I don't agree with them. I was simply trying to be fair-handed in listing the theories.ainsoph9 wrote:The view that you are quoting is actually popular among liberal Christian scholars, who tend to follow along denominational lines. This view is also in line with the Documentary Hypothesis, which states that the Torah was redacted from multiple sources. All of this points to a later made-up text manufactured to legitimize a class struggle later on with claims to various parts of the land and leadership, etc. For those that take the Torah literally and as having authority, this is an obvious problem, since it de-legitimizes the Jews as having any claims to the Land of Israel and as the Chosen People. It also makes all of the Torah and Scripture an allegory, which thus takes away any real purpose to the studying of Scripture as a text for religious purposes.
No offense taken. You believe it, or you don't, and it cannot be proven entirely, nor disproven entirely . . . for that would make faith meaningless.ainsoph9 wrote:Not to offend, but I do not know where you heard that the original text that the BoM is based off of can date back to 600 B.C.E. If it is true, then that would take away almost all of the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the study of them (i.e., people are wasting their lives studying something that has no significance). It is interesting that you mention 600 B.C.E., which is shortly before the Siege of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E. The claim from the Samaritans that they have an "uncorrupted" and more accurate text dates to around this time as well. However, their Torah scroll is all in Aramaic.
Anyway, if you care to look it up, the 600 BCE to 421 CE comes from the story line within the book. If you don't believe the book, then it was written by somebody in the early 1800s and passed off as ancient scripture by Joseph Smith, Jr. If you believe the book, then it was the history of a people who were directed to leave Jerusalem a decade or so before it was destroyed the first time, and over time wound up in the Americas. The book explains its own references to the Old Testament as coming from a copy etched on thin plates of brass, obtained before they left Jerusalem for good.
