The professed doctrine of most denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement is that the Book of Mormon is a 19th-century translation by Joseph Smith of a record of ancient inhabitants of the American continents, written in a script which the book refers to as "Reformed Egyptian". There is no evidence of a language matching this description nor any evidence of Old World linguistic influences in the New World whatsoever. To support the Book of Mormon's historicity, scholars like Donald W. Parry claim that the text contains unique stylistic forms of Reformed Egyptian that Joseph Smith and his contemporaries were unlikely to have known. What is better attested to is that the Book of Mormon includes language that is anachronistic and reflective of its 19th-century and English-language origins consistent with Smith's upbringing and life experience, as well as the books and other literature published just preceding the time that the Book of Mormon was published.
Native American language
In 1922, LDS Church general authority B. H. Roberts (1857–1933) conducted a review of the research regarding language development and dialects among the Native American peoples; the University of Illinois Press published Roberts's study posthumously in 1985 as Studies of the Book of Mormon. Roberts based his discussion on the assumption that the majority of Native Americans descend from the peoples described in the Book of Mormon – as is implied by the hemispheric model of Book of Mormon geography, which was the prevailing view among Mormons at the time. Roberts noted that linguistic evidence among the Native American peoples does not support the Book of Mormon narrative, inasmuch as the diverse language stocks and dialects that exist would not have had enough time to develop from a single language dating from AD 400 (the approximate date of the conclusion of the Book of Mormon record). Roberts noted the following facts to be true at that point to be:
That there are a large number of separate language stocks in America that show very little relationship to each other.
That it would take a long time—much longer than that recognized as "historic times"—to develop these dialects and stocks where the development is conceived of as arising from a common source of origin—some primitive language.
That there is no connection between the American languages and the language of any people of the Old World. New World languages appear to be indigenous to the New World.
The fragmentation of language into many groups in the pre-Columbian Americas is at odds with a hemispherical geography model of the Book of Mormon’s peoples – and indeed with the Book of Mormon’s narrative of agricultural Nephites coming to the Americas and building a large-scale society. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, anthropologist Jared Diamond writes that “had any food-producing Native American peoples succeeded in spreading far with their crops and livestock and rapidly replacing hunter-gatherers over a large area, they would have left legacies of easily recognized language families, as in Eurasia,” which did not occur. Mainstream investigations hold that there is no known special similarity between Native American languages and ancient Egyptian.
Linguistic anachronisms
A variety of linguistic anachronisms show it to be the product of nineteenth century American authorship. These anachronisms include words that represent concepts that are not known to have existed in the Americas between 2500 BC and AD 400, or in ancient Israel and Judah.
"Christ" and "Messiah" The words "Christ" and "Messiah" are used several hundred times throughout the Book of Mormon. The first instance of the word "Christ" occurs in parts of the narrative that many Mormons attribute to between 559 and 545 BC. The first instance of the word "Messiah" occurs in the narrative that Mormons believe happened around 600 BC. "Christ" is the English transliteration of the Greek word Χριστός (transliterated as Christós); it is relatively synonymous with the Hebrew word משיח, pronounced [maˈʃi.aχ] and rendered "Messiah". Both words have the meaning of "anointed", and are used in the Bible to refer to "the Anointed One". In Greek translations of the Old Testament (including the Septuagint), the word "Christ" is used for the Hebrew "Messiah", and in Hebrew translations of the New Testament, the word "Messiah" is used for the Greek "Christ". Any passage in the Bible that uses the word "Christ" can substitute the word "Messiah" or "the Messiah" with no change in meaning (e.g., Matthew 1:1, 16, 18). The Book of Mormon uses both terms throughout the book. In the vast majority of cases, it uses the terms in an identical manner as the Bible, where it does not matter which word is used:
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation". (Helaman 5:12). And after he had baptized the Messiah with water, he should behold and bear record that he had baptized the Lamb of God, who should take away the sins of the world." (1 Nephi 10:10). Richard Packham argues that the Greek word "Christ" in the Book of Mormon challenges the authenticity of the work since Smith clearly stated that "there was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of the Lord, translated the Book of Mormon."
"Church" and "synagogue" The word "church" first occurs in 1 Nephi 4:26, where a prophet named Nephi disguises himself as Laban, a prominent man in Jerusalem whom Nephi had slain:
And he [Laban's servant], supposing that I spake of the brethren of the church, and that I was truly that Laban whom I had slain, wherefore he did follow me (1 Nephi 4:26). According to the Book of Mormon, this exchange happened in Jerusalem, around 600 BC. The meaning of the word "church" in the Book of Mormon is more comparable to usage in the Bible than Modern English. The concept of a church, meaning "a convocation of believers", existed among the House of Israel prior to Christianity. For instance, Psalms 89:5 speaks of praising the Lord "in the congregation of the saints"; the Septuagint contains the Greek word ecclesia for "congregation", which is also translated as "church" in the New Testament. A similar question regards the word "synagogue", found in Alma 16:13:
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