The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude dated by the text to the unspecified time of the Tower of Babel.
It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.
The Book of Mormon is one of the earliest of the unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement, the denominations of which typically regard the text primarily as scripture, and secondarily as a record of God's dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas.
The majority of Latter Day Saints believe the book to be a record of real-world history, and many Mormon academics and apologetic organizations strive to affirm the book as historically authentic through their scholarship and research, but mainstream archaeological, historical and scientific communities do not consider the Book of Mormon to be a record of historical events.
According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates.
Smith said that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in the Hill Cumorah in present-day Manchester, New York, before his death, and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827 as an angel, revealing the location of the plates, and instructing him to translate the plates into English.
Most naturalistic views on Book of Mormon origins hold that Smith authored it, whether consciously or subconsciously, drawing on material and ideas from his contemporary 19th-century environment, rather than translating an ancient record.
The Book of Mormon has a number of doctrinal discussions on subjects such as the fall of Adam and Eve,E.g.  the nature of the Christian atonement,E.g.  eschatology, agency, priesthood authority, redemption from physical and spiritual death,E.g.  the nature and conduct of baptism, the age of accountability, the purpose and practice of communion, personalized revelation, economic justice, the anthropomorphic and personal nature of God, the nature of spirits and angels, and the organization of the latter day church.
The pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection.
Common teachings of the Latter Day Saint movement hold that the Book of Mormon fulfills numerous biblical prophecies by ending a global apostasy and signaling a restoration of Christian gospel.
The book can also be read as a critique of Western society and contains passages condemning immorality, individualism, social inequality, ethnic injustice, nationalism, and the rejection of God, revelation, and miraculous religion.
The Book of Mormon is divided into smaller books, titled after individuals named as primary authors or other caretakers of the ancient record the Book of Mormon describes itself as and, in most versions, is divided into chapters and verses.
Its English text imitates the style of the King James Version of the Bible, and its grammar and word choice reflect Early Modern English.
The Book of Mormon has been fully or partially translated into at least 112 languages.Translations of the Book of Mormon at LDS365.com Origin
thumb|upright|A page from the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, covering  -
According to Joseph Smith, he was seventeen years of age when an angel of God named Moroni appeared to him and said that a collection of ancient writings was buried in a nearby hill in present-day Wayne County, New York, engraved on golden plates by ancient prophets.
The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before Jesus' birth.
According to the narrative, Moroni was the last prophet among these people and had buried the record, which God had promised to bring forth in the latter days.
Smith stated that this vision occurred on the evening of September 21, 1823, and that on the following day, via divine guidance, he located the burial location of the plates on this hill and was instructed by Moroni to meet him at the same hill on September 22 of the following year to receive further instructions, which repeated annually for the next three years.
Smith's description of these events recounts that he was allowed to take the plates on September 22, 1827, four years after his initial visit to the hill, and was directed to translate them into English.Pearl of Great Price: Joseph Smith
As Smith and contemporaries reported, the English manuscript of the Book of Mormon was produced as scribesEmma Smith, Reuben Hale, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and John and Christian Whitmer all scribed for Joseph Smith to varying extents.
Harris scribed the majority of the early manuscript pages that were lost and never reproduced.
Cowdery scribed the majority of the manuscript for the Book of Mormon as it was published and exists today.
See ; .
wrote down Smith's dictation in multiple sessions between 1828 and 1829, with the dictation of the extant Book of Mormon completed in 1829 in approximately 60–74 working days.
Descriptions of the way in which Smith dictated the Book of Mormon vary.
Smith himself called the Book of Mormon a translated work, but in public he generally described the process itself only in vague terms, such as saying he translated "by the gift and power of God."
According to some accounts from his family and friends at the time, early on, Smith copied characters off the plates as part of a process of learning to translate an initial corpus.
For the majority of the process, accounts describe Smith dictating the text by reading it as it appeared either on seer stones he already possessed or on a set of spectacles that accompanied the plates, prepared by the Lord for the purpose of translating.
The spectacles, often called the "Nephite interpreters," or the "Urim and Thummim," after the Biblical divination stones, were described by witnesses as two clear seer stones bound together by a metal rim, and attached to a breastplate.
Beginning around 1832, both the interpreters and the seer stone were at times referred to as the "Urim and Thummim", and Smith sometimes used the term interchangeably with "spectacles".
Emma Smith's and David Whitmer's accounts describe Smith using the interpreters while dictating for Martin Harris's scribing and switching to only using his seer stone(s) in subsequent translation.
Accounts of Smith's dictation process, such as Joseph Knight's, describe him placing the interpreters or stones in a top hat and, "Dark[ening] his eyes then he would take a sentence and it would appear in bright Roman letters.
Then he would tell the writer and he would write it".
Early on, Smith sometimes separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them, as he did while Martin Harris scribed his dictation.
Later in the process, such as when Oliver Cowdery or Emma Smith scribed, the plates were left covered up in the open, and during some dictation sessions the plates were entirely absent.
Smith's first published description of the plates said that the plates "had the appearance of gold".
They were described by Martin Harris, one of Smith's early scribes, as "fastened together in the shape of a book by wires."
Smith called the engraved writing on the plates "reformed Egyptian".
A portion of the text on the plates was also "sealed" according to his account, so its content was not included in the Book of Mormon..
In addition to Smith's account regarding the plates, eleven others were formally allowed to see the uncovered golden plates and, in some cases, handle them.
Their written testimonies are known as the Testimony of Three Witnesses, who described seeing the plates in a visionary encounter with an angel, and the Testimony of Eight Witnesses, who described handling the plates as displayed by Smith.
These statements have been published in most editions of the Book of Mormon.
In addition to Smith and these eleven, several others described encountering the plates by holding or moving them wrapped in cloth, though without seeing the plates themselves, and two women reported seeing the plates directly in visionary angelic encounters.
Josiah Stowell, an acquaintance, later testified under oath that he caught a glimpse of the plates uncovered, though he didn't describe an angel like the two women.
thumb|left|upright|alt=Smith sitting on a wooden chair with his face in a hat|A depiction of Joseph Smith dictating the Book of Mormon through the use of a seer stone placed in a hat to block out light.
Smith enlisted his neighbor Martin Harris as a scribe during his initial work on the text.
Harris later mortgaged his farm to underwrite the printing of the Book of Mormon.
In 1828, Harris, prompted by his wife Lucy Harris, repeatedly requested that Smith lend him the current pages that had been translated.
