Thomas Donofrio’s MormonThink article “Early American Influences on the Book of Mormon” argues that the Book of Mormon must be a 19^th century work of fiction because it shares hundreds of phrases with American Revolutionary War literature that are not found in the Bible. In Donofrio’s opinion, it is not reasonable to believe that an ancient Nephite record would have so many linguistic similarities to the writings of Joseph Smith’s day. He states “The information in this study illustrates words and phrases in the Book of Mormon that reflect concepts and issues of a new United States. In the Bible, they are not used in the same context, or in many cases, do not even exist. Otherwise, ancient Americans, who the book states are descendants of Israelites, must have been no different than Revolutionary Americans of 1776.”

The problem with his analysis and others like it is that he did not examine whether these modern phrases appear in other 18^th or 19^th century translations of ancient documents. If the presence of these parallels in the Book of Mormon are truly anachronistic, then they should not be found in English translations of any ancient document written during the period of the Book of Mormon. The purpose of this article is to show that most of the supposedly anachronistic English phrases identified by Donofrio are also found in contemporary English translations of ancient documents written between 440 B.C. and 325 A.D.

I will be comparing Donofrio’s list of parallels to several ancient sources:

1. “The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus” written between 78 and 93 A.D.; translated into English by William Whiston in 1737. Retrieved from: http://www.ultimatebiblereferencelibrary.com/Complete_Works_of_Josephus.pdf
2. “The History of the Peloponnesian War” written by Thucydides between 431 and 400 B.C. and translated into English by Richard Crawley in 1874. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.mb.txt
3. “The History of Herodotus” written by Herodotus in 440 B.C. and translated into English by George Rawlinson in 1910. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.mb.txt
4. “The Dialogues of Plato” written by Plato who lived between 427 and 347 B.C.; translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1871. Retrieved from: https://webs.ucm.es/info/diciex/gente/agf/plato/The_Dialogues_of_Plato_v0.1.pdf
5. “Politics” written by Aristotle who lived between 384 and 322 B.C.; translated by Benjamin Jowett in 1885. Retrieved from: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/aristotle/Politics.pdf
6. “The Apostolic Fathers” which are early Christian documents believed to have been written in first and second century A.D.; translated by Joseph Barber Lightfoot and published in 1891. Retrieved from: https://www.ccel.org/l/lightfoot/fathers/cache/fathers.pdf
7. “The Ante-Nicene Fathers” which are early Christian documents written before 325 A.D. Translated by multiple authors in 1885. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/AnteNiceneFathersVolume10BibliographicSynopsisGeneralIndex
8. “The Gallic Wars” written by Julius Caesar before 46 B.C. and translated into English by W.A. MacDevitt and W.S. Bohn in 1869. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.mb.txt
9. “The Histories” written by Tacitus around 109 A.D. and translated into English by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb in 1876. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/histories.mb.txt
10. “The Odyssey” written by Homer in 800 B.C. and translated into English by Samuel Butler in 1900. Retrieved from: http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html

These sources do not account for all of Donofrio’s parallels, but I have little doubt that with more time and dedication every one of the parallels can be found in the thousands of other English translations of ancient documents.

The parallels will be listed in the order that they are presented in the MormonThink article. For the sake of brevity, I have excluded any parallels that are listed multiple times by Donofrio. Donofrio’s sources and the Book of Mormon parallel are bolded and separated by a “/”. The parallels I have found in other ancient sources will be listed underneath and italicized. Quotes which do not have a similar parallel in the sources I examined are highlighted in red:

Donofrio begins by listing parallels found in Mercy Otis Warren’s “History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution.” Liberty Classics reprint. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1989.

