Criticism of Mormonism/Books/No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith/Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder

Page	Claim	Response	Use of sources
53	Joseph warned Martin Harris that God's wrath would strike him down if he examined the plates or looked at him while he was translating.	Viewing the gold plates would result in death?	No source provided.
53	Harris once tried to trick Joseph by substituting an ordinary stone for the seer stone.	Joseph Smith and seer stones	Summary of Martin Harris' sermon in Salt Lake City, September 4, 1870, Historical Record, Vol. VI, p. 216.
54	Lucy Harris stole the manuscript and "neither pleas nor blows could make her divulge its hiding place."	Lucy states in the Hurlbut affidavits that her husband "has whipped, kicked, and turned me out of the house." Despite the fact that Lucy Harris makes no mention of the lost 116 pages of manuscript from the Book of Mormon, Fawn Brodie actually concludes that Harris beat his wife in order to get her to divulge what she had done with the lost 116 pages of manuscript. The Hurlbut affidavits—Lucy Harris	Author's speculation.
54	Joseph realized that he could not duplicate the 116 pages exactly.	Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this. The lost 116 pages of The Book of Lehi	Author's conjecture.
55	Joseph's family was counting on sales of the Book of Mormon to prevent foreclosure on their farm.	Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.: the author presents no evidence for this claim.	[ATTENTION!]
55	Once Joseph had translated the small plates of Nephi, he could go back to the old plates and carry on.	History unclear or in error: Joseph likely continued to translate the large plates, and only finished with the small plates at the end. Book of Mormon translation chronology	[ATTENTION!]
58	The Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon were "chiefly those chapters from Isaiah mentioned in Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews."	The author's claim is false: View of the Hebrews Chapter 2 quotes Deuteronomy 30; Isaiah 11, 18, 60, 65; Jeremiah 16, 23, 30-31, 35-37; Zephaniah 3; Amos 9; Hosea and Joel. Out of these, only Isaiah 11 appears in the Book of Mormon. See also Jeff Lindsay, Did Joseph Smith plagiarize from View of the Hebrews when writing the Book of Mormon? Analysis of Isaiah usage in Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews	No source provided.
58	Joseph was careful to modify primarily the italicized interpolation in the King James text.	Mainly the italics altered?	Author's conjecture.
58	Joseph incorporated one of his father's dreams into the Book of Mormon	Joseph Smith, Sr.'s dream and Lehi's vision	Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches, pp. 58-9.
59	Early in the writing Joseph vigorously attacked the Catholic Church as the "great and abominable church" and the "whore of all the earth"	Misrepresentation of source: Great and abominable church	Source not provided.
62	Joseph Smith's lack of education is "a favorite thesis designed to prove the authenticity" of the Book of Mormon.	Book of Mormon authorship theories	Author's opinion.
62-63	Joseph Smith borrowed many stories from the Bible.	Book of Mormon plagiarized from the Bible	Author's opinion.
63	Joseph's sentence structure in the Book of Mormon was "loose-jointed, like an earthworm hacked into segments that crawl away alive and whole."	Chiasmus	Author's opinion.
65	The story of the Gadianton band reflects the anti-Masonic feelings in New York at the time that the Book of Mormon was produced.	Book of Mormon anachronisms/Gadianton masons	No source given. Author's conjecture.