For those who deny that the Book of Mormon was received by the gift and power of God, an alternative explanation has to be created.
For decades, the explanation was that Joseph Smith was too stupid and uneducated to have written the Book of Mormon, so someone else must have. For decades the claim was that Solomon Spaulding wrote a manuscript, Joseph plagiarized it, and that became the Book of Mormon.
That explanation ended when the Spaulding manuscript was found in 1884 and shown to not match the Book of Mormon in content or structure.
Since then, more evidence has come forward that supports the Book of Mormon as an ancient record. This includes Semitic language patterns, Hebrew poetic structure like chiasmus, knowledge of ancient Israelite practices, Egyptian and Hebrew names with accurate meanings, and references to texts not found in the Old Testament but later identified in apocryphal writings.
Because of this, critics have had to adjust their position.
The claim is no longer that Joseph could not have written it, but that he must have built it from many different sources. The argument now is that Joseph pulled ideas from View of the Hebrews, The Late War, The First Book of Napoleon, local maps, pirate stories, sermons, and anything else that can be loosely connected, then somehow organized all of it and dictated the Book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith Was Educated Through Dartmouth College
One of the newer additions to this theory, and the explanation for how Joseph Smith was able to learn much of the doctrine used in the Book of Mormon, is the idea that Joseph Smith had access to higher education through Dartmouth.
This comes from a 2006 paper by Richard Behrens and was pushed into wider circulation in 2023 through a Mormon Stories episode as well as other anti-Mormon platforms.
The claims are:
- The Smith family lived within a few miles of Dartmouth
- Hyrum Smith was part of the “Dartmouth education system”
- Hyrum tutored Joseph during his leg recovery
- A Dartmouth professor named John Smith was related to the family
- Dartmouth exposed students to ideas similar to Restoration doctrine
- Masonic influence was present in that environment
- Therefore Joseph was more educated than he is presented
The conclusion is that Joseph was essentially “Dartmouth educated” and used that exposure to create the Book of Mormon.
The problem is that every step in that argument requires assumptions that are not supported by the historical record.
Is a Prep School Really Dartmouth?
Hyrum Smith did not attend Dartmouth College.
He attended Moor’s Charity School, which was a preparatory school connected to Dartmouth.
The only confirmed record shows that Hyrum was enrolled in arithmetic for one quarter, from August 28th through November 1814.
That is the documented evidence.
It is reasonable to assume he also learned reading, writing, grammar, and possibly some basic Latin or religious instruction. That is what a preparatory school would teach a boy his age.
What is not supported is the idea that he was studying advanced theology, Hebrew, or complex doctrinal systems.
There is no record of that.
How Well Do Young Boys Absorb Advanced Doctrine?
Hyrum was 14 during the term we know he attended Moors.
Joseph was 7-8 when he was homebound and recovering from his leg surgery.
For this theory to work, you have to assume:
- that Hyrum was learning advanced theology as a young teenager
- that he fully understood it
- that he retained it
- that he taught it clearly to a much younger child
- that Joseph retained it for over a decade
- that Joseph later used it to construct a complex religious record
There is no evidence for any of that.
There are also practical problems:
- If Hyrum was walking miles to school and back, how much time did he have to teach?
- If he had farm responsibilities, how much time remained?
- Was Hyrum even attending Moors before Joseph’s surgery
- If he took a full year off school to tutor Joseph during his recovery, wouldn’t that further limit his already limited preparatory education? i
Even if Hyrum helped care for Joseph, any instruction he provided would most likely have been basic and practical, not advanced doctrinal teaching or speculative ideas about ancient religions and traditions as they were understood at the time.
They Were Not Together During Translation
If the argument shifts and claims Hyrum taught Joseph later, when Joseph would have been old enough to understand, that creates another problem.
The Book of Mormon was translated primarily in Harmony, Pennsylvania.
Hyrum was in New York.
They were separated by over 100 miles.
If Hyrum had all this knowledge, he was not present during the translation to provide it.
The John Smith Connection
Another part of the argument is that Professor John Smith of Dartmouth was related to the Smith family.
John Smith was a professor of languages and theology and worked with Hebrew, Greek, and other ancient languages.
There may have been a distant family connection.
But “Smith” was one of the most common names in America.
Even if they were related, there is no evidence:
- that they ever interacted
- that they exchanged ideas
- that his work influenced Joseph or Hyrum
A shared last name or distant relation does not establish influence.
The Claimed Parallels
The theory relies heavily on parallels between Dartmouth studies and Restoration doctrine.
These include:
- premortal existence
- atonement before creation
- plan of salvation
- agency
- spiritual death after the Fall
- types and shadows
- oaths and covenants
- Melchizedek Priesthood
- Aaronic Priesthood
- degrees of glory
- exaltation
- revelation
- spirit as a finer form of matter
- multiple inhabited worlds
- Enoch traditions
- Hebrew study
- School of the Prophets
However, none of these ideas are actually unique to Dartmouth.
These topics existed across:
- biblical interpretation
- early Christian theology
- philosophical discussions
- religious debates of the time
At most, Dartmouth was one place where some of these ideas were discussed.
That is not the same as Joseph learning them, retaining them, and building the Book of Mormon from them.
What the Evidence Actually Shows
When you remove the assumptions, the evidence shows:
- Hyrum attended a preparatory school briefly
- He studied arithmetic
- He likely received basic education
- He helped care for Joseph during illness
- The family lived near Dartmouth for a period of time from 1811-1815
That is the full picture.
Everything else relies on assumptions added on top of that.
Assumptions You Must Accept for This Theory to Be Plausible
To accept this theory that Joseph Smith received a Dartmouth Education, you have to accept that:
- a young teenager Hyrum Smith attended far more schooling than the records indicate and received advanced theological training which was not curriculum of a preparatory school
- at age 13 he took a year off from this preparatory education
- he passed the information he had learned to a 7 year old child while the child was recovering from a serious leg surgery
- the child retained this knowledge for years
- and later used it to produce a complex religious record
- all without documentation
Or:
Hyrum attended a preparatory school, Joseph had limited formal education, and the Book of Mormon was produced as Joseph claimed.
Evidence of a Restoration
The presence of similar ideas in earlier traditions is not evidence of copying. Especially when there is no evidence that Joseph Smith actually had access to any of it.
What it does show is that there were ancient beliefs and practices that differ significantly from what most Protestants in Joseph Smith’s day taught.
The Restoration introduces ideas such as ongoing revelation, a more tangible understanding of God, temple-centered worship, and human progression. These were not standard teachings in early 1800s American Christianity and were often rejected outright.
Yet those same patterns appear in ancient Jewish and early Christian contexts, where temple worship, divine councils, and progression toward God were part of the religious landscape.
Rather than reflecting the dominant theology of Joseph Smith’s environment, these teachings align more closely with older traditions that had been debated, altered, or lost over time.
You can build a theory by stacking assumptions that require faith to believe where there is no evidence.
Or you can stay with what is actually supported by the historical record.
Continue reading at the original source →