• sets at defiance both human and divine laws (Warren, p. 12) / ye have set at defiance the commandments of God (Alma 5:18)
  • “and a contempt of both human and divine laws” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 12:7)
  • “Now, by your valor were they conquered, when you set at defiance their flagitious edicts, and, through steadfast faith and the fortitude of your soul, you routed all the vain terrors of tyrannical authority” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 708)
• that man, in a state of nature (p. 12) / men that are in a state of nature (Alma 41:11)
  • “The legislator was under the idea that war was the natural state of all mankind, and that peace is only a pretense (The Dialogues of Plato, The Laws: The Preamble, Book I, p. 478)
  • “In the confusion into which life was now thrown in the cities, human nature, always rebelling against the law and now its master, gladly showed itself ungoverned in passion, above respect for justice, and the enemy of all superiority” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
• a consciousness of their own guilt (p. 109) / a consciousness of his own guilt (Alma 14:6)
  • “they should seem to be in this difficulty from a consciousness of guilt” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVI, 4:2)
  • “though the head of the mutiny was thus removed, there yet remained in many of the soldiers the consciousness of guilt” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book I)
  • “the Carnutes were stimulated by their consciousness of guilt” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book V, Chapter 56)
• to conquer or die in defence of their country (p. 202) / to conquer in this place or die (Alma 56:17) / defence of their country (Alma 51:20)
  • “they must never flee from the battle before whatsoever odds, but abide at their post and there conquer or die” (Herodotus, Book VII, A.D. Godley translation, 1920-1925)
  • “we must conquer or hardly get away, as we shall have their horse upon us in great numbers” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
  • “And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
  • “it can never be that we must conquer without bloodshed on our own side” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 1:6)
  • “also of encouraging them to undergo dangers, and to die for their countries” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 14:4)
  • “Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of the Jews, how they were prepared to die rather than lose their liberty” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 7:5)
• learn wisdom (p. 645) / learn wisdom (2 Nephi 22:30)
  • “I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy” (Proverbs 30:3)
  • “if it is not a case for repentance, you may still learn wisdom” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XIX)
  • “And from hence I cannot forbear to admire God, and to learn hence his wisdom and his justice” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XI, 6:11)
• tenderness of a parent (p. 237) / tender parent (1 Nephi 8:37)
  • “as one that was a tender and gentle father to them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 5:6)
  • “holding that most extreme depravity of heretical presumption, that the comforts and aids of divine love and paternal tenderness are closed to the servants of God who repent” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 888)
• destruction was ripening (p. 543) / ripening for destruction (Helaman 5:2)
• Multitudes flocked from every quarter to the American standard (p. 129) / multitudes flocked to the American standard (p. 191) / thousands did flock unto his standard (Alma 62:5)
  • “The multitude also flocked about him greatly, and made mighty acclamations to him” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, 12:1)
  • “all the soldiers, against whose inclination obscure or unknown Caesars had been created, would acknowledge him, and crowd eagerly to his standard” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 718)
  • “And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly” (Isaiah 5:26)
  • “the standard to be displayed, which was the sign when it was necessary to run to arms” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book II, Chapter 20)
• plant the standard of royalty (p. 241) / planted the standard of liberty (Alma 46:36)
  • “Raise the standard of revolt in Persia, and then march straight on Media” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “An antique iron sword is planted on the top of every such mound, and serves as the image of Mars” (Herodotus, Book IV)
  • “among yourselves lift high the standard of virtue in the cause of glory and of fame” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 108)
  • “Vocula issued orders that the standards should be planted within sight of the camp” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book IV)
• that manly spirit of freedom (p. 31) / a true spirit of freedom (Alma 60:25)
  • “Such was the natural nobility of this city, so sound and healthy was the spirit of freedom among us” (The Dialogues of Plato, Menexenus, p. 879)
• a free people (p. 33) / a free people (Alma 21:21)
  • “he would have the greatest honors decreed to him that a free people could bestow” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIX, 3:3)
  • “shake off the yoke of servitude, and to become a free people” (Herodotus, Book I)
• a free government (p. 65) / a free government (Alma 46:35)
  • “Lacedaemonians, propose to put down free governments in the cities of Greece, and to set up tyrannies in their room” (Herodotus, Book V)
  • “The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• the cause of liberty (p. 24) / the cause of liberty (Alma 51:17)
  • “courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:7)
• that the voice of the people (p. 24) / that the voice of the people (Alma 2:7)
  • “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee” (1 Samuel 8:7)
  • “Dorotheus the high priest, and the fellow presidents with him, put it to the vote of the people” (Josephus, Antiquities, Book XIV, 8:5)
  • “chosen by the common voice of the Ionians” (Herodotus, Book I)
• The minds of the people (p. 87) / the minds of the people (Alma 17:6)
  • “he could no other way bend the minds of the Jews so as to receive Herod” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 1:2)
  • “certainly not the Creator’s mind, but the minds of the people which are in the world” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 988)
• their rights and privileges (p. 48) / their rights and privileges (Alma 30:27)
  • “made this speech concerning the rights and privileges of Hyrcanus” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, 10:7)
• the cause of freedom (p. 146) / the cause of freedom (Alma 46:35)
  • “bound themselves by a compact not to fall the cause of freedom” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book IV)
