Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?

by Wayne L. Cowdrey, Walter Ralston Martin, Howard A. Davis

Authors determine that The Book of Mormon is an "adaptation of an obscure historical novel." Read about their findings.

Genres: Religion, History, Mormonism, Nonfiction, Lds

257 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2005

Reviews

[Architeacher]

LDS scholars should be terrified of this thorough, exhaustive, and downright exhausting examination of the circumstances surrounding Joseph Smith's discovery and translation of the golden plates that yielded the Book of Mormon. The BoM is very likely a fraud, perpetrated on a gullible nation at a time of religious experimentation (viz. the Shakers, Perfectionists, etc.) in American history. This book will tell you why.

It wouldn't affect my review, but I do wonder if author Wayne Cowdrey is a descendant of Oliver Cowdrey, one of those who gave testimony confirming translation of the Golden Plates.

[Jean]

There is some tedious reading in this book as details are necessary in building the case. I finished this book with a rational explanation in my mind of what the Spalding manuscript had to do with the Book of Mormon and a completely new take on how fraudulent people could have accomplished the task of writing the Book of Mormon

I had one complaint: The writers referred to Oliver Cowdery as Joseph Smith's cousin. In researching for myself and then finally reading the myriad of footnotes in the back of the book; a system I do not like; I prefer the bottom of the page, I discovered that they were actually third cousins. It did raise the question Why doesn't the church make this relationship common knowledge when genealogy is such an important issue. Many questions such as this were raised and answered to my satisfaction.

I loved all the detail - it was like watching a episode of CSI; painstaking research into a subject that I have wanted to know about for a long time.

[Darwin Ross]

The Book of Mormon is based upon a novel, written by Solomon Spaulding. Although this book on the origins of the Book of Mormon doesn't deal with it, the Book of Mormon also contains huge swaths of material from the Book of Isaiah from the Bible (King James Version, with the mistakes of the King James translators included, uncorrected by Smith). The material taken from the Bible leads people to say to themselves, as did my own brother, "No man could have written this book." That's true, no man could have written the parts of the Book of Mormon purloined from the Bible.

[Michael McCue]

The authors make a convincing case that the fantasy written by Solomon Spaulding was stolen by friends of Joseph Smith and turned into the the Book of Mormon. The authors presented a well documented argument.

[Bobby Daugherty]

Proves the Book of Mormon is a plagiarism of an obscure unpublished manuscript by Solomon Spaulding a man nicknamed "Old so it came to pass".

[Trevor Luke]

Since this book addresses a highly charged issue concerning a religion with a cadre of tireless apologists, it is not surprising that its reception has been unbalanced. The few who buy into the thesis that the ultimate source of the Book of Mormon was a historical romance written by Solomon Spalding love it; those who cling to the conviction that the Book of Mormon is actually an ancient document dismiss it out of hand. It deserves neither unqualified praise nor complete dismissal. Although difficult to read and not infrequently tendentious, this book is valuable because it does bring forward fresh evidence concerning Solomon Spalding and Sidney Rigdon. It also supplies the reader with otherwise hard to obtain source material.

[Eva Seyler]

This was fascinating. There was such a plethora of names, dates, and so forth that it was a little hard to follow sometimes, though because of frequent repetition throughout, I did in the end still get a good grasp of what the authors were claiming. I find the authors' theory believable and well-documented. Obviously the Mormon church doesn't agree with their findings. The premise of the authors' research is that the book of Mormon was lifted from a historical novel by Solomon Spaulding. The theory may not be 100% truth but there does seem to be a lot of evidence pointing that direction.

[Aaron Carlberg]

Lots of good information, but really starts to drag because they cite so many letters and documents to prove their point. I get it, when talking to someone who denies the claims that the foundation for Mormonism is a stolen story from a mediocre writer no one has ever heard of you have to show an overwhelming amount of evidence, but holy cow...there is a lot of evidence and I got bored reading it all.

It was still informative.

[Darwin Ross]

Every believer in the Book of Mormon should read this book and be acquainted with its information. My brother has a testimony of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based upon an impression that came to him while reading the Book of Mormon: "No man could have written this." Doubtless, he was in the part that was lifted whole by Joseph Smith from the Bible's book of Isaiah (King James Version - translators' mistakes and all)!

[Christopher Faria]

A highly detailed historical account tracking the "Solomon Spalding" manuscript through Sidney Rigdom, Oliver Cowdrey and Joseph Smith. Tidbit: Wayne L. Cowdrey is a descendant of Oliver Cowdrey.
For years allegations have been made that the Book of Mormon is the re-worked manuscript of Solomon Spaulding. Of course, this is dismissed by the LDS church. Cowdery goes to in-depth research showing it to be the case.