Chapter XLVI (2)

(1) The language is Joseph Smith's; the errors in style and grammar are due to his very limited education, for which the lack of educational opportunities alone is responsible.

(2) To relieve himself somewhat of the mental strain in the work of translation when he came to matter transcribed from the Hebrew prophets into the Nephite record, or to instructions of the Messiah that paralled his teachings to the people of Judea--of which there already existed a reasonably good English translation--the Prophet adopted that translation. [37]

The ideas underlying this explanation once adopted, it is equally easy to meet the objections to the Book of Mormon based on the existence of modern words and phraseology found in it; of provincialisms of the time and place in which the translation was wrought; of phrases and words from modern poets and religious exhorters. These words and phrases made up the vocabulary of Joseph Smith; and his mode of expressing his thought is that of the period and place in which he lived; and hence the ideas obtained from the Nephite plates he couched in those modern words, phrases and modes of expression familiar to him.

Sometimes, however, more is claimed for the existence of these modern words, phrases and alleged quotations from modern poets than is warranted. [38] For example: Campbell, Hyde, Lamb, Linn, and many others, sarcastically remark that the words of Shakespeare are quoted in a passage in the Book of Mormon accredited to Lehi, 2200 years before Shakespeare was born! Linn puts it in this form:

Shakespeare is proved a plagiarist by comparing his words with
those of the second Nephi, who, speaking twenty-two hundred years
before Shakespeare was born, said, "Hear the words of a trembling
parent, whose limbs you must soon lay down in the cold and silent
grave, from whence no traveler can return." [39]

The theory already advanced as an explanation of the existence of modern words and phraseology in Joseph Smith's translation of the Nephite record is adequate as an explanation of such instances of modernisms as this. [40] Through school books extant, or through listening to itinerant preachers, the Prophet might have become acquainted with such phraseology as this alleged quotation from Shakespeare, and employed it where it would express some Nephite idea or thought found in the Nephite record. Still, this alleged quotation from the British poet, at least, is susceptible of another explanation.

In the book of Job I find two passages either of which, and surely both of them combined, would furnish the complete thought, and for that matter largely, the phraseology to both Lehi and Shakespeare. I quote Job's language, and afterwards that of Lehi's and Shakespeare's, that the reader may compare them:

1. _Job_, "Let me alone that I may take comfort a little before I
go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the
shadow of death." [41]

"When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall
not return." [42]

2. _Lehi_, "Hear the words of a parent whose limbs you must soon
lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can
return."

3. _Shakespeare_, "That undiscovered country from whose bourne no
traveler returns."

It will be observed that the passage from the Book of Mormon follows Job more closely than it does Shakespeare, both in thought and diction; and this for the reason, doubtless, that Lehi had been impressed with Job's idea [43] of going to a land whence he would not return; and Joseph Smith being familiar with Job, and very likely not familiar with Shakespeare, when he came to Lehi's thought he expressed it nearly in Job's phraseology; and undoubtedly Shakespeare paraphrased his now celebrated passage from Job.

It is also objected that many of the prophecies of the Book of Mormon respecting the earth-career of Messiah, especially the prophecies found in first Nephi, are given sometimes in the language of accomplished fact. [44] "Lehi," says Campbell, "was a greater Prophet than any of the Jewish prophets, and uttered all the events of the Christian Era and developed the records of Matthew, Luke, and John 600 years before John the Baptist was born." He follows the general statement with a number of passages illustrative of it.

This circumstance of writing prophecy in the language of accomplished fact, however, ought not to appeal to orthodox Christians as a very serious objection to the prophecies in the Book of Mormon, since they have on their hands the fifty third chapter of Isaiah to account for. This chapter by a consensus of opinion of orthodox Christian scholarship is regarded as a wonderful prophecy, outlining the earth life, character and redemptive mission of the Christ; and for the most part this prophecy is given in the language of accomplished fact. I quote part of the chapter conceded to refer to the Christ:

He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he
was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his
own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare
his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in
his mouth. (Isaiah, LIII: 2-10.)

Surely after this it is not worth while for orthodox Christians to be objecting to prophecies in the Book of Mormon on the ground that they are written in the language of accomplished fact. So far from this peculiarity of Isaiah's having brought him into disrepute as a prophet, it seems to have added to his glory, because so writing his prophecy, it is claimed, has given a vividness to his predictions, an exactness that made the messianic prophecies all the more valuable. "The prophecies regarding the Messiah's birth, passion, glory, rejection by the Jews, and acceptance by the Gentiles are so exact as to have earned him the name of the 'Gospel Prophet.' "--(Oxford Bible Helps--Isaiah). It should be remembered, too, in this connection, that the Book of Isaiah's prophecies carried by the colony of Lehi into the Western hemisphere with them became a powerful influence among the Nephite writers. His book is quoted from more extensively than any other book of the Jewish scriptures possessed by the Nephites; and that because of the plainness with which Isaiah spoke of the coming and mission of Messiah. The first Nephi, commenting upon Isaiah and the esteem in which he held his writing, said:

And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul
delighteth in his words. For I will liken [apply] his words unto
my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he
verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. And my brother
Jacob also has seen him as I have seen him, wherefore I will send
their words forth unto my children, to prove unto them that my
words are true.

