As another supposed source for the Book of Mormon, modern anti-Mormons make a claim that Joseph Smith plagiarized from the Book of Mad Dog or Madoc.

The first thing we need to figure out is, what is the Book of Madoc are they are actually referring to?

Book of Madoc 1805 Epic Poem

In 1805, Robert Southey published a fictional epic poem called Madoc in London. It was based on the Welsh legend of a medieval prince named Madoc who left Wales after a royal succession conflict, crossed the ocean, discovered a new land, returned to Wales, gathered settlers, and then sailed back to America.

The legend was useful to the British because it supported the idea that Wales, and therefore Britain, had a claim to America before Columbus.

In the poem, Madoc interacts with native peoples, fights wars, and spreads Christianity. The story of Madoc includes an ocean crossing, ships, a new land, native peoples, advanced societies, kings, priests, councils, temples, wars, battles, and Christianity in the Americas.

These same themes also appear in the Book of Mormon!

And, an edition was published in Boston in 1806, so it is possible that Joseph Smith could have had access to it.

If that’s the only information you are told, if you don’t do any other research. If you simply trust what is shared on the ex-Mormon subreddit, then you might believe that the Book of Madoc is this the smoking gun that provides the source in which Joseph Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon…

But, like the Solomon Spaulding manuscript and View of the Hebrews, there are a few, broad, surface-level similarities between one aspect of the Book of Mormon.

Broad similarities are not plagiarism.

A story about people crossing an ocean and interacting with native people is not exactly a stand-alone idea that nobody had ever thought of before. The Odyssey, Gulliver’s Travels, The Travels of Marco Polo, and The Arabian Nights all include voyages, distant lands, and interactions with different people. So why don’t we here people claiming that Joseph Smith used those as source texts for the Book of Mormon?

Stories with native people with kings, priests, wars, and religion have been told thousands of times before. Those are general story elements found in many historical, religious, and epic writings.

Writing Styles and Story Focus

When the actual content and writing styles are compared, Madoc and the Book of Mormon are not closely related.

Southey’s Madoc

Robert Southey’s Madoc is a British epic poem based on a Welsh legend. It follows a medieval Welsh prince who leaves Wales after a royal succession conflict, sails west, discovers a new land, returns to Wales, and gathers settlers to join him.

The poem then follows Madoc back to America with a Welsh colony. Much of the story focuses on native kingdoms, tribal alliances, political conflict, war, pagan priests, human sacrifice, and Madoc’s effort to establish Christianity among Aztec-related peoples in Aztlan.

The bulk of the poem is filled with long poetic speeches, descriptions of landscapes and cities, military conflict, religious confrontation, temples, rulers, warriors, captives, and sacrificial rituals. Its main themes are Welsh exploration, colonization, Christian opposition to idolatry, conflict with Aztec-style religion, and the attempt to build a Christian settlement in the New World.

The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon begins with Lehi, a prophet in Jerusalem around 600 BC, warning the people before the Babylonian destruction. His family leaves Jerusalem because it has become wicked and will be destroyed. Next, they obtain the brass plates which are the key to ensuring that religious truths are preserved. The family travel through the wilderness, builds a ship by revelation, and crosses the ocean to a promised land. The main early conflict is between Nephi, who accepts revelation, and Laman and Lemuel, who reject it.

The Book of Mormon’s central characters are prophets, kings, missionaries, military leaders, and record keepers: Lehi, Nephi, Jacob, King Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Amulek, Captain Moroni, Mormon, Moroni, and Jesus Christ. The record is built around repentance, covenant keeping, prophetic warnings, priesthood authority, the coming of Christ, Christ’s visit to the Americas, and the preservation of sacred records for the last days.

The Book of Mormon also has a strong record-keeping structure. Its storyline depends on the brass plates, the small plates of Nephi, the large plates of Nephi, Mormon’s abridgment, Ether’s record, and Moroni’s final writings. It presents itself as sacred history preserved by prophets and brought forth in the latter days to testify of Jesus Christ.

The Actual Comparison

The strongest similarities are broad and generic: ocean crossing, ancient America, native peoples, war, religion, and Christianity. But those setting-level similarities do not demonstrate no textual dependence.

A real source claim would need stronger evidence. It would need matching characters, matching plot, matching theology, matching language, or at least one piece of evidence that Joseph Smith may have had access to the text and used it.

When the actual poem of Madoc is examined, the loose thematic overlap does not remotely resemble plagiarism.

Exact Phrase Matches

But what if there are exact phrases shared between the Book of Madoc and the Book of Mormon? What if those shared phrases are even more convincing than shared biblical phrasing of The Late War.  The Late Ware is a history book about the War of 1812 written in King James Style English that has hundreds of shared “four letter phrases.” Unfortunately for the critics, the story of the Late War does not even remotely match the Book of Mormon’s subject or storyline. It is literally a history of the War of 1812.

