I know of three theories on how the book of mormon was written. Supplementary data for reassessing authorship of the book of. According to mosiah priority, after the text of mosiah through the end of the book of mormon was transcribed, joseph smith returned to the beginning and transcribed 1 nephi. Although criddles lecture is accompanied by numerous examples of relevent evidence, it is a. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification.
Mormonleaks is a research project that seeks to reconstruct the authentic narrative of the origins of the mormon canon by combining macroanalytic computing tools with contemporary historical evidence. While it has not received anywhere near the attention that i had expected it to receive, a few critics have seen it as the definitive deathblow to claims of the authenticity of the book of mormon. Craig criddle evidence of rigdons involvement with the book of mormon manuscript. For two years before the book of mormon appeared rigdons sermons were full of declarations and prophecies that the age of miracles would be restored, and more complete revelations, than those in the bible, would be given. According to this theory, rigdon obtained from a pittsburgh publisher a manuscript for a historical novel written by solomon spalding, and by reworking it and adding a theological component, had created the book of mormon. Dec 09, 2008 a new wordprint study on the book of mormon breathes new life to a longchallenged theory for book of mormon authorship, the theory that its real author was solomon spalding secretly assisted by sidney rigdon. Mormon discussions view topic book of mormon authorship. Jockers, witten, and criddle 2 draft preprint of reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification. Joseph smith we are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all. Criddle does not present his conclusions as offering positive proof of the book s true origins, but instead attempts to track signs authorship through a chronological narrative of the old spaldingrigdon explanation for the book of mormon. Craig criddle2009who really wrote the book of mormon. The inclusion of all the words is yet another indicator of the robustness of the findings. Book of mormon and the text found in hawaii were not sufficient to justify the thesis of common authorship. Out of the top matches, we discovered a book called the late war between the united states and great britain, a scriptural style account of the war of 1812 published in new york in 1816.
Craig criddle s address at the ex mormon foundation october 2009. While i admit to being disturbed by the article, it is not for. So says a new computerassisted authorship study out of stanford. In this essay i first discuss why authorship of the book of mormon matters. The historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of.
This project is the result of painstaking effort on the part of matt jockers, daniela m. The strength of the argument that the book of mormon is a remix of the late war rests on the cumulative improbability of finding all of these phrases somewhere else. The spaldingrigdon theory of book of mormon authorship is the theory that the book of mormon was plagiarized in part from an unpublished manuscript written by solomon spalding. Dec 14, 2008 i recently perfunctorily read a new study written by three stanford university professors, titled reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification, and published in the latest issue of the journal, literary and linguistic computing. Quotes joseph used a peep stone and a hat to translate most of the book of mormon. Book of mormon authorship update from craig criddle. Mormonleaks is a research project that seeks to reconstruct the authentic narrative of the origins of the mormon canon by combining macroanalytic computing tools with contemporary historical evidence the historical records reveal a small pool of candidate authors collaborating in western new york and northern ohio to create the mormon scriptures. If you notice any inaccuracies, please sign in and mark papers as correct or incorrect matches. Testing authorship in the personal writings of joseph smith using nsc classification. Including all of the words of one of the most repeated signature phrases of the book of mormon as evidenced by mark twains description of it when it is not a feature of spaldings work would be pretty risky if the study was actually a set up. Theology, cosmology, high priesthood, and temple rites. A new wordprint study on the book of mormon breathes new life to a longchallenged theory for book of mormon authorship, the theory that its real author was solomon spalding secretly assisted by sidney rigdon. In order to help shed light on this issue, several studies have relied upon a type of analysis called stylometry.
Wordprint analysis and the book of mormon deseret news. Authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and. If you identify any major omissions or other inaccuracies in the publication list, please let us know. Book of mormon authorship update from craig criddle post by mcb sun feb 21, 2010 8. Our goal is to shed new light on historical and textual claims widely represented as truth within the mormon community. Jockers, i again see that he is saying that the report published by his research team is only a set of relative authorship attributions. The deliberate archaic language of the book of mormon may have something to do with this, but that was not anything discussed by jockers and criddle. Criddle does not present his conclusions as offering positive proof of the books true origins, but instead attempts to track signs authorship through a chronological narrative of the old spaldingrigdon explanation for the book of mormon. Jun 18, 2015 i know of three theories on how the book of mormon was written. However, a fair number of chapters are now attributed to smith. Prior to 2008, no published authorship study results linked sidney rigdon to writing of the book of mormon. Although criddle s lecture is accompanied by numerous examples of relevent evidence, it is a.
November 27, 2017 what can stylometry tell us about book. This new analysis continues to indicate that the major authors were rigdon and spalding. Mosiah priority is a theory about the creation of the book of mormon arguing that the original manuscript began not with 1 nephi found at the beginning of the book of mormon, but midway through, starting with mosiah. Dec 12, 2017 see jockers, witten, criddle, reassessing authorship of the book of mormon, 482. What can stylometry tell us about book of mormon authorship. I really appreciate a comment by chris spencer on my previous post dueling wordprint studies.
I also summarized 24 pieces of evidence, pointing to sidney rigdon as a key contributor and likely mastermind for. For the past year or so, ive mentioned that information regarding book of mormon authorship would be forthcoming. I really appreciate a comment by chris spencer on my previous post dueling wordprint studies in that post, i had discussed a controversial study completed by stanford researchers mathew jockers, daniela witten, and craig criddle who concluded that 57% the book of mormon was authored by sidney rigdon and solomon spaulding. Feb 19, 2010 the inclusion of all the words is yet another indicator of the robustness of the findings. Many book of mormon research projects have implications for the continuing issues surrounding the authorship of the book of mormon. Craig criddle is a professor and senior fellow, woods institute for the environment, stanford university, having taught at stanford since 1998.
