In the book the View of the Hebrews, what counterarguments have been introduced apologists against this text as a source of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon?
One Response to “In the book the View of the Hebrews, what counterarguments h…”
Webmaster
2009-12-19 09:10:44
What is the View of the Hebrews?
The Book of Mormon has been translated into many languages.
The View of the Hebrews is a book written in 1823 by Ethan Smith (no relation to Joseph). Some critics believe Joseph Smith plagiarized the View of the Hebrews when he "wrote" the Book of Mormon. Ethan Smith lived in Poultney, Vermont at the same time as Oliver Cowdary, who later became one of Joseph Smith's scribes. Critics think Oliver secretly told Joseph about the View of the Hebrews and helped him write the Book of Mormon, despite the fact that:
Oliver never accused Joseph of plagiarism, even when he left the Church and was bitterly angry with Joseph.
Joseph briefly [and incorrectly] quoted a passage from the View of the Hebrews in 1842 to try to provide historical evidence to support the Book of Mormon. If Joseph had secretly copied the View of the Hebrews and wanted to hide his deception from his fellow church members, why would he intentionally and publically point out a similarity between that work and the Book of Mormon?
The View of the Hebrews was recently republished by none other than the Religious Studies Center at BYU. Clearly, this publisher does not see the book as a legitimate threat to the Mormon faith. You can read the book for yourself online.
What are the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the View of the Hebrews?
The View of the Hebrews suggests that Native Americans are the descendents of ancient Israelites. "How could a teaching so specific from the Book of Mormon not have been taken from the View of the Hebrews?" the critics ask. At a glance this parallel does seem impressive. What the critics fail to mention, however, is that the idea that Native Americans have some Hebrew heritage was common in Joseph's time. Neither Ethan Smith nor Joseph Smith came up with this theory. For example, Josiah Priest wrote in 1833, "The opinion that the American Indians are the descendants of the lost Ten Tribes is now a popular one, and generally believed."
The idea that the Native Americans had Hebrew ancestors was taken from 2 Esdras 13:41, an apocryphal account, which states that the lost tribes traveled to a far country "where never mankind dwelt," a good description of the Americas. It's interesting to note that Mormons do not explicitly reject the apocrypha. The Mormon view of the apocrypha can be found in D&C 91, in case you're interested.
As this theory was quite common, none of Joseph's contemporaries thought he had copied the View of the Hebrews, even though that book was fairly popular in its day. It was not until the early 20th century that a possible connection between the two texts was first proposed.
Joseph Smith translated an ancient record engraven on metallic plates. This record is known today as the Book of Mormon.
The View of the Hebrews states that a "lost book" was written on "yellow leaves." Critics suggest this parallels the "golden plates" that Joseph found. What critics fail to mention is that the yellow book of the View of the Hebrews was make of old parchment, not a metal alloy. The yellow parchment was preserved because the people lost the knowledge of reading, not because the writings had to be preserved for future generations.
The View of the Hebrews also states that there were two groups of Israelites in the Americas, one civilized and one uncivilized. The uncivilized group destroyed the civilized one. Keep in mind, though, that ancient Israelites were considered to be civilized, and Native Americans were considered to be "uncivilized." How can a civilized people be "decivilized" if not via conquest by an "uncivilized" faction? There's only so many ways this story can unfoldÂ…
What are the dissimilarities?
Critics often ignore the many dissimilarities between the View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon. These dissimilarities, which far outnumber any alleged similarities, are too many to list here. As one example, nothing in the View of the Hebrews explains the rich Semitic complexity of the Book of Mormon. Only the Book of Mormon contains lengthy and complicated uses of Hebrew poetic forms like chiasmus.
The few Hebraisms that Ethan Smith thought tied Native Americans to the ancient Hebrews are strangely absent from the Book of Mormon. If Joseph really thought the View of the Hebrews was authoritative and copied its contents when he wrote the Book of Mormon, why in the world wouldn't he have included these "bull's-eye" Hebraisms in his own text? For example, View of the Hebrews states that Native Americans used the Hebrew word "hallelujah," proving that their ancestors were ancient Israelites, yet that word does not appear once in the Book of Mormon. Why wouldn't Joseph have included "hallelujah" in his text if it would have served as such a convincing evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon?
