Solomon Spalding

I want to start out with some of our hard questions.

Did Joseph pirate the Spalding Manuscript?

Solomon Spalding had written this manuscript that some Romans come across and they have relations with Native Americans.

And Philastris Hurlbut was excommunicated, writes his book, Mormonism Unveiled.

All he wanted to do was harm the church.

He is the one who comes up with this idea that it must have been the Spalding manuscript.

But it's used then to say, this is the answer to the Book of Mormon question, which it absolutely is not.

There are some weaknesses, and I'll admit that, but there's, I believe, a lot of evidence that supports it.

And the reason that they think the theory does not hold up anymore is because, well, they found the manuscript of Solomon Spalding, and they said, well, it doesn't resemble the Book of Mormon, therefore, this theory is now debunked.

I mean, is that how you would put it, Nathan? Yeah.

Yeah, I'll even take it a step further.

author of that document

Spalding was the author but I'll let Shane take this I know Shane's done a ton of work on this so

alright so Solomon Spalding he was born in 1761 he died in 1816 and basically if we were to put you know the key things that he did in his life he went to Dartmouth so he would have studied the classics so he had a really good education okay he went to law he even went to law for a little bit Now, this is going to play very important in the Book of Mormon later on because you're going to see a Mosiah.

It talks about these laws and stuff like that.

For 179 years, this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history, perhaps like no other book in any religious history, and still it stands.

Failed theories about its origins have been born, parroted, and died, from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spalding, to deranged paranoid, to cunning genius.

None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination, because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young, unlearned translator.

In this, I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, "No wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so."

Which brings us to the various theories of authorship, including the John N. Miller account.

Miller claimed that the historical, non-religious parts of the Book of Mormon were nearly identical to an unpublished manuscript written by a man named Solomon Spalding.

While modern historians debate the Spalding theory, Brody's ultimate conclusion is that Joseph did not need a stolen manuscript.

She argues he was a myth maker of prodigious talent.

Yeah.

Well, I just, while we're here, I just want to point out, like, the Solomon Spaulding manuscript, for those of you who may not know, it's a early theory of how the Book of Mormon may have been written.

And they said, "Hey," they...

You know, "Joseph Smith plagiarized this Solomon Spaulding manuscript." And everyone goes, "Well, where is it?" And they're like, "Well, we haven't found it yet, but we know it's similar," whatever.

Mm-hmm.

Well, and the same guys that propagate these theories, they end up finding the Solomon Spaulding manuscript and realizing it doesn't line up with the Book of Mormon.

[laughs]

So what do they do? They hide it, and it's not until they die-