At least two of Joseph's contemporaries had recently written books on this very subject: Elias Boudinot, STAR IN THE WEST, (1816); and Ethan Smith, VIEW OF THE HEBREWS (1823). Theirs were scholarly works, promoting a popular theory that the American Indians were a branch of the tribes of Israel, particularly of Ephraim. Their work was speculative, of course, but Joseph could use their groundwork for a "history of Ephraim" right out of Jerusalem, besides, furnishing an outlet for his own interpretation of the prophets.

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This "greater blessing" on the head of E phraim idea is accentuated in Ethan Smith's book, so it is not overlooked by Joseph, but he carries the idea throughout the Book of Mormon. Ethan, however, has some logic on his side -- for the Tribe of Ephraim was settled in the Northern Kingdom from which the "Ten Lost Tribes" were lost; whereas, Joseph brings his colony out of Jerusalem, a land of Judah inhabited by Jews!

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Ethan Smith's second premise, the total destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of Israel in fulfillment of prophecy is explained quite neatly by Joseph through a "vision" by father Lehi. In this vision, (p. 16) Lehi saw the city wasted, the inhabitants carried captives to Babylon, the dispersion of the Jews; the birth, ministry and crucifiction of Jesus Christ and God's judgments on the Jews for their part in it. Indeed, Lehi relates history in "future tense" precisely as in the past tense. In another instance, Nephi is made to say, (about 588 B.C.) "The Jews shall be scourged by all people because they crucify the God of Israel." (p. 42).