Small wonder then if a prophet held in such large esteem, as was Isaiah, and so extensively quoted, influenced prophetic Nephite literature, and led to the habit of writing prophecies referring to the Christ in the language of accomplished fact.

The Rev. M. T. Lamb, in his "Golden Bible" makes practically the same charges as Mr. Campbell, saying, in addition that many of the quotations from the Jewish scriptures found in the Book of Mormon, are written "in the exact language of the New Testament."

It is sufficient to say to this objection that Joseph Smith having a full knowledge of the facts of the Christian story, as related in the New Testament, clothed the ideas caught from the Nephite record in New Testament phraseology; and it has been suggested that he may have done so in places in stronger terms than a rigidly strict translation might have warranted. [45]

It is not necessary to go into detail in considering this objection, [46] or of objections of similar nature, for the reason that this whole class of objections is met completely by the theory suggested in these pages concerning the translation of the Book of Mormon.

III.

_The Difficulty of Passages from Isaiah Being Quoted by Nephite Writers, that Modern Bible Criticism (Higher Criticism) Holds Were Not Written Until the Time of the Babylonian Captivity--586-538 B. C., and not Written by Isaiah at all_.

It is held that Isaiah's historical period--the period of his ministry--runs through the reign of four kings of Judah--Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Some extend his ministry over into the reign of Manasseh, by whose edict, it is said, he was sawn asunder. In any event Isaiah would be a very aged man at the close of the reign of Hezekiah, 698 B. C.; and he would have been between eighty and ninety at the accession of Manesseh. So that it is safe to say that life ended soon after the close of Hezekiah's reign. Now if it be true that the latter part of the Book of Isaiah, from chapter forty to chapter sixty-six, inclusive, was not written until and during the Babylonian Captivity, 586-538 B. C.--as assumed by modern criticism--then of course the prophet Isaiah did not write that part of the book which bears his name as author.

Again: If it be true that these chapters 40-66 were not written until and during the Babylonian captivity, then Lehi could not have taken that part of the book of Isaiah with him into the wilderness and subsequently brought it with him to America, where his son Nephi copied passages and whole chapters into the record he engraved upon plates called the plates of Nephi, [47] since Lehi left Jerusalem 600 years B. C.

The difficulty presented by the Higher Criticism is obvious, viz: If Joseph Smith is representing the first Nephi as transcribing into his Nephite records passages and whole chapters purporting to have been written by Isaiah, when as a matter of fact those chapters were not written until a hundred and twenty-five or a hundred and fifty years after Isaiah's death; and not until fifty years after Lehi's colony had departed from Jerusalem, then Joseph Smith is representing Nephi as doing that which is impossible, and throws the whole Book of Mormon under suspicion of being fraudulent. This, therefore, becomes a very interesting as well as a very important objection; and many among the Higher Critics will say a fatal one. Here it can only be treated in outline; it is undoubtedly worthy of exhaustive analysis.

The Book of Isaiah divides into two parts: first, chapters 1-39, universally allowed to be the work of the prophet Isaiah, whose ministry extended through the reigns of the four kings mentioned in Isaiah i:1; second, chapters 40-66, written by an unknown author, nearly one hundred and fifty years after Isaiah, sometimes called Isaiah II. It is claimed that these chapters 40-66; "form a continuous prophecy, dealing throughout with a common theme, viz, Israel's restoration from exile in Babylon. * * Jerusalem and the temple have been for long in ruins--the 'old waste places;' Israel is in exile." [48] It is to these conditions that the unknown prophet addresses himself. His object is to awaken faith in the certainty of an approaching restoration.

Three independent lines of argument are said to establish this theory of the authorship of chapters 40-66 in the Book of Isaiah:

(1) The internal evidence supplied by the prophecy itself points
to this period [time of the captivity] as that at which it
was written. It alludes repeatedly to Jerusalem as ruined and
deserted; to the sufferings which the Jews have experienced, or
are experiencing, at the hands of the Chaldaeans; to the prospect
of return, which, as the prophet speaks, is imminent. Those whom
the prophet addresses, and, moreover, addresses in person--arguing
with them, appealing to them, striving to win their assent by
his warm and impassioned rhetoric--are not the men of Jerusalem,
contemporaries of Ahaz and Hezekiah, or even of Manasseh, they are
the exiles in Babylonia. Judged by the analogy of prophecy, this
constitutes the strongest possible presumption that the author
actually lived in the period which he thus describes, and is not
merely (as has been supposed) Isaiah immersed in spirit in the
future, and holding converse, as it were, with the generations
yet unborn. Such an immersion, in the future would be not only
with parallel in the O. T., it would be contrary to the nature of
prophecy. The prophet speaks always, in the first instance, to his
own contemporaries: the message which he brings intimately related
with the circumstances of his time; his promises and predictions,
however far they reach into the future, nevertheless rest upon the
basis of the history of his own age, and correspond to the needs
which are then felt. The prophet never abandons his own historical
position, but speaks from it. [49]

