Book of Mormon/Textual changes/"Benjamin" changed to "Mosiah"

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Criticism

In the text currently found in Mosiah 21:28 and Ether 4:1 of the Book of Mormon, the 1830 edition reads "Benjamin", while all subsequent editions read "Mosiah." Critics claim that "either God made a mistake when He inspired the record or Joseph made a mistake when he translated it."

Source(s) of the criticism

• John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Mormonism (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1992), p. 310.
• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House, 1985), p. 186.
• Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm, 1972), p. 90.
• James White, Letters to a Mormon Elder (Southbridge, Massachusetts: Crowne, 1990), pp. 184-185.

Response

Background

The people of King Limhi were living under domination of the Lamanites, and had been separated for a number of years from the main body of the Nephites located in Zarahemla. Limhi's group sent out a "a small number of men" to search for the city of Zarahemla. These men became lost, but they did locate "a land which was covered with dry bones; yea, a land which had been peopled, and which had been destroyed." Amongst the ruins they located a record "engraven on plates of ore." Assuming this land to be the land of Zarahemla, the search party returned to report to Limhi, bringing the plates with them. Limhi did not have the ability to translate this record and was therefore unable to determine what was contained upon these plates.

Ammon, while on his mission to convert the Lamanites, encountered the people of Limhi "not many days" after the plates were obtained. The 1830 Book of Mormon reports that "Limhi was again filled with joy, on learning from the mouth of Ammon that King Benjamin had a gift from God, whereby he could interpret such engravings; yea, and Ammon did also rejoice."^[1] However, a number of chapters prior to the description of this event, King Benjamin is reported to have died after turning over the kingship to his son Mosiah.

Conclusion

 ^{[needs work]}

Endnotes

1. [note] Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, p. 200.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

• Topical Guide/Book of Mormon/Textual Issues/Changes in the Book of Mormon

FAIR web site

• L. Ara Norwood, Benjamin or Mosiah? Resolving an Anomaly in Mosiah 21:28