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Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship
Overview of claim the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from Solomon Spalding's writings / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship is the theory that the Book of Mormon was partly plagiarized from an unpublished manuscript by Solomon Spalding. The theory first appeared in print in E. D. Howe's 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed [sic]. The theory is that Spalding's manuscript was stolen by Sidney Rigdon, who used it in collusion with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to produce the Book of Mormon. Rigdon claimed that he was converted to the Latter Day Saint movement by reading The Book of Mormon, but Howe argued that this story was a later invention to hide the book's true origin.
The theory was once extremely popular among critics of The Book of Mormon, but most contemporary historians consider it discredited.[1] The theory has little popularity today among naturalistic explanations for The Book of Mormon's origin.