Latter Day Saint movement · First published 1830; text as later revised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon was published in 1830 at Palmyra, New York, by Joseph Smith, Jr., who said he had translated it by the gift and power of God from golden plates revealed to him by an angel. The churches of the Latter Day Saint movement accept it as scripture alongside the Bible. It presents itself as the record of peoples who crossed from the Near East to the Americas, chiefly the family of Lehi, who left Jerusalem about 600 BCE, and their descendants the Nephites and Lamanites, abridged by the prophet Mormon and his son Moroni; its climax is a visit of the risen Christ. The text is that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the chapter and verse divisions introduced in 1879; the short original prefaces to some books and all modern study aids are omitted.