Did a Study Identify Rigdon or Spalding?
One study gave chapters to the closest candidates on a fixed list that excluded Joseph Smith. A reanalysis added an option for an unknown source. It assigned 175 of 239 chapters to that option. The change shows why it matters whether a model can decline a poor match. “Unknown” leaves the source unidentified. Original study · Reanalysis
What if the Style Changed During Dictation?
A change can be real and have several possible causes. Check the order in which the text was dictated, the kinds of passages being compared, and what was counted. Then ask what links the change to Rigdon. His documented meeting with Joseph took place after the book appeared. A claim of involvement before publication needs its own historical evidence. Manuscript history · December 1830 records
A Reply You Can Use
“Some parts of the book read differently. Show me the counts and the comparison passages so we can see whether the shift holds up. Even then, I’d want independent evidence that connects the shift to the person you’re naming. The same standard applies when someone uses wordprints to argue for ancient authors.”
The Short Answer
Wordprints measure writing habits, such as how often a text uses common words. They can help distinguish samples. Naming an author takes more evidence. One study assigned much of the Book of Mormon to Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spalding from a fixed list of candidates. A reanalysis let chapters match nobody on the list. Most fell into that category. That weakens the claim that the first study identified Rigdon and Spalding. It also leaves the ancient authorship question open. Jockers, Witten, and Criddle · Schaalje and colleagues
What Did the Studies Test?
| Study | Finding and limit |
|---|
| Larsen, Rencher, and Layton (1980) | They found patterns that distinguished sections assigned to different narrators and interpreted them as evidence of multiple authors. The interpretation depends on whether the method can distinguish authorship from section, topic, or genre. Paper |
| Hilton (1990) | Using three 5,000-word teaching samples each from passages assigned to Nephi and Alma, he reported differences between the two sets and from sampled modern candidates. This was a comparison of selected passages. Applying the result to an ancient record requires a theory of which habits an English translation would preserve. Paper |
| Jockers, Witten, and Criddle (2008) | Their models favored Rigdon and Spalding among seven candidates. Joseph Smith was excluded because the team judged the available prose samples inadequate. With a fixed list, every classification selects from the people provided, even if the true author is absent. Paper |
| Schaalje, Fields, Roper, and Snow (2011) | Their reanalysis used the same 1830 text and word features, changed the candidates, and allowed an unknown category. It assigned 175 of 239 chapters to the unobserved category. The authors identified deliberate archaic language as something future work should account for. Paper, pp. 82–84 |
These tests ask different questions. A difference between passages is evidence of a stylistic difference. A plausible attribution needs examples of known authors writing in comparable circumstances, a way to decline poor matches, and tests showing how often the method makes a wrong attribution.
Did the Style Change Abruptly During Dictation?
The publisher of Mormonish episode 353 describes a proposal that some changes occur at a boundary in the order of dictation. In that account, Joseph relied on prepared material earlier and improvised more after the loss of the first manuscript, with ideas the presenter attributes to Rigdon. The publisher uses a change from four to eight uses per thousand words as an illustration and describes several possible indicators, including the use of therefore and wherefore. The summary leaves out the data and counting rules needed to verify the result. Publisher’s episode summary
The order matters. The Joseph Smith Papers editors say evidence indicates dictation resumed near Mosiah and proceeded through Moroni before Joseph produced the material now placed at the front, from 1 Nephi through the Words of Mormon. That means a test should compare passages in likely dictation order. It should also account for changes in narration and quoted scripture across the same boundary. Original manuscript and editorial introduction
Even an abrupt change can have multiple causes. To test the claim, identify the words and boundary before counting, report the edition and excluded passages, and check whether the pattern persists when comparing similar kinds of passages. Then ask whether a study of comparable Rigdon writing predicts that particular change. The Joseph Smith Papers documents Rigdon meeting Joseph in December 1830, after publication. A proposed role in the 1829 dictation needs independent evidence of an earlier connection or a route by which his material reached Joseph. Revelation to Rigdon, December 1830, with historical introduction
Could the Narrator Differences Be an Artifact?
An independently posted manuscript on LDS Truth Claims compares Book of Mormon passages using common-word frequencies. It reports that tests that let nearby text overlap in subject and vocabulary can detect apparent “voices” even in deliberately created groups from the same narrator. When it blocks comparison within the same book, the ability to recover narrator labels drops. Its candidate tests also find poor matches for both Rigdon and Spalding. The manuscript uses the current edition and different comparison texts and features from the 2011 paper. Its reported findings deserve evaluation on their own methods. A weak narrator signal could reflect several causes, and a poor match to someone’s known prose leaves open what that person could produce in a deliberately scriptural register. LDS Truth Claims manuscript, §§3–5
A Reply You Can Use
“A style change is worth investigating. I’d want to see where it occurs in dictation order, whether it survives comparisons of similar passages, and whether Rigdon’s own writing predicts it. When researchers let Book of Mormon chapters match none of their candidates, most did. I believe the book translates an ancient record. Word counts can test specific claims about the English text, and I’d use the same standard for wordprints offered in support of my belief.”
