View source for The Late War theory of Book of Mormon authorship

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It has been claimed by critics Chris and Duane Johnson that the Late War is a potential source of influence on Joseph Smith in his "composition" of the Book of Mormon. These articles, along with the much more detailed and in-depth reviews from scholars associated with the Interpreter Foundation, refute these charges. The article from Ben McGuire uses the same statistical method to revise the Johnson's conclusions. The article from Bruce Schaalje uses Bayesian logic to see how likely it is that Joseph used the Late War as a source. The article from Stanford Carmack uses other literary evidence to suggest that the Late War likely played little to no role in the authorship of the Book of Mormon. The articles we have written here take a large swath of specific examples that the Johnson's have pointed to for such "influence" and shows problems and complications with them. 

{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize passages from Gilbert Hunt's book ''The Late War, between the United States and Great Britain, from June, 1812, to February, 1815''?}}
{{:Question: Does the Book of Mormon phrase "curious workmanship" originate from Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?}}
{{:Question: Does Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' talk of 2000 "striplings" who go to war?}}
{{:Question: Is Gilbert Hunt's phrase "the fourth day of this seventh month" in ''The Late War'' a source for the Book of Mormon phrase "the fourth day of this seventh month" in Alma 10:6?}}
{{:Question: Was the Book of Mormon description of a cataclysm at the time of Christ's death derived from a similar description in Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?}} 
{{:Question: Are there similarities between the description of forts in the Book of Mormon and Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?}}
{{:Question: Does the Book of Mormon mention "steel" of "fine workmanship" as described in Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?}}
{{:Question: Does the Book of Mormon, like Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'', talk of "freemen who came to the defence of the city, built strong holds and forts, and raised up fortifications in abundance"?}}
{{:Question: Were the Three Nephites of the Book of Mormon based upon three of the "lying prophets among the savages" in Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?}}
{{:Question: Is there significance to the fact that both the Book of Mormon and Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' mention a "rod of iron"?}}
{{:Question: Do both the Book of Mormon and Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' talk about people maintaining a "standard of liberty"?}}
{{:Question: How similar are the Late War and the Book of Mormon in their descriptions of Christopher Columbus?}}
{{:Question: Could Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' have given Joseph Smith the idea of using brass plates as a way of recording information?}}
{{:Question: Does Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War'' describe "Boats and barges built from trees after the fashion of the ark"?}}
{{:Question: Was the Book of Mormon phrase "it came to pass" derived from Gilbert Hunt's ''The Late War''?}}
{{:Question: Could Joseph Smith have learned about Hebraisms from Gilbert Hunt's "The Late War"?}}
{{:Question: Does Gilbert Hunt's book ''The Late War'' contain rare phrases that do not appear in other works but only appear in the Book of Mormon?}}
{{:Question: Could the Book of Mormon been influenced by the Late War in its use of lions in similes?}}
{{:Question: Are the descriptions of Nephi (from the Book of Mormon) and Fulton’s (from The Late War) ships similar enough to suggest authorial relationship?}}
{{:Question: Could the fact that Orson Pratt considered cureloms to possibly be mammoths support the theory that Joseph Smith used Gilbert Hunt's The Late War in "authoring" The Book of Mormon?}}
{{:Question: Are the Book of Mormon's and the Late War's descriptions of travel to "faraway lands" similar enough to suggest an authorial relationship?}}
{{:Question: Are the Book of Mormon and the Late War's descriptions of the pitching of tents similar?}}
{{:Question: Do the Late War and the Book of Mormon describe "burned martyrs" in a similar way?}}
{{:Question: Do the Late War and the Book of Mormon describe a "Spiritual being entering hearts" in a similar way?}}
{{:Question: Do the Late War and the Book of Mormon share a similarity in describing women as "tender"&mdash;prey to the lusts of men?}}
{{:Question: Do the Late War and the Book of Mormon describe their battle casualties in a similar way?}}
==Comparison between Tecumseh/Moriavon Town and Teancum/Morianton==
The authors comment on the supposed connection between the Tecumseh and Moriavon Town of the Late War with the Teancum and Morianton of the Book of Mormon. This is our commentary from our page on the [[Question: How valid are the names used in the Holley Map?|validity of names]] in the Vernal Holley Maps
===<span style="color:green">Moraviantown</span> = Morianton (existed)===

Moravian Indian Reserve No. 47, Ontario, appears to have been established in 1782. 

