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Whoever wrote the Book of Mormon had some knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Joseph Smith had none. Oliver Cowdery had none. Sidney Rigdon had next to none. Ethan Smith, the pastor of the Cowdery family in Vermont, author of "View of the Hebrews", who was in Palmyra in 1927. He studied Greek and Hebrew and studied some Latin for four years at Dartmouth College in Vermont, which in that time...late 1700s...all "colleges" in the U.S. were basically seminaries for the training of clergy and their main offerings were in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Dartmouth had an excellent library, probably the best in the English speaking world outside of Oxford and Cambridge, being donated by the late Lord Dartmouth who was a book nut, and may have included a book about the trail of Captain Kidd, which occurred decades before, and mentions that Captain Kidd hid from the British Navy in the village of Moroni on the Island of Camora; which is how the Brits mispronounced "Comoro". Darmouth probably had a copy of the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), which may explain why the Book of Mormon has several Septuagint variant readings in its Isaiah portions. Dartmouth no doubt had the writings of Josephus, which refers to "the land of Jerusalem" as does the Book of Mormon.

According to David Whitmer, he saw Moroni once, as an old man with a beard in a brown suit with an Army knap-sack on his back. David said, "Would you to ride with us?" and the old man said, "No, I'm going to Camorah". Joseph Smith said, "You know who that was David? That was Moroni!" Then, this same old man appeared later in the Whitmer barn near Batavia and showed David Whitmer's mother the gold plates; same brown suit. During this time, Ethan Smith was 65 years old, and walking around the Palmyra and Batavia areas of upstate New York promoting his book "Views of the Hebrews". Being a minister, he would be offered free room and board at almost any home he came to. He served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 and would have seen action and bloodshed and been familiar with Army tactics.

Ethan Smith was the best man at the wedding of Solomon Spalding, and they both attended Dartmouth for a year: Solomon's last year of four and Ethan's first year of four.

That's nothing. Paul H. Dunn was familiar with the grandsons of Ethan Smith and Solomon Spaulding when he and Babe Ruth, used to hit home runs in their direction, while playing for the New York Yankees. Later Lt. Colonel Dunn recalls reading a letter, from young Douglas Spaulding regarding his prom date with Wanda Hickey, as Colonel Dunn charged up the hill to plant Old Glory on top of Iwo Jima.

Wrong! General Authorities never lie. A Mormon bishop told me so, so it must be true!!!!

moksha wrote:That's nothing. Paul H. Dunn was familiar with the grandsons of Ethan Smith and Solomon Spaulding when he and Babe Ruth, used to hit home runs in their direction, while playing for the New York Yankees. Later Lt. Colonel Dunn recalls reading a letter, from young Douglas Spaulding regarding his prom date with Wanda Hickey, as Colonel Dunn charged up the hill to plant Old Glory on top of Iwo Jima.