Editing Book of Mormon (section)

==Historicity==
{{Main|Historicity of the Book of Mormon}}
{{See also|Criticism of the Book of Mormon|Peopling of the Americas}}

===Mainstream views===
Mainstream archaeological, historical, and scientific communities do not consider the Book of Mormon an ancient record of actual historical events.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coe|1973|pp=41–42}}: "Let me now state uncategorically that 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"; {{Harvnb|Southerton|2004|p=xv}}: "Anthropologists and archaeologists, including some Mormons and former Mormons, have discovered little to support the existence of [Book of Mormon] civilizations. Over a period of 150 years, as scholars have seriously studied Native American cultures and prehistory, evidence of a Christian civilization in the Americas has eluded the specialists... These [Mesoamerican] cultures lack any trace of Hebrew or Egyptian writing, metallurgy, or the Old World domesticated animals and plants described in the Book of Mormon"; {{Harvnb|Williams|1991|pp=162–166}}: "I will admit that I am skeptical of the original discovery [of the Book of Mormon]; the absence of the actual ancient documents makes detailed analysis impossible today." The exceptions are a handful of predominantly Latter-day Saint organizations that attempt historical and archeological research on the premise of ancient Book of Mormon historicity, such as [[FairMormon|FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response)]], the [[Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies]] (now defunct), and the [[Interpreter (journal)|Interpreter Foundation]].</ref> Principally, the content of the Book of Mormon does not correlate with archaeological, genetic, or linguistic evidence about the past of the Americas or [[ancient Near East]].

====Archaeology====
{{main|Archaeology and the Book of Mormon}}
{{see also|Book of Mormon anachronisms}}
There is no accepted correlation between locations described in the Book of Mormon and known American archaeological sites.{{Sfn|Coe|1973|p=46|ps=. "[A]bsolutely nothing, has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon... is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants to our hemisphere."}} Additionally, the Book of Mormon's narrative refers to the presence of animals, plants, metals, and technologies of which archaeological and scientific studies have found little or no evidence in post-[[Pleistocene]], [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] America.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|pp=45–46}} Such anachronistic references include crops such as barley, wheat, and silk; livestock like cattle, donkeys, horses, oxen, and sheep; and metals and technology such as brass, steel, the wheel, and chariots.<ref>For oxen and donkeys, see {{Harvnb|Davies|1973|p=55}}. For the rest, see {{Harvnb|Coe|1973|p=42}}.</ref>

[[Mesoamerica]] is the preferred setting for the Book of Mormon among many apologists who advocate a [[limited geography model]] of Book of Mormon events.{{Sfn|Duffy|2008|p=48}} However, there is no evidence accepted by non-Mormons in Mesoamerican societies of cultural influence from anything described in the Book of Mormon.<ref name = "Gardner">{{Cite journal |last=Gardner |first=Brant A. |date=2021 |title=A Personal Perspective on Book of Mormon Historicity and Apologetics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jbookmormstud2.30.2021.0142 |journal=[[Journal of Book of Mormon Studies]] |volume=30 |pages=142–164 |jstor=10.5406/jbookmormstud2.30.2021.0142 |s2cid=254309955}}</ref>

====Genetics====
{{main|Genetics and the Book of Mormon}}
{{see also|Genetic history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