  • “For not only did he thus distinguish himself beyond others in the cause of his country’s freedom” (Herodotus, Book VI)
  • “courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:7)
• cause of his country (p. 168) / cause of his country (Alma 62:1)
  • “For not only did he thus distinguish himself beyond others in the cause of his country’s freedom” (Herodotus, Book VI)
  • “Their bodies they spend ungrudgingly in their country’s cause” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter III)
• the rights of their country (p. 79) / the rights of their country (3 Nephi 6:30)
  • “she came and loudly accused Athens of breach of the treaty and aggression on the rights of Peloponnese” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter III)
  • “he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 1:2)
• the freedom of their country (p. 172) / the freedom of their country (Alma 59:13)
  • “For not only did he thus distinguish himself beyond others in the cause of his country’s freedom” (Herodotus, Book VI)
  • “to plead for the liberty of their country” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 6:1)
  • “freedom of the city of Rome” (Josephus, Antiquities, Book XVI, 2:3)
  • “men whose glory it is to be always ready to give battle for the liberty of their own country” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
• the rights for which our ancestors contended (p. 643) / for this cause were the Nephites contending…to defend…their rights (Alma 43:47)
  • ” and they solicit the other states to choose rather to continue in that liberty which they had received from their ancestors, than endure slavery under the Romans” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book III, Chapter 8)
  • “For this cause I have now called you together” (Herodotus, Book VII)
  • “The Argives, that they would contend for their ancient supremacy” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
  • “to show that they mean to defend themselves against an attack” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XIX)
  • “to come out, as many as chose, to their homes without fearing for their rights or persons” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
  • “Be ye not afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (Nehemiah 4:14)
  • “even securing for ourselves the freedom which our fathers gave to Hellas” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter V)
• (Quoting Washington) “the welfare of their country” (p. 129) / and welfare of my country (Alma 60:36)
  • “But those who have the welfare of the state at heart should counteract them” (Aristotle, Politics, Book VI, Part V, p. 35)
  • “he should keep quiet and offer up prayers for his own welfare and for that of his country” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Seventh Letter, p. 830)
• the justice of their cause (p. 36) / the justice of the cause (p. 154) / the justice of the cause (Alma 46:29)
  • “but Aristobulus’s three hundred talents had more weight with him than the justice of the cause” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 6:3)
• to take up arms in defence of their rights (p. 90) / to take up arms in defence of their country (Alma 51:20)
  • “who necessitated us to take up arms against the Romans” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XX, 11:1)
  • “And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defense of your country” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
  • “it derived its existence in this way from that of the Jews, who were permitted to take up arms in defense of the members of their families” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 1051)
• deprive them of their rights (p. 332) / deprive them of their rights (Alma 2:4)
  • “I will therefore that the nation of the Jews be not deprived of their rights and privileges, on account of the madness of Caius” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIX, 5:2)
• to maintain their rights (p. 337) / to maintain their rights (Alma 51:6)
  • “and every body caught up their arms, in order to maintain the liberty of their metropolis” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 4:2)
  • “for we shall alike preserve the rights and hear all the causes of our confederates” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, 12:4)
  • “in answer to those who, because there happens to be the use of some things in common, maintain the right of participation in all things” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 205)
• welfare and happiness (p. 648) / welfare and happiness (Helaman 12:2)
  • “for the commencement of their hopes of future prosperity and happiness” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 5:6)
  • “leaders are required to show a special care for the common welfare” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter V)
• every man might (p. 628) / every man might (Mosiah 29:34)
  • “oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!” (2 Samuel 15:4)
  • “This man came to bear witness, that he might bear witness to the light, that every man might believe through his mediation” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 9, p. 59)
• stand or fall (p. 104) / stand or fall (Alma 41:7)
  • “to his own master he standeth or falleth” (Romans 14:4)
  • “you chose the Athenians, and with them you must stand or fall” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
• freemen (p. 175) / freemen (Alma 51:6)
  • “he also left some of the horsemen, called the Freemen, with Herod” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 13:3)
  • “killing all the freemen that fell into their hands” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
  • “if they be looked upon as freemen” (Herodotus, Book IV)
• class of men (p. 601) / class of people (Alma 32:2)
  • “Farmers are a class of men that are always more ready to serve in person than in purse” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter V)
  • “there were four classes of men among those of Cyrene” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, 7:2)
  • “much of the work was done by each class of workpeople” (Herodotus, Book I)
• ranks and classes (p. 636) / divided into classes (4 Nephi 1:26)
  • “The Egyptians are divided into seven distinct classes” (Herodotus, Book II)
  • “they are parted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior to the seniors” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 8:10)
  • “Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in their several ranks, under their several commanders” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 5:4)
• high birth (p. 236) / high birth (Alma 51:8)
  • “nor by the dignity of men eminent for either their riches or their high birth” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, 1:1)
• to be supported by the labor of the poor, or the taxation (p. 624) / supported in their laziness…by the taxes (Mosiah 11:6)
  • “Now it happened that the Egyptians grew delicate and lazy, as to pains-taking, and gave themselves up to other pleasures, and in particular to the love of gain” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 9:1)
