Does 3 Nephi Wrongly Put Words from Peter in Christ's Mouth?
by Jeff Lindsay
A
popular topic for critics of the Church is alleged
Book of Mormon plagiarism.
The argument is that the Book of Mormon can be simply explained as
the fruit of copying, and often sloppy copying.
A
favorite “weak spot” in the Book of Mormon often cited by
critics to demonstrate this point is 3 Nephi 20:23, where the
recently resurrected Christ cites the words of Moses from Deuteronomy
18:18-19, but actually seems to use language that is closer to
Peter’s yet-be-written paraphrase of Moses in Acts 3:22-23 than
it is to the Old Testament.
It’s
easy to raise objections: “How can Christ be quoting a New
Testament passage that hadn’t been written yet?” This was
the first argument raised by one ex-Mormon in a video he made
spelling out his reasons for leaving the Church.
Deut.
18:15, in warning those who would not hearken to the future prophet
(Christ) that the Lord would raise up, the threatened punishment in
verse 19 is that the Lord “will require it of him.” But
Acts 3:23 warns that the non-hearkeners “shall be destroyed
from among the people,” which is much closer to 3 Nephi’s
warning that such rebels “shall be cut off from among the
people.” Sure, it seems like a case of clumsy and ignorant
plagiarism.
Let
me begin with a few observations. First, this is not a case of direct
copying, because the Book of Mormon uses “cut off” rather
than Peter’s “destroyed.” Second, the parallel to
Acts 3 doesn’t only occur here in 3 Nephi 20. It occurs
multiple times in the Book of Mormon.
The
same words from Moses are quoted in much the same way in 1 Nephi
22:20: “all those who will not hear that prophet shall be cut
off from among the people.” That passage was written at a
different stage in the Book of Mormon translation process, so if 3
Nephi 20 was just a sloppy blunder from Joseph the conman and his
vast team of research staff, zealously gleaning, checking, and
applying information from many dozens of books and references
materials to create a best-selling fraud that would wow and convert
folks for many decades, then why was the same mistake made again in 1
Nephi 22?
I
mean, if you’re quoting Moses in a famous passage that every
Bible student knows in Deuteronomy 18, why open to a lesser known
paraphrase in Acts 3 for the quote? And why make that blunder twice?
More
than twice, actually. 3 Nephi 21:11 speaks of those who will reject
the Gospel of Christ and warns that “it shall be done even as
Moses said,” namely, “they shall be cut off from among my
people who are of the covenant.” Not just having some “required
of him,” but the more serious “cut off” from among
the people, or in this case, “from among my people.”
3
Nephi 21:20 again warns that the rebellious shall be “cut off
from among my people.”
Now
all these 3 Nephi passages could be lumped together and one could
argue that Joseph just had that phrase in his head at the time and
used it repeatedly during that day or week or writing. But how do we
account for a First Nephi passage that was probably widely separated
in time from 3 Nephi’s translation? Didn’t it ever occur
to him and his scholarly co-conspirators to look up Deuteronomy
rather than Peter for a quote from Moses?
Sloppy,
sloppy, sloppy. And puzzling.
In
fact, this is the kind of puzzle that ought to stir some thinking.
The change in language from Peter and the persistent use of “cut
off” in the Book of Mormon is not consistent with the sloppy
plagiarism charge. So what is going on? Great question! Good
questions with an open mind and some patience are often rewarded with
interesting answers.
There’s
a further question that students of the Bible might also wish to ask:
“Why did Peter himself use language so different from
Deuteronomy 18?” It turns out that Peter’s paraphrase
does not follow the Septuagint in this case, so Peter appears to be
departing from both the Greek and Hebrew texts. Why?
A
possible answer to these questions, with interesting implications for
the Book of Mormon, can be found in the Maxwell Institute’s
publication, Insights,
Vol. 27, No. 5 (PDF
file), in the article on page 3, “The Prophet Like Moses”
by John A. Tvedtnes and E. Jan Wilson. I recommend the PDF version to
see the Hebrew more clearly, but an
HTML version of the article
is also available. There is a lot of detail in this short
article, but here’s one passage with one of the main points:
Based
on analysis of the Hebrew in Deut. 18 and several relevant passages
elsewhere, a plausible case can be made that the original Hebrew may
have read “cut off” instead of “require it”
and referred to being cut off “from among the people” or
“my people” instead of “of him.”
Rather
than both Peter and Joseph being sloppy in their quotations of Moses,
there’s a reasonable case that Peter was informed by an ancient
Hebrew source using language that differs slightly from the current
Masoretic text, language that appears to be consistent with language
uses consistently in the Book of Mormon.
As
for the Book of Mormon’s version of Deut. 18, are we dealing
with a terribly sloppy but very lucky blunder by a conman who
inexplicably looked up and kept using Peter’s words when
attempting to quote Moses, or are we dealing with an ancient text
prepared by scribes whose version of Deuteronomy on the brass plates
led them to understand Deut. 18 in much the same way that Peter did?
In
light of intelligent questions coupled with scholarship, the way the
Book of Mormon quotes Moses in Deuteronomy 18 is certainly
interesting.
What initially looks like a blunder upon further examination becomes
an inexplicable blunder (“how could anyone be so stupid and
sloppy?”), then a puzzle, and then an interesting find where a
former weakness may actually be a strength.
It’s
a small thing and is certainly no reason to run off and join the
Church, but it’s hardly a reason to leave.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.