Until the late-twentieth century, most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement who affirmed Book of Mormon historicity believed the people described in the Book of Mormon text were the exclusive ancestors of all Indigenous peoples in the Americas.{{sfn|Gardner|2021|p=152}} DNA evidence proved that to be impossible, as no DNA evidence links any [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American group]] to ancestry from the ancient [[Ethnic groups in the Middle East|Near East]] as a belief in Book of Mormon peoples as the exclusive ancestors of Indigenous Americans would require. Instead, detailed genetic research indicates that Indigenous Americans' ancestry traces back to Asia,<ref>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 {{Harvtxt|Southerton|2004|p=191}}. 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 {{Harvtxt|Duffy|2008|pp=41, 48}}—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 {{harvp|Moore|2007}}.</ref> and reveals numerous details about the movements and settlements of ancient Americans which are either lacking in, or contradicted by, the Book of Mormon narrative.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Southerton|2004|pp=49}}. A "large volume of research... has revealed continuous, widespread human occupation of the Americas for the last 14,000 years. Such research conflicts with popular LDS views patterned on the Book of Mormon." See also pg. 125: after a survey of relevant genetic research, Southerton concludes that "the peoples of the Pacific Rim who met Columbus and Cook were not Israelites. They were descendants of a far more ancient branch of the human family tree."</ref>{{efn|The first settlers in the Americas were [[Upper Paleolithic|Paleolithic]] [[hunter-gatherer]]s ([[Paleo-Indians]]) who entered [[North America]] from the [[North Asia]]n [[Mammoth steppe]] via the [[Beringia land bridge]], which had formed between northeastern [[Siberia]] and western [[Alaska]] due to the lowering of [[sea level]] during the [[Last Glacial Maximum]].<ref name="Smithsoniana">{{cite news |last=Pringle |first=Heather |author-link=Heather Pringle (writer) |title=What Happens When an Archaeologist Challenges Mainstream Scientific Thinking? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/jacques-cinq-mars-bluefish-caves-scientific-progress-180962410 |date=March 8, 2017 |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] }}</ref> These populations expanded south of the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet]] and spread rapidly southward, occupying both [[Americas|North and South America]], by 12,000 to 14,000 years ago.<ref name="FaganDurrani2016">{{cite book |first1=Brian M. |last1=Fagan |first2=Nadia |last2=Durrani |name-list-style=amp |title=World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMneCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-34244-1 |page=124}}</ref><ref name=Goebel>{{cite journal |title=The Late Pleistocene dispersal of modern humans in the Americas |last1=Goebel |first1=Ted |last2=Waters |first2=Michael R. |last3=O'Rourke |first3=Dennis H. |url=http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/cfsa-publications/Science2008.pdf |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=319 |issue=5869 |pages=1497–1502 |year=2008 |pmid=18339930 |doi=10.1126/science.1153569 |bibcode=2008Sci...319.1497G |access-date=2010-02-05  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102191740/http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/cfsa-publications/Science2008.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-02 |citeseerx=10.1.1.398.9315 |s2cid=36149744 }}</ref><ref name="NYT-20180103">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=In the Bones of a Buried Child, Signs of a Massive Human Migration to the Americas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/science/native-americans-beringia-siberia.html |date=January 3, 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=January 3, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="NAT-20180103">{{cite journal |last1=Moreno-Mayar |first1=JV |last2=Potter |first2=BA |last3=Vinner |first3=L |last4=Steinrücken |first4=M |last5=Rasmussen |first5=S |last6=Terhorst |first6=J |last7=Kamm |first7=JA |last8=Albrechtsen |first8=A |last9=Malaspinas |first9=A-S |last10=Sikora |first10=M |last11=Reuther |first11=JD |last12=Irish |first12=JD |last13=Malhi |first13=RS |last14=Orlando |first14=L |last15=Song |first15=YA |last16=Nielsen |first16=R |last17=Meltzer |first17=DJ |last18=Willerslev |first18=E  |display-authors=3 |title=Terminal Pleistocene Alaskan genome reveals first founding population of Native Americans |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |doi=10.1038/nature25173 |pmid=29323294 |bibcode=2018Natur.553..203M |volume=553 |issue=7687 |year=2018 |pages=203–207 |s2cid=4454580 |url=http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7887/1/UpwardSun_Nature%20paper%20MS%20DEC17.pdf}}</ref><ref name="thesis2021">{{Cite thesis |last=Núñez Castillo |first=Mélida Inés |date=2021-12-20 |title=Ancient genetic landscape of archaeological human remains from Panama, South America and Oceania described through STR genotype frequencies and mitochondrial DNA sequences |url=https://ediss.uni-goettingen.de/handle/21.11130/00-1735-0000-0008-59CC-F |journal=Dissertation |doi=10.53846/goediss-9012|s2cid=247052631 |type=doctoralThesis |doi-access=free }}</ref> Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been linked to Siberian populations by [[genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|genetic composition]] as reflected by [[Molecule|molecular]] data, such as [[DNA]].