The Origin of the Book of Mormon

Not only is the first vision in doubt, but the source of the Book of Mormon is not as certain as the Mormon Church would have us believe. Several alternative explanations are live options. We shall examine the theories set forth by Fawn Brodie, George Arbaugh and Hal Hougey. Each of these three theories respond to Mormon claims and expose problems in the Book of Mormon text.

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Brodie suggests Joseph wrote the Nephite and Lamanite history first, but as discussion about the Indians' origin continued the time span this history covered (namely, 600 B.C. to AD. 400) seemed to him inadequate. Speculation that the Indians had migrated to this continent as early as the time of Noah was set forth in 1820 by Caleb Atwater. In 1823, Ethan Smith published View of the Hebrews, in which he quoted several Indian legends that were similar to the Old Testament flood account. Even the title of Ethan Smith's book suggests that Joseph was not the only one who had theorized that the Indians might have descended from the Hebrews.

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Hal Hougey's Theory. While Hal Hougey was not the first to set forth the similarity between the Book of Mormon and Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, he has, in his booklet "A Parallel"-The Basis of the Book of Mormon, enlarged the amount of information available.

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It is possible that elements of all three of the theories I have just described are correct. Hougey rightly states, The possibility of Joseph's having used View of the Hebrews in no way precludes his use of other possible sources in writing the Book of Mormon. He may very well have used a number of sources." In other words, Joseph Smith could have used his own natural genius and both the Spaulding manuscript and View of the Hebrews, as well as other materials, to produce the Book of Mormon.