View source for Question: Could Joseph Smith have used Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'' as a guideline for creating the Book of Mormon?

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==Question: Could Joseph Smith have used Ethan Smith's ''View of the Hebrews'' as a guideline for creating the Book of Mormon?==
{{BMCentral|title=Is the Book of Mormon Like Any Other Nineteenth Century Book? |url=https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/is-the-book-of-mormon-like-any-other-nineteenth-century-book|number=502}}
===Criticisms related to ''View of the Hebrews'' and the Book of Mormon===

*It is claimed that a 19th century work by Ethan Smith, ''View of the Hebrews'', provided source material for Joseph Smith's construction of the Book of Mormon. 
*Some also postulate a link between Ethan Smith and Oliver Cowdery, since both men lived in Poultney, Vermont while Smith served as the pastor of the church that Oliver Cowdery's family attended at the time that ''View of the Hebrews'' was being written.

===Many of the criticisms proposed are based upon B. H. Roberts' list of parallels, which only had validity if one applied a hemispheric geography model to the Book of Mormon===
 
The ''View of the Hebrews'' theory is yet another attempt to fit a secular origin to the Book of Mormon. Many of the criticisms proposed are based upon B. H. Roberts' list of parallels, which only had validity if one applied a hemispheric geography model to the Book of Mormon. There are a significant number of differences between the two books, which are easily discovered upon reading Ethan Smith's work. Many points that Ethan Smith thought were important are not mentioned at all in the Book of Mormon, and many of the "parallels" are no longer valid based upon current scholarship.<ref>{{Reexploring |author=John W. Welch|article=[http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=71&chapid=788 View of the Hebrews: 'An Unparallel']
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Advocates of the Ethan Smith theory must also explain why Joseph, the ostensible forger, had the chutzpah to point out the source of his forgery.  They must also explain why, if Joseph found this evidence so compelling, he did not exploit it for use in the Book of Mormon text itself, since the Book of Mormon contains no reference to the many "unparallels" that Ethan assured his readers virtually guaranteed a Hebrew connection to the Amerindians.
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[[Category:An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]]
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[[es:Pregunta: ¿Podría José Smith han utilizado Ethan Smith ''Vista de los Hebreos'' como una guía para la creación del Libro de Mormón?]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Joseph Smith poderia ter usado a obra View of the Hebrews de Ethan Smith como fonte para a criação do Livro de Mórmon?]]
[[Category:Questions]]