Book of Mormon/Plagiarism accusations/The Wonders of Nature - Revision history

RogerNicholson: Redirected page to Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize Josiah Priest's ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed''?

2017-04-09T05:57:28Z

Redirected page to Question: Did Joseph Smith plagiarize Josiah Priest's ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed''?

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RogerNicholson at 01:30, 2 February 2015

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RogerNicholson at 01:30, 2 February 2015

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RogerNicholson at 01:29, 2 February 2015

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RogerNicholson at 01:29, 2 February 2015

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RogerNicholson at 01:28, 2 February 2015

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RogerNicholson at 01:26, 2 February 2015

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RogerNicholson at 01:19, 2 February 2015

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-Matthew Roper makes several observations regarding this claim:
+{{FME-Source
-#There is no evidence that Joseph Smith ever read Priest's book before he translated the Book of Mormon.
+It is claimed that Joseph Smith plagiarized Shakespeare in order to write portions of ''The Book of Mormon''. However, there is no evidence that Joseph had read Priest's book.  Even so, there is so little of it that has parallels with the Book of Mormon that this would provide a forger with little help. The passages which suggest Shakespeare are better explained by other ancient parallels; in any case, these passages provide very little that would assist in writing the Book of Mormon.
 ===Whence no traveler returns===
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 :Shakespeare should sue; but Lehi, a lover of poetic imagery and high-flown speech, can hardly be denied the luxury of speaking as he was supposed to speak. The ideas to which he here gives such familiar and conventional expression are actually not his own ideas about life after death—nor Nephi's nor Joseph Smith's, for that matter, but they are the ideas which any eloquent man of Lehi's day, with a sound literary education such as Lehi had, would be expected and required to use. And so the most popular and obvious charge of fraud against the Book of Mormon has backfired.<ref>{{Nibley6_1|start=276&ndash;277}}</ref>
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RogerNicholson at 21:00, 19 November 2014

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	*It is claimed that Joseph Smith plagiarized Josiah Priest's ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed'' in order to write portions of ''The Book of Mormon''.		*It is claimed that Joseph Smith plagiarized Josiah Priest's ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed'' in order to write portions of ''The Book of Mormon''.
	*It is claimed that Joseph Smith plagiarized Shakespeare.		*It is claimed that Joseph Smith plagiarized Shakespeare.

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GregSmith at 03:31, 4 June 2014

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	#There is no evidence that Joseph Smith ever read Priest's book before he translated the Book of Mormon.		#There is no evidence that Joseph Smith ever read Priest's book before he translated the Book of Mormon.
	#That there are very few ways to describe an isthmus. Roper states, "In his 1828 dictionary, Noah Webster defines the word neck as 'a long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts; as the neck of land between Boston and Roxbury.' "{{~~ref\|roper1~~}}		#That there are very few ways to describe an isthmus. Roper states, "In his 1828 dictionary, Noah Webster defines the word neck as 'a long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts; as the neck of land between Boston and Roxbury.' "<ref>{{FR-9-1-14}} <!--Roper--></ref>

	===Whence no traveler returns===		===Whence no traveler returns===
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	B.H. Roberts notes that the critic "fairly revels in the thought that he has Lehi quoting Shakespeare many generations before our great English poet was born; and indulges in the sarcasms which Campbell and more than a score of anti-Mormon writers have indulged in who have mimicked his phraseology." Roberts notes that the Book of Job, contained in the Jewish scriptures that Lehi certainly would have been familiar with, contains two passages "which could easily have supplied both Shakespeare and Lehi with the idea of that country 'from whose bourn no traveler returns.'" In other words, Lehi could have obtained his idea from the ''same source'' from which Shakespeare obtained the inspiration for his phrase. Roberts concludes:		B.H. Roberts notes that the critic "fairly revels in the thought that he has Lehi quoting Shakespeare many generations before our great English poet was born; and indulges in the sarcasms which Campbell and more than a score of anti-Mormon writers have indulged in who have mimicked his phraseology." Roberts notes that the Book of Job, contained in the Jewish scriptures that Lehi certainly would have been familiar with, contains two passages "which could easily have supplied both Shakespeare and Lehi with the idea of that country 'from whose bourn no traveler returns.'" In other words, Lehi could have obtained his idea from the ''same source'' from which Shakespeare obtained the inspiration for his phrase. Roberts concludes:

