Many of the names and events in The Book of Mormon came from Smith's own fertile imagination. But a considerable amount of material was obviously taken from other sources casily available to Smith before 1830 when he published his book. For example, whole chapters were copied from the King James Bible (mostly from Isaiah) word for word without giving credit to the source. These quotations were supposedly taken directly from Smith's gold plates, not the King James Bible.

Ethan Smith's View Of The Hebrews

Smith also had access to several very popular books about how Native Americans came to inhabit the New World. Most of these books connected the American "Indians" with the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Perhaps the most prominent of these books was Ethan Smith's View of The Hebrews which was published in 1823, seven years before Smith's Book of Mormon. (Ethan was not related to Joseph.)

Ethan Smith was a Congregational Minister living in Poultney, Vermont. Poultney also happened to be Oliver Cowdery's home town. Cowdery, a very close friend and associate of Smith, served as "scribe" while Smith dictated the manuscript for his Book of Mormon. Ethan Smith's View of The Hebrews was widely read in all of the Eastern States including New York, the home of Joseph Smith. Ethan's book was so popular that a second edition was published in 1825, five years before Smith's book.

Many Similarities

As I read Ethan Smith's book, I was amazed by the many similarities between Joseph's and Ethan's books. Joseph's Book of Mormon and Ethan's View of The Hebrews are similar in that they both start out with the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of Israel. Both are concerned with the Lost Ten Tribes and claim that these tribes have been preserved by the Lord as a distinct people. Ethan quotes the eleventh chapter of Isaiah in his book. Joseph claimed that an angel, Moroni, quoted this very same scripture to him in his bedroom on September 12, 1828. Isaiah is the favorite old testament prophet of both Smiths. Both authors use the allegory of the olive tree and the House of Israel.

Both men start out with a small group of people who cross the ocean to an uninhabited land, America. In both books, those who migrate to the New World are all of one race and color. In both accounts, a portion of the group become barbarians who occupy themselves primarily with hunting, stealing, and fighting. Eventually, these savages destroy their more civilized brethren in a great final battle on top of a hill! Both authors describe this desperate and frantic battle of extermination.

Both books tell of sacred records which were handed down from generation to generation until they were finally buried in a hill where they were found many years later. Both books identify Native Americans as the stick of Joseph or Ephraim which will some day be united with the stick of Judah or the Jews as prophesied by Ezekiel.

Although the original language of both Ethan's and Joseph's migration was Hebrew, somehow both sacred records included Egyptian. This was possibly an attempt on the part of both authors to combine their lost House of Israel theories with the Egyptian-like pyramids of Central America.

Both migrations had high priests who received revelations from God. These high priests had "breast plates" and the "Urim and

Thummim." Both books erroneously claimed that ancient Americans lived the law of Moses and that Christianity was later introduced to the inhabitants of the New World. A golden age, a utopian society, was experienced by both groups after the introduction of Christianity.

Both Smiths use the terms "Zion" and “Mt. Zion" to designate the place of restoration and gathering of Israel. Both books call upon the American people to preach the gospel to the Native Americans. Both refer to Native Americans by the term "remnants." Both remind the American people of the debt of gratitude that they owe to the House of Israel for giving them the Bible. Both predict the eventual conversion of the "remnants" and that they will become white before the burning of the world! Joseph used the terms, "white and delightsome."

Both books claim that in order to save their lives and retain their religious traditions, the industrious minority were forced to build high earthen walls, fortresses, and watchtowers around their cities. Both accounts erroneously claim that ancient Americans had iron.

Anticipating that readers would have doubts about his book, Ethan Smith said:

Ye friends of God in the land addressed; can you read this prophetic direction of the ancient prophet Isaiah, without having your hearts burn within you?

Joseph Smith makes a very similar statement:

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, and with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Ethan Smith claimed that he translated his book from some old yellow parchments found buried in Indian Hill, a New England mound. These parchments were originally found by Mr. Joseph Merrick, Esquire, a highly respectable man in the Church of Pittsfield. Mr. Merrick later took these parchments to Reverend Sylvester Larned, an expert on foreign languages living in Boston. Mr. Merrick obtained an affidavit from Reverend Larned declaring that his parchments were authentic Hebrew scriptures.

Again we see a striking similarity between the activities and claims of Ethan and Joseph. Ethan's yellow parchments were sent to Reverend Larned of Boston; Joseph sent a transcript from his gold plates to "one who is learned" to obtain an affidavit of authenticity. This was Charles Anthon of New York.

Other similarities between these two books include the piety-prosperity theme, anti-Catholic ideas, monotheism, temples, copper breastplates, an Egyptian hieroglyphic language, and a great future in store for the "remnants."

It would be very difficult to find two books more alike in their basic ideas and content. There is far too much parallelism to be accidental. And since Ethan Smith published his book seven years before Joseph published his Book of Mormon and since there are so many similarities between these two books, it was obviously Joseph who plagiarized Ethan's ideas and not the other way around. If Joseph had published his book seven years earlier, a fair minded person would then be justified in accusing Ethan of transparent plagiarism.