In 1888, walter sidney rigdon sidney rigdons grandson said that his grandfathers role in fabrication of the book of mormon was a family secret. We are testing a new system for linking publications to authors. I also summarized 24 pieces of evidence, pointing to sidney rigdon as a key contributor and likely mastermind for the 1830 version of the book of mormon. All content in this area was uploaded by craig s criddle on aug, 2014. In that post, i had discussed a controversial study completed by stanford researchers mathew jockers, daniela witten, and craig criddle who concluded that 57% the book of mormon was authored by sidney rigdon and solomon spaulding. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta. This field of research uses various statistical methods to detect linguistic patterns.
D, is a professor and senior fellow, woods institute for the environment, stanford university. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta andnearestshrunken centroid classification. Dale broadhurst spalding book of mormon textual parallels, plus an important study of unique word parallels. When the book of mormon appeared, all who heard him were satisfied that he referred to it. Criddle, reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification, literary and linguistic computing, volume 23. Mormon prophet joseph smith 180544 claimed that more than twodozen ancient individuals nephi, mormon, alma, etc.
In the first essay i discussed why authorship of the book of mormon is important, how bias affects the analysis, and i critiqued some of the major authorship theories. Examining a misapplication of nearest shrunken centroid. Daniela witten, and craig criddle who concluded that 57% the book of mormon was authored by sidney rigdon and solomon spaulding. Jockers, witten, and criddle attempted to address the question of whether two, 19th century authors combined might have produced the book of mormon, thus explaining why earlier studies found that the book of mormon styles didnt match single 19th century authors. Spaldingrigdon theory of book of mormon authorship wikipedia. Matthew jockers center for digital research in the. Tracking authorship through the book of mormon spalding first, rigdon second, cowdery third by craig criddle. The theory that sidney rigdon was the true author of the book of mormon first appeared in print in an august 31, 1831. Lies, expletive deleted lies, and statistics fairmormon. A third source is a book recently published by farms entitled book of mormon authorship revisited.
Examining a misapplication of nearest shrunken centroid classification to investigate book of mormon authorship. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest. Fyi, craig criddle the antimormon member of the team has written about the process through which this study come. Reports that in bainbridge, ohio, sidney rigdon engaged in seancelike sessions with others in adjacent places to produce the book of mormon. We believe that the time has come for a candid conversation about the origins of the book of mormon and the rise of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints. I caught this as part of my highwire press alerts i dont typically follow publications in this journal. Most latterday saints are aware of a minor industry in certain religious circles in the united states devoted to refuting mormonism and to criticizing the book of mormon. Sidney rigdon embraced mormonism without much investigation. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. The historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of the.
No other book, aside from the first book of napoleon, approaches the density of rare phrases 4grams, specifically that are shared by the book of mormon. I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. See jockers, witten, criddle, reassessing authorship of the book of mormon, 482. They wrote a long paper that failed to demonstrate anything. Farnham, travels in the great western prairies, the anahuac and rocky mountains, and in the oregon territory, poughkeepsie, new york. Does the book of mormon exhibit evidence of divineancient origins or humanmodern origins. Supplementary data for reassessing authorship of the book. I know, because the chairman of my thesis committee commented on my long, convoluted sentences, and i immediately started to cut them shorter. For jockers and criddles book of mormon chapter data, it turns out that the absolute probabilities of authorship by spalding or rigdon are, almost without exception, very small. Notwithstanding much more on the topics discussed in this text have been published since this book, including book of mormon authorship revisited by reynolds from 1997 that build up on many of these issues, this book would make a very good addition to ones lds library. Terryl givens joseph smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light. Since the book of mormons publication in 1830, a number of different theories have been proposed concerning its authorship. In 2008, matthew jockers, daniela witten, and craig criddle applied two statistical methodsdelta and nearest shrunken centroid classification nscto the question of book of mormon authorship.
Stanford professor craig criddle believes that can be done and has. A foundational premise of the jockers study was that the once prominent, though long discarded, spauldingridgon theory of book of mormon authorship might actually be valid. Creating the book of mormon, epaper, originally published 8 october 2005. Dec 23, 2008 that new book of mormon wordprint study. Supplementary data for reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification. Ep 27 who wrote the book of mormon part 2 infants on thrones. Dale broadhurst spaldingbook of mormon textual parallels, plus an important study of unique word parallels. Pdf reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta. The theory first appeared in print in the book mormonism unvailed, published in 1834 by e. Craig criddles address at the exmormon foundation october 2009.
Ancient prophets on the american continent kept records over many centuries, and then the prophethistorian mormon compiled the records onto gold plates. The historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of the book of mormon. A year or two ago, the oxford university press journal literary and linguistic computing published a statistical argument for the spalding theory of book of mormon authorship. A comparative study ofmachine learning methods for authorship attribution. In october 20, the authors conducted a data analysis comparing the book of mormon to over 100,000 books from the pre1830s era. Book of mormon central archive the historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of. This theory first appeared in print in the book mormonism unvailed, sic. Pdf reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using. Book of mormon 5,000 changes despite the claim that joseph smiths translation was by the gift and power of god, several thousand changes have been made to the book of mormon since its original printing. Byu scholarsarchive citation roper, matthew and fields, paul j. Also, since i gave the exmo conference talk in october, we have retested the book of mormon, including this new material as a signal for smith. I offer you the following information for your consideration.
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