B. H. Roberts - Studies of The Book of Mormon

Studies of The Book of Mormon

Although Roberts continued to testify to the truth of The Book of Mormon, a foundational work of Mormonism, he also wrote three studies, unpublished until 1985, that wrestled with Book of Mormon problems. The first, "Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study," was a 141-page manuscript written in response to a series of questions by an inquirer, referred to Roberts by Mormon president Heber Grant. When Roberts confessed that he had no answer for some of the difficulties, and the General Authorities chose to ignore them, Roberts produced "A Book of Mormon Study," a treatise of more than 400 pages. In this work he compared The Book of Mormon to the earlier-published View of the Hebrews, written by Ethan Smith, and found significant similarities between them. Finally, Roberts wrote "A Parallel," a condensed version of his larger study, which demonstrated eighteen points of similarity between the two books, and in which he reflected that the imaginative Joseph Smith might have written The Book of Mormon without divine assistance.

Mormon historians have debated whether the manuscript reflects Robert's doubts or was a case of his playing the devil's advocate. When he presented "A Book of Mormon Study" to Church leaders, he emphasized that he was "taking the position that our faith is not only unshaken but unshakable in the Book of Mormon, and therefore we can look without fear upon all that can be said against it." However, Roberts withheld some of his materials from the General Authorities.

Roberts asserted that the authenticity of the Restoration must “stand or fall” on the truth of Joseph Smith’s claim that the Book of Mormon was the history of an ancient people inscribed on a cache of gold plates; and Roberts predicted that if church leaders did not address the historical problems of church origins and possible anachronisms in the Book of Mormon, these problems would eventually undermine “the faith of the Youth of the Church.”

Roberts continued to affirm his faith in the divine origins of the Book of Mormon until his death in 1933; but as Terryl Givens has written, "a lively debate has emerged over whether his personal conviction really remained intact in the aftermath of his academic investigations." When Robert's controversial study became better known, especially after its publication by the University of Illinois Press in 1985, Mormon apologists (according to religion writer Richard N. Ostling) "went into high gear" and "churned out responses" because "Roberts could not be dismissed as an outsider or an anti-Mormon."