<ref name="AshRobinson2011">{{cite book |first1=Patricia J. |last1=Ash |first2=David J. |last2=Robinson |name-list-style=amp |title=The Emergence of Humans: An Exploration of the Evolutionary Timeline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JUlSYsyC-NQC&pg=PT289 |year=2011 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-119-96424-7 |page=289}}</ref><ref name="Roberts2010">{{Cite book|author=Alice Roberts|title=The Incredible Human Journey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ng8ai3xkZRUC&pg=PT101|year=2010|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4088-1091-0|pages=101–103|access-date=2019-08-05|archive-date=2021-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125180803/https://books.google.com/books?id=ng8ai3xkZRUC&pg=PT101|url-status=live}}</ref> Analyses of genetics among Indigenous American and Siberian populations have been used to argue for early isolation of [[Founder effect|founding populations]] on [[Beringia]]<ref name="Tammetal">{{Cite journal |display-authors=3 |last1=Tamm |first1=Erika |last2=Kivisild |first2=Toomas |last3=Reidla |first3=Maere |last4=Metspalu |first4=Mait |last5=Smith |first5=David Glenn |last6=Mulligan |first6=Connie J. |last7=Bravi |first7=Claudio M. |last8=Rickards |first8=Olga |last9=Martinez-Labarga |first9=Cristina |last10=Khusnutdinova |first10=Elsa K. |last11=Fedorova |first11=Sardana A. |last12=Golubenko |first12=Maria V. |last13=Stepanov |first13=Vadim A. |last14=Gubina |first14=Marina A. |last15=Zhadanov |first15=Sergey I. |last16=Ossipova |first16=Ludmila P. |last17=Damba |first17=Larisa |last18=Voevoda |first18=Mikhail I. |last19=Dipierri |first19=Jose E. |last20=Villems |first20=Richard |last21=Malhi |first21=Ripan S. |title=Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders |journal=PLOS ONE |date=5 September 2007 |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=e829 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829 |pmid=17786201 |pmc=1952074 |bibcode=2007PLoSO...2..829T |doi-access=free }}</ref> and for later, more rapid migration from Siberia through Beringia into the [[New World]].<ref name="Derenkoetal">{{Cite journal |first1=Miroslava |last1=Derenko |first2=Boris |last2=Malyarchuk |first3=Tomasz |last3=Grzybowski |first4=Galina |last4=Denisova |first5=Urszula |last5=Rogalla |first6=Maria |last6=Perkova |first7=Irina |last7=Dambueva |first8=Ilia |last8=Zakharov |display-authors=3 |title=Origin and Post-Glacial Dispersal of Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups C and D in Northern Asia |journal=PLOS ONE |volume= 5 |issue=12 |pages=e15214 |date=21 December 2010 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0015214 |pmid=21203537 |pmc=3006427 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...515214D|doi-access=free }}</ref> The [[microsatellite]] diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to [[South America]] indicates that certain Indigenous American populations have been isolated since the initial peopling of the region.<ref name="Bortolini">{{Cite journal |first1=Maria-Catira |last1=Bortolini |first2=Francisco M. |last2=Salzano |first3=Mark G. |last3=Thomas |first4=Steven |last4=Stuart |first5=Selja P.K. |last5=Nasanen |first6=Claiton H.D. |last6=Bau |first7=Mara H. |last7=Hutz |first8=Zulay |last8=Layrisse |first9=Maria L. |last9=Petzl-Erler |first10=Luiza T. |last10=Tsuneto |first11=Kim |last11=Hill |first12=Ana M. |last12=Hurtado |first13=Dinorah |last13=Castro-de-Guerra |first14=Maria M. |last14=Torres |first15=Helena |last15=Groot |first16=Roman |last16=Michalski |first17=Pagbajabyn |last17=Nymadawa |first18=Gabriel |last18=Bedoya |first19=Neil |last19=Bradman |first20=Damian |last20=Labuda |first21=Andres |last21=Ruiz-Linares |display-authors=3 |title=Y-chromosome evidence for differing ancient demographic histories in the Americas |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |volume=73 |issue=3 |date=September 2003 | pages=524–539 |pmc=1180678 |pmid=12900798 |doi=10.1086/377588 }}</ref> The [[Na-Dene]], [[Inuit]] and [[Alaska Natives|Native Alaskan]] populations exhibit [[Haplogroup Q-M242]]; however, they are distinct from other Indigenous Americans with various mtDNA and atDNA mutations.<!--ref name="NaDene" /><ref name="Zegura" /--><ref name="inuit">{{Cite journal |display-authors=3 |title=mtDNA Variation among Greenland Eskimos. The Edge of the Beringian Expansion |url= |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |first1=Juliette |last1=Saillard |first2=Peter |last2=Forster |first3=Niels |last3=Lynnerup |first4=Hans-Jürgen |last4=Bandelt |first5=Søren |last5=Nørby |volume=67 |pages=718–726 |year=2000 |doi=10.1086/303038 |issue=3 |pmid=10924403 |pmc=1287530}}</ref> This suggests that the peoples who first settled in the northern extremes of [[North America]] and [[Greenland]] derived from later migrant populations than those who penetrated farther south in the Americas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schurr |first1=Theodore G. |title=The Peopling of the New World: Perspectives from Molecular Anthropology |journal=[[Annual Review of Anthropology]] |date=21 October 2004 |volume=33 |pages=551–583 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143932}}</ref><ref name="Nadene1">{{Cite journal |first1=Antonio |last1=Torroni |first2=Theodore G. |last2=Schurr |first3=Chi-Chuan |last3=Yang |first4=Emoke J. E. |last4=Szathmary |first5=Robert C. |last5=Williams |first6=Moses S. |last6=Schanfield |first7=Gary A. |last7=Troup |first8=William C. |last8=Knowler |first9=Dale N. |last9=Lawrence |first10=Kenneth M. |last10=Weiss |first11=Douglas C. |last11=Wallace |display-authors=3 |title=Native American Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates That the Amerind and the Nadene Populations Were Founded by Two Independent Migrations |journal=[[Genetics (journal)|Genetics]] |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=153–162 |pmid=1346260 |pmc=1204788 |date=January 1992 |doi=10.1093/genetics/130.1.153 }}</ref>}}

