Posted on 06/29/2010 8:28:07 AM PDT by Colofornian
Quite reasonably, the current “Introduction” to the Book of Mormon begins, “The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible.”...
Yet...we are likely to point out some significant differences as well...
...The Bible is more of a library than a single book, and there are tremendous differences in genre...
At first glance, the contents of the Book of Mormon appear to be similarly diverse...On closer inspection... the Book of Mormon turns to be entirely narrative. The whole book takes the form of a story told by narrators...but we know who is responsible for every word in the Book of Mormon. It’s either Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, or Moroni (plus a few minor authors...). This means that the Book of Mormon, as a whole, is a much more integrated and deliberately constructed volume than the Bible.
...the Book of Mormon operates by very different literary principles than the Bible. Consider the characteristics of Old Testament narrators as described by Shimon Bar-Efrat, formerly of Hebrew University at Jerusalem:
“The narrator in most biblical narratives appears to be omniscient”
“Biblical narrators do not usually mention themselves”
“Biblical narrators [generally] make no reference to their activity in writing the narratives”
“The narrators do not...address their audience directly”
“Outside the books of Kings there are very few instances in which the narrator passes judgment”
How many of these statements are true of the Book of Mormon? None of them.
Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, and Moroni are...often...participants in the stories...They interrupt their narratives regularly to tell us about their lives, their testimonies, and their desires. They worry about their “weakness in writing” (Eth. 12:23, 40; cf. 2 Ne. 33:1, 4). And they do not hesitate to address readers directly to explain their intentions,...editorial techniques,...emotional responses to...events...
(Excerpt) Read more at ldsmag.com ...
OK. Here's a Mormon who has studied the BoM in-depth, and upon this study, concludes the BoM isn't like the Bible, after all!
From the column: we know who is responsible for every word in the Book of Mormon.
(Yeah, we know: Joseph Smith)
It’s either Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, or Moroni (plus a few minor authors at the end of the Small Plates). This means that the Book of Mormon, as a whole, is a much more integrated and deliberately constructed volume than the Bible.
(Game show buzz: Wrong answer. Although Hardy is right on one thing: Indeed, the BoM is an "integrated and deliberately CONSTRUCTED volume!"
From the column: Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, and Moroni are named, human narrators writing from their own historical, human perspectives...Indeed, they often were participants in the stories that they tell.
Hmmm...not secondhand -- God to people thru God's eyes [like most of the OT]...
...but firsthand as if only thru the lens of humanity.
From the column: They interrupt their narratives regularly to tell us about their lives, their testimonies, and their desires. They worry about their “weakness in writing” (Eth. 12:23, 40; cf. 2 Ne. 33:1, 4). And they do not hesitate to address readers directly to explain their intentions, their editorial techniques, and their emotional responses to the events they recount.
Bingo. Only somebody in a publishing world is going to "worry [about] their 'weakness in writing." That's hardly a description of people writing up to four centuries after Christ and up to six before!!! Likewise, Hardy says these guys tell their readers about their "editorial techniques" -- again the luxury of living in the publishing world the past several centuries. But NOT a reality of earlier times!
Furthermore, these tangents (the interruptions Hardy references) matches what Joseph Smith's mother would hear from her son when he was a teen about 17:
"During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of the continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them. On the twenty-second of September, 1824, Joseph again visited the place where he found the plates the year previous; and supporting at this time that the only thing required, in order to possess them until the time for their translation, was to be able to keep the commandments of God...he fully expected to carry them home with him. (Lucy Mack Smith, edited by Preston Nibley, History of Joseph Smith, p. 83, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1958)
[Keep in mind the above is all before he had a chance to "interpret" or "translate" those plates].
There is only one book for me: The Bible.
SFL
I often wonder how they got people to fall for this...
But not as much as I wonder what on earth could be the attraction of Islam (the Religion of Peace (tm))
It is hard to take the poster serious in their efforts attacking The Book of Mormon for not being Christian when their Grammar shows the true Intellect behind the attacks e.g. “ How to Book of Mormon is Not Like the Bible (And Why We Should Celebrate That!)”
Maybe they should check out Anti-Mormonism for Dummies!!!!
The BoM is the word of Joseph Smith (a thug, a grifter, a flim flam man, a con artist, a known liar, a known adulator, a known pedophile, a thief, a murderer............ and on and on.)
Nor do most authors get told by god to go to canada and sell the copywrite for the scriptures in order to make a quick buck.
So just a question, do you agree with the premise or not?
When I read the Bible, I feel the presence of the Holy Ghost. When I read the Book of Mormon, I feel the presence of the Holy Ghost.
The Book of Mormon is another Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Lord.
“Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”
1 Corinthians 12:3
Is it true that the plates were lost? One thing I find difficult to believe is that something so substantial and important in 1824 was lost.
So Sandy is that versus translated correctly?
As well they should. They go to the "And it came to pass..."well way to many times.
Did Glenn Beck write this column?
It is chloroform in print.
If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle--keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, according to tradition, merely translated it from certain ancient and mysteriously-engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out-of-the-way locality, the work of translating was equally a miracle, for the same reason."
Mark Twain 1861
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