It has been suggested that the Book of Mormon was taken from or that its substance may be found fundamentally in the obscure work published in Poultney, Vermont, in 1823 (second edition 1825) by Ethan Smith, under the title "View of the Hebrews" or "The Tribes of Israel in America."

The notion apparently has not arisen upon a study of the book itself, but upon extraneous circumstances which indicate that Joseph Smith, who published the Book of Mormon in 1830, might conceivably have had access to a copy of the View of the Hebrews. The circumstances referred to are that the vision in which the existence of the Book of Mormon was revealed to Joseph Smith occurred September 21, 1823, the same year in which the View of the Hebrews was first issued. At that time Joseph Smith was seventeen years of age. The first edition of the Book of Mormon appeared approximately five years after the publication of the second edition of the View of the Hebrews which appeared in 1825. Both books were published in northeastern United States, the View of the Hebrews being published by Smith and Shute at Poultney, Vermont, and the Book of Mormon being published in Palmyra, New York. Some baseless ideas of a family connection have arisen because the author of the View of the Hebrews (Ethan Smith, a pastor of a church in Poultney, Vermont) and Joseph Smith, translator of the Book of Mormon, have the same surname.

The View of the Hebrews being long since out of print and rarely seen, and it having been the experience of the last century that any story, however implausible, which purports to give· an origin to the Book of Mormon at variance with the account of its divine revelation is seized upon with avidity by those opposed to the Church and those of little faith, it appears appropriate that an examination of the work be made, by way of comparison with the Book of Mormon.

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At no point do these people dealt with in the View of the Hebrews coincide with those dealt with in the Book of Mormon, either as to time or locale. The fact that Ethan Smith found customs among the American Indians which appeared to be Israelitish in origin may be said to be in harmony with the Book of Mormon. Even in that event there is a disparity, since Ethan Smith's idea is that such customs are found among the American Indians by reason of their descent from the lost ten tribes, whereas the Book of Mormon has nothing to do with the lost ten tribes, and relates only to people of other much earlier and later times, though in the main also of Israelitish origin.

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The foregoing comparative excerpts serve adequately to indicate the structural differences, between the two works. These may be summarized principally as follows:

1. The View of the Hebrews is an argument, with citation of authority, except in the parts where it is hortatory, whereas the Book of Mormon is narrative and historical.

2. The View of the Hebrews relates to biblical texts and secular and religious investigations into evidences supporting a particular interpretation of those texts, whereas the Book of Mormon is scripture, complete in itself.

3. The View of the Hebrews relates primarily to a people lost in about the year 725 B. C., whereas the Book of Mormon relates to people never lost, but who migrated from Jerusalem a century and a quarter after the "lost tribes" were expelled. In other words, the View of the Hebrews is a conjecture, with supporting argument and evidences, that American aborigines are descendants from the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, contrasted to which, the Book of Mormon is a history of an entirely different set of people, constituting at least a portion of the ancestry of the American Indians, kept by the recorders of those ancestors' government and church.

4. The View of the Hebrews is intended as a spur to induce Protestants to engage in proselyting Jews and Indians to Protestant Christianity by contributing to missionary organizations and welfare groups. The Book of Mormon has a purpose identical with the purpose of the Bible, i. e., attestation of the divinity of Christ and the preservation of the records of affairs and teachings in a theocratic system.

Points of Similarity and Difference Between the Works

There are some respects in which it may readily be said that the Book of Mormon and the View of the Hebrews agree. And in some they are sharply opposed. These are pointed out as follows:

1. Mr. Ethan Smith finds numerous traditions, customs, words, etc., in use among the Indians about 1825, which are of apparent Hebrew origin. The Book of Mormon relates the migration to America of several colonies of Hebraic people, and their later development of Hebrew, and particularly Jewish civilizations in America, supplying an explanation for Mr. Ethan Smith's findings which apparently never occurred to him, enwrapped as he was in his theory of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. The explanation is simply that the customs, language, etc. upon which he remarks found their origin in Hebrew migrations not involved in the dispersion of the ten tribes.

2. The View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon are agreed that the prophet Isaiah had in prophetic view the western hemisphere in his discussions of the re-gathering of Israel and Judah. The two works are, however, sharply contrasted in this relation, as Mr. Smith's idea is that Israel (i. e. the American Indians) and Judah must be restored to their land allotments in Palestine, and be carried over seas, whereas the Book of Mormon speaks of the ten tribes as being elsewhere and contemplates the land of promise Zion, as being on this continent.

3. The View of the Hebrews correctly regards the prophecy of Ezekiel relative to the "stick of Judah" and the "stick of Joseph" as indicative of a time of restoration, but regards the prophecy as relating figuratively to the reunion of the ten tribes and the two tribes in Palestine. The Book of Mormon of course makes no reference to this prophecy, since it was given after the departure of Lehi from Jerusalem, but Joseph Smith, and the Church consistently since have construed the prophecy referred to as having reference to the Book of Mormon (i. e., the stick or book of Joseph, from whom Lehi was descended) being joined with the stick or book of Judah (i. e., the Bible preserved by the Jews) to become one record. The ancient custom of rolling parchment around a stick instead of using pages bound as we bind books, is the basis of the allusion.

4. The View of the Hebrews relates an Indian tradition that their ancestors once had the book of God; and then they were happy; but that they lost it and became miserable, and that they will have this book again some time (p. 264). With this idea the Book of Mormon is not inharmonious. It relates that Lehi carried away with him the ancient record of the Jews, the original of the Old Testament writings, down to the time of Jeremiah, the subsequent compilation of writings by the prophets in America, and the burial of all those works during the time of annihilation of the Nephite people. The tradition of a lost ''Book of God" accords strictly with this relation of the Book of Mormon. No tradition has been noted elsewhere, and Ethan Smith mentions none involving possession of the ancient books by the ten tribes after they were expelled.

5 There is a curious divergence between the View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon, which arises upon Mr. Smith's idea that the Indians are the lost ten tribes. Necessarily, any Hebrew traditions found among the Indians, on his theory, must be traditions dating to 725 B. C. The Book of Mormon by, contrast relates the visit of Christ to the Nephites, his teachings, the elaborate establishment of his Church, and much doctrine, familiar in Christianity. Mr. Ethan Smith narrates the tradition of the coming of.a bearded white man to deliver the gospel to the ancients (and assumes it was Moses instead of Christ), remarks on the tradition of twelve men in ruling positions (and attributes it to the twelve tribes instead of the twelve Nephite disciples), and remarks on the tradition of a great spirit who lives in the region of the clouds (the Book of Mormon recounts that God spoke out of the heavens to the whole nation and Christ descended visibly to them). Mr. Smith remarks on the idea of a trinity being understood by the Indians, and at great labor attempts to tie this idea into the prophecies of the Old Testament. The nature of the Godhead as composed of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost was, according to the Book of Mormon, fully explained to the ancestors of the Indians, both by Christ and his disciples.

6. In the Book of Mormon, there are lengthy quotations from the writings of Isaiah, and likewise in. the View of the Hebrews. There is, however, a very marked difference. In the View of the Hebrews, the principal portion of Isaiah referred to is Chapter 18, which is not mentioned in the Book of Mormon, nor quoted from. In the Book of Mormon with curious conformity with the opinion of the best scholarship on the genuineness of the Book of Isaiah, the quotations are virtually limited to the first fourteen chapters and the last part of the prophet, (See in that relation Encyclopedia Britannica, "Isaiah"), omitting the middle part which is chronologically out of order, and is sometimes doubted to be the actual work of Isaiah.

7. The View of the Hebrews almost from end to end, excpting the portions dealing with Isaiah and the temple, is a combination of quotations from the writings and accounts of men touching Indian conditions in America with commentaries by Ethan Smith on these accounts. He quotes. some forty-eight writers and missionaries. The Book of Mormon neither relates in time to any such men, nor to the conditions they describe, nor is there any such quotation in it.

8. The Book of Mormon emphatically states that written language, to wit, reformed Egyptian, was prevalent and that the Book of Mormon was written by engraving on metal plates. The View of the Hebrews contemplates a people without a written tongue and speaking a language in which words similar to oral Hebrew were found.

9. The View of the Hebrews contemplates inhabitation of America back to the time of Columbus, with uncertainty theretofore. The Book of Mormon relates to several civilizations, dating back to the Tower of Babel and ending about 441 A. D., a thousand years before Columbus.

10. On matters of doctrine, the View of the Hebrews is devoted to one single object: To demonstrate, as far as possible, the possibility that the tribes migrated across the vast Siberian wastes, across the Bering Strait and down the coast of Alaska, across Canada, and thence all over the Americas, in the light of prophecies of Isaiah and others of the pre-exilic Old Testament prophets. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, is the abridgment of a great doctrinal—as well as historical work—of a religious people, and purports to contain the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a thing which is of course impossible as regards the View of the Hebrews.

11. In language the View of the Hebrews is ordinary, scholarly in the quoted parts, occasionally defective in grammar, not arranged with great formality or any attempt at technical precision, and occasionally contradictory of itself. The Book of Mormon is terse, reads like and has the religious tone of Hebrew scripture, and pursues a rigid organization, highly complex in nature. In these relations the books are exactly opposite in style and type.

12. In the fundamental theory, the great difference between these two works is this: The View of the Hebrews is the expression of Ethan Smith's personal impression that the Ten Tribes of Israel, lost in the days of the division of the kingdom, were the ancestors of the American Indians. The Book of Mormon, by contrast, is concerned with no traditions or evidences at all, expresses no one's opinion, and neither relates to the time, places, prophecies or people involved in the work of Ethan Smith.

Conclusion

After examination of the View of the Hebrews, it is readily seen that the conclusion is necessary that the book bears no relation to the Book of Mormon. In only one point do they touch common ground, i. e., the population of America by men bearing the blood of Israel. On this point a very great many scholars have held similar views both before and after Ethan Smith and from a large number of these he quotes. But the people from whom Ethan Smith regards the Indians as descended are fourteen hundred years later in date than the last people dealt with in the Book of Mormon. The changes and migrations of a thousand years and more than four centuries added to a thousand years intervene between the subject matters of these two books. The changes and migrations of a thousand four hundred years well appear in the Book of Mormon itself, which covers less than that period, yet contains within its covers the rise fall development, religious and secular histories of great nation; and peoples, their progress and retrogressions, and their virtual extinctions. What strange and wonderful dispersions and gatherings, rising and falling of peoples, wanderings and mixtures may have transpired between the close of Book of Mormon times and the era of Ethan Smith may only be remotely guessed at from such works as his and the growing host of works on American antiquities. The disparities of a millennium lie between the Book of Mormon and the remains which Ethan Smith traces in his View of the Hebrews.