  • “But when, upon his mustering his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures were deficient, and there was a want of money in them, for all the taxes were not paid, by reason of the seditions” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 7:2)
  • “For it is right to supply want, but it is not well to support laziness” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 644)
• the powers of the earth (p. 551) / the powers of the earth (3 Nephi 28:39)
  • “the concealed power of God was in Christ the crucified, before whom demons, and all the principalities and powers of the earth, tremble” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 588)
  • “where Caesar and Antony were to fight for the supreme power of the world” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 5:1)
• the God of nature (p. 76) / The God of nature (1 Nephi 19:12)
  • “Antisthenes maintained that the gods of the people were many, but that the God of nature was one only” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 24-25)
  • “it was agreeable to the will of God and the law of nature” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 8:48)
• the great Jehovah (p. 144) / the great Jehovah (Moroni 10:34)
  • “but my name Jehovah was I not known to them” (Exodus 6:3)
  • “And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God” (Nehemiah 8:6)
  • “The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors” (Proverbs 26:10)
• Great Spirit (p. 285) / Great Spirit (Alma 18:2)
  • ‘What is he, Diotima?’ ‘He is a great spirit (daimon), and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine and the mortal’ (The Dialogues of Plato, Symposium, p. 1663)
• neck of land (p. 120) / neck of land (Alma 22:32)
  • “attempted to cut through this narrow neck of land” (Herodotus, Book I)
• narrow passage (p. 146) / narrow passage (Mormon 2:29)
  • “which stopped up the narrow passages, they retired to the camp” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 15:5)
  • “encompass the building, leaving only a narrow passage by which it is approached” (Herodotus, Book II)
  • “and so arrived in time to occupy the narrow pass between two hills” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
• the river Elk (p. 203) / the river Sidon (Alma 3:3)
  • “by birth a Jew, but brought up at Sidon with one of the Roman freed-men” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 7:1)
• Moravian town (p. 286) / Morianton (Alma 50:25)
  • “Moriah” (2 Chronicles 3:1/Genesis 22:2)
  • “a place called formerly the Citadel, though afterwards its name was changed to Antonia” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 3:3)
  • Eshton (1 Chronicles 4:11)
• the art of war (p. 270) / the arts of war (Ether 13:16)
  • “novices in the art of war” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
  • “to fight with one that was skilled in the art of war” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 9:3)
  • “Fortune accomplishes much, not only in other matters, but also in the art of war” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, Book VI, Chapter 30)
• a council of war (p. 300) / a council of war (Alma 52:19)
  • “To the end he called the commanders that were under him to a council of war” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 7:8)
  • “The Athenians, seeing them closing up in the harbour and informed of their further designs, called a council of war” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXIII)
• to carry the point (p. 108) / not gain the point (Alma 46:29)
  • “which he might prevent by placing his camp round about them; and that they should think it a great point gained” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 2:3)
  • “Having thus gained their point, the delegates returned home at once” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter IV)
• a full detail of their proceedings (p. 38) / an account of their proceedings (Mosiah 28:9)
  • “These proceedings of the people in those countries occasioned perplexity and trouble to Moses” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 2:2)
  • “gave an account in order of the several discoveries that had been made” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 32:4)
  • “Of these conquests I shall pass by the greater portion, and given an account of those only which gave him the most trouble” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “The following are the proceedings on occasion of the assembly at Bubastis” (Herodotus, Book II)
• supplies of provisions (p. 208) / supplies of provisions (Alma 55:34)
  • “This Simon had his supply of provisions from the city, in opposition to the seditious” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 1:4)
  • “That people, when ordered to furnish arms and money, voluntarily added a supply of provisions” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book I)
• fallen into his hands (p. 145) / fallen into his hands (Alma 53:11)
  • “the two next by falling into the hands of Gratus and Ptolemeus” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 4:3)
  • “when he had fallen into worthy hands, could not be blamed” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book I)
  • “Luterius, who, I have related, had escaped from the battle, having fallen into
    the hands of Epasnactus” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VIII, Chapter 44)
• the prisoners who fell into his hands (p. 191) / the prisoners who fell into his hands (Alma 52:8)
  • “that it was much better to fall into the hands of God, than into those of his enemies” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VII, 13:2)
  • “we are prisoners who surrendered of their own accord” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
  • “killing all the freemen that fell into their hands” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
• surrendered themselves prisoners of war (p. 182) / surrendered themselves prisoners of war (Alma 57:14)
  • “insomuch that all Perea had either surrendered themselves, or were taken by the Romans” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 7:6)
  • “immediately set free all the prisoners of war in their possession” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XV)
• his whole army (p. 224) / his whole army (Helaman 1:20)
  • “he came himself with his whole army” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, 15:5)
  • “here he was cut off with his whole army” (Herodotus, Book V)
• with a part of his army (p. 191) / with a part of his army (Alma 56:33)
  • “for as he set a part of his army round about Gaza itself, so with the rest he overran their land” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, 5:5)
  • “Phraortes attacked them, but perished in the expedition with the greater part of his army” (Herodotus, Book I)
• at their head (p. 241) / at their head (Alma 48:7)
