The Brass Plates and Biblical Scholarship

Although the "brass plates" referred to in the Book of Mormon are said to have much in common with the Old Testament, their nature has received little attention from Mormon scholars. Nonetheless, the hint has long been there that these plates contain a variant Old Testament text comparable to what scholars have considered one of the basic "documents" or "texts" from which the Old Testament was compiled. The thesis of this article is that the brass plates are related to the "E" source. Mormon scripture may thus support rather than challenge the notion that more than a single source underlies the Old Testament.