Smith reluctantly acceded to Harris's requests, within weeks the manuscript was lost.
Lucy Harris is popularly thought to have stolen these initial manuscript pages, though historian Don Bradley contests this as probable rumor from after the fact and hypothesizes a member of Harris's extended family stole the pages.
After the loss, Smith recorded that he had lost the ability to translate, and that Moroni had taken back the plates to be returned only after Smith repented.
Smith later stated that God allowed him to resume translation, but directed that he begin where he left off (in what is now called the Book of Mosiah), without retranslating what had been in the lost manuscript.
In 1829, work resumed on the Book of Mormon, with the assistance of Oliver Cowdery as scribe, and the manuscript was completed in a short period (April–June 1829).
Smith said he returned the plates to Moroni upon the publication of the book.
The Book of Mormon went on sale at the bookstore of E. B. Grandin in Palmyra, New York on March 26, 1830.
Today, the building in which the Book of Mormon was first published and sold is known as the Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site.
The first edition print-run was 5,000 copies.Printing and Publishing the Book of Mormon, churchofjesuschrist.org.
The publisher charged $3,000 for the production cost (wholesale to the author Joseph Smith at 60 cents per book; .
Since its first publication and distribution, critics of the Book of Mormon have claimed that it was fabricated by Smith and that he drew material and ideas from various sources rather than translating an ancient record.
Works that have been suggested as sources include the King James Bible, The Wonders of Nature, View of the Hebrews, and an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding.
Historians have considered the Spalding manuscript source hypothesis debunked since 1945, and no single theory has consistently dominated naturalistic views on the Book of Mormon.
Mormon apologetics organizations typically maintain that all these arguments have been disproven by Mormon and non-Mormon sources.For example, see  Though not universally embraced, the most popular naturalistic view of Book of Mormon authorship is that Smith wrote it himself.
The position of most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement and the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is that the book is an authentic historical record, translated by Smith through divine revelation.
Content
Title
Smith said the title page came from the translation of "the very last leaf" of the golden plates, and was not his own composition.
The title page states that the purpose of the Book of Mormon is "to [show] unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; ... and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations."
Organization
The Book of Mormon is organized as a compilation of smaller books, each named after its main named narrator or a prominent leader, beginning with the First Book of Nephi (1 Nephi) and ending with the Book of Moroni.
The book's sequence is primarily chronological based on the narrative content of the book.
Exceptions include the Words of Mormon and the Book of Ether.
The Words of Mormon contains editorial commentary by Mormon.
The Book of Ether is presented as the narrative of an earlier group of people who had come to the American continent before the immigration described in 1 Nephi.
First Nephi through Omni are written in first-person narrative, as are Mormon and Moroni.
The remainder of the Book of Mormon is written in third-person historical narrative, said to be compiled and abridged by Mormon (with Moroni abridging the Book of Ether and writing the latter part of Mormon and the Book of Moroni).
Most modern editions of the book have been divided into chapters and verses.
Most editions of the book also contain supplementary material, including the "Testimony of Three Witnesses" and the "Testimony of Eight Witnesses" which appeared in the original 1830 edition and every official Latter-day Saint edition thereafter.
Chronology
The books from First Nephi to Omni are described as being from "the small plates of Nephi".
This account begins in ancient Jerusalem around 600 BC, telling the story of a man named Lehi, his family, and several others as they are led by God from Jerusalem shortly before the fall of that city to the Babylonians.
The book describes their journey across the Arabian peninsula, and then to a "promised land" by ship.
These books recount the group's dealings from approximately 600 BC to about 130 BC, during which time the community grew and split into two main groups, which are called the Nephites and the Lamanites, that frequently warred with each other.
upright=1.5|thumb|right|An artistic depiction of the climactic moment in the Book of Mormon, the visitation of Jesus to the Nephites.
Following this section is the Words of Mormon.
This small book, said to be written in AD 385 by Mormon, is a short introduction to the books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Third Nephi, and Fourth Nephi."
A Brief Explanation about the Book of Mormon".
These books are described as being abridged from a large quantity of existing records called "the large plates of Nephi" that detailed the people's history from the time of Omni to Mormon's own life.
The Book of Third Nephi is of particular importance within the Book of Mormon because it contains an account of a visit by Jesus from heaven to the people of the Book of Mormon sometime after his resurrection and ascension.
The text says that during this visit, he repeated much of the same doctrine and instruction given in the Gospels of the Bible and he established an enlightened, peaceful society which endured for several generations, but which eventually broke into warring factions again.
The book or section within the greater Book of Mormon dealing with events during Mormon's life is also called the Book of Mormon.
Mormon is said to have received the charge of taking care of the records that had been hidden, once he was old enough.
The book includes an account of the wars, Mormon's leading of portions of the Nephite army, and his retrieving and caring for the records.
Mormon is eventually killed after having handed down the records to his son Moroni.
According to the text, Moroni then made an abridgment (called the Book of Ether) of a record from a much earlier people.
The account describes a group of families who are led away from the Tower of Babel after it falls to the same "promised land" by a man named Jared and his brother, described as a prophet of God.
These Jaredites then establish a society in the promised land, but after successive violent reversals between rival monarchs and faction, their society collapses before Lehi's family arrive in the promised land.
The Book of Moroni then details the final destruction of the Nephites and the idolatrous state of the remaining society."
Book of Moroni".
It also includes significant doctrinal teachings and closes with Moroni's testimony and an invitation to pray to God for a confirmation of the truthfulness of the account.
Doctrinal and philosophical teachings
Interspersed throughout the narrative are sermons and orations by various speakers, making up just over 40 percent of the Book of Mormon.
These passages contain doctrinal and philosophical teachings on a wide range of topics, from basic themes of Christianity and Judaism to political and ideological teachings.Gary J. Coleman, "The Book of Mormon: A Guide for the Old Testament", Ensign, January 2002.
Some of the teachings found in the Book of Mormon reiterate themes common to nineteenth-century American Christianity such as describing the Bible as scripture and affirming covenantal theology.
Other teachings are unique and distinctive, such as its descriptions of Jesus and the Atonement, rejection of original sin doctrine, and depiction of dialogic revelation.
Jesus
As stated on the title page, the Book of Mormon's central purpose is for the "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations."
Jesus is mentioned every 1.7 verses on average and is referred to by one hundred different names.Susan Ward Easton, "Names of Christ in the Book of Mormon", Ensign, July 1978.