  • “out of envy at his glorious expedition at the head of his army” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 11:1)
  • “having at their head ten generals” (Herodotus, Book VI)
• thus reduced (p. 241) / been reduced (Alma 56:10)
  • “but the king of Syria brought him low, and by an expedition against him did so greatly reduce his forces, that there remained no more of so great an army than ten thousand armed men” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, 8:5)
• led captive (p. 241) / led captive (Alma 40:13)
  • “There were also led captive about thirty-two thousand virgins” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 7:1)
  • “Will not your city be the first we shall seek to lead away captive?” (Herodotus, Book III)
• threw down their arms (p. 393) / threw down their weapons (Alma 52:38)
  • “but when they had lost their general, they were put to flight, and threw down their arms” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 10:5)
  • “Varus was at once dispatched with a lightly equipped force, and cut to pieces a few who attempted to resist; the greater number threw down their arms, and begged for quarter” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book III)
• laying down their arms at the feet of the victorious Washington (p. 484) / threw down their weapons of war at the feet of Moroni (Alma 52:38)
  • “and assured them, that if they would lay down their arms, he would secure them from any harm” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 7:32)
  • “Whereupon three thousand of John’s party left him immediately, who came to Josephus, and threw their arms down at his feet” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 21:7)
• lay on their arms through the night (p. 232) / when the night came they slept upon their swords (Ether 15:20)
  • “both sides also lay in their armor during the night time, and thereby were ready at the first appearance of light to go to battle” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 7:3)
  • “and placed watchmen beyond his camp, and kept all his forces armed all night” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, 5:10)
  • “The citizens went so far as to sleep one night armed in the temple of Theseus within the walls” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XIX)
• to strengthen the hands of general Arnold (p. 256) / strengthen the hand of the Nephites (Alma 2:18)
  • “The charges which strengthen our hands in the war against the Athenians would on our own showing be merited by ourselves” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
  • “to strengthen their hands in the works of the Lord God of Israel” (Apocrypha, I Esdras 7:15)
• the warm altercations between them (p. 463) / a warm contention (Alma 50:26)
  • “Those that were of the warmest tempers thought he should bring the whole army against the city” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 12:1)
• British troops had yet met with no check (p. 428) / did arrive in season to check them (Alma 57:18)
  • “and from their summit and base kept in check all of the enemy that came up” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter IX)
  • “whether it were possible to check the growing power of that people before it came to a head” (Herodotus, Book I)
• to harass their march (p. 269) / did harass them (Alma 51:32)
  • “and avoided by any means to come to a pitched battle; yet did he greatly harass the enemy by his assiduity” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 5:1)
  • “and accordingly continually harassed and made war upon the new settlers” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter XI)
• were obliged to retreat in great confusion (p. 207) / were obliged to flee before them (Alma 59:8)
  • “and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 16:4)
  • “some of those who were obliged to leap down from the cliffs without their shields escaped with their lives and did not perish like the rest” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXII)
  • “but followed him at his heels; he was also obliged to make haste in his attempt” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 6:6)
• fled in confusion (p. 374) / fled in much confusion (Alma 52:28)
  • “the Romans were at length brought into confusion, and put to flight, and ran away from their camp” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 2:4)
  • “they forgot their retreats and fled away in confusion to the deserts lying towards the north” (Herodotus, Book IV)
• prepare to meet him (p. 159) / they did prepare to meet them (Alma 2:12)
  • “Now when the Egyptians had overtaken the Hebrews, they prepared to fight them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 15:3)
  • “who on their part advanced to meet them with all their ships that were fit for service” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter II)
  • “they went out to meet them with seventy ships” (Herodotus, Book VI)
• not sufficiently strong (p. 229) / not sufficiently strong (Alma 56:23)
  • “most of the place being sufficiently strong by nature without further fortifications” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XII)
  • “he came with a sufficient body of soldiers” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 10:7)
• to make an attack (p. 229) / to make an attack (Alma 56:22)
  • “he was in doubt where he could possibly make an attack on any side” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 6:2)
  • “in the event of the enemy bringing a fleet to make an attack by sea” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• entrenchments to be thrown up (p. 105) / bank which had been thrown up (Alma 49:18)
  • “on the forty-seventh day [of the siege] the banks cast up by the Romans were become higher than the wall” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 7:33)
  • “A trench was dug all around the temple and the consecrated ground, and the earth thrown up from the excavation made to do duty as a wall, in which stakes were also planted” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
  • “and out of the ditch, instead of a wall they cast up the earth” (Thucydides, Hobbes Translation, Book IV, 89)
• chief commander (p. 398) / chief commander (Alma 46:11)
  • “Four hundred and thirty men they lost, and their chief commanders all three” (Thucydides, Hobbes Translation, Book II, 79)
  • “and this out of jealousy that he would obtain the chief command of the army” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VII, 11:7)
• to fall on the rear of the British (p. 183) / to fall upon them in their rear (Alma 56:23)
  • “if the enemy advanced into the plain against the troops of Agis, they might fall upon his rear with their cavalry” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
  • “he also parted his army into three bodies, and fell upon the backs of their enemies” (Josephus, Antiquities, Book XII, 8:3)
  • “who were to rise up at the moment of the onset behind the projecting left wing of the enemy, and to take them in the rear” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter XI)
