Feb 19, 2010 the inclusion of all the words is yet another indicator of the robustness of the findings. Jockers, witten, and criddle attempted to address the question of whether two, 19th century authors combined might have produced the book of mormon, thus explaining why earlier studies found that the book of mormon styles didnt match single 19th century authors. November 27, 2017 what can stylometry tell us about book. Craig criddle is a professor and senior fellow, woods institute for the environment, stanford university, having taught at stanford since 1998. A third source is a book recently published by farms entitled book of mormon authorship revisited. Criddle does not present his conclusions as offering positive proof of the books true origins, but instead attempts to track signs authorship through a chronological narrative of the old spaldingrigdon explanation for the book of mormon.
If you identify any major omissions or other inaccuracies in the publication list, please let us know. A new wordprint study on the book of mormon breathes new life to a longchallenged theory for book of mormon authorship, the theory that its real author was solomon spalding secretly assisted by sidney rigdon. Wordprint analysis and the book of mormon deseret news. I know of three theories on how the book of mormon was written. The historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of the.
Craig criddle2009who really wrote the book of mormon. Since the book of mormons publication in 1830, a number of different theories have been proposed concerning its authorship. While it has not received anywhere near the attention that i had expected it to receive, a few critics have seen it as the definitive deathblow to claims of the authenticity of the book of mormon. Mormonleaks is a research project that seeks to reconstruct the authentic narrative of the origins of the mormon canon by combining macroanalytic computing tools with contemporary historical evidence. Notwithstanding much more on the topics discussed in this text have been published since this book, including book of mormon authorship revisited by reynolds from 1997 that build up on many of these issues, this book would make a very good addition to ones lds library. Testing authorship in the personal writings of joseph smith using nsc classification. The strength of the argument that the book of mormon is a remix of the late war rests on the cumulative improbability of finding all of these phrases somewhere else. Dale broadhurst spalding book of mormon textual parallels, plus an important study of unique word parallels.
Dec 14, 2008 i recently perfunctorily read a new study written by three stanford university professors, titled reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification, and published in the latest issue of the journal, literary and linguistic computing. A comparative study ofmachine learning methods for authorship attribution. D, is a professor and senior fellow, woods institute for the environment, stanford university. Book of mormon authorship update from craig criddle. Jockers, witten, and criddle 2 draft preprint of reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification.
All content in this area was uploaded by craig s criddle on aug, 2014. Dale broadhurst spaldingbook of mormon textual parallels, plus an important study of unique word parallels. Supplementary data for reassessing authorship of the book of. I really appreciate a comment by chris spencer on my previous post dueling wordprint studies. Mosiah priority is a theory about the creation of the book of mormon arguing that the original manuscript began not with 1 nephi found at the beginning of the book of mormon, but midway through, starting with mosiah. Lies, expletive deleted lies, and statistics fairmormon. For the past year or so, ive mentioned that information regarding book of mormon authorship would be forthcoming. The spaldingrigdon theory of book of mormon authorship is the theory that the book of mormon was plagiarized in part from an unpublished manuscript written by solomon spalding. Although criddle s lecture is accompanied by numerous examples of relevent evidence, it is a. I offer you the following information for your consideration. Mormonleaks is a research project that seeks to reconstruct the authentic narrative of the origins of the mormon canon by combining macroanalytic computing tools with contemporary historical evidence the historical records reveal a small pool of candidate authors collaborating in western new york and northern ohio to create the mormon scriptures.
Theology, cosmology, high priesthood, and temple rites. Most latterday saints are aware of a minor industry in certain religious circles in the united states devoted to refuting mormonism and to criticizing the book of mormon. Examining a misapplication of nearest shrunken centroid classification to investigate book of mormon authorship. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta. Byu scholarsarchive citation roper, matthew and fields, paul j. According to this theory, rigdon obtained from a pittsburgh publisher a manuscript for a historical novel written by solomon spalding, and by reworking it and adding a theological component, had created the book of mormon. We are testing a new system for linking publications to authors. In order to help shed light on this issue, several studies have relied upon a type of analysis called stylometry. I also summarized 24 pieces of evidence, pointing to sidney rigdon as a key contributor and likely mastermind for the 1830 version of the book of mormon. Also, since i gave the exmo conference talk in october, we have retested the book of mormon, including this new material as a signal for smith. I know, because the chairman of my thesis committee commented on my long, convoluted sentences, and i immediately started to cut them shorter. However, a fair number of chapters are now attributed to smith. When the book of mormon appeared, all who heard him were satisfied that he referred to it.
Prior to 2008, no published authorship study results linked sidney rigdon to writing of the book of mormon. This field of research uses various statistical methods to detect linguistic patterns. Book of mormon and the text found in hawaii were not sufficient to justify the thesis of common authorship. Our goal is to shed new light on historical and textual claims widely represented as truth within the mormon community. Including all of the words of one of the most repeated signature phrases of the book of mormon as evidenced by mark twains description of it when it is not a feature of spaldings work would be pretty risky if the study was actually a set up. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification.
Criddle does not present his conclusions as offering positive proof of the book s true origins, but instead attempts to track signs authorship through a chronological narrative of the old spaldingrigdon explanation for the book of mormon. Pdf reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta. The inclusion of all the words is yet another indicator of the robustness of the findings. Craig criddle s address at the ex mormon foundation october 2009. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and. The historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of.
