"If there be faults": Reviewing Earl Wunderli's An Imperfect Book

Authors

Matthew Roper
Paul Fields
Larry Bassist

Abstract

Earl M. Wunderli rejects the Book of Mormon as a literal history of ancient America. He points to what he thinks are mistakes in the text, pointing to so-called anachronistic words such as steel and silk. Matthew Roper and his colleagues convincingly overturn Wunderli's assertions. The description of Laban's sword of "most precious steel" is now considered accurate since the discovery of a meter-long steel sword at the ancient site of Jericho dating to the time of King Josiah. Likewise, silk has recently been found in eastern Turkey dating to 750 BC.

Wunderli also presents textual evidence using statistics to show that the Book of Mormon is the work of a single author. Roper, Fields, and Bassist demonstrate how Wunderli's methods are lacking, and more rigorous standards clearly reveal multiple authorship in the Book of Mormon.

Recommended Citation

Roper, Matthew; Fields, Paul; and Bassist, Larry (2014) ""If there be faults": Reviewing Earl Wunderli's An Imperfect Book," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 53: Iss. 3, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol53/iss3/8