• cut off the retreat (p. 277) / their retreat cut off (p. 147) / cut off the way of their retreat (3 Nephi 4:24)
  • “and slew a great number of them, and cut off the retreat of the rest of the multitude” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 1:8)
  • “before the Athenians were aware, cut off their retreat to their ships” (Herodotus, Book V)
• concealed himself in a wood, with fifteen hundred men (p. 203) / part of the army of Moroni was concealed (Alma 43:34)
  • “while he came and sat upon his judgment-seat, which seat was so prepared in the open place of the city, that it concealed the army that lay ready to oppress them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, 3:1)
  • “The mistakes and forces of the enemy the wood would in a great measure conceal from him” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XII)
• surrounded on all sides (p. 311) / surrounded them on every side (Mosiah 21:5)
  • “nor were strong enough to fight with the Romans any longer upon the square, as being surrounded on all sides” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, 7:2)
  • “When they advanced the next day the Syracusans surrounded and attacked them on every side” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXIII)
• After two days wandering in the wilderness (p. 224) / after many days’ wandering in the wilderness (Mosiah 9:4)
  • “and to permit them no longer to wander in the wilderness” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 15:2)
• took possession of the capitol (p. 204) / took possession of the city (Alma 51:23)
  • “The Persians, on their return, took possession of an empty town” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “The chief men of the senate wrote to the king, and desired that he would come to them, and take possession of their city” (Life of Flavius Josephus, 68)
• in possession of the first city in the union (p. 205) / in possession of the city of Zarahemla (Helaman 1:22) /
  • “we find the Scythians again in possession of the country above the Tauri” (Herodotus, Book IV)
  • “although they might have come over to us and been now again in possession of their city” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter IX)
  • “The chief men of the senate wrote to the king, and desired that he would come to them, and take possession of their city” (Josephus, Life of Flavius Josephus, 68)
• general Montgomery…embarrassed with bad roads…and the murmur of his little army (p. 104) / our embarrassments (Alma 58:9) / my little army (Alma 56:33) / we do not desire to murmur (Alma 58:35) / were this all we had suffered we would not murmur (Alma 60:4)
  • “and as soon as he had gotten together no small army of foreigners” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 15:3)
  • “and a great many were embarrassed with shipwrecks” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 9:3)
  • “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness” (Exodus 16:2)
• repeated disappointment (p. 98) / he met with a disappointment (Alma 51:31)
  • “they had feared the reinforcement brought by Demosthenes, and deep, in consequence, was the despondency of the Athenians, and great their disappointment” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXIII)
  • “but when they went out to fight, they were always disappointed” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 9:4)
• dissensions ran high among the inhabitants (p. 204) / dissensions among the people (Alma 51:16)
  • “the affairs of the Jews became very tumultuous; as also how the tyrants rose up against them, and fell into dissensions among themselves” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Preface, 9)
• they determined to maintain (p. 170) / they were determined to maintain (Alma 56:26)
  • “in order that he might by the pledge of such a hope give his support to matrimony, which he had determined to maintain in its integrity” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 461)
• unshaken firmness (p. 242) / firmness unshaken (Mormon 9:28)
  • “she went to her death with an unshaken firmness of mind” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 7:6)
• destroyed by the sword (p. 221) / destroyed by the sword (Alma 57:23)
  • “that they might be destroyed upon their theatres, by the sword and by the wild beasts” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, 9:2)
  • “as to those who are desirous to die by the sword” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 12:1)
• death and destruction (p. 303) / death and destruction (Alma 28:14)
  • “whether this is a discovery of their own, or whether they have learned from some one else this new sort of death and destruction” (The Dialogues of Plato, Euthydemus, p. 254)
• an ignominious death (p. 584) / an ignominious death (Alma 1:15)
  • “he died ignominiously by the dangerous manner of his assault” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VII, 7:2)
  • “cut his throat with a razor, and aggravated the disgrace of an infamous life by a tardy and ignominious death” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book I)
  • “called not a prophet, but a messenger, is, suffering an ignominious death, beheaded to reward a dancing-girl” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1427)
• fought and bled (p. 617) / fought and bled (Alma 60:9)
  • “these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
  • “and fought and conquered them” (Herodotus, Book VI)
• delight in blood (p. 137) / delight in blood (Mosiah 11:19)
  • “It is moreover evident that this is their character, when we add that they delight in the blood of victims, and in the smoke odor of sacrifices” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 1435)
• spilling human blood (p. 78) / spill your blood (Alma 44:11)
  • “You are, of course, possessed of a more religious spirit in the show of your gladiators, when your gods dance, with equal zest, over the spilling of human blood” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 250)
  • “and thank god, who hath hindered thee from shedding human blood” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 13:7)
• blood that had been spilt (p. 604) / blood was spilt (Alma 57:9)
  • “so that in that judgment-day their blood-shedding would make them better, and the blood spilt would show them to be spotless” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1415)
• having received a dangerous wound (p. 147) / having received a wound (Mosiah 20:13)
  • “but received a wound and found himself unable to force the position” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
  • “and even Mardonius himself received a wound” (Herodotus, Book VI)
• watery grave (p. 215) / watery grave (1 Nephi 18:18)
  • “if he wished for a grave on dry land, or without loss of time to leap overboard into the sea” (Herodotus, Book I)
• dead and dreary (p. 599) / dark and dreary (1 Nephi 8:4)