	:It will be observed that the passage from the Book of Mormon follows Job more closely than it does Shakespeare both in thought and diction; and this for the reason, doubtless, that Lehi had been impressed with Job's idea of going to the land whence he would not return, and Joseph Smith, being familiar with Job, and very likely not familiar with Shakespeare, when he came to Lehi's thought, expressed it nearly in Job's phraseology...Lehi lived in Judea in the seventh and sixth century, B.C. He was acquainted with the Hebrew scriptures, including the book of Job, and when he departed from Jerusalem for the western world his colony took with them those same scriptures. Through them he became familiar in the Hebrew with Job's--"Let me alone, that I may take comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return." Also Job's--"When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." When Lehi's own hour of departure hence had come, impressed with this solemn thought of Job's, he gave expression to it in Hebrew. The saying was recorded by his son Nephi in the Egyptian characters employed by him in making his record. Observe that we have traced these ideas of the "land whence I shall not return" into the Nephite records without the aid of the English Bible or Shakespeare. {{~~ref~~\|~~roberts.~~1:333}}		:It will be observed that the passage from the Book of Mormon follows Job more closely than it does Shakespeare both in thought and diction; and this for the reason, doubtless, that Lehi had been impressed with Job's idea of going to the land whence he would not return, and Joseph Smith, being familiar with Job, and very likely not familiar with Shakespeare, when he came to Lehi's thought, expressed it nearly in Job's phraseology...Lehi lived in Judea in the seventh and sixth century, B.C. He was acquainted with the Hebrew scriptures, including the book of Job, and when he departed from Jerusalem for the western world his colony took with them those same scriptures. Through them he became familiar in the Hebrew with Job's--"Let me alone, that I may take comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return." Also Job's--"When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." When Lehi's own hour of departure hence had come, impressed with this solemn thought of Job's, he gave expression to it in Hebrew. The saying was recorded by his son Nephi in the Egyptian characters employed by him in making his record. Observe that we have traced these ideas of the "land whence I shall not return" into the Nephite records without the aid of the English Bible or Shakespeare.<ref>{{DFS1 \|article=A Brief Debate on the Book of Mormon\|vol=1\|start=333}}</ref>

	====Hugh Nibley====		====Hugh Nibley====
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	:This is a good deal closer to Lehi's language than Shakespeare is. The same sentiments are found in Egyptian literature, as in a popular song which tells how "the gods that were aforetime rest in their pyramids. . . . None cometh again from thence that he may tell of their state. . . . Lo, none may take his goods with him, and none that hath gone may come again." A literary text reports: "The mockers say, 'The house of the inhabitants of the Land of the West is deep and dark; it has no door and no window. . . . There the sun never rises but they lie forever in the dark.' "		:This is a good deal closer to Lehi's language than Shakespeare is. The same sentiments are found in Egyptian literature, as in a popular song which tells how "the gods that were aforetime rest in their pyramids. . . . None cometh again from thence that he may tell of their state. . . . Lo, none may take his goods with him, and none that hath gone may come again." A literary text reports: "The mockers say, 'The house of the inhabitants of the Land of the West is deep and dark; it has no door and no window. . . . There the sun never rises but they lie forever in the dark.' "

	:Shakespeare should sue; but Lehi, a lover of poetic imagery and high-flown speech, can hardly be denied the luxury of speaking as he was supposed to speak. The ideas to which he here gives such familiar and conventional expression are actually not his own ideas about life after death—nor Nephi's nor Joseph Smith's, for that matter, but they are the ideas which any eloquent man of Lehi's day, with a sound literary education such as Lehi had, would be expected and required to use. And so the most popular and obvious charge of fraud against the Book of Mormon has backfired.{{~~ref~~\|~~nibley.~~276.277}}		:Shakespeare should sue; but Lehi, a lover of poetic imagery and high-flown speech, can hardly be denied the luxury of speaking as he was supposed to speak. The ideas to which he here gives such familiar and conventional expression are actually not his own ideas about life after death—nor Nephi's nor Joseph Smith's, for that matter, but they are the ideas which any eloquent man of Lehi's day, with a sound literary education such as Lehi had, would be expected and required to use. And so the most popular and obvious charge of fraud against the Book of Mormon has backfired.<ref>{{Nibley6_1\|start=276–277}}</ref>

