1404: View of the Hebrews - A Review by Radio Free Mormon

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2021

⏱️ 210 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"View of the Hebrews" is a book first published in 1823 by Ethan Smith of Vermont. In "View of the Hebrews," Ethan Smith argues (among other things) that the Native Americans were descended from the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. This book was so popular that it had a second printing in 1825.

Mormon General Authorities and apologists have feared "View of the Hebrews" for over a century, starting with B.H. Roberts in the early 1900s.

Why is "View of the Hebrews" potentially problematic for the Mormon church and the Book of Mormon? A few reasons:

Joseph Smith claimed to have come up with the idea for the Book of Mormon the VERY SAME YEAR (1823) that "View of the Hebrews" was first published. Coincidence?
Ethan Smith (the author of "View of the Hebrews") was Oliver Cowdery's pastor in Vermont PRIOR to his working with Joseph Smith as Book of Mormon "scribe," and it is certain that Cowdery was familiar with the book. Coincidence?
Mormon General Authority and historian B.H. Roberts wrote hundreds of pages doing research on the disturbing similarities between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon. Later, B.H. Roberts went on to lose his testimony in the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Coincidence?

Recently, the brilliant Radio Free Mormon decided to read "View of the Hebrews" from cover to cover to see what the "hubub" is all about.

Join us as we explore the following questions:

What is View of the Hebrews fundamentally about?
What are the important similarities and differences between View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon?
Was Ethan Smith's "View of the Hebrews" a source of inspiration for the Book of Mormon?
What cultural dynamics were at play in upstate New York in the early 1820s that could have influenced BOTH books?
Are there any direct connections between "View of the Hebrews" and Joseph Smith?
Why has "View of the Hebrews" caused so much concern for Mormon apologists, from B.H. Roberts to today ? How have Mormon apologists responded to View of the Hebrews?
Does "View of the Hebrews" present significant, compelling problems for LDS Church and Book of Mormon truth claims?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Warms Stories podcast. I'm your host John
0:04.4	Delin. It is March 5th, 2021 and as always, I am super excited to bring you another episode
0:11.6	of Warms Stories podcast. Today we have something really special and fun in store for you.
0:18.0	We've been having radio free Mormon on Warms Stories podcast more frequently as of late
0:23.8	and I've just been so thrilled to have this brilliant mind accompany us on Warms Stories
0:28.1	podcast recently. R.F.M. Radio Free Mormon decided that he was going to read the entire book
0:35.2	View of the Hebrews written by Ethan Smith, which was a book published in 1823 trying
0:41.9	in Vermont in New England area, trying to advance a theory for where the Native Americans
0:48.6	came from and trying to tie them to the Lost and Tribes of Israel. Anyway, this book was
0:53.8	published via the Hebrews 1823 coincidentally, perhaps the same year, the very same year
0:59.4	that Joseph Smith claimed to have gotten the idea to write the book of Mormon. This
1:03.8	Ethan Smith character was a pastor in the same town that Oliver Caldery, who became an
1:09.5	eventual scribe for the Book of Mormon. Ethan Smith was the pastor in the local church
1:15.2	that Oliver Caldery and his family attended. Was that a coincidence or not? And of course,
1:20.8	there are by some people's account many similarities between the Book of Mormon and view of the
1:26.2	Hebrews and frankly other books. And if you don't want to take my word for it, just read
1:32.3	about the life of B. H. Roberts, Brigham Henry Roberts, a general authority in the
1:37.2	L. D. S. Church in the early 1900s, who was so troubled by the parallels between view
1:43.9	of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon that he wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages outlining
1:49.5	the similarities and the problems of the Book of Mormon. He of course shared those problems
1:55.4	with the first presidency, L. D. S. First Presidency of the Court of the Twelve and all the
1:59.1	general forties in what we now know as the secret Mormon meetings of 1922 brought to us
	...

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