The book of mormon. Cultural approaches to pseudotranslation

The mere association of The Book of Mormon with the word translation may confuse someone who knows that the above-mentioned book is not a translation from any ancient document at all, but a text created and written around 1827 and presented as a translation to the public. This is not even the title of the whole book but only of a chapter of the Mormon Bible, officially known as The Bible of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; nevertheless, people call it that way.

In short, Joseph Smith, Jr., son of an impoverished New England farmer, claimed to have received from an angel, Moroni, golden plates from which, with the use of special stones set in silver bows, he translated The Book of Mormon.

Three associates solemnly testified that they, too, saw both the plates and the angel Moroni, and afterwards they and other converts frequently claimed to have had visions and revelations. The Book of Mormon relates the history of a group of Hebrews who migrated from Jerusalem to America about 600 BCE, led by a prophet, Lehi. They multiplied and eventually split into two groups. One group, the Lamanites, forgot their beliefs, became heathens, and were the ancestors of the American Indians. The other group, the Nephites, developed culturally and built great cities but were eventually destroyed by the Lamanites about 400 CE. Before these events occurred, however, Jesus had already appeared and taught the Christian law to the Nephites just after his ascension. The history and teachings were abridged and written on gold plates by a prophet called Mormon.

His son, Moroni, made additions and buried the plates in the ground, where they remained about 1, 400 years, until Moroni, a resurrected being or angel, delivered them to the American prophet Joseph Smith; later on Smith returned them to Moroni.

Non-Mormon critics disagree in their opinions over the origin of the book; some critics believe that it was written solely by Joseph Smith.

Another theory, now discredited, claimed that it was based on the manuscript of a novel by a clergyman, Solomon Spaulding. On the whole, scholars proved it to be a fake translation, and it should unanimously be treated as such whether judged within the context of the first half of the eighteenth century or our age, that of the strict copyright laws. At least when taking into account the factual evidence. Such debates over the origin or authenticity of a thing are somehow similar to those regarding the appearance of life on Earth: some claim that it was created here, others that it was brought from another planet by some meteorite: that does not change the fundamental aspect of the problem, but only moves it to somewhere else how did life appear on that other planet then? Nevertheless, speaking about evidence, the evolution of translation theory meant a deep change in the nature of the evidence used for tackling texts such as The Book of Mormon, and this is closely related to the higher status acquired by ...

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