The Spalding Theory of Book of Mormon authorship


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Questions

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Critics claim that Joseph Smith either plagiarized or relied upon a manuscript by Solomon Spaulding to write the Book of Mormon. There is a small group of critics who hold to the theory that the production of the Book of Mormon was a conspiracy involving Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and others. These critics search for links between Spalding and Rigdon. Joseph Smith is assumed to have been Rigdon's pawn.

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]

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Detailed Analysis

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My father, after I had finished saying what I have repeated above, looked at me a moment, raised his hand above his head and slowly said, with tears glistening in his eyes: "My son, I can swear before high heaven that what I have told you about the origin of [the Book of Mormon] is true. Your mother and sister, Mrs. Athalia Robinson, were present when that book was handed to me in Mentor, Ohio, and all I ever knew about the origin of [the Book of Mormon] was what Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith and the witnesses who claimed they saw the plates have told me, and in all of my intimacy with Joseph Smith he never told me but one story.
—Sidney Rigdon to his son John, just prior to Sidney's death. Rex C. Reeve, (1996), Manuscript Found: The Complete Original "Spaulding" Manuscript, Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.
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Topics

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Summary of the Spalding Theory

Summary: One of the earliest secular theories of Book of Mormon authorship was that Joseph plagiarized the unpublished and unfinished manuscript of a novel written by the Reverend Solomon Spaulding (1761–1816). Spaulding was a lapsed Calvinist clergyman and author of an epic tale of the ancient Native American "Mound Builders." The theory postulates that Spaulding wrote his manuscript in biblical phraseology and read it to many of his friends. He subsequently took the manuscript to Pittsburg, where it fell into the hands of a Mr. Patterson, in whose office Sidney Rigdon worked, and that through Sidney Rigdon it came into the possession of Joseph Smith and was made the basis of the Book of Mormon.

Is there a second Spalding manuscript?

Summary: Because of the obvious lack of relationship between the extant, unfinished Spalding manuscript titled Manuscript Story, critics assert that there is a second, yet-to-be-discovered Spalding manuscript called Manuscript Found. Critics anticipate that this alleged second manuscript will someday be located. Critics claim that attempts to claim that Spalding only wrote one manuscript have failed, despite the fact that a second manuscript has never been located, and the first manuscript was never finished.

Sidney Rigdon as Book of Mormon author/co-conspirator

Summary: Critics claim that Sidney Rigdon authored the Book of Mormon, and conspired with Joseph Smith well ahead of time to compose it and start a religion.

Critics found it difficult to explain Book of Mormon before Spalding theory

Summary: Initial critics of the Book of Mormon tended to take one of two stances—either: 1) The Book of Mormon was a clumsy, obvious forgery upon which no intelligent person would waste time; and/or 2) Joseph Smith was the Book of Mormon's obvious author. Ironically, with the appearance of the Spalding theory, critics quickly began to claim that Joseph Smith could not have written the Book of Mormon, and attributed the Book of Mormon's writing to Spalding and (usually) Sidney Rigdon.

Relationship between Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon

Summary: Despite clear evidence that Joseph met Sidney after the publication of the Book of Mormon, critics claim that evidence will eventually appear which proves that Joseph and Sidney met prior to late 1830. Critics assert that attempts to argue that conspiracy between Joseph and Sidney is implausible have failed, and that attempts to paint Sidney Rigdon as a "saint" have failed.

Rejection of the Spaulding theory by critics of the Book of Mormon

Summary: Many critics of the Book of Mormon reject the Spaulding theory as unworkable. If Mormonism's most prominent critics find the Spalding theory unworkable, then what motivates those who tenuously hold to this theory and continue to pursue it?

Early reactions to the Book of Mormon

Summary: The Book of Mormon was met by a storm of criticism from early critics. This page archives examples of these early responses.

Joseph as author and proprietor

Summary: Critics charge that Joseph Smith slipped up by listing himself as the "author and proprietor" of the Book of Mormon on the title page of the first edition.

