Editing Book of Mormon (section)

==Origin==
{{Book of Mormon}}
{{Main|Origin of the Book of Mormon}}
{{See also|Golden plates|Criticism of the Book of Mormon}}

According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book was originally engraved in otherwise unknown characters on [[golden plates]] by ancient prophets; the last prophet to contribute to the book, [[Moroni (Book of Mormon prophet)|Moroni]], had buried it in what is present-day [[Manchester, New York]] and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827, revealing the location of the plates and instructing him to translate the plates into English.{{sfn|Givens|2009|pp=6–11}}{{sfn|Hardy|2010|p=6}} A different view is that Smith authored the Book, drawing on material and ideas from his contemporary 19th-century environment, rather than translating an ancient record.<ref name="Hales-2019">{{Cite journal |last=Hales |first=Brian C. |date=2019 |title=Naturalistic Explanations of the Origin of the Book of Mormon: A Longitudinal Study |url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/58-3halessecured.pdf |url-status=live |journal=[[BYU Studies Quarterly]] |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=105–148 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/58-3halessecured.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09}}</ref>{{sfn|Givens|2002|pp=162–168}}

=== Conceptual emergence ===
According to Joseph Smith, in 1823, when he was seventeen <!-- do not edit age, JS was 17 at time of Moroni visit, see refs for clarification -->years old, an angel of God named [[Angel Moroni|Moroni]] appeared to him and said that a collection of ancient writings was buried in a [[Cumorah|nearby hill]] in present-day [[Wayne County, New York]], engraved on [[golden plates]] by ancient prophets.{{sfn|Taves|2014|p=4}}{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=43–45}} The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before [[Jesus]]'s birth.{{sfn|Hardy|2010|p=6}} Smith said 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 until 1827.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=43–46}}{{sfn|Remini|2002|p=47}} Smith told his entire immediate family about this angelic encounter by the next night, and his brother William reported that the family "believed all he [Joseph Smith] said" about the angel and plates.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=45–46}}[[File:The Hill Cumorah by C.C.A. Christensen.jpeg|left|thumb|A depiction of [[Joseph Smith]]'s description of receiving the golden plates from the [[angel Moroni]].|225x225px]]

Smith and his family reminisced that as part of what Smith believed was angelic instruction, Moroni provided Smith with a "brief sketch" of the "origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments{{nbsp}}... righteousness and iniquity" of the "aboriginal inhabitants of the country" (referring to the Nephites and Lamanites who figure in the Book of Mormon's primary narrative). Smith sometimes shared what he said he had learned through such angelic encounters with his family as well.{{sfn|Davis|2020|pp=165–168}}

In Smith's account, Moroni allowed him, accompanied by his wife [[Emma Smith|Emma Hale Smith]], to take the plates on September 22, 1827, four years after his initial visit to the hill, and directed him to translate them into English.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=59, 62–63}}<ref>The materiality of the plates Smith said he translated from has long been a matter of controversy in historical studies of Smith and the Book of Mormon. Those who for religious reasons accept Smith's account of the book as having miraculous and ancient origins by corollary also have tended to believe there were authentic, ancient plates. Meanwhile, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, naturalistic interpretations of Smith's history and the Book of Mormon generally took for granted the plates had no material existence and were fictitious due to either delusion or deception, or otherwise existed only in the religious imaginary. However, "believing historians" have argued that the documentary evidence points to Smith and eyewitnesses to him consistently behaving as though he did possess material plates. Religious studies scholar Ann Taves summarizes, "that there were no actual golden plates... is so obvious to some historians that they are taken aback when they discover that many Mormon intellectuals believe there were", while "Many believing historians... in turn wonder how well-trained, non-believing historians can dismiss so much evidence" (2). In the twenty-first century, naturalistic interpretations have posited that the plates ''were'' materially real, but that Smith crafted them himself (possibly out of tin or copper), either to match his vision of the plates or after being inspired by seeing copper stereotyped printing plates (perhaps at a printing shop or, by happenstance, literally buried in the ground). Taves argues Smith nevertheless believed the plates constituted an authentic, ancient record and that crafting plates himself "can be understood as representing or even co-creating the reality of the plates... the way Eucharistic wafers are thought to be transformed into the literal body of Christ" (9). For this historiography and an argument that Smith crafted the plates in a process of materialization, see {{Harvtxt|Taves|2014|pp=1–11}}. For another view on this historiography and an argument that an encounter with printing plates inspired or shaped Smith's concept of the Book of Mormon plates, see {{Cite journal |last=Hazard |first=Sonia |date=Summer 2021 |title=How Joseph Smith Encountered Printing Plates and Founded Mormonism |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/rac.2021.11 |journal=Religion & American Culture |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=137–192|doi=10.1017/rac.2021.11 |s2cid=237394042 }}</ref> Smith said the angel Moroni strictly instructed him to not let anyone else see the plates without divine permission.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=44}} Neighbors, some of whom had collaborated with Smith in earlier treasure-hunting enterprises, tried several times to steal the plates from Smith while he and his family guarded them.{{Sfn|Howe|2007|p=316|ps=. "Many people shared [a supernatural] culture, among them some jealous neighbors who tried to steal Smith's golden plates."}}{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=60–61}}