As another example, in the View of the Hebrews, there's a table of 34 Indian words that supposedly have Hebrew origins. Yet, among the 175 new words in the Book of Mormon (mostly proper names, many of which have subsequently been shown to have Hebrew roots), the 34 Indian-Hebrew roots are entirely absent. Why wouldn't Joseph have used such a convincing list in compiling his own text?
Here are a few more dissimilarities:
It's obvious to the author of View of the Hebrews that the Native-American Israelites came to the Americas across the Bering straight. The Book of Mormon suggests a seaward route.
The View of the Hebrews states that the righteous group of American Hebrews died out around 1400. The Book of Mormon teaches that the Nephites died nearly a millennium earlier.
The View of the Hebrews points to the existence of Quetzalcoatl as evidence that Moses visited the ancient Americas. This is obviously not what the Book of Mormon teaches. :)
The many specific stories included in the Book of Mormon, like the stories of the 2000 Stripling Warriors, Samuel on the wall preaching to the Nephites, Lehi's dream, etc., etc., are unique to the Book of Mormon.
What level of confidence is required to accept a hypothesized association in science?
Scientists calculate "p values" to decide whether or not to accept or reject a theorized correlation or association. An association is only accepted if the associated p value is less than 0.05, meaning that the chances of observing the hypothesized similarities due to coincidence alone is less than 5%.
It's impossible to explicitly calculate a p value to assess the similarities between the View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon, but ask yourself this: in light of the many dissimilarities between these two texts, do you think the few vague similarities are so convincing that the chances of them arising by coincidence alone is less than 5%? Each person will have to answer that question for themselves. For me, the answer is clearly no.
Sometimes two completely unrelated things coincidentally seem similar
What if I were to tell you another story about a group of Hebrews that left Israel about 2,500 years ago. This group traveled south along the ancient frankincense trails, as described in the Book of Mormon. They subsequently crossed an ocean to arrive in a new land. After arriving, this Israelite group split into two. Because of intermarriage with native peoples, they eventually became a dark-skined people. Place names used in the region they settled include Moroni and Cumorah. You think I'm talking about the Lehites from the Book of Mormon, right? I'm actually talking about the Lemba from Africa. Moral of the story: sometimes things that seem to be very similar actually have nothing to do with each other.
- Oliver never accused Joseph of plagiarism, even when he left the Church and was bitterly angry with Joseph.
- Joseph briefly [and incorrectly] quoted a passage from the View of the Hebrews in 1842 to try to provide historical evidence to support the Book of Mormon. If Joseph had secretly copied the View of the Hebrews and wanted to hide his deception from his fellow church members, why would he intentionally and publically point out a similarity between that work and the Book of Mormon?
The View of the Hebrews was recently republished by none other than the Religious Studies Center at BYU. Clearly, this publisher does not see the book as a legitimate threat to the Mormon faith. You can read the book for yourself online.What are the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the View of the Hebrews?
The View of the Hebrews suggests that Native Americans are the descendents of ancient Israelites. "How could a teaching so specific from the Book of Mormon not have been taken from the View of the Hebrews?" the critics ask. At a glance this parallel does seem impressive. What the critics fail to mention, however, is that the idea that Native Americans have some Hebrew heritage was common in Joseph's time. Neither Ethan Smith nor Joseph Smith came up with this theory. For example, Josiah Priest wrote in 1833, "The opinion that the American Indians are the descendants of the lost Ten Tribes is now a popular one, and generally believed."
The idea that the Native Americans had Hebrew ancestors was taken from 2 Esdras 13:41, an apocryphal account, which states that the lost tribes traveled to a far country "where never mankind dwelt," a good description of the Americas. It's interesting to note that Mormons do not explicitly reject the apocrypha. The Mormon view of the apocrypha can be found in D&C 91, in case you're interested.
