FBN Comparison
Joseph Smith Compared to Authors
Contextualizing the claim that View of the Hebrews, The Late War Between The 'United States And Great Britain, and The First Book of Napoleon are related to the text of the Book of Mormon reveals many weaknesses.
There is no credible evidence that Joseph Smith read any of the books.
If Joseph Smith was aware of any of the books, how they might have influenced the coming forth of the Book of Mormon is not delineated.
Critics’ who who say these books somehow influenced the creation of the Book of Mormon would strengthen their case by providing a plausible theory how that process occurred.
The documented observable behaviors associated with translation do not support the involvement of an external text of any kind, aside from the gold plates.
As a 24 year old uneducated farm boy, Joseph’s academic qualifications were minimal when compared to the other authors.
The length of the three books is significantly less than the Book of Mormon, which is over three times longer than the longest of the three.
Asserting a relationship between the Book of Mormon text and these books without a plausible explanation of how they might have been associated with each other seems to be an almost desperate attempt to explain away the origin of the Book of Mormon.
Naturalists struggle to explain how Joseph Smith might have created the complex text that comprises the Book of Mormon.
Source | Education | Age at publication | Book | Year published | Pages | Words | Evidence Joseph Smith knew of publication |
Ethan Smith | Graduated from Dartmouth in 1790 | 63 | View of the Hebrews | 1825 | 285 | 57,000 | None |
Gilbert J. Hunt | Co-published his first book in 1808 | Under 44 | The Late War Between The'United States And Great Britain | 1819 | 246 | 83,000 | None |
Michael Linning | Graduate of Glasgow College 1793 | 35 | The First Book of Napoleon | 1809 | 146 | 22,500 | None |
Joseph Smith | One year frontier schooling | 24 | Book of Mormon | 1830 | 588 | 268,163 |
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