(2) The argument derived from the historic function of prophecy
is confirmed by the literary style of c. 40-66, which is very
different from that of Isaiah 1-39. Isaiah 1-39 shows strongly
marked individualities of style; he is fond of particular images
and phrases, many of which are used by no other writer of the O.
T. Now, in the chapters which contain evident allusions to the
age of Isaiah himself, these expressions occur repeatedly; in the
chapters which are without such allusions, and which thus authorize
prima facie the inference that they belong to a different, age,
they are absent, and new images and phrases appear instead. This
coincidence cannot be accidental. The subject of c. 40-66 is not
so different from that of Isaiah's prophecies (e.g.) against the
Assyrians, as to necessitate a new phraseology and rhetorical form.
The differences can only be reasonably explained by the supposition
of a change of author. [50]

(3) The theological ideas of c. 40-66 (in so far as they are
not of that fundamental kind common to the prophets generally)
differ remarkably from those which appear, from c. 1-39, to be
distinctive of Isaiah. Thus, on the nature of God generally, the
ideas expressed are much larger and fuller. Isaiah, for instance,
depicts the majesty of Jehovah: in c. 40-66 the prophet emphasizes
his infinitude; He is the Creator, the Sustainer of the universe,
the Life-Giver, the Author of history, the First and the Last, the
Incomparable One. This is a real difference. And yet it cannot
be argued that opportunities for such assertions of Jehovah's
power and Godhead would not have presented themselves naturally
to Isaiah whilst he was engaged in defying the armies of Assyria.
But, in truth, c. 40-66 show an advance upon Isaiah, not only in
the substance of their theology, but also in the form in which it
is presented; truths which are merely affirmed in Isaiah being here
made the subject of reflection and argument. [51]

These arguments when expressed in these general terms seem quite formidable; but they are much stronger in general statement than when one follows the advocates of them through all the references cited by them in support of the theory; for then one is impressed with the very heavy weights which the Higher Criticism hangs on very slender threads. As before remarked, however, I may not go beyond outline treatment of the matter here.

The first thing those of us who believe Isaiah to be the author of the whole book through so many ages accredited to him, both by Jews and Christians--the first thing we have a right to demand of these innovators is: If Isaiah the prophet is not the author of the last twenty-seven chapters of the book that bears his name, who is the author? Confessedly chapters 40-66 of Isaiah are the most important part of the book. How is it that chapters 1-39 can be assigned an author, but the more important chapters 40-66 have to be assigned to an "unknown" author? Was knowledge in those antique times so imperfect that the author of such a remarkable production as Isaiah 40-66 could not be ascertained?

Second, there is no heading to this second division of Isaiah 40-66; and it is not true that this second part is unconnected with the first part. Allowing something to the spirit of prophecy in Isaiah, by which I mean a power to foresee events, which carries with it a power in the prophet to project himself into the midst of those things foreseen, and to speak from the midst of them as if they were present--as indeed they were to his consciousness--and there is an immediate connection between the two parts. Chapter 39 predicts the Babylonian captivity. Hezekiah has just been made to hear the word of the Lord--

Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that
which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be
carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.

And thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget,
shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of
the king of Babylon. (Isaiah 39:6-7.)

In the opening chapter of the supposed second division of Isaiah, chapter 40, the prophet launches out upon that series of prophecies that treat, first, of the deliverance of Israel from this captivity just spoken of through Cyrus, king of Persia; and, second, a larger deliverance of Israel through the redemption brought to pass by the Christ. Because of this close and logical connection between the supposed divisions of the book, one is justified in holding that the inscription of chapter i:1, applies to the whole book, and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part, 40-66, as well as of the first part, 1-39. "Nor do the words concerning Judah and Jerusalem," says an eminent authority, "oppose the idea that the inscription applied to the whole; for whatever he [Isaiah] says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah." [52]

Second, the Higher Critics must deal with some facts of history before their claims can be allowed. According to Josephus, the Jews showed the prophecies of Isaiah (chapter 44:28; 45:1-13)to Cyrus the king, to induce him to return the Jews to Jerusalem and order the building of the temple, upon which Cyrus issued the following decree:

Thus saith Cyrus the king, Since God Almighty hath appointed me
to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God
which the nation of the Israelites worship, for indeed he foretold
my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at
Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.

