Maklekan wrote:What I think this book can show us is the KJV-influenced vernacular that had currency during Smith's day. A lot of the terminology shared by both books can be found in other publications from the same time period, although this book appears to have the highest concentration of non-KJV linguistic overlap. The Late War very well may have been read by Smith and/or Cowdery growing up (it became marketed as a textbook for children), or even around the time of the rendering of the Book of Mormon. They may have even made a conscious decision to pattern the flavor of the Book of Mormon language after this book. At this point, however, I don't see the relationship being much deeper than that.
What are the implications of this conclusion? It means, in my opinion, that the theory that the Book of Mormon was revealed letter-by-letter to Joseph Smith is significantly undermined, unless, of course, one wants to assert a very, very tight brand of accommodationism (God so adapted the language of his revelation to Smith's own culture, worldview, and personal lenses that he exactly mimicked the very kinds of phraseology he would have come up with). That begs the question in my opinion.
Um ... all those early witnesses who said that the translation was delivered word by word? (As recounted by an apostle in the Ensign too). How were they 'undermined'?
We wouldn't like to have to admit that a bunch of people so close to Joseph Smith were incapable of bearing witness on a matter intimately connected with the Book of Mormon, now would we?
I continue to be amazed by the evidence that Mormons feel that there is something special in the ability to write in fake KJV English, in a 'biblical' style. Anyone brought up in a church where the KJV is frequently read could do that to some degree or other, with all the 'Hebraisms' you might want.
Sometimes I wonder whether Mormons read the Bible much.