Customer Reviews

Book of Mormon

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Permitted space hardly allows me to do justice to this book, especially considering the many reviews already given. However, I believe that I can add something useful to the discussion and clear up some misconceptions, while avoiding both the zealousness of the believers and the animosity of the detractors. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but my remarks, unless otherwise noted, are directed mainly at the Revised Authorized Version published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Much ado has been made by Latter-day Saints that this version is published by the Reorganized Church and is therefore not "authorized" or "official." Such criticisms are disingenuous, since a Latter Day Saint may very well make the same accusation of the LDS edition. One reviewer alleges that "[t]his edition has many things which were not translated by Joseph Smith, and are not in accordance with the teachings of the LDS church, and are therefore false doctrines meant to confuse those who don't know any better." This reviewer does not provide any specific examples of this edition making additions that are false doctrine. Despite the differences noted below, there are none that affect the doctrine of the LDS Church.

Latter-day Saints will find plenty of differences between the RAV and the current (1981) edition by the LDS Church. The foreword makes it clear that these changes represent an updating of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Otherwise, this version is hardly what one could call a modern language edition. This version otherwise retains King James style language and is only marginally easier to read. Readers looking for a modern language version of the Book of Mormon should instead be referred to Lynn Matthews Anderson's "The Easy-to-Read Book of Mormon" (Apple Valley, MN: Estes Book Company, 1995).

The RLDS version of the Book of Mormon also follows a different versification system than that of the LDS version. The chapter divisions follow that of the original (1830) edition. In a sense, this does improve the reading by allowing us to more easily view the immediate contexts as they were intended. The chapter divisions of the LDS edition may in some cases lead to misinterpretations. For example, LDS Alma 29 is usually taken to be in the voice of Alma, whereas a reading in the original context shows that this section is more likely to be in Mormon's voice, see RLDS Alma 15.

Most of the reviews of the Book of Mormon can be placed in two categories: unmitigated praise, or extremely critical. The type of response is directly related to whether or not the reviewer believes the book is of divine origin. In both cases, the reviewers usually wind up overstating their cases.

If read merely as a work of historical fiction, you may very well find the Book of Mormon very boring. However, I do not believe that this is the best way to approach this book, simply because of its claims of divine origin. If read as a non-historical work, it should be approached as a work of a religious genius, a snapshot of the religious thinking of a person who would begin a new religious tradition that has millions of adherents around the world. If approached in this manner, the Book of Mormon contains insights into how this religious movement dealt with the religious issues of the day, and provides for more interesting reading than a mere historical novel ever could.

The historicity of the Book of Mormon cannot be proven. Despite one author's opinion that "literary, scholarly, and archaeological evidences that support the Book of Mormon's claims vastly outnumber the unsupported attempts to discredit it," this is not actually the case. Most of the evidences advanced by believers in the book's historicity can be countered by claims that those elements could have been gleaned from Joseph Smith's environment, including chiasmus, so-called Hebraisms, and even some of the archeological claims. I would urge the reader to study that matter for themselves, pro and con, and decide for themselves.

The claim for divine authenticity is another matter, and should be separated from historicity as such. Here, the question is ultimately whether or not God speaks to you through this book. I can't answer that one for you. That is between you and God, regardless of what critics think of the biblical basis for the admonition of Moroni 10:3-5. I can only tell you that for me, the answer is yes.

For the record, I am a faithful Latter-day Saint with a great love for the Book of Mormon. I have no problem with the actual content, but this particular ebook version was a disappointment. The verses are double spaced and in courier, so that only one or two verses show up on each page. The chapters lack hard returns, and the table of content only links to the beginning of the various books, so that to get to 2 Nephi 15, you would have to manually scroll through several hundred pages. However, I can't complain about the price, so overall I'd give it two stars.

Note for kindle users: if you want one that has a ToC then download the "gospel library" gospel app [official]. 5 Stars since I love the book so much in print, and seem unable to leave a review solely for its kindle edition.

This original version of the Book of Mormon ought to be of interest to anyone who studies religion in general and/or American religions in particular. Certainly any serious student of the Book of Mormon would want a copy of the original. There are neither "faith-shaking" changes for the LDS since this edition, nor is it the same as the Book of Mormon published today in flavor and style.

Prior to Orson Pratt's versification of the text and later modifications and tidying up, the New England roots of the author/translator come through clearly. One must be amazed, if Joseph Smith is a prophet, at the labor he performed under less-than-optimal conditions in his father-in-law's cottage. One must also be amazed, if he was not a prophet, at the complexity of the stories contained in this fascinating work.

This is where it all started. 11+ million people at least nominally believe that this book is Sacred Scripture today. It's worth getting to know. Get a copy for your personal library.