	===Vapour and darkness===		===Vapour and darkness===
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	\|"Darkness which may be felt.... vapours ... so thick as to prevent the rays of the sun from penetrating an extraordinary thick mist. ... no artificial light could be procured ... vapours would prevent lamps, etc. from burning. ... [T]he darkness lasted for three days." (p. 524)		\|"Darkness which may be felt.... vapours ... so thick as to prevent the rays of the sun from penetrating an extraordinary thick mist. ... no artificial light could be procured ... vapours would prevent lamps, etc. from burning. ... [T]he darkness lasted for three days." (p. 524)
	\|\|"[They] could feel the vapour of darkness, and there could be no light ... neither candles, neither torches, ... neither the sun ... for so great were the mists of darkness ... [I]t did last for the space of three days." (3 Nephi 8:20-23)		\|\|"[They] could feel the vapour of darkness, and there could be no light ... neither candles, neither torches, ... neither the sun ... for so great were the mists of darkness ... [I]t did last for the space of three days." ({{s\|3\|Nephi\|8\|20-23}})
	\|\|They saw not one another. So deep was the obscurity, and probably such was its nature, that no artificial light could be procured; as the thick clammy vapors would prevent lamps, &c., from burning, or if they even could be ignited, the light through the palpable obscurity, could diffuse itself to no distance from the burning body. The author of the book of Wisdom, chap. xvii. 2-19, gives a fearful description of this plague. He says, "The Egyptians were shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness: and were fettered with the bonds of a long night. They were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with strange apparitions; for neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear; but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them; and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances.		\|\|They saw not one another. So deep was the obscurity, and probably such was its nature, that no artificial light could be procured; as the thick clammy vapors would prevent lamps, &c., from burning, or if they even could be ignited, the light through the palpable obscurity, could diffuse itself to no distance from the burning body. The author of the book of Wisdom, chap. xvii. 2-19, gives a fearful description of this plague. He says, "The Egyptians were shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness: and were fettered with the bonds of a long night. They were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with strange apparitions; for neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear; but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them; and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances.

	No power of the fire could give them light-only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself very dreadful; for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not. For though no terrible thing did scare them, yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear: for whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of tripping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains, these things made them to swoon for fear." See ~~Psalm lxxviii.~~ 49.		No power of the fire could give them light-only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself very dreadful; for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not. For though no terrible thing did scare them, yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear: for whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of tripping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains, these things made them to swoon for fear." See {{b\|\|Psalms\|78\|49}}.

	To this description nothing need be added except this circumstance, that the darkness, with its attendant horrors, lasted for three days.		To this description nothing need be added except this circumstance, that the darkness, with its attendant horrors, lasted for three days.
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	~~#{{note\|roper1}}{{FR-9-1-14}}~~ <~~!--Roper--~~>		{{Endnotes label}}
	~~#{{note\|roberts.1.333}} {{DFS1 \|article=A Brief Debate on the Book of Mormon\|vol=1\|start=333}}~~		<references />
	~~#{{note\|nibley.276.277}} {{Nibley6_1\|start=276–277}}~~

	=={{Further ~~reading label~~}}==		{{Further Reading}}

	*Hugh W. Nibley, [http://farms.byu.edu/publications/bookschapter.php?bookid=&chapid=603 "Lehi the Poet—A Desert Idyll"] from ''An Approach to the Book of Mormon'', pp. 265–77.
	*{{JBMS-2-2-11}} <!--Roper-->

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	[[fr:Book of Mormon/Plagiarism accusations/The Wonders of Nature]]		[[fr:Book of Mormon/Plagiarism accusations/The Wonders of Nature]]