This theory first appeared in print in the book mormonism unvailed, sic. Sidney rigdon embraced mormonism without much investigation. While i admit to being disturbed by the article, it is not for. Matthew jockers center for digital research in the. Daniela witten, and craig criddle who concluded that 57% the book of mormon was authored by sidney rigdon and solomon spaulding.
Supplementary data for reassessing authorship of the book. The deliberate archaic language of the book of mormon may have something to do with this, but that was not anything discussed by jockers and criddle. Dec 09, 2008 a new wordprint study on the book of mormon breathes new life to a longchallenged theory for book of mormon authorship, the theory that its real author was solomon spalding secretly assisted by sidney rigdon. I caught this as part of my highwire press alerts i dont typically follow publications in this journal. In 2008, matthew jockers, daniela witten, and craig criddle applied two statistical methodsdelta and nearest shrunken centroid classification nscto the question of book of mormon authorship. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing.
Tracking authorship through the book of mormon spalding first, rigdon second, cowdery third by craig criddle. So says a new computerassisted authorship study out of stanford. This project is the result of painstaking effort on the part of matt jockers, daniela m. Joseph smith we are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all.
Dec 12, 2017 see jockers, witten, criddle, reassessing authorship of the book of mormon, 482. According to mosiah priority, after the text of mosiah through the end of the book of mormon was transcribed, joseph smith returned to the beginning and transcribed 1 nephi. No other book, aside from the first book of napoleon, approaches the density of rare phrases 4grams, specifically that are shared by the book of mormon. Book of mormon central archive the historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of. See jockers, witten, criddle, reassessing authorship of the book of mormon, 482. The theory first appeared in print in the book mormonism unvailed, published in 1834 by e. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest. Creating the book of mormon, epaper, originally published 8 october 2005. A year or two ago, the oxford university press journal literary and linguistic computing published a statistical argument for the spalding theory of book of mormon authorship.
The theory that sidney rigdon was the true author of the book of mormon first appeared in print in an august 31, 1831. Pdf reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using. I also summarized 24 pieces of evidence, pointing to sidney rigdon as a key contributor and likely mastermind for. Young sidney rigdon seeking fame and fortune through religion. For two years before the book of mormon appeared rigdons sermons were full of declarations and prophecies that the age of miracles would be restored, and more complete revelations, than those in the bible, would be given. Ep 27 who wrote the book of mormon part 2 infants on thrones. A foundational premise of the jockers study was that the once prominent, though long discarded, spauldingridgon theory of book of mormon authorship might actually be valid. Authorship of the book of mormon using delta and nearest. This new analysis continues to indicate that the major authors were rigdon and spalding. They wrote a long paper that failed to demonstrate anything. Quotes joseph used a peep stone and a hat to translate most of the book of mormon. Jockers, i again see that he is saying that the report published by his research team is only a set of relative authorship attributions. Craig criddle evidence of rigdons involvement with the book of mormon manuscript. Examining a misapplication of nearest shrunken centroid.
If you notice any inaccuracies, please sign in and mark papers as correct or incorrect matches. In that post, i had discussed a controversial study completed by stanford researchers mathew jockers, daniela witten, and craig criddle who concluded that 57% the book of mormon was authored by sidney rigdon and solomon spaulding. Stanford professor craig criddle believes that can be done and has. Does the book of mormon exhibit evidence of divineancient origins or humanmodern origins. Fyi, craig criddle the antimormon member of the team has written about the process through which this study come. Ancient prophets on the american continent kept records over many centuries, and then the prophethistorian mormon compiled the records onto gold plates. The historical case against sidney rigdons authorship of the book of mormon. In this essay i first discuss why authorship of the book of mormon matters.
Many book of mormon research projects have implications for the continuing issues surrounding the authorship of the book of mormon. What can stylometry tell us about book of mormon authorship. Mormon discussions view topic book of mormon authorship. Jun 18, 2015 i know of three theories on how the book of mormon was written. Although criddles lecture is accompanied by numerous examples of relevent evidence, it is a. For jockers and criddles book of mormon chapter data, it turns out that the absolute probabilities of authorship by spalding or rigdon are, almost without exception, very small. Dec 23, 2008 that new book of mormon wordprint study. Pratt as key players in the authorship of the book of mormon. Reassessing authorship of the book of mormon using delta andnearestshrunken centroid classification. Spaldingrigdon theory of book of mormon authorship wikipedia. We believe that the time has come for a candid conversation about the origins of the book of mormon and the rise of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints.
Book of mormon authorship update from craig criddle post by mcb sun feb 21, 2010 8. Out of the top matches, we discovered a book called the late war between the united states and great britain, a scriptural style account of the war of 1812 published in new york in 1816. Book of mormon 5,000 changes despite the claim that joseph smiths translation was by the gift and power of god, several thousand changes have been made to the book of mormon since its original printing. Mormon prophet joseph smith 180544 claimed that more than twodozen ancient individuals nephi, mormon, alma, etc. I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. In the first essay i discussed why authorship of the book of mormon is important, how bias affects the analysis, and i critiqued some of the major authorship theories. Reports that in bainbridge, ohio, sidney rigdon engaged in seancelike sessions with others in adjacent places to produce the book of mormon.
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