This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left
behind him of his prophecies; for this prophet said, that God had
spoken thus to him in a secret vision; "My will is, that Cyrus,
whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send
back my people to their own land, and build my temple." This was
foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple
was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and admired the
divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him, to
fulfill what was so written. [53]

The above is confirmed also by Ezra i:2. Now the value of this exhibition of the word of the Lord to Cyrus grew out of the circumstance that it was a prophecy uttered by Isaiah one hundred and fifty years before it came to the knowledge of Cyrus. It was the fact that it was "foreknowledge" that caused Cyrus to admire the divine power thus displayed; it was this that stirred him with the ambition to fulfill what was so written. Now either we must believe that the pious Jews, anxious to return to the land of their fathers, rebuild their temple and resume the thread of their national existence, deceived by a wretched subterfuge the king of Persia, and induced him to make this proclamation by such means; or else they really exhibited to him the writings of Isaiah, and this real prophecy respecting himself, fraught with such mighty consequences to a people chosen of God to stand as his witness among the nations of the earth. I cannot think that this action so important in the development of God's purposes respecting his people was founded in fraud; nor do I believe such mighty results were brought about by disclosing the prognostications of some "unknown" contemporary whose "eye had marked Cyrus in the distance as the coming deliverer of his nation;" such cause would be inadequate to the results.

Again, Luke represents the Christ as reading a passage from this second division of Isaiah (chapter 61:1, 2), and reading it as coming from Isaiah; and also as being fulfilled in his own person:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and as his
custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and
stood up for to read.

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias
[Isaiah]. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where
it was written.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and
sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him.

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears.

And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of his mouth. (Luke iv: 16-22).

One can scarcely think of Jesus being mistaken in respect of the authorship of the scripture from which he read, especially respecting a prophecy relating to himself. Furthermore, whoever wrote Isaiah 61: 1, 2, whether Isaiah, the admitted author of Isaiah chapters 1-39, or some other author a hundred and fifty or two hundred years later, and in the midst of the scenes of the Babylonian captivity, this much is true: he projected himself forward some several hundreds of years into the times of the beginning of the Christ's mission, (if we may believe the Christ when he applies the prophecy to himself and proclaims the fulfillment of it in the happenings of that day), speaks in the present tense, as if pleading with the men of his own day. So that if this power is admitted as being possessed by the supposed "unknown" author of chapters 40-66, it might as well be accorded to Isaiah as to him; and if that power be accorded to a prophetic writer, then all the difficulties conjured up by our modern critics, and to overcome which their theories were invoked, meet with easy solution.

As to the difference of literary style between the first and second division of Isaiah's book, urging as necessary the belief in different authors for the two parts. I am disposed to give considerable weight to such evidence, since I know how strong the tendency in expression towards individuation is, but those more competent to judge of that subject than I am, hold that of all the prophetic writers, Isaiah possesses the widest range of literary style, the largest richness in coloring and forms of expression. And this when the view of his style is confined to that part of his book of which all allow he is the author. As for example, the one author most assured that Isaiah did not write chapters 40-66 of the book that bears his name, the author of "An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament," speaking of Isaiah, and of course limiting his comment to the author of chapters 1-39, says:

Isaiah's poetical genius is superb. His characteristics are
grandeur and beauty of conception, wealth of imagination, vividness
of illustration, compressed energy and splendor of diction. * * *
* * * Examples of picturesque and impressive imagery are indeed
so abundant that selection is difficult. These may be instanced,
however: the banner raised aloft upon the mountains; the restless
roar of the sea; the waters rising with irresistible might; the
forest consumed rapidly in the circling flames, or stripped of
its foliage by an unseen hand; the raised way; the rushing of
many waters; the storm driving or beating down all before it; the
monster funeral pyre; Jehovah's hand "stretched out," or "swung,"
over the earth, and bearing consternation with it. Especially
grand are the figures under which he conceives Jehovah as "rising
up," being "exalted," or otherwise asserting His majesty against
those who would treat it with disregard or disdain. * * * * * The
brilliancy and power of Isaiah's genius appear further in the
sudden contrasts, and pointed antitheses and retorts, in which he
delights.

Isaiah's literary style shows similar characteristics. It is
chaste and dignified: the language is choice, but devoid of
all artificiality or stiffness, every sentence is compact and
forcible; the rhythm is stately; the periods are finely rounded;
Isaiah indulges occasionally--in the manner of his people--in
tone-painting, and sometimes enforces his meaning by an effective
assonance, but never to excess, or as a meretricious ornament.
His style is never diffuse: even his longest discourses are not
monotonous or prolix; he knows how to treat his subject fruitfully,
and, as he moves along, to bring before his reader new and varied
aspects of it; thus he seizes a number of salient points, and
presents each singly in a vivid picture. * * * * No prophet has
Isaiah's power either of conception or of expression; none has the
same command of noble thoughts, or can present them in the same
noble and attractive language.

Immerse such a writer as this into the spirit of the future, give him the theme of Israel's deliverance from Babylonian captivity, or the larger deliverance of Israel and the world from sin and death through the mission of the Christ; and what new coloring may he not give to his style? What greater depths of truth respecting God and man may he not sound, calling for new phraseology, new words and combinations to express the deeper knowledge of the enlarged "vision?" This I believe is what happened to the prophet. He was so immersed; and his style under the inspiration of God rose to meet the new environment and the enlarged views given by the wider vision.

