Show Notes
The Book of Mormon will not stop telling you where the record is. Who's holding it. Who handed it off. What they did with it and why. A retired trial attorney read that and recognized something from thirty years in courtrooms: a chain of custody.
Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Stephen Lundwall: retired IP and business attorney and former BYU religion faculty, to talk about Authentic: The Book of Mormon, Evidences of a Miracle, written with his wife Rebecca Lundwall and published by Deseret Book. Lundwall makes the case the way he'd make it to a jury: witnesses, exhibits, cross-examination, and a closing argument.
===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
In this episode:
• What "provenance" means, and why archaeologists and attorneys care about the same thing • Why Moroni being the final author of the record changes everything about the handoff • Isaac Taylor's 1827 argument that ancient literature, history, and religion all rest on secure transmission — published the same year Moroni delivered the plates • What the original and printer's manuscripts actually show, and why the translation itself is evidence • Elizabeth Whitmer and Emma Smith on what they watched happen day after day • The interruptions Joseph never needed read back to him • The 28 words in Joseph Smith's own handwriting — the only ones in the entire manuscript • How Oliver Cowdery learned to spell Coriantumr • The Hebraic "if–and" conditional in Moroni 10:4 that Joseph edited out of later editions • Bernard DeVoto, internal consistency, and translating a 500-page book inside out • The "legal truth test" for a witness who says he saw an angel: honest, competent, biased, reasonable • David Whitmer's 1881 Richmond affidavit — and why Alexander Doniphan's signature on it matters
Get Authentic: The Book of Mormon, Evidences of a Miracle by Stephen and Rebecca Lundwall: https://amzn.to/4ww8YrH
Further Readings: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/original-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-12-april-1828-circa-1-july-1829/194 https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/9/mode/1up https://scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/-gift-and-power-god-0 https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/1 https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-august-1829-circa-january-1830/1 https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/original-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-12-april-1828-circa-1-july-1829/1 https://www.deseret.com/faith/2026/06/05/church-of-jesus-christ-acquires-daguerreotype-some-say-is-the-only-photo-of-joseph-smith/
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