=== Dictation ===
{{Further information|Mosiah priority}}
As Smith and contemporaries reported, the English manuscript of the Book of Mormon was produced as scribes<ref>Emma Smith, Reuben Hale, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and John and Christian Whitmer all scribed for Joseph Smith to varying extents. Emma Smith likely scribed the majority of the early manuscript pages that were lost and never reproduced; Harris scribed about a third. Cowdery scribed the majority of the manuscript for the Book of Mormon as it was published and exists today. See {{Harvtxt|Easton-Flake|Cope|2020|p=129}}; {{Harvtxt|Welch|2018|pp=17–19}}; {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|pp=66, 71–74}}.</ref> wrote down Smith's dictation in multiple sessions between 1828 and 1829.{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=59–65}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=63–80}} The dictation of the extant Book of Mormon was completed in 1829 in between 53 and 74 working days.<ref name="Welch-2018">{{Cite journal|last=Welch|first=John W.|date=2018|title=Timing the Translation of the Book of Mormon: 'Days [and Hours] Never to Be Forgotten'|url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/57.4WelchBoMTranslate.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://byustudies.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/57.4WelchBoMTranslate.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|journal=[[BYU Studies Quarterly]]|volume=57|issue=4|pages=10–50}}</ref>{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=64–65}}

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, saying he translated by a miraculous gift from God.{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|p=72}} 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.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=63–64}} For the majority of the process, Smith dictated the text by voicing strings of words which a scribe would write down; after the scribe confirmed they had finished writing, Smith would continue.<ref>Joseph Smith may have developed this dictation process with Emma Smith, who was his first long-term scribe. See {{Harvnb|Easton-Flake|Cope|2020|pp=129–132}}.</ref>

Smith, his first scribe [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] & his wife [[Emma Smith |Emma]] all claimed that Joseph dictated by translating the ancient text through the use of the [[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|Urim and Thummim]] that accompanied the plates, prepared by the Lord for the purpose of translating.<ref name="“Church History,” 1 March 1842">{{cite book |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=1 March 1842 |title=Church History |url=https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2?highlight=urim |location= |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints |page=707|access-date=Feb 1, 2025}}</ref> This "[[Urim and Thummim (Latter Day Saints)|Urim and Thummim]]," after the biblical divination stones, also called "Nephite interpreters" were described as two clear seer stones which Smith said he could look through in order to translate, bound together by a metal rim and attached to a breastplate.{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=66, 71–72}}

Other accounts say that Smith used a [[Seer stone (Latter Day Saints)|seer stone]] he already possessed placed inside of a hat to darken the area around the stone.{{Sfn|Howe|2007|p=313}} 