Though much of the Book of Mormon's internal chronology takes place prior to the birth of Jesus, prophets in the book frequently see him in vision and preach about him, and the people in the book worship Jesus as "pre-Christian Christians."
For example, the book's first narrator Nephi describes having a vision of the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus, said to have taken place nearly 600 years prior to Jesus' birth, and late in the book the narrator refers to converted peoples as "children of Christ".
By depicting ancient prophets and peoples as familiar with Jesus as a Savior, the Book of Mormon universalizes Christian salvation as being the same in all times and places, and it implies that even more ancient peoples were familiar with Jesus.
In the Book of Mormon, Jesus visits some early inhabitants of the Americas after his resurrection, and this event is often described as the climax of the book.
During this ministry, he reiterates many teachings from the New Testament, re-emphasizes salvific baptism, and introduces the ritual consumption of bread and water "in remembrance of [his] body", a teaching that became the basis for modern Latter-day Saints' "memorialist" view of their sacrament ordinance (analogous to communion).
Jesus's ministry in the Book of Mormon has been compared to Jesus's portrayal in the Gospel of John, as Jesus similarly teaches without parables and preaches faith and obedience as a central message.
The Book of Mormon depicts Jesus with "a twist" on Christian trinitarianism.
Jesus in the Book of Mormon is distinct from God the Father, much as he is in the New Testament, as he prays to God while during a post-resurrection visit with the Nephites.
However, the Book of Mormon also emphasizes Jesus and God have "divine unity," and other parts of the book call Jesus "the Father and the Son" or describe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as "one."
As a result, beliefs among the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement range between social trinitarianism (such as among Latter-day Saints) and traditional trinitarianism (such as in Community of Christ).
Distinctively, the Book of Mormon describes Jesus as having, prior to his birth, a spiritual "body" "without flesh and blood" that looked similar to how he would appear during his physical life.
According to the book, the Brother of Jared lived before Jesus and saw him manifest in this spiritual "body" thousands of years prior to his birth.
Plan of salvation
The Christian concept of God's plan of salvation for humanity is a frequently recurring theme of the Book of Mormon.
While the Bible does not directly outline a plan of salvation,: "While the concept of such a divine plan is perfectly compatible with Jewish and Christian scriptures and teaching, it is not generally recognized as part of biblical teaching and receives only occasional mention in the reference works compiled by Bible scholars.
The Book of Mormon phrasing does not occur at all in the Bible, though it does show up occasionally in the writings of some Christians."
the Book of Mormon explicitly refers to the concept thirty times, using a variety of terms such as plan of salvation, plan of happiness, and plan of redemption.
The Book of Mormon's plan of salvation doctrine describes life as a probationary time for people to learn the gospel of Christ through revelation given to prophets and have the opportunity to choose whether or not to obey God.
Jesus' atonement then makes repentance possible, enabling the righteous to enter a heavenly state after a final judgment.
Although most of Christianity traditionally considers the fall of man a negative development for humanity, the Book of Mormon instead portrays the fall as a foreordained step in God's plan of salvation, necessary to securing human agency, joy, growth, and eventual righteousness.See .
"And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. . . .
And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. . . .
all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
This positive interpretation of the Adam and Eve story contributes to the Book of Mormon's emphasis "on the importance of human freedom and responsibility" to choose salvation.
Dialogic revelation
In the Book of Mormon, revelation from God typically manifests as "personalized, dialogic exchange" between God and persons, "rooted in a radically anthropomorphic theology" that personifies deity as a being who hears prayers and provides direct answers to questions.
Multiple narratives in the book portray revelation as a dialogue in which petitioners and deity engage one another in a mutual exchange in which God's contributions originate from outside the mortal recipient.
The Book of Mormon also emphasizes regular prayer as a significant component of devotional life, depicting it as a central means through which such dialogic revelation can take place.
Distinctively, the Book of Mormon's portrayal democratizes revelation by extending it beyond the "Old Testament paradigms" of prophetic authority.
In the Book of Mormon, dialogic revelation from God is not the purview of prophets alone but is instead the right of every person.
Figures such as Nephi and Ammon receive visions and revelatory direction prior to or without ever becoming prophets, and Laman and Lemuel are rebuked for hesitating to pray for revelation.
In the Book of Mormon, God and the divine are directly knowable through revelation and spiritual experience.
Also in contrast with traditional Christian conceptions of revelations is the Book of Mormon's broader range of revelatory content.
In the Book of Mormon, revelatory topics include not only the expected "exegesis of existence" but also questions that are "pragmatic, and at times almost banal in their mundane specificity".
Figures petition God for revelatory answers to doctrinal questions and ecclesiastical crises as well as for inspiration to guide hunts, military campaigns, and sociopolitical decisions, and the Book of Mormon portrays God providing answers to these inquiries.
The Book of Mormon depicts revelation as an active and sometimes laborious experience.
For example, the Book of Mormon's Brother of Jared learns to act not merely as a petitioner with questions but moreover as an interlocutor with "a specific proposal" for God to consider as part of a guided process of miraculous assistance.
Also in the Book of Mormon, Enos describes his revelatory experience as a "wrestle which I had before God" that spanned hours of intense prayer.
Teachings about political theology
The book delves into political theology within a Christian or Jewish context.
Among these themes are American exceptionalism.
According to the book, the Americas are portrayed as a "land of promise", the world's most exceptional land of the time.; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
The book states that any righteous society possessing the land would be protected, whereas if they became wicked they would be destroyed and replaced with a more righteous civilization.; ; ; ;;; ; ;;;; ; .
On the issue of war and violence, the book teaches that war is justified for people to "defend themselves against their enemies".
However, they were never to "give an offense," or to "raise their sword ... except it were to preserve their lives."
The book praises the faith of a group of former Lamanite warriors who took an oath of complete pacifism, refusing to take arms even to defend themselves and their people.
However, 2,000 of their descendants, who had not taken the oath of their parents not to take up arms against their enemies, chose to go to battle against the Lamanites, and it states that in their battles the 2,000 men were protected by God through their faith and, though many were injured, none of them died.
The book recommends monarchy as an ideal form of government, but only when the monarch is righteous.
The book warns of the evil that occurs when the king is wicked, and therefore suggests that it is not generally good to have a king.
The book further records the decision of the people to be ruled no longer by kings, choosing instead a form of democracy led by elected judges.
When citizens referred to as "king-men" attempted to overthrow a democratically elected government and establish an unrighteous king, the book praises a military commander who executed pro-monarchy citizens who had vowed to destroy the church of God and were unwilling to defend their country from hostile invading forces.
