Is there any biblical basis for believing in the Book of Mormon?

Question

I know that Mormons say the Bible and the Book of Mormon don't contradict. I don't know about that, but I would like to know whether there actually is a verse in the Bible that could support the belief in an exterior source such as the Book of Mormon, so highly regarded -by Mormons- as another revelation from God.

Answer 1

The problem is that the Bible doesn't really have an infallible table of contents. So, while there is nothing in the Bible definitively suggesting that there is another set of infallible documents inspired by God which relate to the Old Testament, the Bible also doesn't exclude that possibility either.

---

Because I have seen multiple comments on this, I think it might be good to address the two verses in the Bible which condemn addition or subtraction. The first is

Deut. 4:2.

You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (RSV)

Now, in the context, it is fairly clear that the "Word" is the Tanach (the book of the Law, which is the first five books of the Old Testament¹). The verse preceding is talking about the law, and the verse after is talking about when the law was written and what has happened to those who have strayed.

If this is to be taken in the sense that it is referring to the whole Bible, this means that we must take that to exclude the New Testament. After all, Christ most certainly added to and subtracted from the Law (the dietary restrictions are removed, while the laws on forgiveness and loving of neighbor were expanded). So, clearly, this must be taken as a reference to the book of Deuteronomy itself. Especially since there were prophetic and historical books written both before and after Deuteronomy².

Rev. 22:9-10

I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (RSV)

Ok, so we will posit that the canon of Scripture is the sole deposit of faith (a point I am not willing to cede, but I will allow us to make that assumption for the sake of argument). But, what is that canon? The early Church could not agree for one hundred years after that phrase was written.³ So, if the people who knew the author had no idea which books he was referring to, then it is more than presumptuous to assume that we know. Since it is clear that we are missing books from Paul⁴, can we really assume that something else isn't lost? After all, the Pauline Epistles are scripture⁵. Of course, then there are questions of the Deuterocanon (you might call it apocrypha), which I simply do not have the time to deal with at the moment.

Then there is the question (assuming that we can agree on what should be in the canon) of which version. As a Catholic, I can definitively state that the woman caught in adultery is part of scripture⁶, but can everyone else? The unfortunate answer is, "No, they can't⁷".

So, if we are to assume that Rev. 22 is referring to the Bible as a whole, we have to admit that we aren't sure which documents it is referring to, or which books. That pretty much means that unless we can find a collection of documents which dates to the late first century, we can only asume that some piece of the NT has been added or taken away. This means that your copy of the Bible is probably blasphemous and should be thrown out.

Then there is the problem of translation. In order to translate scripture, you have to make choices. Some words simply don't translate well. Others are ambiguous. My favorite example is Gen. 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

The problem is "He shall strike your head." In more modern manuscripts that is clearly הוּא, and you will notice the little dot by the wav. Unfortunately, that dot was added in the middle ages, which means that the word, "he" in that sentence could very well be the ancient word for "she".

So... what are you left with? The Bible you have at home is a dubious collection of dubious manuscripts collected and translated by a dubious translator. Considering that this is the best you will ever have available without knowledge of at least several versions Hebrew, Aramaic, Syrian, Greek, and Latin⁸ (and possibly French, German, and Ecclesiastical Latin, and even then you are probably not qualified⁹), are you really willing to say that your copy is necessarily infallible? Are you really willing to say that you have an inspired table of contents? Honestly, I hope not. Because if you are, then you are basically saying that the canon of scripture fell out of the sky... That is a story which sound oddly familiar.

---

<sup>1. Testament is actually an antiquated translation of the Greek word for covenant.
2. If you do not have access to the Navarre Bible, the New Jerome Bible Commentary, the New Interpreter's Bible, the New Oxford Annotated RSV (or NRSV), the Anchor Bible, or some form of modern theological library, you can find these ideas summarized (reasonably well) in Wikipedia. (as a side note, the New Oxford Annotated RSV (and even the NRSV) is truly a magnificent work of Biblical scholarship. Of all of the documents I just named, it is the one I recommend the most)
3. As above, Wikipedia is a reasonable source if you can't get your hand on a more scholarly analysis. (and I recommend Oxford above pretty much everyone else)
4. As above, you can use Wikipedia, or, The Lost Books of the Bible
5. This one's easy: 2 Peter 3:16
6. See the NAB commentary on John 7:53 ff.
7. This gentlemen makes all of the relevant points and he isn't in an overly priced commentary! (He's also Protestant, if anyone cares)
8. There are very early Latin translations based on documents superior to the ones which made up the KJV
9. Here's an SE answer which explains the folly.</sup>

Answer 2

Matt briefly mentioned Ezekiel 37:15-23 in his answer, but it deserves greater emphasis. The linked article starts out by very briefly mentioning writing on staves, and then discounts it, saying that had Ezekiel meant a staff, he would have used a different word. And then it goes and gives several examples of 'ets meaning all sorts of things, many of which had their own specific words. But on the other hand, we have many translators and commentators throughout the ages calling Ezekiel's "wood" a staff, a rod, or a stick. People centuries closer to the author (and thus more likely to be familiar with his cultural context) than we are consistently call the "wood" a rod of some sort, so it's worth understanding why someone might do what Ezekiel describes to an actual stick.