The Smoking Gun Shared Line

But if the Book of Madoc not only includes some of the same themes, and same word phrases, then we actually have a case for a source text for the Book of Mormon.

According to ex-Mormon forums, the beginning of 1 Nephi is identical to the beginning of the Book of Madoc. In 2003, Ex-Mormon Darrick  Evenson claimed in a google group:

The biginning of the Book of Madoc includes the line:

“I, Madog, born of goodly parents, was taught somewhat in the learning of my father, nevertheless having seen many afflictions, therefore I make a record in my day …”

The Book of Mormon begins:

“I Nephi, being born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father;…there I make a record of the proceeding of my days…”

Now that looks like plagiarism. According to this source, not only do we have a parallels in common broad themes, but we also have the exact same opening phrase used in both books. Clearly this is plagiarism and Joseph Smith simply changed the name from Madoc to Nephi!

There is just one problem with this claim…

The Book of Madoc begins:

Fair blows the wind… the vessel drives along,
Her streamers fluttering at their length, her sails
All full; she drives along, and round her prow
Scatters the ocean-spray. What feelings then
Filled every bosom, when the mariners,
After the peril of that weary way,
Beheld their own dear country! Here stands one
Stretching his sight toward the distant shore;
And, as to well-known forms his busy joy
Shapes the dim outline, eagerly he points
The fancied headland, and the cape and bay,
Till his eyes ache o’erstraining.

Not only is “I Madoc having been born of goodly parents” not in the opening section of the Book of Madoc, but it does not appear anywhere in Robert Southey’s 1805 epic poem.

And clearly the poetic style of Madoc is nothing like any of the writing styles of the Book of Mormon.

The Secret Book of Madoc

Because anti-Mormons are so desperate to believe that some natural explanation for the Book of Mormon exists, because they so desperately want to believe that he was a false prophet and plagiarized it from somewhere, they keep doubling down when the supposed source text fails to be the proof thirst for.

Surely an ex-Mormon in 2003 wasn’t just making stuff up on the internet. Ex-Mormons forum posts are always credible sources.

It is the same pattern as the plagiarism claims of the Spaulding manuscript in 1834.

Anti-Mormons claimed the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from Solomon Spaulding. This was the predominant theory for the origin of the Book of Mormon for about five decades. The claim was first made in E. B. Howe’s book Mormonism Unvailed in 1834. But when the Spaulding manuscript that E. B. Howe had was found in 1884, it was obvious that it did not have anything to do with the Book of Mormon.

Howe had the actual Spaulding manuscript but hid it from the world because it did not actually contain the plagiarism evidence claimed in the affidavits gathered by Philastus Hurlbut and published in Mormonism Unvailed. Instead of dropping the claim, instead of admitting that their supposed source theory was wrong, critics simply shifted the goal post:

“Well, there must have been a different Spaulding manuscript that we do not have.”

No evidence. No actual manuscript of this additional manuscript. Just blind faith that the missing source must exist somewhere because they wanted to believe the claims from the affidavats.

The “Secret” Book of Madoc claim does the same thing.

Because the real 1805 Madoc poem by Robert Southey does not contain the supposed “I, Madoc, being born of goodly parents” quote. Critics claim that, that line is found in a different Madoc book: the so-called Secret Book of Madoc, supposedly written by John Dee in 1810.

That creates a bigger problem.

John Dee was an English scholar, mathematician, occult philosopher, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He lived from 1527 to 1609. A claim that he wrote The Secret Book of Madoc in 1810, is kind of impossible as he had been dead for two hundred years. But if time travel is real, then I suppose it is possible.

But there is no verified Secret Book of Madog by John Dee. Not one written in 1608 or 1810. There is no manuscript of this supposed secret book. No record of publication. No source that can be checked.

Anti-Mormons continue to spread a claim that depends on a book nobody can produce, with a quote nobody can verify, and no evidence that Joseph Smith ever even saw this book that does not exist.

So the Madoc plagiarism claim ends up doing the same thing that so many other anti-Mormon source theories do. It starts with a broad similarity, shares it as if that broad similarity is evidence of plagiarism, adds an alleged smoking gun, fails when the actual source is examined, and then instead of admitting that it was just a desperate attempt to explain something they want to believe, they double down and retreat into a missing original source that nobody can produce.

So no, the Book of Madoc or Mad Dog is not evidence that Joseph Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon.

But it is evidence that critics will wilingly spread almost anything they can to justify their disbelief and provide a naturalistic source that can explain the Book of Mormon without accepting Joseph Smith’s claim that it was translated by the gift and power of God.

Nephi’s Goodly Name Makes the Plagiarism Claim Double Backfire

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