Joseph Smith as a Book of Mormon Storyteller

Skeptics have promoted different explanations to describe how Joseph Smith generated all the words of the Book of Mormon. A variation of the most popular theory proposes that he used the methods of the bards and minstrels who have entertained their audiences with tales that extended over many hours. This article explores their techniques to assess whether Joseph Smith might have adopted such methodologies. The secrets of Serbo-Croatian storytellers’ abilities to dictate polished stories in real time have been identified, involving the memorization of formulaic language to minimize the number of mental choices to be made while wordsmithing each phrase. Compared to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the historical record fails to support that he had trained in the use of formula systems or that his dictation employed a rhythmic delivery of the phrases. Neither are formula patterns detected in the printed 1830 Book of Mormon. Apparently, Smith did not adopt this methodology to dictate the Book of Mormon.