Holley made a lot of noise about the supposed similarities between Morivan Town/Tecumseh and Morianton/Teancum. One reviewer of this criticism noted:

<blockquote> Most early publications and maps refer to the community as Moravian Village (see this [http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/37571/A_Map_of_the_Province_of_Upper_Canada_and_the_Adjacent_Territories_in_North/Chewett-Ridout.html 1826 map of Canada], for example). However, the 1819 publication [[Book of Mormon/Plagiarism accusations/The Late War|The Late War]] (a favorite among church critics) notes it as Moravian Town (page 115).<ref>Mary Ann, "Want to Attack or Defend?"</ref></blockquote>

Critics tend to associate Tecumseh and Moriavian Town by means of the Late War instead of the maps. Moravian Town is more often named "Moravian Village" in the maps or "Moravian Indian Reserve" as noted above. Tecumseh is not even listed as a town [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tecumseh,_Ontario until 1912] which Holley himself noted in his publication. One reviewer pointed out Tecumseth in Canada as a possible candidate. As they noted:

<blockquote>
The name was given in 1821, and settlers arrived soon after. The township is depicted on an 1826 map of Canada. An American option is, of course, the city of Tecumseh in Lenawee County, Michigan. The city was established in 1824, and appears on many maps of the 1820s. The town is also cited in the 1825 version of the United States Official Postal Guide (page 92).<ref>Ibid.</ref></blockquote>

Thus, Joseph would have to have either seen the names in maps and modified both a bit to get Morianton and Teancum or seen them in the Late War (or perhaps, by some weird chance, he saw one from both). The problem with the first theory is that the names would come from basically two different maps—one from the U.S. and the other from Canada. Additionally, there is no evidence that Joseph was looking at these maps prior to the publication of the Book of Mormon. The problem with the second theory is that Tecumseh and Moravian Town are separated both physically and thematically in Hunt's book (See pp 115, 118). Additionally, there is no evidence Joseph saw this work. The simplest explanation for the names would be Joseph's story.

More information on the name "Morianton" may be found [https://onoma.lib.byu.edu/index.php/MORIANTON here]. 
More information on the name "Teancum" may be found [https://onoma.lib.byu.edu/index.php/TEANCUM here].

{{InterpreterBar
|author=Benjamin L. McGuire
|authorlink=http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/author/benm/
|title=The Late War Against the Book of Mormon
|link=http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-late-war-against-the-book-of-mormon/
|vol=7
|start=323
|end=355
|date=November 1, 2013
|summary=Recently, the Exmormon Foundation held their annual conference in Salt Lake City. A presentation by Chris and Duane Johnson proposed a new statistical model for discussing authorship of the Book of Mormon. The study attempts to connect the Book of Mormon to a text published in 1816: The Late War Between the United States and Great Britain. The latter is a history of the war of 1812 deliberately written in a scriptural style. A traditional (non-statistical) comparison between this text and the Book of Mormon was apparently introduced by Rick Grunder in his 2008 bibliography Mormon Parallels. I will discuss only the statistical model presented by the Johnsons here.
}}

{{InterpreterBar
|author=G. Bruce Schaalje
|authorlink=http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/author/bruce/
|title=A Bayesian Cease-Fire in the Late War on the Book of Mormon
|link=http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/a-bayesian-cease-fire-in-the-late-war-on-the-book-of-mormon/
|blog=yes
|date=November 6, 2013
|summary=Useful steps when thinking about any difficult or disconcerting issue are to state the components of the issue as clearly as possible, and combine them in a way that is logically and mathematically justified.<br>
Such an issue is the recent claim that an 1816 scriptural-style history of the War of 1812 entitled The Late War between the United States and Great Britain (LW) had an influence on the Book of Mormon.
}}
{{InterpreterBar
|author= Stanford Carmack
|authorlink=http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/author/stanfordc/
|title=Is the Book of Mormon a Pseudo-Archaic Text?
|link=http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/is-the-book-of-mormon-a-pseudo-archaic-text/
|blog=yes
|date= March 16, 2018
|summary= In recent years the Book of Mormon has been compared to pseudo-biblical texts like Gilbert J. Hunt’s The Late War (1816). Some have found strong linguistic correspondence and declared that there is an authorial relationship. However, comparative linguistic studies performed to date have focused on data with low probative value vis-à-vis the question of authorship. What has been lacking is non-trivial descriptive linguistic analysis that focuses on less contextual and more complex types of data, such as syntax and morphosyntax (grammatical features such as verb agreement and inflection), as well as data less obviously biblical and/or less susceptible to conscious manipulation. Those are the kinds of linguistic studies that have greater probative value in relation to authorship, and that can determine whether Joseph Smith might have been able to produce Book of Mormon grammar. In order to determine whether it is a good match with the form and structure of pseudo-biblical writings, I investigate nearly 10 kinds of syntax and morphosyntax that occur in the Book of Mormon and the King James Bible, comparing their usage with each other and with that of four pseudo-biblical texts. Findings are summarized toward the end of the article, along with some observations on biblical hypercorrection and alternative LDS views on Book of Mormon language.

}}
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[[pt:O Livro de Mórmon/Acusações de Plágio/A última guerra]]