Beginning around 1832, both the interpreters and Smith's own seer stone were at times referred to as the "Urim and Thummim", and Smith sometimes used the term interchangeably with "spectacles".<ref name="Dirkmaat-2015">{{Cite book |last1=Dirkmaat |first1=Gerrit J. |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/book/coming-forth-book-mormon |title=The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder |last2=MacKay |first2=Michael Hubbard |publisher=[[Religious Studies Center]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781629721149 |editor-last=Largey |editor-first=Dennis L. |pages=61–79 |chapter=Firsthand Witness Accounts of the Translation Process |editor-last2=Hedges |editor-first2=Andrew H. |editor-last3=Hilton |editor-first3=John III |editor-last4=Hull |editor-first4=Kerry |chapter-url=https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/firsthand-witness-accounts-translation-process}}</ref> [[Emma Smith]]'s and [[David Whitmer]]'s accounts describe Smith using the interpreters while dictating for [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]'s scribing and switching to only using his seer stone(s) in subsequent translation.{{sfn|Givens|2002|p=34}} Religious studies scholar Grant Hardy summarizes Smith's known dictation process as follows: "Smith looked at a seer stone placed in his hat and then dictated the text of the Book of Mormon to scribes".{{sfn|Hardy|2020|p=209}}<ref>Interpretations of accounts purporting to describe what Smith saw in his seer stone (or in the Urim and Thummim) vary. Many share some basic characteristics centering around reading words which miraculously appear, such as Jesee Knight's account: "Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes then he would take a sentance and it would appear in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on." See {{Harvtxt|Bushman|2005|p=72}} for Knight's account and {{Harvtxt|Hardy|2020|pp=209–210}} for an interpretation arguing for this understanding of Smith's experience. Hardy contends understanding Smith reading a text best accounts for the documentary evidence of how he dictated and how his scribes wrote. Nevertheless, scholar Ann Taves points out that although such accounts share major characteristics, they are not fully consistent with each other. She hypothesizes "observers made ''inferences'' about what Smith was experiencing based on what they saw, what they learned from discussion with Smith, what they believed, or some combination thereof" and that accounts of what Smith did or did not see as he dictated do not necessarily describe Smith's experience (emphasis added). See {{Harvtxt|Taves|2020|p=177}} In light of this, other scholars have hypothesized Smith's ecstatic experience as a translator was more like "panoramic visions" than reading, which he then orally described to his scribes. See {{Harvtxt|Brown|2020|p=146}}.</ref> Early on, Smith sometimes separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them, as he did while Martin Harris, a neighbor, scribed his dictation in 1828.{{sfn|Remini|2002|p=62}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=66, 71|ps=. "When Martin Harris had taken dictation from Joseph, they at first hung a blanket between them to prevent Harris from inadvertently catching a glimpse of the plates, which were open on a table in the room."}} At other points in the process, such as when [[Oliver Cowdery]] or Emma Smith scribed, the plates were left covered up but in the open.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=71|ps=. "When Cowdrey took up the job of scribe, he and Joseph translated in the same room where Emma was working. Joseph looked in the seerstone, and the plates lay covered on the table."}} During some dictation sessions the plates were entirely absent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sweat|first=Anthony|date=2015|title=The Role of Art in Teaching Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine|url=https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-16-no-3-2015/role-art-teaching-latter-day-saint-history-doctrine|journal=[[Religious Educator]]|volume=16|pages=40–57}}</ref>{{sfn|Taves|2014|p=5}}[[File:JosephSmithTranslating.jpg|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]]In 1828, while scribing for Smith, Harris, at the prompting of his wife [[Lucy Harris]], repeatedly asked Smith to loan him the manuscript pages of the dictation thus far. Smith reluctantly acceded to Harris's requests. Within weeks, Harris [[Lost 116 pages|lost the manuscript]], which was most likely stolen by a member of his extended family.<ref name="Lucy Harris">Harris's wife Lucy Harris was long popularly thought to have stolen the pages. See {{Harvtxt|Givens|2002|p=33}}. Historian Don Bradley contests that this was a rumor that circulated only in retrospect. See {{Harvtxt|Bradley|2019|pp=58–80}}.</ref> After the loss, Smith recorded that he lost the ability to translate and that Moroni had taken back the plates to be returned only after Smith repented.{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=68}}{{sfn|Givens|2002|p=34}} 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.{{sfn|Remini|2002|pp=61–62}}

Smith recommenced some Book of Mormon dictation between September 1828 and April 1829 with his wife Emma Smith scribing with occasional help from his brother Samuel Smith, though transcription accomplished was limited. In April 1829, Oliver Cowdery met Smith and, believing Smith's account of the plates, began scribing for Smith in what became a "burst of rapid-fire translation".{{sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=70–71}} In May, Joseph and Emma Smith along with Cowdery moved in with the Whitmer family, sympathetic neighbors, in an effort to avoid interruptions as they proceeded with producing the manuscript.{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=76|ps=. During this time, John Whitmer did some transcription, though Cowdery still performed the majority.}}

