Scholars Map
How scholars engage the hardest questions about Latter-day Saint history and scripture — what they argue, and where to start reading.
Scripture
Is the Book of Mormon an ancient record?
Published in 1830 in Palmyra, New York, the Book of Mormon presents itself as abridged records of peoples in the Americas from about 600 BC to AD 421, plus an earlier Jaredite record.
How was the Book of Mormon text produced?
Eyewitness accounts describe Joseph Smith dictating the surviving Book of Mormon text to scribes over about three months in 1829, often looking into a seer stone in a hat while the plates were not in view.
What does genetic evidence show about Native American ancestry, and how does it bear on the Book of Mormon?
Published genetic studies trace the great majority of pre-Columbian Native American ancestry to populations that came through Asia long before 600 BC.
How do the Book of Mormon's physical and textual details fit its stated ancient setting?
The Book of Mormon names horses, steel, wheat, and chariots, and quotes passages from Isaiah 48–54 and elsewhere in close King James wording, and parallels King James New Testament passages, including the Sermon on the Mount (3 Nephi 12–14).
What is the relationship between the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Book of Abraham?
The surviving fragments, recovered in 1967, are Ptolemaic–Roman era Egyptian funerary texts, including a Book of Breathings for Hor.
Founding events
How should the differing First Vision accounts be understood?
Four firsthand accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision survive, conventionally dated 1832, 1835, 1838, and 1842, along with several accounts by people who heard him relate it.
What did the Book of Mormon witnesses experience, and how should their testimonies be weighed?
Eleven men subscribed to statements printed in the 1830 Book of Mormon: three described an angel showing them the plates and a divine voice affirming the translation; eight described seeing and handling plates shown by Joseph Smith.
History
How did Joseph Smith practice plural marriage, and how should it be understood?
Historians across the main scholarly interpretations, and the Church’s Gospel Topics essay first published in 2014, hold that Joseph Smith was sealed to many women in Nauvoo.
What were the origins of the priesthood and temple restriction (1852–1978), and how should it be understood?
A few Black men, including Elijah Able (also spelled Abel), were ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime.
What is the relationship between the Nauvoo endowment and Freemasonry?
Joseph Smith became a Freemason in March 1842 and introduced the Nauvoo endowment in May 1842.