Ep327: The 3-Voice Framework of the Book of Mormon (Episode 2)

In this episode of our continuing series on Book of Mormon authorship theories, Patrick lays the groundwork for understanding how the Book or Mormon is constructed, which is an essential part of considering the Book of Mormon authorship theories. In this episode we consider Rob Terry's work. Data Scientist Rob Terry utilized the BYU Book of Mormon text database to deconstruct the structure of the Book of Mormon. He demonstrates in this Wheat and Tares article https://wheatandtares.org/2020/04/23/book-of-mormon-wordprint-studies-in-2020/ how the Book of Mormon has 3 discrete “voices”. First, the Narrator Voice. This voice contains many attributes that are consistent across the book, regardless of whether the speaker is Mormon, Zeniff, or Helaman. Next, the Sermon Voice is interspersed in the narrative and contains unique attributes across the book, whether in the voice of Alma, Samuel the Lamanite, or Amulek. Finally, in the second half of the book, there is a Late Voice which muddies the clear switching between Narrator and Sermon Voices we see in the first half of the book and introduces a new set of attributes not seen in the other 2 Voices. Terry illustrates the Voices in many graphs to help the audience visualize how the book is constructed. The 3-Voice Framework must be accounted for by any Book of Mormon authorship theory and complicates the notion that the book could have been dictated without an underlying text. Finally, in the episode, we briefly show how the framework helps explain the Book of Mormon wordprint study results.