Book of Mormon

Published in 1830 by Latter-day Saint founder Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon is said to be “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”1

The book serves as a sacred record of ancient Hebrew peoples who migrated from Jerusalem to the Americas around 600 BCE, chronicling their history, prophets,2 and, after Christ’s resurrection, his visitation to them in America.3 These events were “quoted and abridged” by the prophet-historian Mormon upon golden plates, which were buried on Hill Cumorah by his son Moroni.4

According to Smith, Moroni appeared to him as “a glorified, resurrected being,” and directed Smith to find his father’s writings and to translate them from the golden plates they had been written upon.5 Through divine inspiration, Smith was able to translate the plates, saying, “Through the grace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus, [we] have seen the plates which contains the record of Nephi, Lamanites, and Jared. And we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.”6

  1. Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Introduction. ↩︎
  2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “The Book of Mormon,” history.churchofjesuschrist.org, n.d., https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng. ↩︎
  3. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Book of Mormon | Description & History,” Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Book-of-Mormon. ↩︎
  4. Smith, The Book of Mormon, Introduction. ↩︎
  5. Ibid. ↩︎
  6. Smith, The Book of Mormon, The Testimony of Three Witnesses. ↩︎