LDS scholar Hugh Nibley has a thorough treatment of the subject in his article, The Stick of Judah. He begins from the premise that what Ezekiel is doing, writing on two halves of a rod and joining them together so that they become one in his hand, is familiar to his audience, even though it's not familiar to us. Then he explains the historical context:

Since ancient times, formal contracts have been represented by inscribing the terms on a rod and then cutting it down the middle, through the inscription. One half was given to each party to the contract. When it came time to fulfill the contract, both parties would bring their sticks before a priest, magistrate or other legal authority, who would join them together in his hand. This made fraud impossible, as only if the two pieces of wood matched perfectly, grain for grain, could the contract be verified, and changing the engraving would require physical access to both halves.

This use of tally-sticks to signify contracts is of ancient date, and survived until surprisingly late in history. The official British archive of fulfilled tally-stick contracts was kept in the Houses of Parliament until 1834. (Interestingly enough, the official written language of such contracts was not English or even Latin, but Hebrew!)

So the Lord has Ezekiel prepare a tally-stick, signifying a formal contract in which one side represents writings of Judah, and the other, writings of Joseph, that will be joined together into one "in my hand." The writings of Judah are obviously the Bible, which leaves an obvious question: what can the identity of the stick of Joseph be? This prophecy requires a writing similar in nature to the Bible, containing the Lord's covenant with his people, as the Bible does, but coming forth from Joseph, not Judah.

The Book of Mormon contains the sacred records of an offshoot of the House of Israel descended from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. It speaks of God's commandments and his gospel, and testifies of Christ just as the Bible does, and it specifically mentions that its words are to be joined with the testimony of the Bible. (2 Nephi 29:8, read the entire chapter for context.

In other words, the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy requires something that looks exactly like the Book of Mormon, and for which no candidate other than the Book of Mormon exists that I know of.

Answer 3

cwallenpoole's answer is credible: the Bible is not complete as we have it today, so we run into "negative evidence" fallacies to say that because it doesn't mention something, the something must be false. (That would be like saying "Jesus Christ" of the New Testament is false because that Name is never mentioned in the Old Testament.)

Before I also attempt to answer your question, let me prelude with a disclaimer: most members of the LDS church will hesitate to show "proof" or even "evidence" of the Book of Mormon's truthfulness, for the very existence of the Book itself is evidence of what is known as the Restoration, which is the fulfillment of prophecies concerning the dispensation of the fulness of times (the days before the Second Coming in which the Lord would send prophets to the earth again after a falling away first).

Mormons will remind anyone that the only way to truly believe in the Book of Mormon, or have a testimony of its truthfulness, is not by scholarly study, but by reading it and praying to ask God if it is true, and that an answer will come by the Holy Ghost.

So with that in mind, the following verses (in addition to those I've linked to) should be instructive. Keep in mind that while many people interpret these verses in many ways, this is one way the LDS population understands them:

• Ezekiel 37:15-23 (The Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph. The Stick of Judah is written by Jews, in other words, is the Bible. The Stick of Joseph is the Book of Mormon, written by descendants of Joseph. More details about the sticks here.)

• Isaiah 29:4,11-14 (A voice out of the dust. The Book of Mormon was buried for centuries until it came out of the ground and was translated. Because it is the same gospel that Christ teaches from the Bible, it is a familiar voice. Also, a vision of a sealed book taken to a learned man, and an unlearned man that could not read them. Plus the transcript of Joseph Smith's First Vision experience in 1820. These were fulfilled as recorded in JS-H 1:11-26,63-65.)

• Ezekiel 17:22-23. (The highest branch of the high cedar is the royal family of Israel; the young twigs are the children, and the tender one is a man named Mulek, son of Zedekiah, who actually escaped and was led to the Americas. Lehi's group had already left Jerusalem, and later we learn that Mulek's group joined the Nephite nation.)

• John 10:16. (Jesus refers to "other sheep" which would hear His voice. True, the gospel later did go to the Gentiles, but they heard the voice of His prophets and apostles, not His voice directly. These are the people of the Americas, and others. This is made clear in the Book of Mormon, where Jesus visited and ministered to them personally, established His Church on the American continent, and ordained prophets and disciples there, fulfilling all sorts of prophecies.)

• Revelation 14:6-7. (An angel flying in the midst of heaven that had the everlasting gospel. This was Moroni, who buried the Book of Mormon, who later as a resurrected being, brought forth the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith to go forth to all the earth.)

• Amos 3:7. (Why would inhabitants of the American continent not have the gospel, if God loves all His children and wants them to know of His Son? So, God at least probably called prophets in America and they obviously prophesied. God's works are without end and His words never cease, so that God's canon of scripture is closed would not be logical, at best.)

• Isaiah 5:26-27. (An ensign, or standard, would be lifted up to all nations to gather Israel before the Lord's coming.)

There are others. This list is not comprehensive, but I hope others will add to this as is proper.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon support each other. The Book of Mormon supports what the Bible says. All the prophets since the world began (including those in the Book of Mormon) knew there would be an apostasy of the Christian church in the New Testament and that God would set his hand a second time to recover His people. For example, see 2 Nephi, chapters: 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33, and Mormon 7:8-10 are a few, although the doctrine of Christ's mercy and Atonement is found all throughout the entire book.

Of particular interest is 1 Nephi 13 (especially the second half of the chapter) which discusses Nephi's vision of the settling of colonial America, the coming of Christians from Europe, and the introduction of the Bible ("which proceedeth forth from the mouth of a Jew") among the Native Americans, that it is holy and true, but that many plain and precious parts are actually missing.

So, I add these references to the Book of Mormon because they should help support the Bible references mentioned here that help to directly answer your question.

Finally, the notion of "infallibility" in scripture is misleading, because while God does inspire true scripture, imperfect but holy men write it down.

From the Title Page of the Book of Mormon (emphasis added):

... Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.