Another subject that Jonathan Neville has written and talked about quite a lot is the supposed influence of Jonathan Edwards in the Book of Mormon translation. The above video is one example among several. Jonathan Edwards was a Christian thinker, writer, and theologian of the Puritan era who was born around 300 years ago, and whose writings and sermons have had a lot of influence in shaping the thinking of later Protestant theologians and preachers, especially in the US. Spencer Kraus, in an article titled: “Jonathan Edwards’s Unique Role in an Imagined Church History,” published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, June 2022, does a good job of discrediting Jonathan Neville’s arguments, and exposing their logical inconsistencies and flaws. Link
But I think there is one interesting point that Spencer Kraus has missed. How did Jonathan Neville come up with such an extensive (but at the same time shallow and superficial) list of similar words, phrases, and expressions, between the Book of Mormon and Jonathan Edwards’ writings—with all the flawed thinking, and embarrassingly obvious inconsistencies in his comparisons, that Spencer Kraus has correctly pointed out? I think that I know the answer. I don’t think that Jonathan Neville has made a careful, scholarly study of Jonathan Edwards’ writings—or of the Book of Mormon for that matter. If he had, he would have recognized the obvious flaws and logical inconsistencies in his comparisons that Kraus has pointed out. I believe what he has done is that he has used a computerized file comparison software tool to make the comparisons, and has accepted the results without looking into them too deeply, to find out if the results are meaningful or superficial.
There are several file comparison software tools, both commercial and free, some of which are very sophisticated, and can carry out such a detailed file comparison between two texts, and show all the similar words, phrases, and expressions. A Google search for “file comparison software tools” will produce many interesting results. There is even a Wikipedia article about it called, “Comparison of file comparison tools,” which lists and compares many different ones, and lists their properties, and what they are able to do (Link). My guess is that he has used one of these software tools to carry out such a comparison, and used the results without looking too deeply into their contextual relevance.
Such a file comparison between the text of the Book of Mormon and Jonathan Edwards’ writings—he being a Puritan theologian heavily influenced by the KJV—is likely to produce many such outward similarities. I get the impression that that is what he has done. I am guessing that if you carried out such a file comparison between the Book of Mormon and Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained by John Milton for example, or Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, or Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, you are likely to find many such similarities as well. So you could conclude that Joseph Smith had borrowed his ideas from them as well. So as Spencer Kraus has quite correctly exposed, Jonathan Neville’s arguments about the supposed influence of Jonathan Edwards on the translation of the Book of Mormon are entirely flawed, baseless, and speculative, and have zero credibility as far as establishing a source or origin for the translation of the Book of Mormon is concerned. But with this additional information provided, Spencer Kraus and others will be able to do an even more effective job of exposing the flaws in Neville’s arguments.
Try using such a file comparison software tool to compare the text of the Book of Mormon with Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, or Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, or Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, or Peter Pan by JM Barrie etc., and see what results you will get! My guess is that if you did, you will find some similarities! Then you can make a lot of money by publishing a book, claiming that Joseph Smith had borrowed his ideas from these! 😄
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