Only Mormons Accept the Book of Mormon
Outside the Mormon community, the Book of Mormon enjoys no standing whatever among either scholars or laymen.
The statement is generally true, but is is relevant? How widespread is acceptance for the New Testament outside the Christian community? Or the Old Testament outside the Jewish and Christian spheres of influence? Does the fact that Buddhists and Hindus do not accept the Bible prove that it is untrue?
It is generally true that only believers accept a given text as scripture. It has been my experience that a large number of those who have criticized the Book of Mormon in print have not read the book, but only negative reviews thereof written by other critics.
There are, however, some scholars who have taken the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith seriously. During my nearly nine years in Israel, I found a few prominent Israeli scholars who used the Book of Mormon in their research. I discuss this in my article “Non-LDS Scholars and the Book of Mormon,” posted on the Meridian Magazine web site, July 2008. See also:
- John A. Tvedtnes, “Scholarship in Mormonism and Mormonism in Scholarship,” a paper presented at the 2001 FAIR conference and posted on the FAIR web site.
- John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebrew Names in the Book of Mormon,” posted on FAIR web site, 2002. Originally presented as a paper at the 13th annual World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, August 2001.