Thursday, April 17, 2014

An Athenaeum criticism of the BoM from 1841

In this article from the Catholic English newspaper the Tablet, from April 17th, 1841, a longer article from the Athenaeum is abridged that raises some interesting criticisms of the Book of Mormon.

  • The description of the Catholic Church in 1 Nephi 13 is noted as anachronistic, paralleling Revelations 17,1-6 (which mentions scarlet). The idea is blamed on Maria Monk's forged confessions and the general Anti-Catholic sentiment this raised in 1825.
  • The mentioning of the compass in the Book of Mormon is explained by reference to the fact that the King James Version uses the expression "fetch a compass" to mean a "circuitous route" in Acts 28:13.
  • The article notes the language confusion in treating "Christ" as a name, though it is a Greek translation of the Hebrew title "Messiah".
  • Similarly, using the name of Jesus is again using the Greek form rather than then expected Hebrew form "Joshua" or "Jeshua".
  • The article notes the language confusion in Christ designating himself as the Alpha and the Omega (Revelations 1:8), which again presupposed a Greek alphabet, rather than a Hebrew one.

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