Mormonin kirjasta puuttuu merkittävä joukko tärkeitä asioita, joiden pitäisi siitä löytyä siinä tapauksessa, että kirja on aito historia heprealaisten elämästä Uudessa Maailmassa.

Mittajärjestelmä

Eräs Mormonin kirjasta puuttuvista piirteistä on on mittajärjestelmä. On vaikea ymmärtää, miksei Joseph Smith viitsinyt antaa muinaisille nefiläisille, laamanilaisille ja jaredilaisille sellaista. Mahdollisesti hän epäili sellaisen jollakin tavalla osoittautuvan ristiriitaiseksei heprealaisten mittojen kanssa, tai ehkä hän vain ei viitsinyt tai ehtinyt suunnitella mitään järjestelmää.

Alman kirjassa kohdassa 11:4 sanotaan mitoista: "...he [nefiläiset] eivät laskeneet juutalaisten tavoin ... vaan muuttivat laskutapaansa ja mittojaan kansansa mielen ja olosuhteiden mukaan joka sukupolvessaa aina tuomarien hallintokauteen asti..."

In any case, our reading of the text of the Book of Mormon produced no examples of the measurement of anything. In Alma 11:7 and 11, we read that "A senum of silver was equal to a senine of gold, and either for a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain.... A shiblon is half of a senum; therefore, a shiblon for half a measure of barley." We are left completely in the dark, however, as to how much grain is contained in a "measure." We searched with the Mormon Church's computer program to see if we could find something our reading of the text did not disclose.

The words which we searched for were as follows: measure, measured, measurement, measures, measuring, length, breadth, width, height, heights, stature, size, distance and depth.

These words, of course, produced a great many examples of measurement in the Bible, but the Book of Mormon produced nothing of any value. The closest thing we could find to measurement appeared in Alma 50:2. This verse spoke of "works of timbers built up to the height of a man..."

The only other thing we found was in Ether 2:17, where a description of the barges used to bring the Jaredites to the New World is given: "...the length thereof was the length of a tree..."

Since trees vary a great deal in their length, this does not give us too much to go on; some trees are only 20 or 30 feet high, whereas some of the giant sequoias in California grow to over 300 feet high.

The description given of Jared's barges certainly is not as precise as that given concerning the ark in the Bible: "...The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits." (Genesis 6:15)

According to the computer, the Bible uses the words cubit and cubits 258 times, whereas the word cubit is only found once in the Book of Mormon.

In 3 Nephi 13:27, we read: "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" It is interesting to note, however, that even this example was plagiarized from the Bible, Matthew 6:27.

As far as distance is concerned, the New Testament refers to "mile" and "furlongs."

The Nephites, on the other hand, seem to have never developed any accurate way to measure distance.

Alma 22:32 says that "it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite... from the east to the west sea..."

It is true that the Book of Mormon does use the word "mile" once in 3 Nephi 12:41, but it is obvious that it is plagiarized from Matthew 5:41: "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

The Bible has a great deal to say about the weight of various objects. The ancient Hebrews used a balance or scales to weigh their precious metals and other items.

For instance, in Numbers 7:13 we read: "And his offering was one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary..."

The computer shows that the Bible mentions shekel or shekels 139 times, whereas the Book of Mormon never uses these words.

Gerahs are mentioned in the Old Testament, and the words pound and pounds are found in both the Old and New Testaments. These words, however, are not found in the Book of Mormon.

The words talent and talents (a talent of silver was equal to 3,000 shekels) appear 66 times in the two testaments of the Bible.

The Book of Mormon, however, only has one place where the word talent is found: "...take away their talent... and give unto them who shall have more abundantly." (Ether 12:35)

This seems to have been plagiarized from Matthew 25:28-29: "Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance..."

We searched for the following words in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon: weigh, weighed, weigheth, weighing, weight, weightier, weights, weighty, scales, balance and balances.

The search in the Bible brought forth a great deal of information.

The Book of Mormon, however, yielded six references, but none of these had anything to do with the weight or weighing of any object.

For instance, Lehi exclaimed: "My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow..." (2 Nephi 1:17), and Nephi wrote: "And then they shall rejoice... and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes..." (2 Nephi 30:6)

It is also interesting to note that in Joseph Smith's other writings in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price which includes the books of Abraham and Moses we do not find any of the words mentioned above in any way that relates to weighing or the weight of any object.

It seems obvious, then, that Joseph Smith had very little interest in any system of weights and this is reflected in his writings.

In an attempt to ascertain if anything was ever actually measured in the Book of Mormon, we searched for the following words: measure, measured, measurement, measures and measuring.

While the Bible produced numerous references regarding measurement, other than the two indefinite references in the 11th chapter of Alma (mentioned above), we could find no evidence that people in the Book of Mormon actually measured anything.

Värit

While the Book of Mormon gives an abundance of details concerning military matters and some aspects of religion, it is very deficient in a number of important areas. In many respects it is virtually colorless in its description of events and people. Indeed, the word "colorless" could be applied almost in a literal sense to the Book of Mormon.