====Linguistics and intertextuality====
{{main|Linguistics and the Book of Mormon}}

There are no widely accepted linguistic connections between any [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American languages]] and [[Languages of the Middle East|Near Eastern languages]], and "the diversity of Native American languages could not have developed from a single origin in the time frame" that would be necessary to validate a hemispheric view of Book of Mormon historicity.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|p=46}} The Book of Mormon states it was written in a language called "[[Reformed Egyptian]]", clashing with Book of Mormon peoples' purported origin as the descendants of a family from the Kingdom of Judah, where inhabitants would have communicated in [[Aramaic]], not Egyptian.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shields |first=Steven L. |date=2021 |title=The Quest for 'Reformed Egyptian' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27112676 |journal=The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal |publisher=[[John Whitmer Historical Association]] |volume=41 |issue=2 |page=101 |jstor=27112676 |issn=0739-7852}}</ref> There are no known examples of "Reformed Egyptian".{{sfn|Davies|1973|p=56}}

The Book of Mormon also includes excerpts from and demonstrates [[intertextuality]] with portions of the biblical [[Book of Isaiah]] whose widely accepted periods of creation postdate the alleged departure of Lehi's family from Jerusalem circa 600 BCE.<ref>"[A]ll major scholars on Isaiah view chapters 40–66 as written well after 600 BCE" (79n13) and "Many scholars have noted that other parts of Isaiah 2–14 were not written by Isaiah of Jerusalem but rather in the exilic or post-exilic periods" (87). See {{Cite journal |last=Townsend |first=Colby |date=Fall 2022 |title='The Robe of Righteousness': Exilic and Post-Exilic Isaiah in The Book of Mormon |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-robe-of-righteousness-exilic-and-post-exilic-isaiah-in-the-book-of-mormon |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]] |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=75–106 |doi=10.5406/15549399.55.3.03 |s2cid=253368342 |doi-access=free}}</ref> No Latter-day Saint arguments for a unified Isaiah or criticisms of the Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah understandings have matched the extent of scholarship supporting later datings for authorship.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Hardy|2010|p=291n28}}, summarizes, "The level of consensus on this issue, especially in a field as contentious as biblical studies, is remarkable (and certainly includes scholars who believe in inspiration and prophecy)."</ref>

