Another source which the Tanners suggest that Joseph Smith used is Josiah Priest's 1825 work, The Wonders of Nature and providence Displayed. They notice several scattered parallels between passages in Priest's book and the destruction in 3 Nephi 8:5-14 (pp. 84-85). However, many of Priest's ideas are merely taken from biblical events. Three days of darkness (Exodus 10:22), a darkness that could be felt (Exodus 10:21), the description of the darkness as a vapor, thunder, lightning, earthquakes, storm, tempest, fire (Isaiah 29:6)—all are seen by the Tanners as direct borrowing from Josiah Priest. Yet while Josiah Priest does describe some of these things, and several general parallels may be drawn between them and 3 Nephi, The Book of Mormon's claim that this was a real event remains very plausible and convincing. Moreover, there are several elements of 3 Nephi 8 which, although not found in the Tanners' source, can be found in old Mesoamerican sources, some of which were unavailable to Joseph Smith. When Josiah Priest published his American Antiquities in 1835, he was critical of the Book of Mormon, but never suggested that Joseph Smith plagiarized from his 1825 book. Wouldn't he have been one of the first to notice if it had been among the Prophet's sources? The same may be said of Ethan Smith. In 1833, the author of View of the Hebrews received an endorsement from 23 prominent clergymen who praised his 1823 work. Apparently, neither Reverend Smith nor any of his friends saw any relationship between that work and the Book of Mormon. No critic ever suggested that Joseph Smith used the works of Josiah Priest or Ethan Smith until the twentieth century.