“It is the `howlers’ with which the Book of Mormon abounds that furnish the best index to its authenticity. They show, first of all, that the book was definitely not a typical product of its time, and secondly, when they are examined more closely in the light of present day evidence, they appear very different indeed than they did a hundred years ago.”
Hugh Nibley,
“Howlers in the Book of Mormon,” Millennial
Star (February 1963): 28.
What follows is the first in what I hope to be a series that provides historical perspectives on questions that have challenged some readers of the Book of Mormon from 1830 to present.