Parallels between the Spalding manuscript and the Book of Mormon

Summary: Critics claim that there are significant parallels between the extant, unfinished Spalding manuscript titled Manuscript Story and the Book of Mormon.

The Hurlbut Spalding affidavits

Summary: Joseph's neighbors claimed that Joseph had copied the Spalding manuscript

Vernal Holley map—Book of Mormon place names from North America?

Summary: Common place names in the region around New York used as Book of Mormon names? ==

Answer

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Modern supporters of the Spalding authorship theory simply ignore the inconvenient fact that the manuscript recovered in the late 19th century bears no resemblance to the Book of Mormon, that it was an unfinished draft, and that no postulated second manuscript has been discovered.

They also ignore the complete lack of any persuasive evidence for contact between Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith prior to the Book of Mormon's publication.

Until the purported second manuscript appears, all these critics have is a nonexistent document which they can claim says anything they want. This is doubtlessly the attraction of the "theory" and shows the lengths to which critics will go to disprove the Book of Mormon.

It is interesting to consider that the best explanation such critics can propose requires that they invent a document, then invent its contents, and then invent a means of getting the document to Joseph via Rigdon.

== Notes ==

  1. [note]  The Spaulding Theory Debunked off-site
  2. [note] Rex C. Reeve, (1996), Manuscript Found: The Complete Original "Spaulding" Manuscript, Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.
  3. [note] Matthew Roper, "The Mythical "Manuscript Found" (Review of: Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? The Spalding Enigma)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 7–140. off-site, p. 10.

Further reading

  • Original text: Solomon Spaulding, Manuscript Found: The Complete Original "Spaulding Manuscript", edited by Kent P. Jackson, (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1996). off-site

FairMormon Answers articles

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FairMormon web site

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  • Matthew B. Brown, "Solomon Spaulding and the Book of Mormon" FAIR link
  • John K. Wise, "Clouds Without Water, Zeal Without Knowledge" FAIR link