One of the most forceful passages on this subject that I have yet found is one written by Professor Daniel Smith Talcott, D. D., of the Theological Seminary, Bangor, Maine. He contributes the Article on "Isaiah" to Hackett's edition of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and in the course of his treatise, referring to the diversity of style between the two alleged parts of Isaiah, says:

The array of linguistic evidence in proof of a diversity of
authorship, which has gradually grown within the last century into
the formidable proportions in which it meets us in the pages of
Knobel and others, rests very largely upon an assumption which
none of these critics have the hardihood distinctly to vindicate,
namely, that within the narrow compass of the Hebrew literature
that has come down to us from any given period, we have the means
for arriving at an accurate estimate of all the resources which the
language at that time possessed. When we have eliminated from the
list of words and phrases relied upon to prove a later date than
the time of Isaiah, everything the value of which to the argument
must stand or fall with this assumption, there remains absolutely
nothing which may not be reasonably referred to the reign of
Hezekiah. Indeed, considering all the circumstances of the times,
it might justly have been expected that the traces of foreign
influence upon the language would be far more conspicuous in a
writing of this date than they actually are in the controverted
portions.

It is to be remembered that the ministry of the prophet must have
extended through a period, at the lowest calculation, of nearly
fifty years; a period signalized, especially during the reigns
of Ahaz and Hezekiah, by constant and growing intercourse with
foreign nations, thus involving continually new influences for
the corruption of public morals and new dangers to the state, and
making it incumbent upon him who had been divinely constituted at
once the political adviser of the nation and its religious guide,
to be habitually and intimately conversant among the people, so as
to descry upon the instant every additional step taken in their
downward course and the first approach of each new peril from
abroad, and to be able to meet each successive phase of their
necessities with forms of instruction, admonition, and warning, not
only in their general purport, but in their very style and diction,
accommodated to conditions hitherto unknown, and that were still
perpetually changing.

Now when we take all this into the account, and then imagine to
ourselves the prophet, toward the close of this long period,
entering upon what was in some respects a novel kind of labor,
and writing out, with a special view to the benefit of a remote
posterity, the suggestions of that mysterious _Theopneustia_
to which his lips had been for so many years the channel of
communication with his contemporaries, far from finding any
difficulty in the diversities of style perceptible to the different
portions of his prophecy, we shall only see fresh occasion to
admire that native strength and grandeur of intellect, which have
still left upon productions so widely remote from each other,
in the time and circumstances of their composition, so plain an
impress of one and the same overmastering individuality.--Smith's
Bible Dictionary, Vol. II., p. 1165.

Believers in the Book of Mormon have no occasion of uneasiness because passages from the latter part of Isaiah's book are found transcribed into the Nephite record. The theories of modern critics have not destroyed the integrity and unity of the Book of Isaiah. And after the overwhelming evidences for the truth of the Book of Mormon are taken into account; and it is found that on the plates of Nephi there were transcripts from the latter part of Isaiah's writings, taken from a copy of his prophecies carried by a colony of Jews from Jerusalem to the western hemisphere, six hundred years before Christ--men will discern in this discovery new evidence for the Isaiah authorship of the whole book of Isaiah.

Footnotes

1. Howe's "Mormonism," p. 56.

2. "Mormonism in All Ages" (1842), p. 200.

3. See Hyde's "Mormonism" (1857), chapters 9, 10.

4. Smucker's "History of the Mormons" (1881 edition), p. 49.

5. "The Golden Bible" (1887), chapter 7.

6. "The Story of the Mormons" (1902), chapter 11.

7. Linn says that there are more than 3,000 such changes.

This, I think, is an exaggeration. "Story of the Mormons," p. 89. In 1889, Lamoni Call, formerly a Mormon, published a treatise on the subject which he entitled "Two Thousand Changes in the Book of Mormon," even this I think is an exaggeration; but there have been many changes as conceded in the text.

8. "Mormonism in All Ages," p. 19.

9. Ibid, p. 200.

10. Moroni's Preface, title page Book of Mormon.

11. Mormon viii: 17.

12. There is some justification for such a view as this, if we have in mind the idea of God making a full and perfect revelation to man. When God gives a revelation it necessarily has to be such an one as man can comprehend, and in terms with which he is familiar--in man's language; and as man's language is inadequate to express truth in its perfection, it follows that any revelation which God deigns to give to the children of men will fall somewhat below the perfect truth, hence the Apostle of the Gentiles declared, notwithstanding the existence of revelations in the scriptures which were extant in Paul's time, "We know in part, and we prophesy in part; we see [as] through a glass, darkly." This condition arises not out of any lack of power on the part of God to make a perfect revelation of truth, but out of man's inability to comprehend such a revelation; and hence God graciously condescends to meet man's somewhat narrow limitations by giving such a revelation of truth in the scriptures, as man by faith and diligence may comprehend.

13. "The Age of Reason," Paine, p. 19.

14. Ibid, p. 25.

15. "The Age of Reason," Part II, p. 98.

