Influenced by Joseph Smith's background

Why are themes of the revolutionary war and patriotism (liberty, freedom, country, religion, flags, etc.) woven throughout a book supposedly written over a thousand years before the revolutionary war?

Why is an agrarian society similar to the society Joseph was most familiar with described as the setting for the entire book?

Why is a democracy after a monarchy described? (Mosiah 23, 29) - (Similar to the history of the U.S.)

Is it purely coincidental that there was much speculation in Joseph Smith's area about Indian Mounds and battles?

Why does the Book of Mormon describe wood forts with pickets to protect people--much like the forts of frontier?

Is it purely coincidental that Lehi had six sons as did Joseph Smith Sr.? (Sam/Samuel were sons of both; Nephi and Joseph Smith Jr. were similar)

Why did Mormon, Nephi and other "heroes" of the Book of Mormon have so many common traits with Joseph Smith? (large in stature, had visions while a teenager, etc. -- see The Refiner's Fire by John Brooke for many more similarities)

Why does the Book of Mormon repeatedly addresses 19th century readers?

Why is the anti-Masonic excitement that arose near Smith's home in 1827 reflected? (Gadianton Robbers / Secret Combos)

Why is infant baptism (a much discussed issue in the early 19th century) condemned in Chapter 8 of Moroni?

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Influenced by the KJV of the Bible

Why is the Latin word "Lucifer" used in 2 Nephi 24:12 when that word clearly wasn't used by Isaiah?

Joseph Smith incorrectly included Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount" in 3 Nephi when Luke's more accurately portrays what Jesus may have said. Words such as "mammon", "synagogues", and "raca" were also taken straight from Matthew. These words would have had no meaning to the Nephites. (See Ronald V. Huggins' "Did the Author of 3 Nephi Know the Gospel of Matthew" from Dialogue Fall 1997 for a more detailed discussion of these issues and for an excellent introduction to the Gospel of Q.)

Why does the Book of Mormon appear to paraphrase from the preface to the King James Version of the Bible in Helaman 5:31 and Alma 19:6?

Why are portions of Isaiah quoted off of the plates of brass when these items weren't written until after Nephi supposedly got the plates out of Laban's treasury?

Why was Paul referred to before his time? (Paul said, "Death where is thy sting")

Why is it that of the 350 names in the Book of Mormon, 100 are found in the Bible, others are place names found on early 19th century maps, and the rest are derivatives of Bible names?

Why didn't Joseph Smith ever acknowledge using the KJV of the Bible to "translate"?

Why were the following phrases used out of the New Testament supposedly before the New Testament was even thought of--much less written?

1."oh wretched man that I am" Romans 7:24 / 2 Nephi 4:17

2."earthquake, rocks rent" Matt 27:51 / 1 Nephi 12:14

3."old serpent, which is the devil" Rev 20:2 / 2 Nephi 2:18

4."one faith, one baptism" Ephesians 4:5 / Mosiah 18:21

5.one man perish instead of a nation - John 11:50 / 1 Nephi 4:13

Why is a Greek word like "Christ" used throughout the Book of Mormon?

Why don't the Book of Mormon quotes from out of the Old Testament agree to earlier Latin, Syriac, Coptic, or Patristic texts?

Example: Matthew 5:27 and 3 Nephi 12:27 "by them of old time" not included in earliest Greek (should have said "to them of old")

Matthew 6:4, 6, 18 and 3 Nephi :4, 6, 18 "openly" added later

Matt 6:13 and 3 Nephi 13:13 "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" should have said, "and do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one".

Why does the phrase "the lamb of God" appear only in the New Testament portion of the Bible yet it appears in the Book of Mormon over 30 times--28 times in 1 Nephi alone?

Why do the words of Malachi 4:1 appear in 1 Nephi 22:15 over a hundred years before Malachi wrote them?

Why do so many stories seem like exaggerated borrowings from the Bible?

Examples:

Ammon killed six sheep rustlers with a sling (Alma 17:36) vs. David's killing of Goliath. (1 Samuel 17:50)

Pillar of Fire. (Exodus 13:21) vs. (1 Nephi 1:6)

Lord instructs Noah to build the Ark (Genesis 6:14) / Lord instructs Nephi to build ship (1 Nephi 17:8) / Lord instructs Jaredites to build barges (Ether 2:16)

Jaredites brought flocks, two of a kind, seeds. (Ether 2:1) vs. Noah doing the same in (Genesis 7:9)

Raising dead. (Matthew 10:8) vs. (3 Nephi 19:4)

Temple of Solomon supposedly took 180,000 people seven and a half years to build (1 Kings 5, 6) / The few in number Nephites supposedly did it in less than 20 years after arriving (2 Nephi 5).

Calming Storm (1 Nephi 18:8-21) vs. (Matthew 8:23-27).

Men in Fire (Helaman 5:22-24) vs. (Daniel 3).

Feeding Multitude (3 Nephi 20:3-7) out of nothing / In Bible, Christ multiplied existing food (Matthew 14).

