Editing Book of Mormon (section)

==== 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that Smith collaborated with [[Sidney Rigdon]] to plagiarize [[Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship|an unpublished manuscript]] written by [[Solomon Spalding]] and turn into the Book of Mormon.{{Sfn|Gutjahr|2012|pp=47–51}} Historians have considered the Spalding manuscript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}}