FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Are the major thematic elements of the Spalding manuscript similar to those in the Book of Mormon?
This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.
Spalding manuscript parallels
==Questions
== Critics claim that the major thematic elements between the extent Spalding manuscript (also known as the Obelin manuscript) and the Book of Mormon are same.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
==Detailed Analysis
== We examine parallels between the Spalding manuscript and the Book of Mormon in the following sections.
Claim: Both works refer to an ancient record that was found under a stone which was removed by a lever
Relevant excerpts from the Spalding manuscript:
Near the west bank of the Coneaught River there are the remains of an ancient fort. As I was walking and forming various conjectures respecting the character, situation, & numbers of those people who far exceeded the present Indians in works of art and ingenuity, I hapned to tread on a flat stone.....
With the assistance of a leaver I raised the stone....
I discovered that its ends and sides rested on stones & that it was designed as a cover to an artificial Cave. ....
I prepared myself with necessary requisites for that purpose and decended to the Bottom of the Cave. ....
Here I noticed a big flat stone fixed in the form of a doar. I immediately tore it down and Lo, a cavity within the wall presented itself it being about three feet in diamiter from side to side and about two feet high. Within this cavity I found an earthen Box with a cover which shut it perfectly tite. The Box was two feet in length one & half in breadth & one & three inches in diameter. ....
When I had removed the Cover I found that it contained twenty-eight rolls of parchment -- & -- that when - - - appeared to be manuscrips written in eligant hand with Roman letters & in the Latin Language.
Claim: Both works refer to seer stones.
Hamack then arose & in his hand he held a stone which he pronounced transparent. Thro' this he could view things present & things to come, could behold the dark intrigues & cabals of foreign courts, & behold discover hidden treasures, secluded from the eyes of other mortals. He could behold the galant & his mistress in their bed chamber, &count all their moles warts & pimples. Such was the clearness of his sight, when this transparent stone was placed before his eyes. He looked fiercely & steadfastly on the stone & raised his prophetic voice.