Stem wrote:What would it possibly mean to say the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God?
I have in mind the research done and presented over the past couple years by Stanford Carmack--you know the stuff wherein he says some phrases in the Book of Mormon come from an earlier period of time, as far back as the 1400s. There was, he concludes, no way for Joseph to have come with these, or at least on the MD&D Boardearlier he said "such a quantity of data means that it is extremely unlikely that Joseph worded the text".
Fine by me. I mean it's his research and I don't know that I care enough to question it anymore. I tried but realized I kept getting heavy eyelids every time I popped up one of his pieces on the topic. No offense to him or his research. It's likely me (it's not you...it's me, baby). I can't find the interest to question whether Joseph could have imagined whether a "finite complementation after the verbs desire and suffer" was ever possible or not, or if the phrase "the more part"was ever a possibility in his young frontier mind.
He also indicates the question of why doesn't really interest him. That's not what he's pursuing. I think the kind of giggling people were did when they heard of this and his buddy Skousen proposed a 15 century angel or someone did the translation and then gave it to Joseph, line by line scared him away from that question. perhaps? It makes ya wonder though, what's the point of his effort then? Why go through this.
As far as I can tell it seems to speak against some grand divine translation process. Carmack suggeststhat only portions of the Book of Mormon can be attributed to Early Modern English, some of the rest seems to be found in the typical language of Joseph's day. But overall the results from the 1820s-30s efforts with Josephs' involvement did not "consistently and accurately modernize the text". Well I guess not. I mean we're talking language usage in the text that predates Joseph by a few hundred years.
If Joseph didn't make up the book I don't see how this research helps to defend the notion that it was given by the gift and power of God. It argues against it. Why would God use some old archaic obsolete phrasings in order to have the book written for our modern day? I guess the why doesn't matter. If God did it, then it's on him, I suppose. But it sure makes him look silly and any who choose to defend it.
The Book of Mormon is a Mormonism free zone
http://thetruthaboutmormonism-creeksalmon.blogspot.com/