Sometimes critics will claim that the Book of Mormon simply copies and pastes from the King James of Isaiah. However, even critics of the Book of Mormon acknowledges that this is naïve. The following table is based on the larger table found in David P. Wright, “Joseph Smith in Isaiah: Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah,” in American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, ed. Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 162-63:
|
Isaiah Chapter |
Total Variants in the Book of
Mormon |
|
Isa 2 |
97 |
|
Isa 3 |
51 |
|
Isa 4 |
13 |
|
Isa 5 |
34 |
|
Isa 6 |
12 |
|
Isa 7 |
22 |
|
Isa 8 |
13 |
|
Isa 9 |
25 |
|
Isa 10 |
21 |
|
Isa 11 |
2 |
|
Isa 12 |
0 |
|
Isa 13 |
47 |
|
Isa 14 |
59 |
|
Isa 48 |
129 |
|
Isa 49 |
128 |
|
Isa 49:22-26 |
22 |
|
Isa 50 |
104 |
|
Isa 51:1-52:2 |
64 |
|
Isa 52:7-10 |
0 |
|
Isa 53 |
5 |
|
Isa 54 |
7 |
|
TOTAL |
885 |
Wright addresses what counts as a “variant” thusly:
More specifically, a plus or
minus of one word in the BoM text equals one variant. The appearance of one
word in the place of another is one variant; the appearance of two words in the
place of one word counts as two variants, and so forth. Transpositions count as
one variant. Variants as plural and singular nouns are counted. Insignificant
variants (difference in preposition [e.g., “toward” vs. “towards”], spelling
variants, hyphenation, word compounding or splitting, etc.) are not counted. (David
P. Wright, “Joseph Smith in Isaiah: Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah,” in American
Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, ed. Dan Vogel and Brent Lee
Metcalfe [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002], 214 n. 11)