===Latter Day Saint views===
Most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon to be historically authentic and to describe events that genuinely took place in the ancient Americas.<ref>"Most members of... groups tracing their origins to Joseph Smith, believe that the Book of Mormon is a literal history of the inhabitants of the ancient Americas" ({{Harvnb|Vogel|1986|p=3}}). See also {{Harvnb|Southerton|2004|p=201}}</ref> Within the Latter Day Saint movement there are several individuals and apologetic organizations, most of whom are or which are composed of lay Latter-day Saints, that seek to answer challenges to or advocate for Book of Mormon historicity.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2008|pp=41–42, 48}}; {{Harvnb|Bushman|2005|p=93}}. {{Harvtxt|Coe|1973|pp=42–45}} identifies several twentieth-century Latter-day Saint advocates of Book of Mormon historicity. In an exception to the general trend, he also states that the most careful scholar in "the early-twentieth-century intellectual movement of 'Book of Mormon geography' was Louis E. Hills, a member of what was then the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, today known as Community of Christ.</ref> For example, in response to linguistics and genetics rendering long-popular hemispheric models of Book of Mormon geography impossible,{{efn|The "hemispheric model" refers to a belief that the Book of Mormon's setting spanned North and South America and that Indigenous peoples of the Americas principally descended from Book of Mormon peoples.{{sfn|Gardner|2021|p=152}} Linguistically, the diversity of Native American languages that exists could not have developed in the time frame required by Lehi's arrivants being the sole ancestors of Indigenous peoples in the Americas.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|p=46}} Genetically, DNA evidence links the Indigenous peoples of the Americas to Asia.{{sfn|Southerton|2004|p=191}}}} many apologists posit Book of Mormon peoples could have dwelled in a [[Limited geography model|limited geographical region]] while Indigenous peoples of other descents occupied the rest of the Americas.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|pp=41, 46|ps=. "Apologists reply that these arguments do not invalidate Book of Mormon historicity, only a hemispheric scenario for Book of Mormon history."}} To account for anachronisms, apologists often suggest Smith's translation assigned familiar terms to unfamiliar ideas.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|p=45|ps=. "Apologists' ... response to anachronisms is to argue that Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon may apply familiar words to unfamiliar but comparable items. 'Cimeter' may refer to some other, loosely similar weapon; 'flocks' may refer to turkeys or dogs; 'horses' may refer to deer. Apologists note that reapplying familiar names has historical precedent: it was done by the Spanish conquistadors as well as by the King James translators, who anachronistically used the word 'steel' to refer to other kinds of metal."}} In the context of a miraculously translated Book of Mormon, supporters affirm that anachronistic intertextuality may also have miraculous explanations.<ref>See {{Harvtxt|Hardy|2010|pp=291n31–292n31}}, who also suggests how a reader who considers the Book of Mormon authentically ancient might account for the presence of post-exilic Isaiah in the text. He adds, "I don't expect that non-Mormons will find any of [these explanations] remotely plausible."</ref>

