https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/hid ... of-Mormon/Bunyan’s cribbings from these two texts were then cemented using original material specific to the world of Christian and his journey to the Celestial Kingdom. The result is a “clustering” of old and new narrative building blocks to form a unique pattern, one that shares no less than fourteen distinctive narrative elements with the story of Abinadi in the Book of Mormon.
https://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/who_re ... of_Mormon/
And now the Book of Mormon…In Pilgrim’s Progress, Faithful and Christian journey to the wicked city of Vanity Fair on their way to the Celestial Kingdom. As the pilgrims enter the city, their presence causes a disturbance among the citizens, and the travel companions are 1) bound and thrown into prison. A town leader 2) assembles a group of associates to examine the pilgrims, and the prisoners 3) are “brought before” the town leaders and put on trial. They accuse Faithful 4) of being a “madman,” 5) of stirring up contention among the people, and 6) of slandering the town leaders. Faithful 7) speaks “boldly” in his defense, but to no avail. The trial leader 8) condemns Faithful to be “slain” and “put to […] death.” Faithful is then 9) “scourged,” and finally 10) burned at the stake. Thus, Faithful 11) “seals” his “testimony” with his “blood.” Faithful’s teachings and martyrdom 12) convert a witness, Hopeful, who becomes a major character in the story. 13) Other converts follow and depart from the city, 14) “entering into” a “covenant” to follow Christ.
14 coincidences? Or something more evidentiary?In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Abinadi enters the now-wicked city of Lehi-Nephi and begins preaching to the people. His presence causes a great disturbance among the citizens, and Abinadi is 1) bound and thrown into prison. The leader of the city, King Noah, 2) assembles a group of false priests to examine Abinadi, and he 3) is “brought before” the leaders and put on trial. They accuse Abinadi 4) of being “mad,” 5) of stirring up contention among the people, and 6) of slandering the town leaders. Abinadi 7) speaks “boldly” in his defense, but to no avail. King Noah 8) condemns Abinadi to be “slain” and “put to death.” Abinadi is then 9) “scourged,” and finally 10) burned at the stake. Thus, Abinadi 11) “seals” his “testimony” with his “blood.” Abinadi’s teachings and martyrdom 12) convert a witness, Alma, who becomes a main character in the story. 13) Other converts follow and depart from the city, 14) “entering into” a “covenant” to follow Christ.
Edited to add:
While martyrdom narratives are common in the Christian tradition (as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs attests), no other narrative follows Bunyan’s variation of the story in all of these fourteen elements as closely as Smith’s account of Abinadi. Furthermore, the parallels tying the stories together occur on multiple levels, both in the underlying structural framework and in the specific language used to express ideas and events (which accounts for the unusual appearance of a sixteenth-century, Protestant reconfiguration of traditional martyr narratives in the year 148 B.C.E., the time of the Prophet Abinadi’s purported martyrdom in the Book of Mormon). In comparative terms, the stories of Abinadi and Faithful are far more similar to each other, both in content and expression, than, say, West Side Story is to its narrative source in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
