Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Studies of the Book of Mormon/A Book of Mormon Study/Literature

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Response to "Literature Available to Joseph Smith as a Ground Plan for the Book of Mormon"

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books, a work by author: B.H. Roberts, edited by Brigham D. Madsen

Ethan Smith’s Book, View of the Hebrews, as structural Material for the Book of Mormon; Unity of the American Race; American Language from One Source—The Hebrew

It will appear in what is to follow that such “common knowledge” did exist in New England; that Joseph smith was in contact with it; that one book, at least, with which he was most likely acquainted, could well have furnished structural outlines for the Book of Mormon; and that Joseph Smith was possessed of such creative imaginative powers as would make it quite within the lines of possibility that the ook of Mormon could have been produced in that way.
—B.H. Roberts, “A Book of Mormon Study,” ‘’Studies of the Book of Mormon’’, p. 154

The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Josiah Priest’s The Wonders of Nature and Providence, published in 1824, promoted the idea that Native Americans were descendants of the Israelites.

FAIR's Response

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The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

It is “altogether probable” that Priest’s Wonders of Nature and Proidence and Ethan Smith’s View of the Hebrews “were either possessed by Joseph Smith or certainly known by him.”

FAIR's Response

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The author(s) of Check link or content make(s) the following claim:

Roberts states, “The question to be considered here, then, is: did such ‘common knowledge’ supplemented by Ethan Smith’s book respecting theories of ‘origin,’ and of ‘history’ obtain in the vicinity where Joseph Smith spent his early youth and manhood, and was he a person of sufficiently vivid and creative imagination as to produce such a work as the Book of Mormon from such materials?”

FAIR's Response

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