Some apologists strive to identify parallels between the Book of Mormon and biblical antiquity, such as the presence of several [[Chiastic structure|complex chiasmi]] resembling a literary form used in ancient Hebrew poetry and in the Old Testament.<ref>"One of the most popular has been chiasmus, a stylistic feature of the Hebrew Bible which John Welch first identified in the Book of Mormon while a missionary in the 1960s. Welch was particularly impressed to find that the entire chapter of Alma 36 is a complex, extended chiasm" ({{Harvnb|Duffy|2008|p=51}}). For more on chiasmus in the Bible, see {{Cite book |last=Breck |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKjYAAAAMAAJ |title=The Shape of Biblical Language: Chiasmus in the Scriptures and Beyond |publisher=St. Vladimir's Seminary Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-88141-139-6 |pages=33–37, 39}}</ref> Others attempt to identify parallels between Mesoamerican archaeological sites and locations described in the Book of Mormon, such as [[John L. Sorenson]], according to whom the [[Santa Rosa (Mesoamerican Site)|Santa Rosa]] archaeological site resembles the [[Zarahemla|city of Zarahemla]] in the Book of Mormon.<ref>For a description and critical assessment of Sorenson's view, see p. 128 of {{Cite journal |last=Murphy |first=Thomas |date=Winter 2003 |title=Simply Implausible: DNA and a Mesoamerican Setting for the Book of Mormon |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/dial/article/36/4/109/236590/Simply-Implausible-DNA-and-a-Mesoamerican-Setting |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |language=en |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=109–131 |doi=10.2307/45227190 |jstor=45227190 |s2cid=128696235 |issn=0012-2157|doi-access=free }} Sorenson's own articulation can be found in {{Cite book |last=Sorenson |first=John L. |title=An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon |publisher=Deseret Book Company |year=1996 |isbn=9781573451574 |pages=355 |language=en}}</ref> When mainstream, non-Mormon scholars examine alleged parallels between the Book of Mormon and the ancient world, however, scholars typically deem them "chance based upon only superficial similarities" or "[[parallelomania]]", the result of having predetermined ideas about the subject.<ref>"Non-Mormon archaeologists are more likely to view Jakeman's twenty so-called 'correspondences in main features' and eighty-two 'detailed agreements or similarities' as a matter of mere chance based upon only superficial similarities" ({{Harvnb|Coe|1973|p=44}}). For parallelomania, see {{Harvnb|Duffy|2008|p=52}}. For an example of identifying parallelomania in apologetics for Latter Day Saint scriptural historicity, see {{Cite journal |last=Salmon |first=Douglas F. |date=Summer 2000 |title=Parallelomania and the Study of Latter-day Scripture: Confirmation, Coincidence, or the Collective Unconscious? |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/parallelomania-and-the-study-of-latter-day-scripture-confirmation-coincidence-or-the-collective-unconscious/ |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]] |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=129–155|doi=10.2307/45226691 |jstor=45226691 |s2cid=197468102 |doi-access=free }}.</ref>

Despite the popularity and influence among Latter-day Saints of literature propounding Book of Mormon historicity,{{sfn|Duffy|2008|p=42|ps=. "Thanks to the Internet, the number of Saints engaged in written apologetics, and the size of their audience, has grown. Thus the DNA controversy has done much to privilege a limited Book of Mormon geography within the Church, over the more fundamentalistic understandings of earlier authorities such as Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie."}} not all Mormons who affirm Book of Mormon historicity are universally persuaded by apologetic work.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|p=57|ps=. "However, this historical development should not entirely eclipse the fact that LDS thinking about Book of Mormon historicity has been, and continues to be, diverse. Granted that revisionists constitute a stigmatized and evidently very small minority, who differ among themselves in their understanding of the book's status as scripture. But even Latter-day Saints who accept historicity hold differing views regarding how accurately or transparently the Book of Mormon reports the ancient past or to what extent the translation process may have allowed Joseph Smith's nineteenth-century ideas to be incorporated into the text."}} 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."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bushman|first=Richard Lyman|url=https://byumiuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/12/MI-2016-2017-annual-report.pdf|title=Annual Report 2016–2017|publisher=[[Maxwell Institute|Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship]]|year=2018|pages=10–14|language=English|chapter=Finding the Right Words: Speaking Faith in Secular Times|author-link=Richard Bushman|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523231411/https://byumiuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2019/12/MI-2016-2017-annual-report.pdf|archive-date=May 23, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some denominations and adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement consider the Book of Mormon a work of inspired fiction{{sfn|Gutjahr|2012|p=83}} 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]].<ref>"Some of [Community of Christ]'s senior leadership consider the Book of Mormon to be inspired historical fiction" ({{Harvnb|Southerton|2004|p=201}}). For a comparison to the Book of Job, see {{Harvnb|Duffy|2008|pp=54–55}}. "Denise Hopkins, a professor of Hebrew Bible at Wesley Theological Seminary", Gregory Prince reports, described the Book of Mormon as "a book-length midrash on the King James Bible." See {{Cite magazine|last=Prince|first=Gregory|date=Fall 2018|title=Own Your Religion|url=https://sunstonemagazine.com/own-your-religion/|magazine=[[Sunstone (magazine)|Sunstone]]|issue=187}}</ref> Many in Community of Christ hold this view, and the leadership takes no official position on Book of Mormon historicity; among lay members, views vary.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2008|p=41}}. {{Cite journal|last=Moore|first=Richard G.|date=Spring 2014|title=LDS Misconceptions About the Community of Christ|url=https://ensignpeakfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LDS-Misconceptions.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ensignpeakfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LDS-Misconceptions.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|journal=[[Mormon Historical Studies]]|volume=15|issue=1|pages=1–23}} {{Cite journal|last=Launius|first=Roger D.|author-link=Roger D. Launius|date=Winter 2006|title=Is Joseph Smith Relevant to the Community of Christ?|url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/is-joseph-smith-relevant-to-the-community-of-christ/|journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]]|volume=39|issue=4|pages=58–67|doi=10.2307/45227214 |jstor=45227214 |s2cid=254402921 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Some Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon fictional, although this view is marginal in the denomination at large.{{sfn|Duffy|2008|pp=54–57}}