We, in fact, did a study concerning eleven colors mentioned in the Bible and found the following: the Bible mentions these colors, or words derived from these colors (e. g., red, reddish; green, greenness, etc.), 382 times, whereas the Book of Mormon yielded only 56 instances where these words were used.

Moreover, if we eliminate the words "black" and "white" from this total, there are only 18 places where we find any other colors. Red appeared the most frequently. It comprises 15 of the 18 instances mentioned.

When we take a closer look at red, however, we find another amazing fact: of the 15 times it appears only 2 of these instances relate to anything in the New World. These refer to the fact that the Amlicites "marked themselves with red in their foreheads" (see Alma 3:4, 13).

The other 13 places where this word is found relate to the sea which the Israelites passed through on their flight from the Egyptians — i. e., the Red Sea (see Exodus 10:19).

The other two colors which appear in the Book of Mormon are scarlet — actually "scarlets" — and "grey."

The word scarlets is found twice in 1 Nephi 13:7-8, and was apparently plagiarized from Revelations 18:12.

The remaining color, grey, is found just once (1 Nephi 18:15) and seems to have been lifted from the Bible (see Genesis 42:38).

Of more importance, however, are the colors which are completely missing from the Book of Mormon: blue, brown, crimson, green, purple and yellow.

That all these colors would be absent from the book is astounding.

It is also interesting to note that five of these colors — blue, brown, crimson, purple and yellow — are also missing in Joseph Smith's writings in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

The word "green" does appear one time in the Doctrine and Covenants and also once in the Pearl of Great Price, but both occurrences seem to have been taken from the Bible.

Our computer search of the Bible for the words colour, coloured and colors — note the British spelling in the King James Version — revealed that they were used 27 times.

The same search in the Book of Mormon yielded only the word "colors" once (see 3 Nephi 22:11).

This word, however, has been directly taken from a verse in the Bible (see Isaiah 54:11).

Musiikki

The ancient Israelites were a people who were very interested in music. This interest should certainly be reflected in the Book of Mormon.

An examination of the book, however, shows that it was written by a person who had very little interest in music. We searched for the words sang, sing, singed, singer, singers, singeth, singing, sings, song and songs and found that they appeared 268 times in the Bible.

These same words are only found 36 times in the Book of Mormon, and further research shows that most of these were derived through plagiarism from the Bible.

We have identified 19 places where they were directly copied from the Bible, and of the remaining 17, there are 8 cases where they only refer to singing in heaven or singing the song of "redeeming love" — i. e., becoming converted to Christ.

We also searched for the words hymn and hymns.

While we found 4 cases in the Bible, the Book of Mormon did not yield any examples of these words. We also searched for the words music, musical, musician, musicians and musick. (In this particular search we included headings found in the Psalms because they are found in the Hebrew text.)

These words appeared 73 times in the Bible, but, again, the Book of Mormon yielded no examples of these words being used.

It is also interesting to note that Joseph Smith did not use any of these words in the Pearl of Great Price or his revelations printed in the Doctrine and Covenants. The word "music" appears once in the Doctrine and Covenants (Section 136:28), but it is in a revelation given to Brigham Young.

When it comes to musical instruments, the Book of Mormon is sadly deficient. We searched for the words instrument and instruments and found 24 places in the Bible where they are used with regard to musical instruments. Although the Book of Mormon uses these words, we did not find a single case where they refer to a musical instrument.

We searched for the names of specific musical instruments the Israelites used. In the first search we looked for the following instruments: organ, organs, psalteries, psaltery, sackbut, tabret, tabrets, timbrel, timbrels, trump, trumpet, trumpeters, trumpets, trumps and viol.

While these words appeared 174 times in the Bible, they are used only 7 times in the Book of Mormon.

The word trump appears 3 times, but in every case it is referring to the trump of God. While the word trumpet is found twice, one of these examples (3 Nephi 13:2) has been plagiarized from Matthew 6:2.

The only example of any of these musical instruments actually being used is when a Jaredite by the name of Comnor "did sound a trumpet unto the armies of Shiz to invite them forth to battle." (Ether 14:28)

It is really surprising that the author of the Book of Mormon, who obviously had a real interest in warfare, never had the Nephites or the Lamanites sound a trumpet.

We also searched for the following musical instruments or words related to them: cornet, cornets, cymbal, cymbals, dulcimer, flute, harp, harped, harpers, harping, harps, pipe, piped, pipers and pipes.

The result was that we found these words used 102 times in the Bible. Only two of these words were found in the Book of Mormon, harp and pipe.

They both appear in one verse found in 2 Nephi 15:12. An examination of this verse, however, shows that it was plagiarized from Isaiah 5:12 in the Bible.

It is obvious, therefore, that the author of the Book of Mormon mentioned none of these musical instruments in his own writing. The same applies to Joseph Smith's revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Pearl of Great Price does use the word harp in one place (Moses 5:45), but it is obvious that even this is taken from Genesis 4:21.