Notes

This chapter is adapted from Nurturing Faith through the Book of Mormon: The Twenty-Fourth Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995), 149–86.

1. See, for example, Henry B. Eyring, ed., On Being a Disciple-Scholar (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1995); and Robert L. Millet, ed., "To Be Learned Is Good If …" (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987).
2. Gordon B. Hinckley, Faith: The Essence of True Religion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 73.
3. Neal A. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 15.
4. Neal A. Maxwell, "The Disciple-Scholar," in On Being a Disciple-Scholar, ed. Eyring, 3.
5. Boyd K. Packer, "'I Say unto You, Be One' (D&C 38:27)," Brigham Young University 1990–91 Devotionals and Fireside Speeches (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1991), 89.
6. Used by Lowell L. Bennion, "The Uses of the Mind in Religion," BYU Studies 14/1 (1973): 47–55, arguing that one cannot turn one's back on either the religious (biblical) or the rational (Greek) tradition, 48.
7. Truman G. Madsen, "Philosophy," in B. H. Roberts, The Truth, the Way, the Life, ed. John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 1994), lxxiii.
8. "The Lord does not convince men of his truth by placing before their eyes and in their hands tangible evidence, as a lawyer may do before the court, marking it exhibit A and exhibit B, and then expect it to be accepted. The Lord expects the searcher after truth to approach him with a contrite spirit and with sincerity of purpose, if he will do this and keep the commandments of the Lord, he shall receive the witness through the Holy Spirit and shall know the truth." Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 3:228.
9. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938), 267.
10. John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 3rd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1943), 28.
11. Ibid., 29.
12. Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:124.
13. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 16.
14. Hinckley, Faith, 10.
15. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 49.
16. See John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1985), 111, 368 n. 16.
17. See John W. Welch, ed., Reexploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 41–43.
18. Austin Farrar, "Grete Clerk," in Light on C. S. Lewis, comp. Jocelyn Gibb (New York: Harcourt and Brace, 1965), 26; cited in Neal A. Maxwell, "Discipleship and Scholarship," BYU Studies 32/3 (summer 1992): 5.
19. Maxwell, "Discipleship and Scholarship," 5.
20. See Susan Easton Black, Finding Christ through the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987).
21. See John W. Welch, "Ten Testimonies of Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon," in Doctrines of the Book of Mormon, ed. Bruce A. Van Orden and Brent L. Top (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992), 223–42.
22. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 49. Elder Maxwell has enumerated a lengthy list of evidences that raise "vexing challenges for disbelievers and critics who reject the true account but remain surrounded by increasing incredibilia." Neal A. Maxwell, "The Ends of the Earth Shall Inquire after Thy Name," address delivered at the Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah, 23 August 1994.
23. Jeffrey R. Holland, "A Standard unto My People," address delivered at CES Symposium, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 9 August 1994 (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1994), 7.
24. See Stephen L Richards, in Conference Report of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter Conference Report), October 1954, 96.
25. Hinckley, Faith, 78.
26. John W. Welch, "The Temple in the Book of Mormon," in Temples of the Ancient World, ed. Donald W. Parry (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994), 353–55.
27. See John W. Welch, "A Book You Can Respect," Ensign, September 1977, 45–48.
28. See B. H. Roberts, Deseret News, 11 October 1930.
29. Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 466.
30. Ibid., 466.
31. B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1909), 2:vi–vii.
32. Ibid., 2:vii; cited by Ted E. Brewerton, "The Book of Mormon: A Sacred Ancient Record," in Conference Report, October 1995, 39; or Ensign, November 1995, 31.
33. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, 2:vii.
34. Hinckley, Faith, 5.
35. McConkie, New Witness, 189.
36. Ibid., 188.
37. Sidney B. Sperry, "Some Universals in the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4/1 (1995): 232.
38. John W. Welch, Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1999).
39. Hugh W. Nibley, Since Cumorah (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1987), xiv.
40. See Richard L. Bushman, "My Belief," BYU Studies 25/2 (1985): 23–30. Bushman rightly learned that such expectations are unrealistic (pp. 28–29), but there are other alternatives besides discarding all evidence as "essentially irrelevant" (p. 30).
