Book of Mormon Origins

The Internet Annotated Book of Mormon

Welcome to our project to crowd source the origins of the Book of Mormon, a controversial text published in 1830.

The objective is not to find the “most correct” meaning for each passage of the Book of Mormon, but to find the most likely sources which Joseph Smith remixed to create the Book of Mormon.

The Remix Hypothesis

According to modern research, The Book of Mormon was probably not plagiarized directly from hundreds of sources. The book required creativity (a form of remixing) to produce, and as with any other creative work, The Book of Mormon appears to be heavily influenced by its time and place in history. The Remix Hypothesis holds that without certain foundational texts and cultural influences preceding the 1830 publication of The Book of Mormon, it simply would not exist in its current form. Feel free to browse the sources, and add your comments.

Which version of The Book of Mormon do we use?

We’ve selected the 1830 First Edition of the Book of Mormon. We fully acknowledge that this won’t match the current LDS version of the Book of Mormon because it has been updated by numerous LDS leaders since 1830. However the 1830 edition is more likely to match the original sources.

Contributing is a piece of cake

1. Step 1: Sign up for a gitbook account here
2. Step 2: Add comments to this book using the "+" (plus) signs next to each verse in the book.
3. Step 3: After about 24 hours an editor will try to incorporate your contribution into the book. It will appear as an annotation in the left-hand margin of the book.

Thank you for your help! Your contributions will help move this work forward.

Want to become an editor?

If you'd like to become an editor, please contact the WordTree Foundation. See the Editing Guide to learn how to contribute as an editor using AsciiDoc.

Editors should adhere to these quality standards:

• Please match our Style Guide. We use asciidoc as the formatting language for this gitbook project.
• Each annotation should include the following information:
  • Quote
  • Source title
  • Date the source was published
  • Link, if available
  • If you need storage for video/images hosting of content is available on this site

Geek Notes

See Technical Notes for technical details around the creation of this book.