External links

  • Online text of "Manuscript Found", the Spaulding document discovered in 1884 and published by the RLDS Church.off-site
  • “Considerable Excitement,” The Evening and the Morning Star (Kirtland, Ohio) 2, no. 19 (April 1834): 150. off-site
  • Anonymous, "A Summary," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1 no. 5 (February 1835), 76–77. off-site
  • Bruce D. Blumell, "Would you respond to the theories that the Book of Mormon is based on the Spaulding manuscript or on Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews?," Ensign (September 1976): 83.off-site
  • Lester Bush, "The Spalding [sic] Theory Then and Now," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 10 no. 4 (Autumn 1977), 40–69.off-site
  • Orson Scott Card, "News of the Church: Spaulding Again?," Ensign 7 (September 1977): 94.off-site
  • Jeff Lindsay, "Plagiarism in the Book of Mormon: Is It Derived from Modern Writings?, jefflindsay.com (accessed 5 October 2005).off-site
  • L. Ara Norwood, "Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look (Review of Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look by Vernal Holley)," FARMS Review of Books 1/1 (1989): 80–88. off-site
  • Gary F. Novak, "Naturalistic Assumptions and the Book of Mormon," Brigham Young University Studies 30 no. 3 (1990), 23–40.off-site
  • "Origins of the Spaulding Manuscript", by Professor A. S. Root, Oberlin College, 12 May 1927.off-site
  • Matthew Roper, "The Mythical "Manuscript Found" (Review of: Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? The Spalding Enigma)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 7–140. off-siteGL direct link (Key source)
  • President Joseph F. Smith, "The Manuscript Found," Improvement Era 33 no. 4 (February 1900), ? page.off-site
  • Philip A. Allred, "Alma's Use of State in the Book of Mormon: Evidence of Multiple Authorship," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5/1 (1996). [140–146] link
  • Richard Lloyd Anderson, "The Modern-Text Theory (Review of "A Rhetorical Approach to the Book of Mormon: Rediscovering Nephite Sacramental Language" by Mark D. Thomas," FARMS Review of Books 6/1 (1994): 379–419. off-site
  • Kevin L. Barney, "A More Responsible Critique (Review of: Does the Book of Mormon Reflect an Ancient Near Eastern Background?)," FARMS Review 15/1 (2003): 97–146. off-site
  • Kevin Christensen, "Truth and Method: Reflections on Dan Vogel’s Approach to the Book of Mormon (Review of: Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 287–354. off-site
  • James E. Faulconer, "Takayama: Restoration Revelation as Poetry rather than Fraud," FARMS Review of Books 13/1 (2001): 127–132. off-site
  • Alan Goff, "Dan Vogel's Family Romance and the Book of Mormon as Smith Family Allegory (Review of: Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 321–400. [{{{url}}} off-site]
  • Garth L. Mangum, "The Economics of the Book of Mormon: Joseph Smith as Translator or Commentator," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2/2 (1993). [78–89] link
  • Larry E. Morris, "'I Should Have an Eye Single to the Glory of God’: Joseph Smith’s Account of the Angel and the Plates (Review of: "From Captain Kidd’s Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism")," FARMS Review 17/1 (2005): 11–82. off-site
  • L. Ara Norwood, "Review of Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon by David Persuitte," FARMS Review of Books 2/1 (1990): 187–204. off-site
  • Gary F. Novak, "Examining the Environmental Explanation of the Book of Mormon (Review of Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism by Robert N. Hullinger)," FARMS Review of Books 7/1 (1995): 139–154. off-site
  • Daniel C. Peterson, "Editor's Introduction—Not So Easily Dismissed: Some Facts for Which Counterexplanations of the Book of Mormon Will Need to Account," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): xi–lxix. off-site
  • Noel B. Reynolds, "The Book of Mormon Today (Review of By the Hand of Mormon)," FARMS Review 15/1 (2003): 5–17. off-site
  • Stephen D. Ricks, "Testaments: The Literary Riches of the Book of Mormon (Review of: Testaments: Links Between the Book of Mormon and the Hebrew Bible)," FARMS Review 16/2 (2004): 55–58. off-site
  • Matthew Roper, "The Mythical "Manuscript Found" (Review of: Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? The Spalding Enigma)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 7–140. off-site
  • Matthew Roper, "Myth, Memory, and "Manuscript Found"," FARMS Review 21/2 (2009): 179–223. off-site wiki
  • Sidney B. Sperry, "Literary Problems in the Book of Mormon involving 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and Other New Testament Books," farms.byu.eduoff-site
  • John L. Sorenson, "A Rare Gem (Review of By the Hand of Mormon)," FARMS Review 15/1 (2003): 15–17. off-site
  • John A. Tvedtnes and Matthew Roper, "Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha: Shadow or Reality? (Review of Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha by Jerald and Sandra Tanner)," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 326–372. off-site
  • Richard N. Williams, "The Spirit of Prophecy and the Spirit of Psychiatry: Restoration or Dissociation? (Review of The Sword of Laban: Joseph Smith Jr. and the Dissociated Mind)," FARMS Review of Books 12/1 (2000): 435–444. off-site

Printed material

Responses to the Spalding theory:
  • Matthew B. Brown, "The Spalding-Rigdon Theory," in Plates of Gold: The Book of Mormon Comes Forth (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 2003), 185–201. ISBN 1591563704.
  • Brigham H. Roberts, "Counter Theories of Origin," in New Witnesses for God, 3 Vols., (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909[1895, 1903]), 3, Chapter XLIV:347–406. ISBN 0962254541.GL direct link
  • Brigham H. Roberts, "A Brief Debate on the Book of Mormon," in Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vols. (1907), 1:365. Vol 1 GL direct link Vol 2 GL direct linkGL direct link
  • Brigham H. Roberts, "The Origin of the Book of Mormon," in Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vols. (1907), 2:95–229. Vol 1 GL direct link Vol 2 GL direct linkGL direct link
  • Benjamin Winchester, The Origin of the Spaulding Story, Concerning the Manuscript Found, (Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking & Guilfert, 1840).
  • Dean C. Jessee, 'Spalding theory' re-examined,' Church News (20 August 1977): 3–5.

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