The book also speaks favorably of a particular instance of what appears to be a peaceful Christ-centered theocracy, which lasted approximately 194 years before contentions began again.
The book supports notions of economic justice, achieved through voluntary donation of "substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor."
In one case, all the citizens held their property in common.
When individuals within a society began to disdain and ignore the poor, to "wear costly apparel", and otherwise engage in wickedness for personal gain, such societies are repeatedly portrayed in the book as being ripe for destruction.; ; ; .
Religious significance
Joseph Smith
Like many other early adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement, Smith referenced Book of Mormon scriptures in his preaching relatively infrequently and cited the Bible more often, likely because he was more familiar with the Bible, which he had grown up with.
In 1832, Smith dictated a revelation that condemned the "whole church" for treating the Book of Mormon lightly, though even after doing so Smith still referenced the Book of Mormon less often than the Bible..
Nevertheless, in 1841 Joseph Smith characterized the Book of Mormon as the "the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of [the] religion".
Although Smith quoted the book infrequently, he was "absorbed into the world of the Book of Mormon" through its narrative content and conceived of his prophetic identity within the framework of the Book of Mormon's portrayal of a world history full of sacred records of God's dealings with humanity and description of him as a revelatory translator.
While they were held in Carthage Jail together, shortly before being killed in a mob attack, Joseph's brother Hyrum Smith read aloud from the Book of Mormon, and Joseph told the jail guards present that the Book of Mormon was divinely authentic.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Book of Mormon is one of four sacred texts or standard works of the LDS Church.
Church leaders and publications have "strongly affirm[ed]" Smith's claims of the book's significance to the faith.
According to the church's "Articles of Faith"—a document written by Joseph Smith in 1842 and canonized by the church as scripture in 1880—members "believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly," and they "believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God," without the translation qualification.
Up through the mid-twentieth century, the Book of Mormon's significance to Latter-day Saints came more from its "status as a sign" than its specific content.
Church leaders and missionaries emphasized it as part of a causal chain which held that if the Book of Mormon was "verifiably true revelation of God," then it justified Smith's claims to prophetic authority to restore the New Testament church.
In addition to signifying Smith's prophetic calling, the Book of Mormon also signaled the "restoration of all things", ending what was believed to have been an apostasy from true Christianity.
Early Latter-day Saints additionally tended to interpret the Book of Mormon through a millenarian lens and consequently believed the book portended Christ's imminent Second Coming.
Latter-day Saints have also long believed the Book of Mormon's contents confirm and fulfill biblical prophecies.
For example, "many Latter-day Saints" consider the biblical patriarch Jacob's description of his son Joseph as "a fruitful bough... whose branches run over a wall" a prophecy of Lehi's posterity—described as descendants of Joseph—overflowing into the New World.
Latter-day Saints also believe the Bible prophesies of the Book of Mormon as an additional testament to God's dealings with humanity, such as in their interpretation of Ezekiel 37's injunction to "take thee one stick... For Judah, and... take another stick...
For Joseph" as referring to the Bible as the "stick of Judah" and the Book of Mormon as "the stick of Joseph".
In the 1980s, the church placed greater emphasis on the Book of Mormon as a central text of the faith and on studying and reading it as a means for devotional communion with Jesus Christ.
In 1982 the church added the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" to its official editions of the Book of Mormon.
Ezra Taft Benson, the church's thirteenth president (1985–1994), especially emphasized the Book of Mormon.
Referencing Smith's 1832 revelation, Benson said the church remained under condemnation for treating the Book of Mormon lightly.
Since the late 1980s, the church has encouraged members to read from the Book of Mormon daily.
In an August 2005 message, church president Gordon B. Hinckley challenged each member of the church to re-read the Book of Mormon before the year's end,Gordon B. Hinckley, "A Testimony Vibrant and True", Ensign, August 2005.
and by 2016, "Increasing numbers of Latter-day Saints use[d] the [Book of Mormon] for private and family devotions."
The Book of Mormon is "the principal scriptural focus" of the church and "absolutely central" to Latter-day Saint worship, including in weekly services, Sunday School, youth seminaries, and more.
The LDS Church encourages discovery of the book's truth by following the suggestion in its final chapter to study, ponder, and pray to God concerning its veracity.
This passage is sometimes referred to as "Moroni's Promise."
As of October 2020, the church has published more than 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon.
Community of Christ
Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or RLDS Church) views the Book of Mormon as scripture which provides an additional witness of Jesus Christ in support of the Bible.
Community of Christ publishes two versions of the book.
The first is the Authorized Edition, first published by the then-RLDS Church in 1908, whose text is based on comparing the original printer's manuscript and the 1837 Second Edition (or "Kirtland Edition") of the Book of Mormon.
Its content is similar to the Book of Mormon published by the LDS Church, but the versification is different.
Community of Christ also publishes a "New Authorized Version" (also called a "reader's edition), first released in 1966, which attempts to modernize the language of the text by removing archaisms and standardizing punctuation.
Use of the Book of Mormon varies among members of Community of Christ.
The church describes it as scripture and includes references to the Book of Mormon in its official lectionary.
In 2010, representatives told the National Council of Churches that "the Book of Mormon is in our DNA".
At the same time, its use in North American congregations declined between the mid-twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Also during this time, Community of Christ moved away from emphasizing the Book of Mormon as a historically authentic text.
Community of Christ president W. Grant McMurray "opened the door to considering the book more myth than history" in the late-twentieth century, and in 2001 he reflected, "The proper use of the Book of Mormon as sacred scripture has been under wide discussion in the 1970s and beyond, in part because of long-standing questions about its historical authenticity and in part because of perceived theological inadequacies, including matters of race and ethnicity."
McMurray, W. Grant, "They 'Shall Blossom as the Rose': Native Americans and the Dream of Zion," an address delivered February 17, 2001, cofchrist.org.
At the 2007 Community of Christ World Conference, church president Stephen M. Veazey ruled out-of-order a resolution to "reaffirm the Book of Mormon as a divinely inspired record."
He stated that "while the Church affirms the Book of Mormon as scripture, and makes it available for study and use in various languages, we do not attempt to mandate the degree of belief or use.
This position is in keeping with our longstanding tradition that belief in the Book of Mormon is not to be used as a test of fellowship or membership in the church."
