American Aprocrypha

A fine line divides scripture from non-scripture, writes Robert M. Price in American Apocrypha. Some books, not in the Bible, are as powerful as anything in the canon. At the same time, portions of the Bible were authored much later than the events they narrate by scribes who wrote under fictitious names. Clearly, the hallmark of scripture is not historical accuracy but its spiritual impact on individuals, and exclusion from the canon is not reason to dismiss a book as heretical. Consider the Book of Mormon, first published in 1830. The nature of this volume--its claim to ancient history, in particular--is the theme of nine ground-breaking essays in American Apocrypha. Thomas W. Murphy discusses the Book of Mormon's view that American Indians are descendants of ancient Hebrews. In recent DNA tests, Native Americans have proven to be of Siberian ancestry; they show no signs of ancient Jewish or Middle Eastern descent. Nor is the Book of Mormon a traditional translation from an ancient document, writes David P. Wright, as indicated by the underlying Hebrew in the book's Isaiah passages. Other contributors to American Apocrypha explore the evolution of ideas in the Book of Mormon during the course of its dictation. Editors Dan Vogel (author of Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon) and Brent Metcalfe (editor of New Approaches to the Book of Mormon) have chosen authors who represent a wide range of disciplines and perspectives: Robert Price edits the Journal of Higher Criticism, Thomas Murphy chairs the anthropology department at Edmonds Community College, and David Wright teaches Hebrew Bible at Brandeis University. They are joined by Scott C. Dunn; Edwin Firmage, Jr.; George D. Smith; and Susan Staker, all of whom explore what can and cannot be reasonably asserted about the Book of Mormon as scripture.