41. Ezra Taft Benson, "A New Witness for Christ," in Conference Report, October 1984, 7; or Ensign, November 1984, 8.
42. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 18.
43. For an excellent précis of the legal science of evidence and proof, see Peter W. Murphy, "Teaching Evidence, Proof, and Facts: Providing a Background in Factual Analysis and Case Evaluation," Journal of Legal Education 51/4 (2001): 568–98.
44. See John W. Welch, "What Does Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon Prove?" in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1997), 199–224.
45. In Mosiah 5:10–12, for example, King Benjamin is interested in contrasting those who remember the covenantal name and those who do not. The structure of the chiasm in this text accentuates this sharp contrast, the either/or separating the two options. In Alma 41:13–15, the balanced sense of divine justice, which will reward good for that which is good, and righteous for that which is righteous, is conveyed subtly by the balance implicit in its literary structure. A similar effect is achieved in Leviticus 24, where the "bruise for bruise, eye for eye" sense of talionic justice is reflected perfectly in the chiastic structure that embraces that content. John W. Welch, "Chiasmus in Biblical Law," in Jewish Law Association Studies IV: The Boston Conference Volume, ed. Bernard Jackson (Atlanta: Scholars, 1990), 5–22, esp. 7–11.
46. See John W. Welch, "Alma 36: A Masterpiece," in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1991), 114–31.
47. The pair of lists that is inverted to become a list of pairs in the opposite order in Alma 41:13–15 is brilliantly creative.
48. See McConkie, New Witness, 462.
49. Ibid., 467.
50. See John W. Welch, "Preliminary Comments on the Sources behind the Book of Ether" (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1986).
51. See William J. Hamblin and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., Warfare in the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990).
52. Steven D. Ricks and John W. Welch, Allegory of the Olive Tree (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1994), 484–562.
53. Reg. v Rowton (1865), 13 W.R. 437; cited in Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations, 88.
54. Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 11 November 1850; cited in Angela Partington, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 696.
55. Thompson v Bowie, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 463, 473 (1867); cited in Eugene C. Gerhart, ed., Quote It! Memorable Legal Quotations (New York: Boardman, 1969), 205.
56. See "How Long Did It Take to Translate the Book of Mormon?" in Welch, ed., Reexploring, 1–8.
57. United States v Fatico, 458 Federal Supplement 388, 410 (Eastern District of New York, 1978). See Timothy J. Martens, "The Standard of Proof for Preliminary Questions of Fact under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments," Arizona Law Review 30 (1988): 33.
58. Elder Widtsoe felt that "the weight of evidence" on one side or the other was sufficient to remove all doubt (Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 28). Joseph Fielding Smith asserted that the highest standard of proof could be met, that evidence "prove[d] beyond the possibility of doubt that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery spoke the truth" (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:124).
59. See Revenue Ruling 87–41, 1987–1 Cumulative Bulletin 296.
60. Lord Wright, in Grant v Australian Knitting Mills, Ltd., A. C. (1936) 85, 96; cited in M. Frances McNamara, ed., 2,000 Classic Legal Quotations (Rochester, N.Y.: Lawyers Cooperative, 1992), 207.
61. See John L. Hilton, "On Verifying Wordprint Studies: Book of Mormon Authorship," BYU Studies 30/3 (1990): 89–108.
62. Richard L. Evans, in Conference Report, October 1952, 96.
63. Hugh B. Brown, in Conference Report, April 1955, 82.
64. Perry Meyer, "Evidence in the Future," Canadian Bar Journal 51 (1973): 118.
65. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 13. Widtsoe also stated, "Chance, disorder, chaos are ruled out of the physical universe" (ibid., 19).
66. Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1919), 206.
67. Ibid., 206, citing Juvenile Instructor 41 (August 1906): 465.
68. Indeed, the word for repentance in Greek, metanoia, means literally to change one's mind.
69. See John W. Welch, "BYU Studies: Into the 1990s," BYU Studies 31/4 (1991): 25.
70. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 17.
71. See Gerhard Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1964), 1:255, 258. See also Hugh W. Nibley, "The Meaning of the Atonement," in Approaching Zion, ed. Don E. Norton (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1989), 556, 560–61.
72. Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 296.
73. Nibley, Approaching Zion, 70–71.
74. Gordon B. Hinckley, "Lord, Increase Our Faith," in Conference Report, October 1987, 68; or Ensign, November 1987, 54.

From Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, pp. 17-53.