In keeping with this approach, there are "Tens of thousands" of members in some congregations outside North America, such as Haiti and Africa, who "have never used the Book of Mormon".
Some Community of Christ members with "more traditional-thinking" on the Book of Mormon have in turn "either left the church or doubled their efforts to bring the Book of Mormon back to the center of the theological and scriptural life of the church."
Greater Latter Day Saint movement
Since the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, there have been approximately 70 different churches that have been part of the Latter Day Saint movement, fifty of which were extant as of 2012.
Religious studies scholar Paul Gutjahr explains that "each of these sects developed its own special relationship with the Book of Mormon".
For example James Strang, who led a denomination in the nineteenth century, reenacted Smith's production of the Book of Mormon by claiming in the 1840s and 1850s to receive and translate new scriptures engraved on metal plates, which became the Voree Plates and the Book of the Law of the Lord.
William Bickerton led another denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (today called The Church of Jesus Christ), which accepted the Book of Mormon as scripture alongside the Bible but rejected the Pearl of Great Price, though Bickerton himself sometimes referred to the Doctrine and Covenants.
Separate editions of the Book of Mormon have been published by a number of churches in the Latter Day Saint movement, along with private individuals and foundations not endorsed by any specific denomination.
Historical authenticity
Mainstream archaeological, historical and scientific communities do not consider the Book of Mormon an ancient record of actual historical events.The exceptions are several Latter-day Saint organizations that sponsor historical and archeological research, such as FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response), the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (now defunct), Brigham Young University, and the Interpreter Foundation; and some journals operated by Latter-day Saints, such as the FARMS Review (prior to being renamed the Mormon Studies Review and pivoting away from apologetics) and Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.
Cyrus H. Gordon may also be of interest as a non-Mormon biblical archaeologist who argued for pre-Columbian Semitic contact with the Americas, though his claims were never to the extent of the Book of Mormon's and remained marginal in his field.
Their skepticism tends to focus on four main areas:
The lack of correlation between locations described in the Book of Mormon and known, intact American archaeological sites.Citing the lack of specific New World geographic locations to search, Michael D. Coe, a prominent Mesoamerican archaeologist and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University, wrote, "As far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing [the historicity of The Book of Mormon], and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group."
See .
References to animals, plants, metals and technologies in the Book of Mormon that archaeological or scientific studies have found little or no evidence of in post-Pleistocene, pre-Columbian America, frequently referred to as anachronisms.
Items typically listed include cattle, horses,1 Nephi 18:25 asses, oxen, sheep, swine, goats,1 Nephi 18:25 Smithsonian Institution statement on the Book of Mormon paragraph 4  elephants,Ether 9:19 wheat, steel,1 Nephi 4:9 brass, chains, iron, scimitars, and chariots.Alma 18:9
The lack of widely accepted linguistic connections between any Native American languages and Near Eastern languages.
The lack of DNA evidence linking any Native American group to the ancient Near East.One popular traditional view of the Book of Mormon suggested that Native Americans were principally the descendants of an Israelite migration around 600 BC.
However, DNA evidence shows no Near Eastern component in the Native American genetic make-up. "
...[T]he DNA lineages of Central America resemble those of other Native American tribes throughout the two continents.
Over 99 percent of the lineages found among native groups from this region are clearly of Asian descent.
Modern and ancient DNA samples tested from among the Maya generally fall into the major founding lineage classes...
The Mayan Empire has been regarded by Mormons to be the closest to the people of the Book of Mormon because its people were literate and culturally sophisticated.
However, leading New World anthropologists, including those specializing in the region, have found the Maya to be similarly related to Asians"; see .
Defenders of the book's historical authenticity suggest that the Book of Mormon does not disallow for other groups of people to have contributed to the genetic make-up of Native Americans—see —and in 2006, the church changed its introduction to the official LDS edition of the Book of Mormon to allow for a greater diversity of ancestry of Native Americans; see .
Despite this, most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon to generally be historically authentic.
Within the Latter Day Saint movement there are several apologetic groups and scholars that seek to answer challenges to Book of Mormon historicity in various ways.
Most Book of Mormon apologetics is done by Latter-day Saints, and the most active and well-known apologetic groups have been the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS; now defunct) and FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response; formerly FairMormon), both founded and operated by lay Latter-day Saints.
Some apologetics aim to reconcile, refute, or dismiss criticisms of Book of Mormon historicity.
For example, in response to linguistics and genetics rendering long-popular hemispheric models of Book of Mormon geography impossible, many apologists posit Book of Mormon peoples could have dwelled in a limited geographical region, usually either Mesoamerica or eastern North America, while indigenous peoples of other descents occupied the rest of the Americas.
To account for anachronisms, apologists often suggest Smith's translation assigned familiar terms to unfamiliar ideas.
Other apologetics strive to "affirmatively advocat[e]" historicity by identifying parallels between the Book of Mormon and antiquity, such as the presence of several complex chiasmi, a literary form used in ancient Hebrew poetry and in the Old Testament.
"Chiastic formulations, many in expanded, elaborate series, pervade the Old and New Testaments".
In an article for the Ensign, the LDS Church's former official magazine,The church discontinued the Ensign in 2020, replacing it with the Liahona. .
apologist Daniel C. Peterson wrote, "much modern evidence supports" the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and literature promoting Book of Mormon historicity has influenced some Latter-day Saint views.
Nevertheless, not all Mormons who affirm Book of Mormon historicity are universally persuaded by apologetic work, and some claim historicity more modestly, such as Richard Bushman's statement that "I read the Book of Mormon as informed Christians read the Bible.
As I read, I know the arguments against the book's historicity, but I can't help feeling that the words are true and the events happened.
I believe it in the face of many questions."
Though there is a "lack of specific response to""That allegation may help explain the lack of specific response to orthodox scholars' work: if one believes the work is fatally flawed methodologically, no further rebuttal seems to be needed."
.
elements of the Book of Mormon that some Latter Day Saints consider evidence of ancient origins, when mainstream scholars do examine such they typically deem them "chance based upon only superficial similarities".
One critic has dubbed alleged parallels an example of parallelomania.
In response to challenges to the Book of Mormon's historicity, some denominations and adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon a work of inspired fiction akin to pseudepigrapha or biblical midrash that constitutes scripture by revealing true doctrine about God, similar to a common interpretation of the biblical Book of Job.