While living with the Whitmers, Smith said he received permission to allow eleven specific others to see the uncovered golden plates and, in some cases, handle them.{{Sfn|Bushman|2007|pp=77–79}} 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. Statements signed by them have been published in most editions of the Book of Mormon.{{sfn|Hardy|2003|p=631}} In addition to Smith and these eleven, several others described encountering the plates by holding or moving them wrapped in cloth, although without seeing the plates themselves.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sweat |first=Anthony |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/book/coming-forth-book-mormon |title=The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder |publisher=[[Religious Studies Center]], [[Deseret Book]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781629721149 |editor-last=Largey |editor-first=Dennis L. |pages=43–59 |language=English |chapter=Hefted and Handled: Tangible Interactions with Book of Mormon Objects |editor-last2=Hedges |editor-first2=Andrew H. |editor-last3=Hilton |editor-first3=John III |editor-last4=Hull |editor-first4=Kerry |chapter-url=https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/hefted-handled-tangible-interactions-book-mormon-objects |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205034935/https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/hefted-handled-tangible-interactions-book-mormon-objects |archive-date=December 5, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hazard |first=Sonia |date=Summer 2021 |title=How Joseph Smith Encountered Printing Plates and Founded Mormonism |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/rac.2021.11 |journal=Religion & American Culture |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=137–192|doi=10.1017/rac.2021.11 |s2cid=237394042 }}</ref> Their accounts of the plates' appearance tend to describe a golden-colored compilation of thin metal sheets (the "plates") bound together by wires in the shape of a book.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Bushman |first=Richard |subject-link=Richard Bushman |interviewer=Kurt Manwaring |title=Richard Bushman on the Gold Plates |url=https://www.fromthedesk.org/richard-bushman-gold-plates/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102121352/https://www.fromthedesk.org/richard-bushman-gold-plates/ |archive-date=November 2, 2021 |url-status=live |work=From the Desk |date=August 22, 2020}}</ref>

The manuscript was completed in June 1829.<ref name="Welch-2018" /> [[E. B. Grandin]] published the Book of Mormon in Palmyra, New York, and it went on sale in his bookstore on March 26, 1830.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Kunz |first= Ryan |date= March 2010 |title= 180 Years Later, Book of Mormon Nears 150 Million Copies |journal= [[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]] |pages= 74–76 |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2010/03/180-years-later-book-of-mormon-nears-150-million-copies |access-date= 2011-03-24 }}</ref> Smith said he returned the plates to Moroni upon the publication of the book.{{sfn|Remini|2002|p=68}}

=== Views on composition ===
[[File:EBGrandinPrintingPress.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Smith Patented Improved Press (no relation to Joseph Smith family) used by [[E. B. Grandin]] to print the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon]]Multiple theories of naturalistic composition have been proposed.<ref name="Hales-2019" /> In the twenty-first century, leading naturalistic interpretations of Book of Mormon origins hold that Smith authored it himself, whether consciously or subconsciously, and simultaneously sincerely believed the Book of Mormon was an authentic sacred history.<ref>See {{Harvnb|Davis|2020|p=160}}: "Whatever position the reader might take on the origins of the Book of Mormon, a careful review of historical claims favors the idea that Joseph Smith himself sincerely believed, to one degree or another, that his epic work contained an authentic historical account of ancient American civilizations"; and {{Harvnb|Taves|2014|p=13}}: "If we consider Joseph's directive, the obedient response of insiders, and their willingness to protect the plates from skeptical outsiders, we can envision an alternative way to view the materialization of the plates that involved neither recovery and translation in any usual sense nor necessarily deception or fraud, but rather a process through which a small group—who believed in the power of&nbsp;revelatory dream-visions, in ancient inhabitants&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Americas, and&nbsp;in&nbsp;golden records&nbsp;buried&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;hillside—came to believe that a material object covered by a cloth or hidden in a box were the ancient plates revealed to Smith by the ancient Nephite Moroni. Either/or views of the plates rest on a narrow conception of the materialization process, such that he either dug them up or he did not. Highlighting the crucial role played by those who believed in the reality of the ancient plates suggests a broader view that embeds the recovery of the plates in a process of materialization". For the significance of these interpretations in scholarship on Book of Mormon provenance, see {{cite journal |last1=Mason |first1=Patrick Q. |date=2022 |title=History, Religious Studies, and Book of Mormon Studes |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jbms/article-abstract/doi/10.14321/23744774.37.03/317120/History-Religious-Studies-and-Book-of-Mormon?redirectedFrom=fulltext |department=Roundtable Discussion: The Present of Book of Mormon Studies |journal=Journal of Book of Mormon Studies |volume=31 |pages=35–55|doi=10.14321/23744774.37.03 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}</ref>