That Joseph Smith appreciated how inadequate human language is to express divine thought is evident from the following prayer of his, uttered when writing to his friend, W. W. Phelps: "Oh Lord God, deliver us in due time from the little, narrow prison, almost, as it were, total darkness of paper, pen and ink--and a crooked, broken, scattered and imperfect language."--History of the Church, Vol. I, pp. 227-8.

16. Ibid p. 252.

17. The lecture was published in the "St. Louis Globe-Democrat," of Sunday, March 19, 1905.

18. Dr. Abbott delivered these lectures in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, during the winter of 1896.

19. This is also true of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Some of its passages rise to heights of sublimity, and then again descending to levels that are commonplace and labored.

20. "The Evolution of Bible Study" (Henry Drummond, 1901).

21. Replying to this criticism of the Book of Mormon some time ago (June, 1904), wherein the critic insisted that the question concerning the Book of Mormon was not where men say they got it, but "is it gold"--he insisted that the "assay test" must be applied--to which the writer made the following reply:

"I declare my willingness, as one of the believers in the Book of Mormon to see it submitted, as perforce it must be, to the 'assay test.' Is it gold? Are these important truths we have been considering this evening, wherein the welfare of half the world is concerned, gold or dross? Is the light which the Book of Mormon throws upon the word of God contained in the four (New Testament) Gospels of importance? (See this Vol. ch. 42: vi for the items here referred to). Is the fact that Jesus visited this western world and announced the saving power of his Gospel in such a manner that millions finally came to the knowledge of salvation a golden truth? Is the solemn warning to the Gentile nations inhabiting the western world (See chapter 42.) Worth while considering? May not these prophecies be golden, especially if needed? I shall leave you to answer that. But I want to suggest an improvement on the gentleman's simile--to this 'assay test.' I think it could be improved. The question is not so much as to whether in the four (New Testament) Gospels or in the fifth (i.e., the Book of III Nephi in the Book of Mormon) all is gold, but is there gold in them. I do not think the four Gospels are without alloy. In other words I do not think the four Gospels are perfect. I believe there are imperfections in them in forms of expressions and in the fact that they do not convey all that Jesus both taught and did; at best they are but fragmentary. St. John informs us in his Gospel that if all the things that Jesus had done were written, the world itself would hardly contain the books. We have not the full reports of Messiah's discourses. The full and absolutely pure world of God just as it fell from the lips of the Savior, is not in the four Gospels. For the most part we have but the recollections of the evangelists of what Jesus said and did. Only those who read the Greek, and unfortunately they are very few, may read even the four Gospels in the language in which the Apostles wrote them. We have translations of these records, and each time they are translated dilution takes place. The force of what is said becomes in the translation somewhat abated. * * * So with the book of III Nephi, that comes to us in abridged form. It is not the original book of Nephi; it is Mormon's abridgment of that book. He has condensed it, and in doing so has doubtless given us less perfect accounts of Christ's mission to the Nephites [than would have been found in the unabridged book of III Nephi]. That is to say, we have not all the surrounding circumstances or all the utterances of the Savior, or of the men the book represents as speaking. Then we have not even Mormon's original abridgment of Nephi's book--the real fifth Gospel--but only the Prophet Joseph's translation of Mormon's abridgment, and that it is admitted in his imperfect English. So that the whole five Gospels are fragmentary and tainted with imperfections and limitations, as all things are that pass through human hands; but they contain nevertheless, God's precious truths [the gold of the mine]; and some of these are found in the fifth Gospel as well as in the four Hebrew Gospels; and to me the truths of the fifth or Nephite Gospel are as precious and important as are those of the other four Gospels." (Discourse by the writer, "The Fifth Gospel," "Deseret Evening News," June 11, 1904). The whole discourse will be found in "Defense of the Faith and the Saints," Vol. I, pp. 373-399.

22. "Millennial Star," Vol. XIX, p. 118.

23. One Anti-Mormon writer--the Rev. M. T. Lamb--devotes two chapters to this subject of circumlocution alone--"The Golden Bible," chapters i and ii. He brings into contrast passages from the Book of Mormon, lacking in directness of expression, with passages from the Bible celebrated for their directness, and thereby is most unfair in his argument; because he compares the best of the Bible with the worst of the Book of Mormon, a proceeding which might be reversed with disastrous results to the Bible, if the comparison were to end with this comparison of the worst in the one with the best in the other. Now let it be understood that I am not contending that the English translation of the Book of Mormon compares as literature with the English translation of the Hebrew scriptures. The latter is a translation by the most finished scholarship of the time in which it was accomplished--I refer to the authorized version, the translation completed 1611 A. D.--while the Book of Mormon is translated by an unlearned youth limited in educational opportunities, without even the advantage of a common school education. True, it is claimed for him that he was assisted by a divine inspiration. That, however, insures only the accuracy of the facts, the statement of the truth as contained in the Nephite record, not directness, accuracy, or charm of literary style. As for circumlocution in the expression of thought, that is but natural to one possessed of only a limited vocabulary. The existence of circumlocution, therefore, in the Book of Mormon is in harmony with and helps to illustrate what in these pages has been contended for, as to the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated, and the fact that the Prophet Joseph was left to express the thought he received from the Nephite record in such language as he could command; which theory of translation once accepted, I here repeat, makes easy an answer to all the objections urged upon the ground of literary defects in the Book of Mormon.