Many in Community of Christ hold this view, and the leadership takes no official position on Book of Mormon historicity while "Opinions about the Book of Mormon range from both ends of the spectrum" among members.Though Roger D. Launius, a historian and member of Community of Christ, contended in 2006, "I know of no one in the leadership of the Community of Christ who accepts the Book of Mormon as a work of history, even if they view it as scripture.
Of course, some rank and file members still accept it as such."
See .
Some Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon fictional, though this view is marginal in the community at large.
Church leaders and apologists frequently contend that "what is most fundamentally at stake in historicity is not the book's status as scripture but Joseph Smith's claims to prophetic authority."
A few scholars propose considering the Book of Mormon an ancient and translated source text appended with modern pseudepigraphic expansions from Smith.
Proponents hold that this model can simultaneously account for ancient literary artifacts and nineteenth-century influence in the Book of Mormon.
However, the interpretation faces criticism "on multiple fronts" for either conceding too much to skepticism or for being more convoluted than straightforward historicism or unhistoricism..
"Ostler's theory has been criticized on multiple fronts.
Stephen Robinson and Robert Millet, defenders of historicity, believe that Ostler concedes too much to skeptics.
Meanwhile, revisionist Anthony Hutchinson finds it absurdly complicated to theorize that God would preserve an ancient record whose message would be rendered unrecognizable by modern expansions."
Influenced by continental philosophy, a handful of academics argue for "rethink[ing] the terms of the historicity debates" by understanding the Book of Mormon not as historical or unhistorical (either factual or fictional) but as nonhistorical (existing outside history)..
"To complicate matters further, a handful of authors have recently used postmodern theories to entirely rethink the terms of the historicity debates."
Most prominently, James E. Faulconer contends that both skeptical and affirmative approaches to Book of Mormon historicity make the same Enlightenment-derived assumptions about scriptures being representations of external reality, and he argues a more appropriate approach might adopt a premodern understanding of scripture as capable of divinely ordering, rather than simply depicting, reality.. "[James]
Faulconer maintains that modern readers, whether apologists or skeptics, assume that the scriptures are historical, or literally true, if they refer to objectively real events, the truth of which can be assessed by evidence outside the scriptures themselves . . .
However, premodern (pre-Renaissance) readers did not make this separation between historical events and the scriptural account of those events.
From a premodern point of view, Faulconer argues, the only access to literal, historical truth was the scriptures themselves because they reveal the truth of events as God understands them."
Though Faulconer does still believe scriptures, including the Book of Mormon, "tell about events that actually happened.
They are about real people and real events" and that to understand scriptures otherwise would "reduce the premodern understanding of history to a modern view, to one that denies the historicity of scripture by taking scripture to refer to a transcendent, nonhistorical reality by means of only seemingly historical stories."
Emphasis in original, see .Joseph M.
Spencer likewise argues the Book of Mormon "must be subtracted from the dichotomy of the historical/unhistorical because the faithful reader testifies that the events—rather than the history—recorded in the book not only took place, but are of infinite, typological importance. . . .
as Alma makes clear, it is the Book of Mormon that calls the historicity of the individual into question."
Emphasis in original, see .
Historical context
American Indian origins
In the 1800s, most early European Americans had a biblical worldview, and numerous attempts were made to explain the origin of the Native Americans biblically.Benite, Z. B. (2013).
The ten lost tribes: A world history.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
From the sixteenth century through the early-nineteenth, a common belief was that the Jews, particularly the Lost Ten Tribes, were the ancestors of Native Americans.
One of the first books to suggest that Native Americans were descended from Jews was written by Jewish-Dutch rabbi and scholar Manasseh ben Israel in 1650.
The Book of Mormon provided theological backing to this proposition, and suggested the lost Tribes of Israel would be found in other locations throughout the world as well.
Additionally, European settlers viewed the impressive earthworks left behind by the Mound Builder culture and had some difficulty believing that the Native Americans, whose numbers had been decimated over the previous centuries, could have produced them.
A common theory was that a more technologically advanced people had built them, but were overrun and destroyed by a more savage, numerous group.
Some observers have suggested the Book of Mormon parallels works within the "mound-builder" genre pervasive in the nineteenth century.
Historian Curtis Dahl wrote, "Undoubtedly the most famous and certainly the most influential of all Mound-Builder literature is the Book of Mormon (1830).
Whether one wishes to accept it as divinely inspired or the work of Joseph Smith, it fits exactly into the tradition."
Others have argued the Book of Mormon does not comfortably fit the genre, such as historian Richard Bushman who wrote, "When other writers delved into Indian origins, they were explicit about recognizable Indian practices", such as Abner Cole, who dressed characters in moccasins in his parody of the book.
Meanwhile, the "Book of Mormon deposited its people on some unknown shore—not even definitely identified as America—and had them live out their history in a remote place in a distant time, using names that had no connections to modern Indians" and without including stereotypical Indian terms, practices, or tropes.
Critique of the United States
The Book of Mormon can be read as a critique of the United States during Smith's lifetime.
Historian of religion Nathan O. Hatch called the Book of Mormon "a document of profound social protest", and Bushman "found the book thundering no to the state of the world in Joseph Smith's time."
In the Jacksonian era of antebellum America, class inequality was a major concern as fiscal downturns and the economy's transition from guild-based artisanship to private business sharpened socioeconomic disparity.
Poll taxes in New York limited access to the vote, and the culture of civil discourse and mores surrounding liberty allowed social elites to ignore and delegitimize populist participation in public discourse.
Ethnic injustice was also prominent, as Americans typically stereotyped American Indians as ferocious, lazy, and uncivilized.
Meanwhile, Antebellum disestablishment and denominational proliferation could be seen as undermining religious authority through ubiquity as "the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently", producing sectarian confusion that, for some, only obfuscated the path to spiritual security.Pearl of Great Price: Joseph Smith
Against the backdrop of these trends, the Book of Mormon "condemned social inequalities, moral abominations, rejection of revelations and miracles, disrespect for Israel (including the Jews), subjection of the Indians, and the abuse of the continent by interloping European migrants."
The book's narratives critique the "Nationalist puffery" of "bourgeois public sphere[s]" where rules of civil democracy silence the demands of common people.
The Book of Mormon also "advocates the cause of the poor" "[a]gainst increasing wealth and inequality", condemning acquisitiveness as antithetical to righteousness.
The book's Lamanites, whom readers generally identified with American Indians, at times were overwhelmingly righteous, even producing a prophet who preached to backsliding Nephites.
The Book of Mormon declared natives to be the rightful inheritors to and leaders of the American continent, relegating European migrants to be "Gentiles... com[ing] onstage as interlopers".