Most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon an authentic historical record, translated by Smith from actual ancient plates through divine [[revelation]]. [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church), the largest Latter Day Saint denomination, maintains this as its official position.<ref>{{Harvnb|Southerton|2004|pp=164–165, 201}}; {{Harvnb|Bushman|2005|pp=92–94}}; {{Harvnb|Vogel|1986|pp=|p=3}}; and {{Cite Q|Q124395703|last=Hardy|first=Grant|pages=vii–xxviii|chapter=Introduction|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bookofmormonearl0000unse/page/n11/mode/2up?view=theater}} "Latter-day Saints believe their scripture to be history, written by ancient prophets."</ref>

==== Methods ====
The Book of Mormon as a written text is the transcription of what scholars Grant Hardy and William L. Davis call an "extended oral performance", one which Davis considers "comparable in length and magnitude to the classic oral epics, such as Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''".<ref>{{Cite Q|Q124395703|last=Hardy|first=Grant|pages=vii–xxviii|chapter=Introduction|ol=23212827M|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bookofmormonearl0000unse/page/n25}}</ref><ref name="Davis-2012" /> Eyewitnesses said Smith never referred to notes or other documents while dictating,<ref>There is some disagreement over this point and whether eyewitnesses may have exaggerated. William L. Davis notes some authors on the subject, [[Hugh Nibley]] and [[B. H. Roberts]] among others, believe Smith might have consulted a King James Bible while dictating. {{Harvnb|Davis|2020|p=199n4}}</ref> and Smith's followers and those close to him insisted he lacked the writing and narrative skills necessary to consciously produce a text like the Book of Mormon.{{sfn|Taves|2020|p=180}} Some naturalistic interpretations have therefore compared Smith's dictation to automatic writing arising from the subconscious.<ref name="Hales-2019" /> However, Ann Taves considers this description problematic for overemphasizing "lack of control" when historical and comparative study instead suggests Smith "had a highly focused awareness" and "a considerable degree of control over the experience" of dictation.{{sfn|Taves|2020|pp=170–171, 185–186}}

Independent scholar William L. Davis posits that after believing he had encountered an angel in 1823, Smith "carefully developed his ideas about the narratives" of the Book of Mormon for several years by making outlines, whether mental or on private notes, until he began dictating in 1828.{{sfn|Davis|2020|p=190}} Smith's oral recitations about Nephites to his family could have been an opportunity to work out ideas and practice oratory, and he received some formal education as a lay Methodist exhorter.{{Sfn|Davis|2020|p=35–37, 165–168|ps=. Though Smith never became an ordained exhorter, perhaps because he was not a Methodist member in full standing (36).}} In this interpretation, Smith believed the dictation he produced reflected an ancient history, but he assembled the narrative in his own words.<ref>Davis describes a "ubiquitous presence of nineteenth-century compositional techniques", and "sermonizing strategies" in the Book of Mormon's text (such as figures describing their preaching in terms of "heads" as an outline to "touch upon" in further detail as the text progresses) which "point directly and specifically to Joseph Smith as the source and assembler of these narrative components" (see {{Harvnb|Davis|2020|pp=63, 91}}). A review published in ''Choice'' disagrees as to whether there is sufficient evidence of these oratorical techniques in the Book of Mormon; see {{Cite magazine |last=Alexander |first=Thomas G. |author-link=Thomas G. Alexander |date=September 2021 |title=''Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon'' |magazine=[[Choice Reviews|Choice]] |type=review |volume=59 |issue=1}}</ref>

