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I Think There's a Good Reason for the King James Bible English in the Book of Mormon

Critics of the LDS Church think that phraseology from the King James Version of the BIble in the Book of Mormon indicates that it is a fraud. I disagree. Here's why.



If Smith were reading the Bible regularly before his 1820 encounter with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and many angels, doesn't it stand to reason that Smith would be even more enthusiastic in reading the Bible thereafter than he was before? Our vocabulary is obviously shaped by the books we read. It is not hard to imagine that Smith's vocabulary would have been distinctly shaped by his reading of the Bible intensely for the 3 years between the "First Vision" and his becoming acquainted with Moroni in 1823. And that intensity could only have grown after Moroni quoted the Bible to him and told him that he was about to make clear the beginnings of the work that Christ told Smith in 1820 that he would be instrumental in helping to bring forth. I don't know about you, but by that point, I'd be taking my Bible with me to every meal, while I was walking into town, while I was resting in between clearing land for my father's farm, and a lot of other places I can think of.

The King James Bible was the most popular edition in the day, and I think it's been evidenced that the Smith family had at least one copy(?) of the KJV. In the 9 years or so between Smith's first encounter with the divine and when the Book of Mormon translation began, I can imagine that Smith had thoroughly incorporated KJV vocabulary into his everyday manner of speech (not to mention that he had probably been able to memorize great swathes of it in preparation for the mission that Christ and Moroni told him he was being assigned).

We also have significant evidence that Christ, the Father, and Moroni were only a very few of the divine messengers that Smith entertained during that time period.

This sheds light on a very likely reason that the Book of Mormon is peppered with KJV phraseology.

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