Christ heals masses in Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 17:9) / in Bible Jesus healed as he encountered (Luke 9:42).

Multitude feels wounds in Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 11:13) / In Bible, Thomas felt wounds (John 20:27).

Book of Mormon prophecies of Christ specific / Bible prophecies veiled (actually non-existent unless scripture misquoted or "prophecies" stretched to have two meanings).

Book of Mormon Christ is completely accepted / In Bible he is rejected.

Aminadi deciphered writing on the wall (Alma 10:2-3) like Daniel (Daniel 5).

Daughter of Jared danced before the king (Ether 8) like the daughter of Herodias (Matthew 14) (decapitation followed in both cases).

Daughters of Lamanites abducted like the daughters of Shiloh.

Jews of Old Testament were monotheists / Pre-Christ Jews of Book of Mormon were not.

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Influenced by happenings of early 19th century America

Why does the Book of Mormon confuse the Old and New Covenants? It stresses that before Christ, the faithful kept the Law of Moses (2 Nephi 5:10; 25:23-25, 20; Alma 30:3), yet they also established churches, taught and practiced Christian baptism, and were conversant with New Testament doctrines and events (e.g. 2 Nephi 9:23; Mosiah 18:17). In the Bible, the Old Covenant is taken away to establish the New according to Paul and his followers (Heb. 10:9). The Book of Mormon intermingles the covenants. Paul was the man who first tried to reconcile the Old to the New convenant--not anyone during Old Testament times.

Why does the Book of Mormon discuss the concept of infinite sins paid by an infinite being? (Alma 12) This idea was originated by Anselm of Canterbury and was a raging debate during the time of Joseph Smith.

Why does the Book of Mormon's teachings reflect the religious conflicts of the early 19th century including: grace, infant baptism, ordination, authority, repentance, resurrection, eternal punishment, fall of man, nature of man, fasting, etc.? As Thomas W. Murphy noted in Dialogue 30:2 p. 114, "The American biological, physical, political, and religious environment of the nineteenth centruy was posited by the author of the Book of Mormon to have existed for at least 1,000 years in pre-Columbian America."

Why were there missionaries in the Book of Mormon before Christ? That certainly wasn't the case in the Old World.

Why is King Benjamin's oratory like a 19th century camp meeting?

Revival gathering (Mosiah 2)

Guilt ridden falling exercise (4:1-2)

Petition for spiritual emancipation (4:2)

Absolution and ecstasy (4:3)

Repentance (4:4-8)

Born again (5:7)

Take name of Christ (5:8-15)

Why do other works early in Joseph Smith's lifetime teach that the Indians were descended from the Hebrews?

Was "View of the Hebrews" one of the sources? B. H. Roberts (Studies of the Book of Mormon pp.240,242) said, "But now to return . . . to the main theme of this writing -- viz., did Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews furnish structural material for Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon? It has been pointed out in these pages that there are many things in the former book that might well have suggested many major things in the other. Not a few things merely, one or two, or a half dozen, but many; and it is this fact of many things of similarity and the cumulative force of them that makes them so serious a menace to Joseph Smith's story of the Book of Mormon's origin . . ."

Where some of the contents in response to Thomas Paine?

Was Josiah Priest's book "The Wonders of Nature and Providence", copyrighted by him June 2nd, 1824, and printed soon afterwards in Rochester, New York, only some twenty miles distant from Palmyra a source?

Was James Adair's "A History of the American Indians" a source? On pages 377-378, he wrote the following about the Indians: "Through the whole continent, and in the remotest woods, are traces of their ancient warlike disposition. We frequently met with great mounds of earth, either of a circular, or oblong form, having a strong breast-work at a distance around them, made of the clay which had been dug up in forming the ditch on the inner side of the inclosed ground, and these were their forts of security against an enemy... About 12 miles from the upper northern parts of the Choktah country, there stand...two oblong mounds of earth...in an equal direction with each other... A broad deep ditch inclosed those two fortress, and there they raised an high breast-work, to secure their houses from the invading enemy." In Alma it states, "Yea, he had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort: throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies...the Nephites were taught...never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy... they had cast up dirtround to shield them from the arrows...the chief captains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security...they knew not that Moroni had fortified, or had built forts of security in all the land roundabout ...the Lamanites could not get into their forts of security...because of the highness of the bank which had been thrown up, and the depth of the ditch which had been dug round about...they (the Lamanites) began to dig down their banks of earth...that they might have an equalchance to fight...instead of filling up their ditches by pulling down banks of earth, they were filled up in a measure with their dead...And (Moroni) caused them to erect fortifications that they should commence laboring in digging a ditch round about the land...And he caused that they should build a breastwork of timbers upon the inner bank of the ditch: and they did cast up dirt out of the ditch against the breastwork of timbers".

Why are there other direct word parallels between Adair and the Book of Mormon such as Omni 1:21 and page 125 of Adair which says, "...for the space of four moons..." or page 122 which says "for the space of three days and nights..." and Alma 36:10.