24. See translator's preface and title page of the "Authorized English Version."

25. Hyde's "Mormonism," chapters ix, x, xi.

26. "Golden Bible," chapter vii.

27. Linn's "Story of the Mormons," chapter xi.

28. "Improvement Era," Vol. VIII (1904), pp. 180, 181.

29. When the translators of our English Bible found it necessary to supply words to make clear the meaning in English, they printed those words in italics, and it is to these words that reference is made in the above.

30. The addition of the words in this verse, "who come unto me," are important. Surely, it is not enough for man to be merely poor in spirit. Not on that hinges salvation. A man can be poor in spirit and still fail of salvation; but "blessed are the poor in spirit 'who come unto me,' for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," is a reasonable doctrine.

31. Verses four and five in the "Douay" version are transposed, hence verse 5 here.

32. The addition of the words, "with the Holy Ghost" are important to this passage, for they make the statement of Messiah more definite, and take the passage out of all controversy as to what those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled with. They shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, the spiritual power that makes for righteousness.

33. Observe that this and the remaining passages quoted from the Book of Mormon are addressed directly to the Twelve Apostles, to whom especially they apply, not to the multitude. May it not be that when Jesus gave the same instructions in Judea he made a like distinction? If so, it was to the Twelve that he said: "Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof." That is a passage of scripture against which infidels have leveled their sarcasms ever since it was written. They have denounced it as instruction utterly impractical; as false in theory, as it would be impossible to practice; and as giving the evidence that Jesus was a mere idle dreamer, not a practical reformer. For, say they, this doctrine of taking no thought of the morrow, and taking no thought respecting food and raiment, if applied to the world's affairs, would turn the wheels of progress backward, and plunge the world into a state of barbarism. There could be no civilization under such conditions, they argue; and man would go back to the condition of the savage. I have never heard a Christian argument against that assault that has been an answer to it. But I find the key to the situation in this Book of Mormon version of the passage. It throws a flood of light upon this matter that makes the defense of the doctrine of Christ not only possible but easy against the assaults of the infidel world. This instruction about taking no thought for the morrow was not addressed to the multitude, nor is it to be followed generally by the members of the Church, nor by the people of the world at large. Jesus confines his instructions on this head, according to this Book of Mormon version, to the twelve men whom he chose among his disciples, and especially commissioned to go and preach the gospel; he admonishes them to so completely dedicate themselves unto the Lord that they would give no thought to these temporal things, but put heart, and soul into the work of their ministry; and promises that their Father in heaven, who knew they had need of food and raiment, would open the way for them; and by his bounty and grace would clothe them even as he clothed the lilies of the field; and care for them as he cared for the birds of the air. Thus limited to the twelve men especially dedicated to God's service, the doctrine is reasonable and practical, and subject to no objection that may not be successfully answered.

34. "Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof." I suggest a comparison here to that found in the other two versions, the Protestant, the Catholic. The Protestant: "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" the Catholic: "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." In the Protestant and Catholic versions you will observe that the evil is made sufficient for the day; in the Book of Mormon version the day is made sufficient for the evil. Three learned commentators in collaboration--Jamieson, Fausett, Brown--say of that sentence as it stands in the Protestant version: "An admirable, practical maxim, better rendered in our version than in any other, not excepting the preceding English ones. Every day brings its own cares, and to anticipate is only to doubt them." If these learned commentators can thus speak in high praise of the saying of the Savior as it stands in Matthew, how much more reason they would have for praising it as it is found in the Book of Mormon!

35. Or it may be that the changes occurred to the inspired mind of the Prophet when reading the English version, without referring to the Nephite plates. In this connection it is to be remembered that the Prophet, 1831-1833, was engaged in such an inspired "revision" of the Old and New Testament, sometimes miscalled a "New Translation" of the Bible. It is more proper, however, to speak of it as a "revision," as the Prophet did not at any time pretend to the knowledge of the ancient languages that would enable him to translate from the Hebrew or Greek, as translation is commonly understood. What he did was to revise the English text of the Bible under the inspiration of God, and that led him not only to give different renderings of various passages, but also to supply missing parts made known to him by the inspiration of God. The fact that he thus made a "revision" of the scriptures rather inclines one to the belief that when he turned from the Nephite records, to what must have been substantially parallel passages in the English version, the changes were suggested to him in this manner; that is, by the inspiration of the Lord operating in his mind when reading the English text. And indeed, may it not be possible that these changes suggested by the Spirit when reading the English text, during the translation of the Book of Mormon, led him finally to attempt the revision of the whole body of the Hebrew scriptures from the English text? It is interesting to note that it was by such an inspiration in relation to the 29th verse of the 5th chapter of John's Gospel, that led not only to a different reading of the text, but also to that marvelous vision of the future state of man, and the different degrees of glory that he will inherit. The text in the English version stands, "And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." To the Prophet it was given, "and shall come forth, they who have done good in the resurrection of the just; and they who have done evil in the resurrection of the unjust;" then followed the vision.

