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Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Covering up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon

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Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Covering up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 Volume 3 Number 1 Article 17 1991 Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon L. Ara Norwood Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Norwood, L. Ara (1991) "Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: Vol. 3 : No. 1 , Article 17. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol3/iss1/17 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Title Author(s) L. Ara Norwood Reference Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 3/1 (1991): 158–69. ISSN 1050-7930 (print), 2168-3719 (online) Abstract Review of Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon (1990), by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1990. 164 pp. $5.00. Reviewed b)'. L. Ara Norwood There is to be an opposition in all things. In mortality, there will always be darkness to contemn light, falsehood to challenge truth, and the proud to point the finger of scorn at the Saints (1 Nephi 8:33). This is part of the plan of God, a necessary part of our time of testing while on this earth. Thus, it should not come as any surprise when individuals seek every means of sophistry to discredit truth. One of the more recent attempts to cast a dull shadow of doubt on the Book of Mormon is the publication under review here. The husband­ and-wife team of Jerald and Sandra Tanner has added yet another title to their anti-Mormon arsenal. Yet, like Ananias and Sapphira of old (see Acts 5), they have withheld much-in this case, much evidence-which ultimately weakens their hypothesis. Yet many have come to expect this from the Tanners, who have a long history of writing a steady stream of polemics against anything and everything Mormon. Although they have tried in recent years to gain acceptance as serious students of Mormon history and doctrine, they remain to Mormon literature what the tabloids are to journalism. In this review, I will enumerate a few of the examples I have found where additional evidence was avoided by the Tanners--evidence which, if taken into account, would more than cast doubt on their thesis.1 The Black Hole theory is not a new one, but only a detailed restatement of an old Fawn Brodie theory that attempts to explain away the Book of Mormon. Since the world simply cannot and will not accept the book on its own terms, critics from the earliest days of the restoration have sought to devise alternate explanations for its existence. The Tanners' act is not the newest and is sure to be followed by many more players, all The Tanners' Black Hole theory is contained in Part 1 of !heir book. Part 2, which contains examples of what they feel are plagiarisms from the Bible in the Book of Mannon, will not be addressed in this review, due to space limitations. A shorter discussion of their theory is in their Salt Lake City Messenger 72 (July 1989), 16 pages. TANNER AND TANNER, COVERING UP THE BLACK HOLE {NORWOOD) 159 seeking center stage where they can "take their brief bows in the secular spotlight ''2 What is the Black Hole theory of the Book of Mormon? It all begins with the episode of the loss of the first 116 pages of manuscript, which constituted the book of Lehi. The Tanners are certain that the tenor and style of these pages were very similar to the material which now comprises Mosiah through Moroni. At the same time, they feel the material in these pages was very different from the current portion that eventually replaced the lost pages (i.e., 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon). In this they are undoubtedly correct.3 The Tanners charge tha4 since the Book of Mormon text from Mosiah through Moroni contains great detail on names, places, geographic directions, dates, and the like, and since the lost book of Lehi must also have also contained the same sort of detail, and since the small plates of Nephi which replaced it are sparse in those kinds of details, Joseph Smith (who, in the Tanner's mind, was obviously a fraud from the start) must have written the small plates "translation" in a style radically different from the large plates in order to avoid detection in the event that the lost 116 pages turned up. In other words, it would have been dangerous and foolhardy for Joseph Smith to try to replace the lost pages with an exact reproduction, for it would have been impossible for anyone without prophetic gifts to reproduce a verbatim transcript If Joseph made the attempt to do so and the lost pages turned up, the differences might be apparent upon comparison, and the credibility of Joseph Smith as a prophetic figure could be ruined; thus, the need for a replacement that just happens to be as vague and imprecise as possible. Hence comes the idea that the small plates would have to deal with historical details very scantily (see Jacob 1:4). It is this vague nature of the small plates that, in the Tanners' minds, constitutes a "black hole" in the Book of Mormon. A central assertion of the Black Hole theory is that "the entire Book of Mormon is ... lacking a significant number of important things that should be there if the book were really a history of ancient Jewish people in the New World" (p. 46; cf. pp. 59-63). The Tanners spend several pages identifying just 2 Neal A. Maxwell, "The Net Gathers of Every Kind," Ensign IO (November 1980): 14. 3 1 Nephi 9:2-4 and Jacob 1: 1-2, 4, seem to indicate that the contents of the small pJates were different from that of the large plates. 160 REVIEW OP BOOKS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON3 (1991) what "should be there," which, in their view, includes items involving measurements, a monetary system,4 the names of various colors, and items or issues of a personal nature (i.e., romance, divorce, how women dealt with pregnancy, and even the way in which Jesus interacted with people). They then analyze both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to see how much each of them mentions a wide variety of words or ideas associated with such things as lodging, furniture, food, illness, death and burial, royalty, and music. The Tanners follow a rather predictable and flawed pattern in their analysis. First, they choose several words or concepts that fall in a given category. Then they count how many times those words or ideas are mentioned in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon. (In every instance, they find the carefully selected idea or word mentioned more often in the Bible than in the Book of Mormon.) In many instances, they determine that the Book of Mormon reference is actually borrowed from the Bible, and it is therefore discounted In other instances, they determine that the Book of Mormon reference only uses the term symbolically or in a different context, so these are discounted as well. Thus, when most of the Book of Mormon references have been filtered out, they compare the remaining few references (if any) to the corresponding biblical references and conclude that the Book of Mormon does not match up in terms of the number of times certain things are mentioned. Here is one typical conclusion: since the Bible mentions/ood much more frequently than does the Book of Mormon, the latter could not possibly be an ancient record.5 This is hardly convincing evidence! In characteristic fashion, they carefully avoid mentioning the numerous Jewish features in the Book of Mormon-many of which have been published and available for years.6 The 4 The Tanners are apparently not aware of a F.A.R.M.S. preliminary report entitled "Nephlte Weights and Measures in the Time of Mosiah Il," whlcb offsets their offhanded comments such as, "the [monetary) scheme set forth in the Book of Mannon would lead to chaos" (p. 50). This is, moreover, a curious comment coming from the Tanners, since they claim, on the same page, that they "do not pretend to have any great knowledge concerning monetary systems." 5 How the presence offood in the Book of Mormon would contribute to its stated purpose of the "convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ" escapes me. 6 An example is John A. Tvedtnes, "King Benjamin and the Feast of Tabernacles," in John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., By TANNER AND TANNER, COVERING UP THE BLACK HOLE (NORWOOD) 161 Tanners also feel that, if the Book of Mormon were a valid record of Jewish peoples, it would contain much information on the Passover, feasts, new moons, the Sabbath day, circumcision, tithing, the temple, and so forth. Since it does not, according to the Tanners, it is obviously the fabrication of Joseph Smith. While one can understand the Tanners' surprise, they reach hasty and naive conclusions. Following their reasoning, one must be consistent and declare as fabrication the fifth-century Jewish documents from Elephantine in Upper Egypt.
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