==== Beliefs about geographical setting ====
{{main|Proposed Book of Mormon geographical setting}}
Related to the work's historicity is consideration of where its events are claimed to have occurred if historical. The LDS Church—the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement<ref>For "largest denomination", see {{cite web |date=2020 |title=Latter Day Saints movement |url=https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/pluralism/files/latter_day_saints_movement.pdf |access-date=March 11, 2024 |website=The Pluralism Project |publisher=Harvard University}}</ref>—affirms the book as literally historical but does not make a formal claim of where precisely its events took place.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wade |first=Lizzie |date=January 18, 2018 |title=How a Mormon Lawyer Transformed Archaeology in Mexico—and Ended Up Losing His Faith |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/how-mormon-lawyer-transformed-archaeology-mexico-and-ended-losing-his-faith |website=Science |publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]}}</ref> Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Joseph Smith and others in the Latter Day Saint movement claimed that the book's events occurred broadly throughout North and South America.<ref name = "Gardner" /> During the twentieth century, Latter-day Saint apologists backed away from this hemispheric belief in favor of believing the book's events took place in a more limited geographic setting within the Americas.{{Sfn|Duffy|2008|p=46}} This [[limited geography model]] gained broader currency in the LDS Church in the 1990s,<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2008|p=42}}.</ref> and in the twenty-first century it is the most popular belief about Book of Mormon geography among those who believe it is historical.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jones|2016|p=199}}.</ref> In 2006, the LDS Church revised its introduction to LDS editions of the Book of Mormon, which previously read that Lamanites were "the principal ancestors of the American Indians", to read that they are "among the ancestors of the American Indians".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fletcher Stack |first1=Peggy |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |title= Single word change in Book of Mormon speaks volumes |url= https://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/lds/ci_7403990 |newspaper=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |access-date=April 27, 2022 |date=November 8, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Why Native Americans struggle to make their stories and traditions fit with the Book of Mormon|url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/07/02/why-native-americans/|newspaper=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]]|date=July 2, 2021|access-date=October 13, 2021|archive-date=September 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927135734/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/07/02/why-native-americans/|url-status=live}}</ref> A movement among Latter-day Saints called Heartlanders believes that the Book of Mormon took place specifically within what is presently the United States.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Seriac |first=Hannah |date=December 15, 2021 |title=Mormon Group Digging for Scriptural City of Zarahemla in Iowa Is a Portrait of Religious Nationalism |url=https://religiondispatches.org/mormon-group-digging-for-scriptural-city-of-zarahemla-in-iowa-is-a-portrait-of-religious-nationalism/ |magazine=Religion Dispatches}}</ref>