Book of mormon, 1837, page 161 the joseph smith papers. The most common belief of adherents is that promoted by joseph smith, who said he translated ancient golden plates inscribed by prophets. Jul 25, 2016 a feature of almas exhortation to corianton that may be easy to overlook is the symbolic use of the number ten. Foundation for ancient research and mormon studies, 1999. How many words does the book of mormon have answers. Book of mormon central evidences of the book of mormon. The number of times the phrase is used expressed as a total and as a percentage and the rate of occurrence expressed as one occurrence every so many words. The show tells the story of two young mormon missionaries sent off to spread the word in a dangerous part of uganda while gently lampooning organized religion and traditional musical theatre. In many of these verses, it is used more than once. Book, music and lyrics by robert lopez, trey parker, matt stone. In many ancient civilizations, including among the israelites, certain numbers were considered to hold sacred meaning or importance. Together these eight volumes have about the same number of words as the book of mormon, but contrast in voice, character development, and other aspects. The number of times the phrase is used expressed as a total and as a percentage and the rate of occurrence expressed as one occurrence every so many words are listed for each individual book, varying considerably. Horses are mentioned in eight different book of mormon episodes that involve an ancient new world setting.
For example, the book of 1 nephi makes 150 references to the savior, using 23 different names, but it never uses the name jesus or christ. A biblical scholar looks at the book of mormon mormons in. The higher the number of rejections or differences, the less likely it is that the tested samples were written by the same person. Most adherents to the latter day saint movement view the book as a work of inspired scripture. I found one called the simple concordance program scp. Proximity searches boolean searches browse the book of mormon. Twentyseven chapters in the kjv of the bible are repeated almost verbatim in the 239 chapters of the book of mormon. Meaning is found in many ways, and one way is in the symbolism of numbers. And now i write some of the words of isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men. When i saw this, i immediately wondered how many times each word appears in the book of mormon, so i searched for freeware or open source software that can determine word frequency. In particular, that book explicitly states that the lord commanded moroni to divide the plates of mormon into three parts which would each come out at a different time.
The book of mormon has a number of original and distinctive doctrinal. Thats right, i looked at detailed information regarding the entire 1,417,809 characters, 267,931 words, 7,679 sentences, and 369,797 syllables found in the book of mormonpages and pages of information just waiting to provide insight and new perspective. The thesis of the paper is that the same type of numerology used by hebrews in the ancient world shows up in the book of mormon. Each of the anachronisms is a word, phrase, artifact, or other concept that critics, historians. According to the text of the book of mormon, the word mormon stems from the land of mormon, where the prophet alma preached the gospel and baptized converts. The book of mormon as the keystone of church administration. The word yea in the bible and in the book of mormon. Gospel cougar has posted a list of book of mormon word counts. Mormon also wrote two books within the book of mormon that bear his name the words of mormon and the book of mormon. Long ago their fathers came from far across the sea, givn the land if they lived righteously. The book of mormon is a sacred text of the latter day saint movement, which, according to.
Linguistic anachronisms in the book of mormon are words that represent concepts that are not believed to have existed in the americas between 2500 b. On average one of every nine chapters in the book of mormon is copied from the bible. Some readers wonder why these words occur so often in the book of mormon compared with the bible. Royal skousen, the history of the text of the book of mormon, part 3. This of course depends on whether you are going by pages, chapters, verses, words, etc. Oct 28, 2017 i took the text of the book of mormon not including chapter summaries that were added later and ran each book through a program that looks at everything from the mostused words and phrases in the text to its level of readability, number of characters, longest sentence captain moroni holds the record with a sentence of 5 words in alma 60. Evidence that the new testament phrases in the book of mormon. Book of mormon stories that my teacher tells to me. Table 1 provides statistics for the use of the word yea in the book of mormon. Alma is the longest book in the book of mormon if you go by pages or chapters.
Corianton had bought into the wrong plan, and thus alma. Why does alma mention the plan ten times in his words to. Although the book of mormon speaks of the savior a great many times, beginning in the very first chapter, it does not introduce the words jesus or christ until 78 pages into the book. Mormon was the chief abridger and editor of the full book of mormon. Numbers are mentioned numerous times in the book of mormon and in the bible. The implication here is that the author of the book of mormon read the phrase in the bible, and either unconsciously or consciously worked the surrounding phrases into the text. How many chapters are in the book of mormon answers. Tammy uzelac hall, the host of lds livings sunday on monday, shares an answer to this and other questions readers might have in their studies of the book of mormon this week. When i saw this, i immediately wondered how many times each word appears in the book of mormon, so i searched for freeware or open source. I think the book of mormon musical is mostly about how whether it is a phrase, a book of scripture, or a star wars story, we all can find something to hang on to to get us through hard times. Dec 23, 2007 as stated in its title, this entry contains a very long list of words from the book of mormon. Second, the king james chapter specifications are ignored. The words of mormon contains editorial commentary by mormon.
