More striking are the parallels between he BOM and Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, published in 1823. Both books share the same basic storyline and premise—i.e., that a large contingency of lsraelites arrived in the New World and separated into warring factions, the more savage of which prevailed after annihilating “their more civilized brethren" until all were left in a "savage state." Other instances of BOM similarities to Ethan's work are so numerous that only a brief listing of select ones can be presented (see Table 4.2).

Even Joseph's idea about finding a buried book of history written by the ancestors of Native Americans may have been lifted from View of the Hebrews, which asked: "If the Indians are of the tribes of Israel, some decisive evidence of the fact will ere long be exhibited.... But what kind of evidence shall we expect?" Ehan Smith then provided information about a discovery near Pittsfield, Massachusetts of some parchment that supposedly contained Hebrew characters. These parchments, according to Ethan's story, had been found buried in a place called Indian Hill. Moreover, both the BOM and View of the Hebrews contain the following similarities:

* begin with frequent references to Jerusalem's destruction;

* tell of inspired prophets among the ancient Americans;

* quote heavily from the biblical book Isaiah;

* describe the ancient Americans as a highly civilized people; and

* declare that it is the mission of the American nation in the last days to gather Native Americans into Christianity, thereby hastening the day of the glorious millennium.

Interestingly, when View of the Hebrews was first published in 1823, and then again in 1825, one resident of the same small town in which the book was released (Poultney, Vermont) was a teenager named Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith's third cousin and future scribe. The Cowdery family also just happened to be associated with the Poultney Congregational Church, the very same church led by none other than Pastor Ethan Smith, author of View of the Hebrews.