As this theory was quite common, none of Joseph's contemporaries thought he had copied the View of the Hebrews, even though that book was fairly popular in its day. It was not until the early 20th century that a possible connection between the two texts was first proposed.
The View of the Hebrews also states that there were two groups of Israelites in the Americas, one civilized and one uncivilized. The uncivilized group destroyed the civilized one. Keep in mind, though, that ancient Israelites were considered to be civilized, and Native Americans were considered to be "uncivilized." How can a civilized people be "decivilized" if not via conquest by an "uncivilized" faction? There's only so many ways this story can unfoldÂ…
What are the dissimilarities?
Critics often ignore the many dissimilarities between the View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon. These dissimilarities, which far outnumber any alleged similarities, are too many to list here. As one example, nothing in the View of the Hebrews explains the rich Semitic complexity of the Book of Mormon. Only the Book of Mormon contains lengthy and complicated uses of Hebrew poetic forms like chiasmus.
The few Hebraisms that Ethan Smith thought tied Native Americans to the ancient Hebrews are strangely absent from the Book of Mormon. If Joseph really thought the View of the Hebrews was authoritative and copied its contents when he wrote the Book of Mormon, why in the world wouldn't he have included these "bull's-eye" Hebraisms in his own text? For example, View of the Hebrews states that Native Americans used the Hebrew word "hallelujah," proving that their ancestors were ancient Israelites, yet that word does not appear once in the Book of Mormon. Why wouldn't Joseph have included "hallelujah" in his text if it would have served as such a convincing evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon?
As another example, in the View of the Hebrews, there's a table of 34 Indian words that supposedly have Hebrew origins. Yet, among the 175 new words in the Book of Mormon (mostly proper names, many of which have subsequently been shown to have Hebrew roots), the 34 Indian-Hebrew roots are entirely absent. Why wouldn't Joseph have used such a convincing list in compiling his own text?
Here are a few more dissimilarities:
- It's obvious to the author of View of the Hebrews that the Native-American Israelites came to the Americas across the Bering straight. The Book of Mormon suggests a seaward route.
- The View of the Hebrews states that the righteous group of American Hebrews died out around 1400. The Book of Mormon teaches that the Nephites died nearly a millennium earlier.
- The View of the Hebrews points to the existence of Quetzalcoatl as evidence that Moses visited the ancient Americas. This is obviously not what the Book of Mormon teaches. :)
- The many specific stories included in the Book of Mormon, like the stories of the 2000 Stripling Warriors, Samuel on the wall preaching to the Nephites, Lehi's dream, etc., etc., are unique to the Book of Mormon.
What level of confidence is required to accept a hypothesized association in science?Scientists calculate "p values" to decide whether or not to accept or reject a theorized correlation or association. An association is only accepted if the associated p value is less than 0.05, meaning that the chances of observing the hypothesized similarities due to coincidence alone is less than 5%.
It's impossible to explicitly calculate a p value to assess the similarities between the View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon, but ask yourself this: in light of the many dissimilarities between these two texts, do you think the few vague similarities are so convincing that the chances of them arising by coincidence alone is less than 5%? Each person will have to answer that question for themselves. For me, the answer is clearly no.
Sometimes two completely unrelated things coincidentally seem similar
What if I were to tell you another story about a group of Hebrews that left Israel about 2,500 years ago. This group traveled south along the ancient frankincense trails, as described in the Book of Mormon. They subsequently crossed an ocean to arrive in a new land. After arriving, this Israelite group split into two. Because of intermarriage with native peoples, they eventually became a dark-skined people. Place names used in the region they settled include Moroni and Cumorah. You think I'm talking about the Lehites from the Book of Mormon, right? I'm actually talking about the Lemba from Africa. Moral of the story: sometimes things that seem to be very similar actually have nothing to do with each other.
Hope this answer helps!
References
Did Joseph Smith plagiarize from View of the Hebrews when writing the Book of Mormon?
View of the Hebrews
Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews
Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/View of the Hebrews/Unparallels
View of the Hebrews
View of the Hebrews: "An Unparallel"