  • “which did not happen at this time, for a dark and dismal night oppressed them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 16:3)
  • “most pleasant farms have obliterated all traces of what were once dreary and dangerous wastes” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 441)
• perished in the wilderness (p. 634) / perished in the wilderness (1 Nephi 5:2)
  • “Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water” (Numbers 21:5)
• robbed…and plundered (p. 99) / rob and plunder (Mosiah 10:17)
  • “and fell a robbing others after various manners, and these particularly plundered the places that were about the city” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 18:1)
  • “The soldiers of Vitellius, dispersed through the municipal towns and colonies, were robbing and plundering and polluting every place with violence and lust” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book II)
• Among the slain (p. 121) / among the number who were slain (Helaman 1:30)
  • “Among the slain was also Procles, the colleague of Demosthenes” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter XI)
  • “Among the slain was the father of a soldier, who was with his son” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book II)
• suffered much loss (p. 532) / suffered much loss (Alma 25:6)
  • “in which both parties suffered great loss” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “with difficulty made good their passage to Olpae, suffering heavy loss on the way” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter XI)
• great loss (p. 224) / great loss (Alma 57:23)
  • “they had been forced to retire with great loss” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VII, 7:2)
  • “with how great loss and the death of how many gallant men the victory would necessarily be purchased” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VII, Chapter 19)
• inexpressible (p. 272) / inexpressible (Alma 36:14)
  • “you might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 18:2)
• ferocious nations (p. 114) / wicked and ferocious (Alma 47:36)
  • “Felicissimus our brother, ever quiet and temperate, receiving the attack of a ferocious people” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 971)
• a monster (p. 665) / awful monster (2 Nephi 9:10)
  • “In like manner do you treat all that is of a monstrous nature when it is looked on” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 8:40)
  • “For the sea about Athos abounds in monsters beyond all others” (Thucydides, Book VI)
• havoc (p. 278) / havoc (Helaman 11:27)
  • “a famine and a pestilential distemper, and made great havoc of them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, 7:4)
  • “and committed such havoc as to cripple them completely” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VII)
• to glut the ambition of a weak individual (p. 697) / we do not glut ourselves upon the labors of this people (Alma 30:32)
  • “an unjust verdict or the authority of the strong arm to glut the animosities of the hour” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
• the work of slaughter (p. 268) / the work of death (Alma 43:37)
  • “at length undertook the work of bringing Alexander and Aristobulus to their graves” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 26:2)
  • “Such, then, is the work of death—the separation of the soul from the body” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 482)
• scene of carnage (p. 316) / scene of blood and carnage (Mormon 5:8)
  • “to be free from the threatening destruction of the world, and not to be mixed up with the bloody carnage of wasting diseases in a common lot with others” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1418)
  • “she wrote an account of this treacherous scene to Cleopatra, and how her son was murdered” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 3:5)
• A part of the Muskingum tribe had professed themselves Christians of the Moravian sect. They considered war of any kind as inconsistent both with the laws of religion and humanity. They refused to take part with the numerous hostile tribes of savages, in the war against the Americans. (p. 285) / Now there was not one soul among all the people who had been converted unto the Lord that would take up arms against their brethren; nay, they would not even make any preparations for war (Alma 24:6)
  • “But they said, We will not come forth, neither will we do the king’s commandment, to profane the sabbath day. So then they gave them the battle with all speed. Howbeit they answered them not, neither cast they a stone at them, nor stopped the places where they lay hid; but said, Let us die all in our innocency: heaven and earth shall testify for us, that ye put us to death wrongfully. So they rose up against them in battle on the sabbath, and slew them, with their wives and children, and their cattle, to the number of a thousand people” (Apocrypha, I Maccabees 2:34-38)
• neither the pen of the historian, or the imagination of the poet, can fully describe (p. 385) / impossible for the tongue to describe, or for man to write (Mormon 4:11)
  • “Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they deserve, and the magnificence of them all “(Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 5:5)
  • “I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to describe” (Herodotus, Book II)
• passions whetted by revenge (p. 281) / But in this war, they seemed to have lost those generous feelings of compassion to the vanquished foe (p. 278) / suffered themselves to be governed either by vindictive passions, or their feelings of resentment (p. 438) / For so exceedingly do they anger that it seemeth me that they have no fear of death; and they have lost their love, one towards another; and they thirst after blood and revenge continually (Moroni 9:5)
  • “he preferred the obligations of nature before the passion of revenge” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 25:4)
  • “and this out of his resentment of their old quarrels with him” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 7:3)
  • “and now all parts were full of those that were slain, by the rage of the Romans at the long duration of the siege, and by the zeal of the Jews that were on Herod’s side, who were not willing to leave one of their adversaries alive; so they were murdered continually in the narrow streets and in the houses by crowds, and as they were flying to the temple for shelter, and there was no pity taken of either infants or the aged, nor did they spare so much as the weaker sex; nay, although the king sent about, and besought them to spare the people, yet nobody restrained their hands from the slaughter, but, as if they were a company of madmen, they fell upon persons of all ages, without distinction” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, 16:2)
  • “yet am I resolved that no one who thirsts after my blood shall escape punishment, although the evidence should extend itself to all my sons” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 32:2)