The choice of the number of different words as a counting unit allows the. Prophet, theologian, historian religious studies center. The book of mormon musical songs lyrics book, music and lyrics by robert lopez, trey parker, matt stone. Ive tried to find someone besides joseph smith who has produced a book of 273,725 words while in their midtwenties. Whats going on in the book of mormon isaiah chapters. Most of the unique words in the book of mormon are proper names.
Dec 12, 2017 since the book of mormons publication in 1830, a number of different theories have been proposed concerning its authorship. There are a number of words and phrases in the book of mormon that are anachronistic their existence in the text of the book of mormon is at odds with known linguistic patterns or archaeological findings. To the prayerful and the sincere, the book of mormon bears a powerful testimony. Is stylometry the ultimate proof that joseph smith did not. Oct 25, 2016 according to hugh nibley, the father of contemporary mormon scriptural and theological scholarship, the book of mormon can and should be tested. This paper is based on a talk and powerpoint presentation given to the book of mormon lands conference, 20 october 2007.
These words are not in common use in the english language, aside from a few cities and towns which were founded by mormons and. The term mormon is taken from the title of the book of mormon, a sacred text adherents believe to have been translated from golden plates which had their location revealed by an angel to joseph smith and published in 1830. To help you gain perspective of the number of pages of the book of mormon that are devoted to various time periods, see the chart nephite record keepers in the appendix page 408. Number of pages in books of the book of mormon book of. Jun 10, 2012 opening number to the 66th tony awards.
A forum for exmormons and others who have been affected by. Periodically, he added editorial commentaries of his own that were skillfully woven into the texts of the primary authors in that record. Book of mormon numerology rational faiths mormon blog. Book of mormon wordprint analysis lds church is true blog. There are 5,630 unique words in the book of mormon. What can stylometry tell us about book of mormon authorship. Jan 31, 2019 the book of mormon musical has many positive messages. Each of its unique names has now been looked at by scholars with linguistic training, and it turns out that a good number of them have plausible links with words or names in ancient near eastern languages, especially with hebrew and egyptian. The initial book of mormon wordprint studies were carried out by larsen, rencher, and layton. Book of mormon musical opening number hello youtube.
Why three is important in mesoamerica and in the book of mormon. The data is presented by book as well as by author. They compared twentyfour book of mormon authors each having at least 1,000 words to each other, and concluded on the basis of three separate statistical tests that these authors were distinct from each other and oliver cowdery, joseph smith, jr. Critics consider several book of mormon anachronisms to originate in the kjv. Yes, it is a list of about 3500 words found in the book of mormon just eyeballing it, along with the number of occurences. This entry alone saved the gospel cougar blog from my endofyear sidebar culling sorry. Whereas we often look upon 2 nephi as the place we get stuck when reading the book of mormon because of the dreaded isaiah chapters, nephi offered us the option of rejoicing in them.
Apr 10, 2018 but in this presentation, they chose to compare two novels each from jane austin, charles dickens, james fennimore cooper, mark twain with the book of mormon. Within these chapters, alma referred to the plan of redemption precisely ten times. One of the best ways to test the book of mormons historical authenticity is to look at its names. In many cases, the biblical quotations in the englishlanguage book of mormon, are close, or identical to the equivalent sections of the kjv. Book of mormon 9 the fry graph plots the number of sentences per 100 words book of mormon is 2. To the prayerful and the sincere, the book of mormon bears a powerful testimony that jesus is the christ, the eternal god. Similarly, other early iterations of doctrine and covenants 20, rather than spelling out the words of the sacrament prayers, mechanically refer the reader to book of mormon, page 175 in other words, page 175 in the 1830 edition of the book of mormon, or they place the material from moroni 45 and 3nephi 11 in quotation marks. The book of mormons score of 1150 represents an eighthgrade reading level with a span between sixth and eleventh. A major criticism of the book of mormon is that material was taken verbatim from other sources available to joseph smith at the time. In our day, the book of mormon has influenced the lives of millions of people around the world by bringing them closer to jesus christ. John welch said regarding numbers in scripture, the number of times something occurs or is mentioned. Those books with at least one occurrence per 250 words are shown in red.
The subject of hebrew numerology in the book of mormon has been identified as a promising field of study still open to fruitful exploration. Aug 12, 2014 i am excited to announce the publication of my paper on hebrew numerology in the book of mormon in the most recent issue of byustudies, 53. A stylometric analysis of mormon scripture and related texts d. The principles that were recorded in the book of mormonfaith in jesus christ, repentance, baptism, joy, salvationchanged the lives of an ancient people. There are actually two lists, one alphetical and one sorted by frequency. Book of mormon stories say that we must brothers be. Lamanites met others who were seeking liberty, and the land soon welcomed all who wanted to be free. The word word or words is used in 790 verses in the book of mormon. Hilton, comparing writings of nephi and alma with the. Book of mormon word count hi guys, ive never posted here but im working on a proposal for an article and it deals with word count of the book of mormon. There are several theories as to the origin of the book of mormon.
1090 812 515 29 528 1462 1002 779 280 306 62 577 388 463 580 1620 1329 1088 253 845 1229 162 478 819 1336 798 1401 864 1185 1353 1233 575 246 271 344