According to the book, implicitly-European Gentiles had an obligation to serve the native people and join their remnant of covenant Israel or else face a violent downfall like the Nephites of the text.
And although a "classic version of America's past... makes a cameo appearance" in the Book of Mormon through a vision of Nephi, the Book of Mormon's doctrine "contests the amalgam of Enlightenment, republican, Protestant, capitalist, and nationalist values that constituted American culture."
The Book of Mormon's message can be read as rejecting American denominational pluralism, religious rationalism, capitalist individualism, and nationalist identity, calling instead for ecclesiastical unity, miraculous religion, communitarian economics, and universal society under God's authority.
Manuscripts
The Book of Mormon was dictated by Joseph Smith to several scribes over a period of 13 months, resulting in three manuscripts.
Although 13 months elapsed, the actual translation time was less than 65 actual days of translating.https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/celebrating-the-restoration-day-4-timing-the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon
The 116 lost pages contained the first portion of the Book of Lehi; it was lost after Smith loaned the original, uncopied manuscript to Martin Harris.
The first completed manuscript, called the original manuscript, was completed using a variety of scribes.
Portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting.
In October 1841, the entire original manuscript was placed into the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, and sealed up until nearly forty years later when the cornerstone was reopened.
It was then discovered that much of the original manuscript had been destroyed by water seepage and mold.
Surviving manuscript pages were handed out to various families and individuals in the 1880s.
Only 28 percent of the original manuscript now survives, including a remarkable find of fragments from 58 pages in 1991.
The majority of what remains of the original manuscript is now kept in the LDS Church's Archives.
The second completed manuscript, called the printer's manuscript, was a copy of the original manuscript produced by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes.
It is at this point that initial copyediting of the Book of Mormon was completed.
Observations of the original manuscript show little evidence of corrections to the text.
Shortly before his death in 1850, Cowdery gave the printer's manuscript to David Whitmer, another of the Three Witnesses.
In 1903, the manuscript was bought from Whitmer's grandson by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ.
On September 20, 2017, the LDS Church purchased the manuscript from the Community of Christ at a reported price of $35 million.
The printer's manuscript is now the earliest surviving complete copy of the Book of Mormon.There are three lines missing from the printer's manuscript in its current condition, covering 1 Nephi 1:7–8, 20.
http://mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=15&num=1&id=401 The manuscript was imaged in 1923 and was recently made available for viewing online.
Critical comparisons between surviving portions of the manuscripts show an average of two to three changes per page from the original manuscript to the printer's manuscript, with most changes being corrections of scribal errors such as misspellings or the correction, or standardization, of grammar inconsequential to the meaning of the text.
The printer's manuscript was further edited, adding paragraphing and punctuation to the first third of the text.
The printer's manuscript was not used fully in the typesetting of the 1830 version of Book of Mormon; portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting.
The original manuscript was used by Smith to further correct errors printed in the 1830 and 1837 versions of the Book of Mormon for the 1840 printing of the book.
Ownership history: Book of Mormon printer's manuscript
In the late-19th century the extant portion of the printer's manuscript remained with the family of David Whitmer, who had been a principal founder of the Latter Day Saints and who, by the 1870s, led the Church of Christ (Whitmerite).
During the 1870s, according to the Chicago Tribune, the LDS Church unsuccessfully attempted to buy it from Whitmer for a record price.
LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith refuted this assertion in a 1901 letter, believing such a manuscript "possesses no value whatever."
In 1895, Whitmer's grandson George Schweich inherited the manuscript.
By 1903, Schweich had mortgaged the manuscript for $1,800 and, needing to raise at least that sum, sold a collection including 72-percent of the book of the original printer's manuscript (John Whitmer's manuscript history, parts of Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible, manuscript copies of several revelations, and a piece of paper containing copied Book of Mormon characters) to the RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ) for $2,450, with $2,300 of this amount for the printer's manuscript.
The LDS Church had not sought to purchase the manuscript.
In 2015, this remaining portion was published by the Church Historian's Press in its Joseph Smith Papers series, in Volume Three of "Revelations and Translations"; and, in 2017, the LDS Church bought the printer's manuscript for .
Editions
Chapter and verse notation systems
The original 1830 publication did not have verse markers, although the individual books were divided into relatively long chapters.
Just as the Bible's present chapter and verse notation system is a later addition of Bible publishers to books that were originally solid blocks of undivided text, the chapter and verse markers within the books of the Book of Mormon are conventions, not part of the original text.
Publishers from different factions of the Latter Day Saint movement have published different chapter and verse notation systems.
The two most significant are the LDS system, introduced in 1879, and the RLDS system, which is based on the original 1830 chapter divisions.The Zarahemla Research Foundation publishes a 48-page booklet titled "Book of Mormon Chapter & Verse: RLDS–LDS Conversion Table" to enable readers of an LDS edition to find references from an RLDS edition and vice versa.
The RLDS 1908 edition, RLDS 1966 edition, the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) edition, and Restored Covenant editions use the RLDS system while most other current editions use the LDS system.
Current
The Book of Mormon is currently printed by the following publishers:
Historic
The following non-current editions marked major developments in the text or reader's helps printed in the Book of Mormon.
Non-print editions
The following versions are published online:
Textual criticism
Although some earlier unpublished studies had been prepared, not until the early 1970s was true textual criticism applied to the Book of Mormon.
At that time BYU Professor Ellis Rasmussen and his associates were asked by the LDS Church to begin preparation for a new edition of the church's scriptures.
One aspect of that effort entailed digitizing the text and preparing appropriate footnotes, another aspect required establishing the most dependable text.
To that latter end, Stanley R. Larson (a Rasmussen graduate student) set about applying modern text critical standards to the manuscripts and early editions of the Book of Mormon as his thesis project—which he completed in 1974.
Larson carefully examined the original manuscript (the one dictated by Joseph Smith to his scribes) and the printer's manuscript (the copy Oliver Cowdery prepared for the printer in 1829–1830), and compared them with the first, second, and third editions of the Book of Mormon; this was done to determine what sort of changes had occurred over time and to make judgments as to which readings were the most original.Stanley R. Larson, "A Study of Some Textual Variations in the Book of Mormon, Comparing the Original and Printer's MSS., and Comparing the 1830, 1837, and 1840 Editions," unpublished master's thesis (Provo: BYU, 1974).
