Origin of The Book of Mormon - Smith As A Plagiarist of Contemporaries: The View of The Hebrews Theory

Smith As A Plagiarist of Contemporaries: The View of The Hebrews Theory

Some have speculated that Smith wrote the Book of Mormon, but plagiarized heavily from any of a number of sources. One such claim revolves around a book written by Ethan Smith (pastor of a church in Poultney, Vermont, no relation to Joseph Smith) called View of the Hebrews published in 1825, five years before the publication of the Book of Mormon.

In the early 20th century LDS general authority B.H. Roberts authored a manuscript titled Studies of the Book of Mormon, in which he critically examined the claims and origins of the Book of Mormon. In his manuscript, Roberts compared the content of the Book of Mormon with View of the Hebrews. Roberts' conclusion was that, assuming a hemispheric geography theory for the Book of Mormon, sufficient parallels existed that future critics could claim that View of the Hebrews could have provided a structural foundation for the Book of Mormon story. The manuscript was private and shared only with church leadership at the time he did the analysis. Publicly, Roberts continued to support the Book of Mormon.

David Persuitte, in his book, Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon, presents a large number of parallels between passages in View of the Hebrews and in the Book of Mormon, but notes no instances of direct copying. However, the parallels between the two books that Persuitte presents cover a broad range of topics, including religious ideas about the responsibility of the American people in convincing the Indians of their "Israelite" origins and converting them to Christianity. Moreover, Persuitte quotes from View of the Hebrews Ethan Smith's theory about what happened to the ancient Israelites after they arrived in America. That theory is also essentially a summary of the basic story line of the Book of Mormon, including the idea that the ancient Israelite immigrants to America split into two factions: a civilized group and a savage group that subsequently exterminated the civilized group. Persuitte also quotes from the two books several similar descriptions of structures built by the civilized faction and wars that were fought between the two factions, as well as numerous other similarities. According to Persuitte, the ideas that can be found in View of the Hebrews are sufficient to have "inspired" Joseph Smith to have written the Book of Mormon had he read it. Joseph Smith himself mentioned Ethan Smith and cited passages from View of the Hebrews in an article published in the Times and Seasons in June 1842.

Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith were distantly related through their mothers (3rd cousins, 1 time removed). Cowdery was educated and trained as a typesetter/printers assistant in the 1800s and worked at the Poultney Gazette in the summer of 1823 (the paper became known as the Northern Spectator in December 1823), the year that Ethan Smith published the first edition of View of the Hebrews. Cowdery's family, including father William and stepmother Keziah, were noted as being longstanding members of Ethan Smith's congregation in Poultney when he arrived and assumed leadership in November 1821. Even prior to his book's publication, Ethan Smith advocated his views regarding the origins of Native Americans in sermons to his congregations. In 1825, Ethan Smith published the much-enlarged second edition of View of the Hebrews, the same year that Cowdery left Poultney for New York State.