36. The correspondence in full is to be found in the "Improvement Era" for January, 1904, pp. 179-196.

37. For confirmation of the likelihood of his taking such a course, see his letter to the saints in Nauvoo on the subject of baptism for the dead (Doc. & Cov., Sec. 128: 17, 18). He quotes the 5th and 6th verses of the last chapter of Malachi, precisely as it reads in the authorized English version, and then adds: "I might have rendered a plainer translation to this, but it is sufficiently plain to suit my purpose as it stands." Long before Moroni had given him a different rendition as follows:

BIBLE. MORONI.

"Behold I will send you Elijah, "Behold, I will reveal unto
the prophet, before the you the Priesthood by the hand
coming of the great and terrible of Elijah, the prophet, before
day of the Lord; the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord.

"And he shall turn the heart "And he shall plant in the
of the fathers to the children, hearts of the children the
and the heart of the children promises made to the fathers,
to their fathers, lest I come and and the hearts of the children
smite the earth with a curse. shall turn to their fathers; if
it were not so, the whole earth
would be utterly wasted at his
coming."

And yet the prophet used the passage as it is found in Malachi, since it suited the prophet's purpose as it stood.

38. The Rev. M. T. Lamb, author of the "Golden Bible, or the Book of Mormon. Is it from God," delivering a lecture in the town of Coalville, Utah, had the following experience: In the course of his remarks the reverend gentleman related how he had sat down to read the Book of Mormon for the purpose of really ascertaining for himself if it were true or false. He related how he found on the very first page of the book the statement that Lehi's family consisted of his wife Sariah, and his four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi. "Sam, Sam," said he, "that sounds familiar! Sam, it occurs to me that I have heard that name somewhere before! Sam! Oh, yes, I remember, 'Sam' is the Yankee nickname for Samuel! Right then and there," said the speaker, "I had my doubts as to this book being a genuine, ancient record, since I found a modern Yankee contraction of a proper name given as the name of an ancient personage!" At the conclusion of his remarks the reverend gentleman gave opportunity for questions on the subject of his lecture. Whereupon, Elder W. W. Cluff of the "Mormon" faith, arose, and in the course of a good-natured and informal discussion he asked the Rev. Mr. Lamb what he would think of a person who would sit down and begin an examination of the pentateuch--the books accredited to Moses, and the most ancient of the Hebrew scriptures (except, perhaps, the book of Job), to ascertain its truth, and coming to the enumeration of the names of the sons of Jacob finds one of them named "Dan." "Dan, Dan," says this supposed investigator, "Dan, why it seems to me that I have heard that name before! sounds familiar! Oh, I remember now, 'Dan' is the Yankee nickname for 'Daniel.' Therefore the writings of Moses cannot be genuine, because here is a Yankee nickname given as the name of a very ancient personage, therefore these alleged writings of Moses must be modern; hence, not what they have claimed to be, ancient inspired scriptures!" It is needless to say that the Rev. M. T. Lamb had nothing further to say on this point. The simple parallel was too much for him.

39. Linn's "Story of the Mormons," p. 96.

40. "Through nature to nature's God" is another instance referred to by many anti-Mormon writers as being in the Book of Mormon (although this writer has failed to find it), and is also in Pope's Essay on man. "The God of nature suffers" (First Nephi 19: 11-12), an expression used by the first Nephi, quoting the words of the prophet Zenos; this, be it remembered, several hundred years before Christ. This expression is accredited to Dionysius, the areopagite, supposed to be living at the time of the Savior's death on the cross, and who, as he beheld the sun hide its face, and witnessed the bursting of the rocks and felt the earth tremble, exclaimed: "Either the God of Nature suffers or the universe is falling apart." And it is sneeringly urged that "Nephi, 2400 years ago, hears the saying of a pagan who lives 634 years after him!" (Campbell.)

41. Job x: 20-21.

42. Job xvi: 22.

43. It must be remembered that Lehi's colony carried with them, in their journey to the western hemisphere, the Jewish scriptures extant up to 600 B. C., which scriptures doubtless included the book of Job; hence my remark that Lehi was doubtless familiar with Job's reflection concerning death--of his going whence he would not return.

44. I Nephi 22: 21. II Nephi 31: 5-10.

45. Such, substantially, is a suggestion made by Mr. H. Chamberlain, Esq., whom I have quoted before in this chapter.

46. In the course of a brief discussion of the Book of Mormon, carried on through one of the leading journals of Salt Lake City, with an "Unknown" writer, the following rule of criticism, on the objection discussed in the text, was laid down: