BOOK OF MORMON WRITING STYLE

Joseph Smith with the help of Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon is believed to be the true author of the Book of Mormon despite saying it is an ancient record from gold plates that God translated through his agency. There is no evidence only his word for any of it.

The Mormon Church says that computer tests to determine the authorship of the Book of Mormon detected in 1979 that Joseph Smith’s style does not match the Book of Mormon and neither does it show the signs of the authorship of anyone else who reputedly had a part in it. The tests reportedly showed that at least 24 different authors were involved. This research was done at Brigham Young University. The naked eye can tell what is wrong with this.

First of all, you have only to read the Book of Mormon to see that it has a very limited vocabulary like Smith's.

Secondly, since Nephi wrote the abridgment that is the first two books and Mormon mostly wrote the rest with a bit of help from Moroni and so there should only be three styles. The tests are unreliable. Also the Book borrows texts from the King James Bible and the Apocrypha and the Westminster Confession of Faith which give a change to the style. Plus some of Smiths prophecies and his 1832 account of a vision which are written in old-fashioned language show that Smith wrote the Book of Mormon for they could easily be parts of it. The Church used the History of the Church to see what Smith’s style was but most of it was written after he died. Diaries and letters from Smith that should have been used were suppressed and not given for the tests. The tests are futile. They do not show that Smith was telling the truth and that there were plates. (The Salt Lake City Messenger, Issue No 41, December 1979).