Book of Mormon plagiarized the Bible

Book of Mormon plagiarized the Bible
Hello! I’m Danny
As a Latter-day Saint of 60 years, I was convinced that the Book of Mormon had, to be scripture because the teachings were like those in the Bible. It had a familiar ring to it. It was written in King James language and read like the Old and New Testaments.
But, once I started cross-referencing Book of Mormon verses and phrases with the Bible, it occurred to me that Nephite prophets were just using quotations from the Bible. And when I realized that – it made me question the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as true scripture.
Today, I’m going to show you examples in the Book of Mormon from just ONE chapter, how often the author used phrases from the New Testament. Even quoting entire verses word for word.
The Book of Alma claims to be written by a Nephite prophet who came before the time of the New Testament and on the other side of the world, yet the author clearly makes frequent use of borrowing from the New Testament. If the Book of Mormon was true – it would be impossible for this Nephite prophet who lived before Christ and His disciples to be quoting from a collection of manuscripts that had not yet been written on the other side of the world. Thus, the references to the New Testament by other Book of Mormon prophets like Alma demonstrate the Book of Mormon is a later forgery and not a real collection of ancient texts.
Here are some examples from just one chapter in Alma 5, which is dated 83 BC.
The author of Alma in the Book of Mormon borrows directly, word for word, from the discourse of John the Baptist recorded in the New Testament. For the sake of time, I’m only going to quote a portion of the verse that is identical. Alma 5:52 “the ax is laid at the root of the tree; therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.” Now listen to Matthew 3:10 “the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Alma gives us here an almost exact quotation of a specific phrase unique to John the Baptist. Clearly, the true author of Alma was familiar with the gospel of Matthew.
A person reading or hearing this comparison might have reason to pause and wonder how and why these two references are identical. From an LDS perspective, it might be rationalized as inspiration or revelation from God through His prophets – wanting to convey the same message to both nations on opposite sides of the world by using the same exact words. That was how I justified it when I was LDS and wanting to believe the Book of Mormon was scripture. Now, as an objective student of ancient scripture – it is apparent that the Book of Mormon is simply plagiarizing from the New Testament.
Then Alma more than once quotes apostle Paul almost verbatim. I’m going to read the first part of Alma 5:15 “this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption.” Compare that to 1 Corinthians 15:53 “this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” As one can see, the phrase is basically an exact quote from Paul. And Alma was supposedly written during the Old Testament era of the Book of Mormon long before Paul lived.
The real author of Alma slightly changes the arrangement of the verse to try and make it not so obvious that he’s lifting words right out of the New Testament. The last part of Alma 5:15 reads, “stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body.” Compared to, 2 Corinthians 5:10 “appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body.”
It’s also worth noting that all, of the original New Testament manuscripts were written in Greek. And Paul’s particular expressions are unique only to him. Since Alma who supposedly spoke Hebrew and wrote in Reformed Egyptian lived 100 years before Paul – the real author of Alma had to have read Paul’s words to steal quotes from him.
Here’s another example: Alma 5:57 “come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things.” Compare it to, 2 Corinthians 6:17 “come out among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.” Again, the real author of Alma had to be familiar with the writings of Paul.
Now, let’s see how this writer borrows phrases from the gospel of John. Alma 5:48 “the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth.” Compared to, John 1:14 “the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And more from the same verse in Alma 5:48 “behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world.” John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Then, Alma 5:48 “who steadfastly believeth on his name.” And John 1:12 “them that believe on his name.” Here the author of Alma has strung together phrases taken from John’s gospel, all only a few verses apart within the same chapter. This has signs of plagiarism written all over it.
Let’s consider one more. In the very next verse, the author of Alma goes on to write, Alma 5:49 “they must…be born again.” The term “born again,” was first introduced by Yeshua in his conversation with Nicodemus. John 3:3 “Except a man ‘be born again,’ he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Yeshua restates again in John 3:5 “Ye must be born again.” As a Latter-day Saint, we hear that familiar phrase and assume that it was a common analogy and phrase that even the Nephites would understand. But it clearly was not!
Yeshua’s use of this term was new and unique, even to the Jews in Israel. That is why Nicodemus had no idea what Yeshua was talking about. The term, “born again” occurs only one more time in the New Testament later in 1 Peter 1:23, but otherwise, it is unknown in ancient Jewish literature. “born again” isn’t a term or phrase some Hebrew tribes migrating to ancient America in 600 BC. might have known. But a writer in the 19th Century who has immediate access to the King James Bible would have been very familiar with it.
It is also worth noting that Alma 5 elsewhere uses a similar phrase “born of God” in Alma 5:14, which is one of the most famous verses in the Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saints. “Born of God” is a phrase drawn from several passages in the epistle of 1 John chapters 3,4, and 5. Again, the borrowing of this kind of distinctive terminology betrays Alma’s knowledge of and dependence on the New Testament – proving that the true author of the Book of Mormon is someone living in the 19th century – namely Joseph Smith Jr.
Here are a few more examples from Alma 5 of unique phrases from the New Testament: Vs 37 “puffed up” is in 1 Corinthians 5:2. And, “as sheep having no shepherd” is in Matthew 9:36.
Vs 38 “the good shepherd” is in John 10:11.
Vs 39 “child of the devil” is in Acts 13:10.
Vs 46 “the Holy Spirit of God” is in Ephesians 4:30.
Vs 47 “the manifestation of the Spirit” is in 1 Corinthians 12:7.
Vs 50 “my beloved brethren” is in 1 Corinthians 15:58.
Vs 54 “meet for repentance” is in Acts 26:20.
Vs 58 “written in the book of life” is in Revelation 13:8.
There are numerous other examples of phrases borrowed from the New Testament in this single chapter of Alma 5 alone. That’s just one chapter. I plan on producing future videos in which I will expose many more plagiarisms from the Bible in the Book of Mormon.
The point I’m trying to make is that all this borrowing, copying, plagiarizing, and stealing from the New Testament proves that the narrative of the Book of Mormon isn’t an independent scripture written by ancient prophets in the Americas. It’s dependency on the King James Bible proves it wasn’t written prior to 1611 AD.
The Book of Mormon is a forgery that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded on. I believe Jospeh Smith Jr. originally intended to write an adventure novel similar to another contemporary book of his time – View of the Hebrews. But when it didn’t sell and make him rich like he hoped it would – it then became the basis for starting a new religion in the 1800s. Joseph called it “The keystone of our religion.” And President Ezra Taft Benson in 1986 Gen. Conf. taught, “Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does the church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.”
Even Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland went out on a limb to declare, “Either the Book of Mormon is what the Prophet Joseph said it is, or this Church and its founder are false, a deception from the first instance onward.” What more can be said?
You decide!
Hey, thanks for listening. Please share with family and friends. For more videos like this one, check out YouTube or talkingtomormons.com. God Bless!