Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize sources from the American Revolution?

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Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize sources from the American Revolution?

Introduction to Question

Former member of the Church and critic Thomas Donofrio presented what he considers evidence that the Book of Mormon plagiarizes (or was “influenced by”) sources from the colonial era of American history. He presented these arguments at the 2012 ExMormon Foundation Conference in Salt Lake City, UT.

Response to Question

HeavyMetalMormon’s Debunking of Donofrio

Another Latter-day Saint pseudonymous blogger named Heavy Metal Mormon responded to Donofrio in depth. The blogger compares every phrase identified by Donofrio in Revolutionary sources to other ancient works written between the 9th century BCE and 500 CE and finds that they too have some of the same phrases contained in the Book of Mormon. The works compared include the following:

1. “The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus” written between 78 and 93 A.D.; translated into English by William Whiston in 1737. Retrieved from: http://www.ultimatebiblereferencelibrary.com/Complete_Works_of_Josephus.pdf
2. “The History of the Peloponnesian War” written by Thucydides between 431 and 400 B.C. and translated into English by Richard Crawley in 1874. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.mb.txt
3. “The History of Herodotus” written by Herodotus in 440 B.C. and translated into English by George Rawlinson in 1910. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.mb.txt
4. “The Dialogues of Plato” written by Plato who lived between 427 and 347 B.C.; translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1871. Retrieved from: https://webs.ucm.es/info/diciex/gente/agf/plato/The_Dialogues_of_Plato_v0.1.pdf
5. “Politics” written by Aristotle who lived between 384 and 322 B.C.; translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1885. Retrieved from: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/aristotle/Politics.pdf
6. “The Apostolic Fathers” which are early Christian documents believed to have been written in first and second century A.D.; translated by Joseph Barber Lightfoot and published in 1891. Retrieved from: https://www.ccel.org/l/lightfoot/fathers/cache/fathers.pdf
7. “The Ante-Nicene Fathers” which are early Christian documents written before 325 A.D. Translated by multiple authors in 1885. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/AnteNiceneFathersVolume10BibliographicSynopsisGeneralIndex
8. “The Gallic Wars” written by Julius Caesar before 46 B.C. and translated into English by W.A. MacDevitt and W.S. Bohn in 1869. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.mb.txt
9. “The Histories” written by Tacitus around 109 A.D. and translated into English by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb in 1876. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/histories.mb.txt
10. “The Odyssey” written by Homer in 800 B.C. and translated into English by Samuel Butler in 1900. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html

Heavy Metal Mormon found each of the phrases identified by Donofrio in these sources.

He has also posted a helpful YouTube video presenting his findings which you can find here.

In his own words: “Donofrio argues that this list of phrases should not be found in an English translation of an ancient document like the Book of Mormon. Nearly all of these phrases, however, can be found in 18th and 19th century English translations of ancient documents dating from 440 B.C. to 325 A.D. We therefore cannot accept that Donofrio’s list of parallels is evidence of the Book of Mormon being a work of fiction influenced by early American literature.”

Further Reading

• Bushman, Richard L. "The Book of Mormon and the American Revolution." In Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds, 189–211. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1982.

Notes