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