John Tvedtnes explains that the best scientific evidence for the Book of Mormon might not be archaeological or historical in nature, as important as these may be, but rather linguistic. This is because we have before us a printed text which can be subjected to linguistic analysis and comparison with the language spoken in the kingdom of Judah at the time of Lehi.
One of the more remarkable linguistic evidences for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as a translation from an ancient text lies in the Isaiah variants found in it. Of the 478 verses in the Book of Mormon quoted from the book of Isaiah, 201 agree with the King James reading while 207 show variations. Some 58 are paraphrased and 11 others are variants and/or paraphrases. [John A. Tvedtnes, “Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon,” pp. 165, 176]
“I Will Read You the Words of Isaiah”
According to Brant Gardner, the plausible presence of non Old-World people among the Nephites provides a context for a strange sermon that Jacob gave on the behest of Nephi (see 2 Nephi 6:4). In the absence of any explanatory background, Jacob addresses a population that is in the process of establishing a city. He preaches to them from a text in Isaiah (2 Nephi 6:6-7--compare Isaiah 49:22-23) that deals with the long distant future salvation of Israel by means of the Gentiles. One might ask, why would Jacob give a discourse on events thousands of years away, and quote scripture dealing with the fact that “if it so be that they [the Gentiles] shall repent and fight not against Zion, and do not unite themselves to that great and abominable church, they shall be saved” (2 Nephi 6:12)?
If we look at the sermon being given in the general presence of a goodly number of non-Israelites by birth (“Gentiles”), that sermon becomes precisely the type of sermon that a king might request. The not-so subtle message would be that these “others” in the midst of Nephi’s Israelite followers from the Old World would be essential to their salvation. Rather than a discourse on a theological future, it could be a strong commentary on an important social reality of their own present circumstances. [Brant Gardner, “A Social History of the Early Nephites,” delivered at the FAIR Conference, August 17, 2001, p. 4]
“I Will Read You the Words of Isaiah”
In the sixth chapter of 2 Nephi we find the beginnings of some of Jacob’s sermons to the people of Nephi. Jacob states the following: “And now behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore, I will read you the words of Isaiah… . And now, the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel” (2 Nephi 6:4)
In his sermons Jacob quotes from the words of Isaiah, specifically from Isaiah 49, 50 and 51. Critics of the Book of Mormon have attacked Jacob‘s use of these chapters because they claim that they were not written until after Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem and thus could not have been part of the brass plates. Richard Draper explains the problem.
According to Draper, the exactness with which God prophesied in Isaiah caused one of the major debates in Isaiah studies. It began with Bishop Robert Lowth in the eighteenth century. Studying the basis of Old Testament prophetic ability, Bishop Lowth took a careful look at Isaiah. Though very favorable to the prophetic power and appreciative of the genius of what he called “the prophetic consciousness,” he determined that prophets were, after all, “men of like nature with ourselves, in virtually all respects,” and “only their higher moral and natural sensibility set them apart.” Viewing them as little more than mortals with a highly developed sense of justice and an acute ability to see where society was headed, he struggled to reconcile his theory with what he found in certain passages of Isaiah. Chapters 40-47 particularly bothered him. There he found a “strained temporal reference.” What he meant was that he found it impossible for the eighth-century Isaiah to describe accurately sixth-century events and even name a principal player, the Persian ruler Cyrus (see Isaiah 44:24-28; 45:1-3). Acute dissonance set in. “To applaud prophetic genius in respect of ethical insight was one thing; but to claim for this same genius the ability to foresee events centuries in advance went beyond enlightened logic,” he insisted.
Later scholars also felt Lowth’s dissonance. Over time, Isaiah as both fore-teller and forth-teller became “incompatible conceptions.” To resolve the dissonance, they were forced to break the book into two (and later three) distinct portions, with separate authors. Isaiah, chapters 1-39, they decided, belonged to an Isaiah living in the eighth century because the writings conformed rather closely with what was known about that period of Israel’s history. They insisted that the rest of the book, chapters 40-66, was written at least two centuries later and then added to the earlier Isaiah material. What was the basis of their conclusion? That men, even prophets, cannot see beyond the horizon of their own time. Thus, the detailed prophecies concerning the Babylonian period could not have been written much before the end of that time.
In other words, this whole school of inquiry arose primarily because these intellectual people accepted the supposition that Isaiah could not see two or more centuries into the future. The irony is that in some respects they were right. Indeed the very point God makes in chapters 40-47 of Isaiah is that there is no intelligence that can see beyond the horizon of its time, except a divine being. However, a portion of what God sees he is willing to share with his people through his prophets. The gift of seership comes from God. And because God alone can empower a prophet, it is only God that should be the center of worship and obedience.
As to the mention of Cyrus by name in Isaiah 44:24-28 & 45:1-3, apparently the Lord used these prophecies to impress the future king and push him into doing Jehovah’s will. History shows that it worked. According to the Jewish historian Josephus:
In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day that our people were removed out of their own land into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity and calamity of these poor people… . For he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all Asia:
“thus saith Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.”
This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies.
[Richard D. Draper, “I Have Even from the Beginning Declared It,” in Covenants Prophecies and Hymns of the Old Testament, pp. 142-153]