Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: frog!jp@harvard.harvard.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The Mormon Religion Message-ID: Date: 12 Aug 90 09:01:54 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Charles River Data Systems Lines: 31 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article cms@dragon.uucp writes: > The Book of Mormon has more than 25,000 words quoted from the King James >Bible. The Mormons say that Nephi must have brought the Hebrew Bible with him >and this accounts for the quotations from the Old Testament. It stretches >the >limits of credulity to believe that the translations of the inscribed plates >came out in King James English without variation more than 1000 years before >the 1611 Authorized Version was written. I fail to understand how the BoM containing over 25,000 words of the Bible "stretches the limits of credulity [in believing] that the translation" came from a book written in 1611. First off, it is necessary to acknowledge that the section being refered to here, is a mere 3.48% of the whole Book of Mormon. Secondly, the quotes are not exact, but more correct, since the translator, Joseph Smith, with divine knowledge corrected it to what Isaiah really said -- it's important to note that the Bible was first translated into english in 1320 by John Wycliffe, and that by 1611 when the Authorized Version was made the Bible was continously updated and "corrected". Lastly, Nephi didn't bring with him the Hebrew Bible in 600 BC, because it didn't exist; what did exist where copies of the words of Isaiah and it is this which he brought. The largest section which is similiar to the Bible can be found in 2 Nephi from chapters 12 through 24, refering to Isaiah chapters 2 though 14. In 2 Nephi 11:8, Nephi states that he will be reading from the words of Isaiah, and starting in chapter 25 of 2 Nephi, Nephi explains to his people just what Isaiah is talking about. It would seem his people weren't too bright :-) >-- >Sincerely, >Cindy Smith