The Book of Mormon: The Original 1830 Edition [Paperback]

This is a review of MacMay's version of the Book of Mormon (Kindle edition).

This appears to be the standard contemporary version of the text, but is missing the LDS chapter summaries. Also it does *not* have a table of contents and is thus difficult to navigate. For starting at the beginning and reading straight through, it will suffice. But for going to any specific book or chapter, there is no easy way to do so except for text searching. Regarding the formatting, each sentence has a title. ie, a sentence will start:

1 Nephi 2:20
20 (a single sentence)

1 Nephi 2:21
21 (a single sentence)

complete with 2 or three lines of white space between each sentence. This makes the text look awkward and interrupts the flow, but it does give the user something to search on when navigating.

Recommended only for the price; if ease-of-use and/or readability is more important to you, I suggest getting a different version.

From a fiction perspective, this is a very boring book that in some way parallels the founding, rise and fall of the Roman empire. It humorously attempts to explain where the Native Americans come from however the prose is dry and uninteresting. If you are interested in a similar type of story I recommend reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation series about the rise and fall of a Galactic Empire.

From a religious perspective, the doctrine of this book -- especially the original 1830 edition -- is astoundingly 1800s protestant christianity. Really nothing new here other than the retelling of New Testament in the Americas. Ironically the doctrine in this book is at conflict with the rest of the LDS scriptures (Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price). However, this shouldn't be too much of a problem for the average christian person as the Bible is self contradictory as well.

On a side note, I highly recommend the Book of Zelph as a companion guide to the Book of Mormon. It better explains away the problems of DNA, anachronisms and other problems introduced by the Book of Mormon.

Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, started off as a sci-fi writer and then when he wasn't having much success with that he turned his fiction into a religion to get money and power. Okay, you see where this review is going.

If a Mormon missionary asks you to read this book and pray about it to receive an answer from God, OK - that's perfectly within their right to ask and it's perfectly within your right to try it out. But just for the sake of intellectual integrity and, oh I don't know, SANITY, shouldn't you at least fact check some of the claims the book makes before you go trusting in "divine" responses? I mean maybe the "answer" to your prayer isn't coming from any place divine - maybe your head's off-kilter or maybe it's coming from unholy sources. Personally I'm agnostic and don't believe in the latter but for the sake of this review I'll concede it as a possibility.

So here are some of the facts:
* DNA proves Native Americans didn't descend from Hebrews as the Book of Mormon claims they did. They came from Siberia/Mongolia several thousand years before the time frame of the Book of Mormon.
* Joseph Smith didn't "translate" this from plates as he claimed he did - he stuck his "seer stone" in his hat and peeked inside and dictated what the "seer stone" showed him while the plates were nowhere near.
* Joseph Smith's mother says he used to keep the family entertained at dinner by making up the most wonderful stories about the ancient American Indians and their customs. Her account of when this happened puts it several years before the Book of Mormon was written/published. In other words - he had a well established history of just making crap up for entertainment purposes (see why I started off mentioning Hubbard).
* Joseph Smith couldn't accurately translate the Egyptian characters on the papyri that became the Book of Abraham - so why is anyone trusting his translation of "Reformed Egyptian" in the Book Of Mormon (which "language", as stated above, he never even bothered to look at)?
* There were no horses, steel, etc. in the Americas during the time period covered by the Book of Mormon as the book claims there were.

There are many other facts too numerous to put in this review. My point here is to encourage you to look at both sides and do some basic fact checking before you go trusting your emotions like the Mormons will tell you to do.

If you are curious to read this book as fiction then there are some interesting stories in its narrative. I'd give it 3 stars. If you read this book to gain an understanding of what the Mormons believe or for its relevance to 19th century American history then it's invaluable - I mean you can't even begin to understand Mormon doctrine and history until you've read this. I'd give it 5 stars. If you want to read this book to gain insights into the literal history of ancient American inhabitants then there is a good chance you are either ignorant of the facts or you are in denial of them. I'd give it 0 stars for being a complete load of crap!

I made the mistake when I was younger of trusting my emotions without fact checking and I ended up buying the load of crap part for many years. The disillusionment and pain that came with the realization that I'd been duped was most unpleasant and I'm writing this review in the hope that I might spare someone else that unpleasantness.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 27 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars