“Joseph Smith Read the Words”

Many have been puzzled by — and a few have vocally mocked — the assertion that the Book of Mormon contains linguistic features that were long obsolete by the time of Joseph Smith and that, in some cases, antedate the King James Version of the Bible.  In this piece, one of the two principal discoverers of those intriguing linguistic features lays out a part of the argument:

http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/joseph-smith-read-the-words/

As I’ve said before, believers in the Book of Mormon will find these linguistic elements exceedingly curious.  Secularizing unbelievers, however, will — or should — find them extremely difficult to explain.  Or, alternatively, as such critics have long done with regard to the Witnesses, they’ll simply dismiss them without a serious hearing (though perhaps with a few nervous and dismissive jokes).

On another note:  With the appearance of these two articles, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has now published at least one article every Friday for 180 consecutive weeks.

(Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture was founded 181.5 weeks ago.)

It’s plainly time, once more, to haul out this confident prophecy from nearly three years ago, made by a critic on a small and remarkably nasty (and mostly atheist) ex-Mormon message board:

“By Jan. 1, 2014 Interpreter will be dead just like Mormon Scholars Testify. Either totally dead or down to token ‘blog’ style postings.” (Bond James Bond, 25 January 2013)