Larson proceeded to publish a set of well-argued articles on the phenomena which he had discovered.Stanley Larson, "Early Book of Mormon Texts: Textual Changes to the Book of Mormon in 1837 and 1840," Sunstone, 1/4 (Fall 1976), 44–55; Larson, "Textual Variants in the Book of Mormon Manuscripts," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 10/4 (Autumn 1977), 8–30 [FARMS Reprint LAR-77]; Larson,  "Conjectural Emendation and the Text of the Book of Mormon," BYU Studies, 18 (Summer 1978), 563–569 [FARMS Reprint LAR-78].
Many of his observations were included as improvements in the 1981 LDS edition of the Book of Mormon.
By 1979, with the establishment of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) as a California non-profit research institution, an effort led by Robert F. Smith began to take full account of Larson's work and to publish a critical text of the Book of Mormon.
Thus was born the FARMS Critical Text Project which published the first volume of the three-volume Book of Mormon Critical Text in 1984.
The third volume of that first edition was published in 1987, but was already being superseded by a second, revised edition of the entire work,Robert F. Smith, ed., Book of Mormon Critical Text, 2nd ed., 3 vols.
(Provo: FARMS, 1986–1987).
greatly aided through the advice and assistance of a team that included Yale doctoral candidate Grant Hardy, Dr. Gordon C. Thomasson, Professor John W. Welch (the head of FARMS), and Professor Royal Skousen.
However, these were merely preliminary steps to a far more exacting and all-encompassing project.
In 1988, with that preliminary phase of the project completed, Skousen took over as editor and head of the FARMS Critical Text of the Book of Mormon Project and proceeded to gather still scattered fragments of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon and to have advanced photographic techniques applied to obtain fine readings from otherwise unreadable pages and fragments.
He also closely examined the printer's manuscript (then owned by RLDS Church) for differences in types of ink or pencil, in order to determine when and by whom they were made.
He also collated the various editions of the Book of Mormon down to the present to see what sorts of changes have been made through time.
Skousen and the Critical Text Project have published complete transcripts of the Original and Printer's Manuscripts (volumes I and II), parts of a history of the text (volume III), and a six-part analysis of textual variants (volume IV).The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2001); The Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, 2 vols.
(FARMS, 2001).Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, 6 vols. (Provo: FARMS, 2004–2009)
-- now superseded by a second ed.
The remainder of the eigh-part history of the text and a complete electronic collation of editions and manuscripts (volumes 5 of the Project) remain forthcoming.
In 2009, Yale University published an edition of the Book of Mormon which incorporates all aspects of Skousen's research.Skousen, ed., The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (Yale Univ. Press, 2009).
Differences between the original and printer's manuscript, the 1830 printed version, and modern versions of the Book of Mormon have led some critics to claim that evidence has been systematically removed that could have proven that Smith fabricated the Book of Mormon, or are attempts to hide embarrassing aspects of the church's past.
Latter-day Saint scholars view the changes as superficial, done to clarify the meaning of the text.
Non-English translations
upright|right|thumb|Translations of the Book of Mormon
The LDS version of the Book of Mormon has been translated into 83 languages and selections have been translated into an additional 25 languages.
In 2001, the LDS Church reported that all or part of the Book of Mormon was available in the native language of 99 percent of Latter-day Saints and 87 percent of the world's total population.
Translations into languages without a tradition of writing (e.g., Kaqchikel, Tzotzil) have been published as audio recordings and as transliterations with Latin characters.
Translations into American Sign Language are available as video recordings.
Typically, translators are members of the LDS Church who are employed by the church and translate the text from the original English.
Each manuscript is reviewed several times before it is approved and published.
In 1998, the LDS Church stopped translating selections from the Book of Mormon and announced that instead each new translation it approves will be a full edition.
Representations in media
thumb|right|Still from The Life of Nephi (1915) Events of the Book of Mormon are the focus of several LDS Church films, including The Life of Nephi (1915), How Rare a Possession (1987) and The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd (2000).
Such films in Mormon cinema (i.e., films not officially commissioned by the LDS Church) include The Book of Mormon Movie, Vol. 1: The Journey (2003) and Passage to Zarahemla (2007).
Second Nephi 9:20–27 from the Book of Mormon is quoted in a funeral service in Alfred Hitchcock's film Family Plot.
In 2003, a South Park episode titled "All About Mormons" parodied the origins of the Book of Mormon.Parker, T. (Writer), & Parker, T. (Director).
(2003).
All About Mormons.
In Trey Paker and Matt Stone, South Park.
Los Angeles: South Park Digital Studios LLC.
In 2011, a long-running religious satire musical titled The Book of Mormon, written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone in collaboration with Robert Lopez, premiered on Broadway, winning nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Its London production won the Olivier Award for best musical.
Though it is titled The Book of Mormon, the musical does not depict Book of Mormon events, though characters do make references to the content of the Book of Mormon.
Its plot tells an original story about Latter-day Saint missionaries in the twenty-first century.
In 2019, the LDS Church began producing a series of live-action adaptations of various stories within the Book of Mormon, titled Book of Mormon Videos, which it distributed on its website and YouTube channel.
Distribution
The LDS Church, which distributes free copies of the Book of Mormon, reported in 2011 that 150 million copies of the book have been printed since its initial publication."
150 Million and Counting: The Book of Mormon reaches another milestone", Church News, 2011-04-18.
The initial printing of the Book of Mormon in 1830 produced 5000 copies."
Book of Mormon Reaches 150 Million Copies", churchofjesuschrist.org, 2011-04-20.
The 50 millionth copy was printed in 1990, with the 100 millionth following in 2000 and reaching 150 million in 2011.
In October 2020, the church announced it had printed over 192 million copies of the Book of Mormon.
Literary criticism
The Book of Mormon has occasionally been analyzed in a non-religious context for its literary merits.
Terryl Givens wrote,
Grant Hardy wrote,
In 2019, Oxford University published Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon.
See also
Journal of Book of Mormon Studies
List of Gospels
Mulek
Studies of the Book of Mormon
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
Book of Mormon (the current official edition of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
Project Gutenberg has the full text of the Book of Mormon in various formats (LDS chapters and numbering)
RLDS 1908 Book of Mormon (RLDS chapters and numbering)
The Book of Mormon; An Account Written By the Hand of Mormon Upon Plates Taken From the Plates of Nephi.
From the Collections at the Library of Congress
Photocopies and transcription of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon by the Joseph Smith Papers project
Photographs and transcription of the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon by the Joseph Smith Papers project