==== Inspirations ====
Early observers, presuming Smith incapable of writing something as long or as complex as the Book of Mormon, often searched for a possible source he might have plagiarized.{{Sfn|Maffly-Kipp|2008|p=xxvi}} In the nineteenth century, a popular hypothesis was that Smith collaborated with [[Sidney Rigdon]] to plagiarize [[Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship|an unpublished manuscript]] written by [[Solomon Spalding]] and turn into the Book of Mormon.{{Sfn|Gutjahr|2012|pp=47–51}} Historians have considered the Spalding manuscript source hypothesis debunked since 1945, when [[Fawn M. Brodie]] thoroughly disproved it in her critical biography of Smith.<ref>"Thus in 1945 the Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon was still strongly in vogue, most scholarly works accepting it as the explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Following [Fawn Brodie's] trenchant attack on the theory its popularity quickly declined. Today nobody gives it credence" ({{Harvnb|Hill|1972|p=73}}); and "Brodie demolished the theory" ({{Harvnb|Albanese|2008|p=148}}).</ref>

Historians since the early twentieth century have suggested Smith was inspired by ''[[View of the Hebrews]]'', an 1823 book which propounded the [[Jewish Indian theory|Hebraic Indian theory]], since both associate American Indians with ancient Israel and describe clashes between two dualistically opposed civilizations (''View'' as speculation about American Indian history and the Book of Mormon as its narrative).{{sfn|Gutjahr|2012|p=51}}{{sfn|Bushman|2005|p=24}} Whether or not ''View'' influenced the Book of Mormon is the subject of debate.<ref>Elizabeth Fenton summarizes, "Some argue that [Oliver] Cowdery must have read ''View of the Hebrews'' and shared its contents with Joseph Smith, laying the groundwork for the latter's development of ''The Book of Mormon''<nowiki/>'s Hebraic Indian plotlines. Others contend that it is unlikely Cowdery ever interacted with Ethan Smith—indeed, to date no archival evidence has surfaced to link them directly—and highlight the numerous differences in style and content between ''View of the Hebrews'' and ''The Book of Mormon''." See {{Harvnb|Fenton|2020||pp=71, 224n16, 224n17}}</ref> A pseudo-anthropological treatise, ''View'' presented allegedly empirical evidence in support of its hypothesis. The Book of Mormon is written as a narrative, and Christian themes predominate rather than supposedly Indigenous parallels.{{Sfn|Bushman|2005|pp=96–97}} Additionally, while ''View'' supposes that Indigenous American peoples descended from the [[Ten Lost Tribes]], the Book of Mormon actively rejects the hypothesis; the peoples in its narrative have an "ancient Hebrew" origin but do not descend from the lost tribes. The book ultimately heavily revises, rather than borrows, the Hebraic Indian theory.<ref name="Fenton-2019">{{Cite Q|Q123497267|pages=277–297|chapter=Nephites and Israelites: The Book of Mormon and the Hebraic Indian Theory}}</ref>

The Book of Mormon may creatively reconfigure, without plagiarizing, parts of the popular 1678 Christian allegory ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress|Pilgrim's Progress]]'' written by [[John Bunyan]]''.'' For example, the martyr narrative of Abinadi in the Book of Mormon shares a complex matrix of descriptive language with Faithful's martyr narrative in ''Progress''. Some other Book of Mormon narratives, such as the dream Lehi has in the book's opening, also resemble creative reworkings of ''Progress'' story arcs as well as elements of other works by Bunyan, such as ''[[The Holy War]]'' and ''[[Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners|Grace Abounding]]''.<ref name="Davis-2012">{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=William L. |date=October 30, 2012 |title=Hiding in Plain Sight: The Origins of the Book of Mormon |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/hiding-in-plain-sight-the-origins-of-the-book-of-mormon/ |url-status=live |journal=[[Los Angeles Review of Books]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160606184014/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/hiding-in-plain-sight-the-origins-of-the-book-of-mormon/ |archive-date=June 6, 2016}}</ref>

Historical scholarship also suggests it is plausible for Smith to have produced the Book of Mormon himself, based on his knowledge of the Bible and enabled by a democratizing religious culture.{{Sfn|Maffly-Kipp|2008|p=xxvi}}