real exposure I have had to the book. The parallels ae quite significant. Thank you again. Please keep up the Great Work!!
You’re so welcome! I pray that it helps those who are seeking info and that it helps to lead people out!!!
So with Joesph Smith being illiterate then Oliver Cowdery had a major part in coming up with the BOM. So it was never God inspired. Thank you
🙂
I think the evidence really has Smith writing the BOM without other people’s input, i.e. no one helped him. The idea that he was illiterate is a Mormon myth so as to make Smith unable to be the author of the BOM. Smith obviously used various sources for his book, including “View of the Hebrews,” the KJV Bible, and even the Qur’an, among others.
Well, I always value your input Glenn! But here is where we’ll have to agree to disagree. 😉 In a Christlike manner of course!
From my studies and the years I’ve done this, I’d find it hard to swallow that Smith wrote this saga on his own. Also, I don’t think Smith was illiterate, I do believe, however, that he wasn’t as smart as he let on. Book-wise that is.
There are so many other examples of where he lifted other people’s works that it’d be impossible for me to ever believe he did this on his own. Take another example. Manuscript Found by Solomon Spaulding.etc. A widget on our front page, Coincidences in Mormonism’, gives a laundry list of places we believe Smith got the narrative for his BoM. https://lifeafterministry.com/2013/06/coincidences-in-mormonism/
The Tanners, I think, Did an excellent study on the Spalding Manuscript and demonstrated there was no connection. I think Smith was very intelligent and therefore had no problem with writing the BOM on his own, especially since he had so many sources to plagiarize from.
It just seems to coincidental…Joesph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and “View of the Hebrews” being so similar in narrative. Also Oliver “too mean to mention” Cowdery, was excommunicated in 1838.
John 1:1 Melissa
Hey guys, I know I am going out on a limb here, but what think you about this? I know that the Book of Mormon plagiarizes the Bible. I know there are many verses in the Bible that are also found in the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is, as most Mormons believe, the Word of God, wouldn’t it make sense that the same scriptures would be found in both texts? There are many verses (scriptures) in the BOM, that glorify God through the belief that salvation comes only through a faith in Jesus Christ (Helaman 5:9, Mosiah 4:17, Alma 38:9). In 1 John 4:2: “Hereby, know ye the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is cometh in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” OR “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he is of God.” (1 John 4:15).
I see what you’re saying, and that’s the ugly of what Smith did. He was so deceitful that he took pains in using everything he could find to trick people. Smith may, or may not have been well educated, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t smart. Holding a diploma, or degree, doesn’t mean much in that regard. An article I’m working on talks about this very topic. Here’s part of what one pastor said about the BoM that’ll be in the article in a couple of days –
‘…when we read the Book of Mormon we find nothing in it except what is copied, either from the Old or New Testament… … From Nephi, who commenced the record 600 years before Christ, to Maroni [sic], who finished it 400 years after Christ, there is the same kind of language used; showing that it is the production of one, and not of numerous writers; and that he lived in modern times…’
This expose was written back in 1857 making it interesting they picked up on Smith’s shenanigans even then.