I find that the different reactions people have after reading The Book of Mormon are very interesting. Generally there are two kinds, people that feel it is true and people how think its false. Those stuck in the middle, who don't know and aren't sure, they really havn't read the book. The very first time I read the book I found some parts very difficult to understand while other sections really drew me in and held my attention quite well. After reading it I had a strong sense that it was a true book. Overall the Book of Mormon is a very interesting read, I have read the book about eight times and each time have found something new and interesting that I had not seen before. The book is a general history of God's dealings with people on the American contienent from about 600 B.C. until about 400 A.D.. Mormon was a prophet who lived cerca 400 A.D. his compiling of several different records make up the majority of the text in this book(a sort of reader's digest). There are several diffent stories that enertwine and ultimately climax at the apperence of Jesus Christ. This apperance to the people here in the Americas is after his death and resurection in Jurselem. The book goes on to tell that after His appearce the people lived in a perfect society untill their rejection of His teachings caused the destruction of their soceity. Several interesting simularities can be drawn from the societies in the Book of Mormon to that of our own today. Overall the Book of Mormon is a very good read. The stories are very engageing and take several interesting twists. There are parts though that are hard to understand patience is required. To truely understand the Book of Mormon one must also read and understand the Bible. A good understanding of the Old Testament is especially important. I would sugest also finding someone with wich to discuss the Book, there are many Mormons who are quite willing to answer quetions. If that is not for you there have been several books that are quite objective on the subject. Read it, study it, ponder its meaning and come to your own conclusions.

I am a latter day saint. It doesn't mattter to me what format or font it is written in, the same message is there.

I'm not very impressed by the formatting of this book. It marks every sing verse with the scripture reference, e.g., Alma 6: 3 and then it reads it then Alma 6: 4. Most Book of Mormons or other types of scripture with have a Chapter heading, e.g., Alma 6, and then mark each verse. The word wrappings don't work very well, which might indicate that I am in the wrong font size, but most eBooks should adjust around the preferred font size. And there is no navigation, it just goes right into the Book of Mormon. I guess if you are looking for a specific verse you can just search for it, since each verse has it full scripture reference.

However, it IS free, so I might not have much room to argue with it. Give it a shot if you need the Book of Mormon handy on your Kindle, it might work better for you.

The story of several native american nations, as narrated by their inumerous religious leaders throughout a period of over one thousand years, illustrates to modern man the untimely struggle between man's innermost cravings and the consequences of their pursuit, whether good or bad. The choices of individuals and entire nations, largely based on human character and behavior as they have been for the last millenia, are depicted in contrast with the teachings of Jesus Christ and its impact on the lives of men, women, families, and nations. It is not only insightful reading, but a journey of the soul towards God, and ultimately towards a better knowledge of oneself, inner peace, and hapiness

My brother once took his BofM into a Baptist Bible meeting, and one of the Baptists--a young women--nearly went apoplectic when she saw it. Believe me when I tell you there is NO NEED FOR FEAR. This is a very important book, and needs to be examined carefully and calmly.

This book details the journey of a family from Jerusalem to the New World, where, hundreds of years later, they are visted by Jesus. Is it literally true? Is it merely a complex, extensive metaphor? Is it totally bogus? Read for yourself and decide. I personally have read the book, and my own conclusion is that it is not literally true, although it does contain moral elements with which I deeply agree.

So open your mind a little and put this book to the test; you won't be worse off for it. No one should be so hysterically insecure about his or her religion convictions as to not at least look at it.

The issue here is not whether The Book of Mormon is in some ultimate sense *True*; it's whether you want a CD-ROM facsimile edition of the 1830 first edition, plus index, plus additional commentary. If you just want a copy of the current edition of the Book of Mormon, phone the Mormons and they'll send you one for free that has cool full-page illustrations.

The 1830 edition is the one you want if you're interested in the historical, religious, and literary context that gave rise to Joseph Smith and his church. It's the original version, and it has the original flavor. It hasn't been cleaned up. It hasn't been broken into numbered verses. It includes many instances of what the typesetter considered to be grammatical errors. But being a good typesetter, he set them anyway, because that's how the manuscript read; though he did bend his principles far enough to add punctuation and paragraph breaks.

Remember: A sufficiently old typo stops being a typo and becomes a historical datum in its own right.

Over the years since it was first published, the LDS church has made almost 4,000 changes in the text of the Book of Mormon. They represent these changes as insignificant -- just cleaning up little errors that have crept in. I am sorry to say that they're being unnecessarily untruthful on that point. Many of the small errors that have been corrected were there in the original printing. Their disingenuousness is more troubling than the errors themselves. After all, no one's ever claimed that spelling and grammar are numbered among the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

It must also be said that some of their emendations were not trivial, and can't be explained as anything but an attempt to alter the book's content. In one notorious instance (2 Nephi 30:6, page 117 in the 1830 edition), a word that had previously been "white" was changed to "pure" in the 1981 edition. This is not plausibly the correction of a simple error. It would take supernaturally bad handwriting to make "white" look like "pure" and vice-versa; and anyway, in the handwritten setting copy from which the typesetter worked (which is still in the possession of the RLDS church), the manuscript clearly says "white."

If you're not into the historical/religious/literary context, you shouldn't expect to find this edition particularly scandalous, except maybe for the bit in the Book of Ether about Jared's daughter dancing the hootchy-cootch in front of Akish. What you will find is one of the most American books that's ever been written, one that's utterly characteristic of its place and time.

Basically, the Book of Mormon is a romance of re-imagined history, written in imitation of the style of the KJV Bible. As a work of literature, it has considerable historic interest. It's a remarkable work of imagination for its period, especially given the author's limited experience and scant education. (Not an unprecedented achievement, though. Naive writers like Joseph Smith are merely rare.)

Whether it's *True* or not is a question I'll leave for the reader.