• They waited long, amidst penury, hunger, and cold, for the necessary supplies (p. 211) / we were about to perish for the want of food (Alma 58:7)
  • “while those that were afraid of being caught, and for that reason staid in the city, perished for want of food” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 1:7)
  • “There his army was in great straits for want of food” (Herodotus, Book VI)
  • “attacked in front and behind, began to give way, and overcome by the odds against them and exhausted from want of food” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XII)
• they were treated with as little mercy (p. 432) / They are without order and without mercy (Moroni 9:18)
  • “the multitude would be destroyed by the soldiers without mercy” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 2:2)
  • “he gave his troops orders to slay all the other Lydians who came in their way without mercy” (Herodotus, Book I)
• war among themselves (p. 653) / war among themselves (1 Nephi 22:13)
  • “But I did not comply with them, thinking it a terrible thing to begin a civil war among them” (Josephus, The Life of Flavius Josephus, 19)
• impede their progress (p. 270) / impede the progress (Alma 60:30)
  • “This was the impediment that lay in the way of this his entire glorious progress” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 17:6)
• the intrigues of the governmental faction (p. 86) / the intrigues of the Lamanites (Alma 55:27)
  • “they destroyed the corn and had some hopes of the city coming over through the intrigues of a faction within” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VIII)
  • “he had also thought of preventing her intrigues, by putting her to death” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 4:2)
• combinations (p. 92) / combinations (2 Nephi 9:9)
  • “it was this clause that was the real origin of the panic in Peloponnese, by exciting suspicions of a Lacedaemonian and Athenian combination against their liberties” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XV)
  • “news was brought him that several states were simultaneously renewing their hostile intention, and forming combinations” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VIII, Chapter 1)
• to combine for the destruction of America (p. 87) / they did combine against the people of the Lord (3 Nephi 6:29)
  • “they prepared therefore their chariots, and gathered their soldiery together, their cities also combined together, and drew over to them Askelon and Ekron” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book V, 3:1)
  • “the Ambraciots having come and urged them to combine with them in attacking Amphilochian Argos” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter XI)
• contrary to the laws of (p. 635) / contrary to the laws of (Helaman 6:23)
  • “and to pull down what had been erected contrary to the laws of their country” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 33:2)
  • “he proposed to the senate, contrary to the law of Pompey and Crassus, to dispose of Caesar’s province” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VIII, Chapter 53)
• while the Ganges and the Indus were reddened with the blood, and covered with the slaughtered bodies of men (p. 338) / the river Sidon, throwing the bodies of the Lamanites who had been slain into the waters (Alma 2:34) / who had been slain upon the bank of the river Sidon were cast into the waters (Alma 3:3)
  • “the river ran with their blood” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, 3:2)
  • “and he slew all that he overtook, as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to the river side, where they were stopped by the current, (for it had been augmented lately by rains, and was not fordable,) he put his soldiers in array over against them; so the necessity the others were in provoked them to hazard a battle, because there was no place whither they could flee. They then extended themselves a very great way along the banks of the river, and sustained the darts that were thrown at them as well as the attacks of the horsemen, who beat many of them, and pushed them into the current. At which fight, hand to hand, fifteen thousand of them were slain, while the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leap into Jordan was prodigious… the whole of the country through which they had fled was filled with slaughter, and Jordan could not be passed over, by reason of the dead bodies that were in it, but because the lake Asphaltitis was also full of dead bodies, that were carried down into it by the river” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, Chapter 7:5-6)
• (Quoting a letter from a British officer in India) “The carnage was great; we trampled thick on the dead bodies that were strewed in the way” (p. 597) / scene of bloodshed and carnage, that the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead (Ether 14:21) / leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land (Ether 14:22)
  • “Besides this, a large portion were killed outright, the carnage being very great, and not exceeded by any in this Sicilian war” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXIII)
  • “While others were so greedy of gain, that they would go in among the dead bodies that lay on heaps, and tread upon them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, 9:4)
  • “for the ground did no where appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it; but the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as fled from them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, 5:1)
  • “obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, 8:5)
• a neighboring garrison, where a number of women and children had repaired for safety, and setting fire to both, they enjoyed the infernal pleasure of seeing them perish promiscuously in the flames (p. 280) / the women and children who were consuming in the fire (Alma 14:10)
  • “Many others did the same also, and fled with their children and wives into the desert, and dwelt in caves. But when the king’s generals heard this, they took all the forces they then had in the citadel at Jerusalem, and pursued the Jews…they burnt them as they were in the caves, without resistance…There were about a thousand, with their wives and children, who were smothered and died in these caves” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 6:2)
• he compelled them…to take arms in case of an attack, against their brethren (p. 133) / he commanded them that they should take up arms against their brethren (Alma 2:10)
  • “they forced the Jews that were among them to bear arms against their own countrymen, which it is unlawful for us to do” (Life of Flavius Josephus, 6)
  • “fought against their own kindred” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, 10:10)
  • “the Rhodians, Argives by race, were compelled to bear arms against the Dorian Syracusans and their own colonists” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXIII)
• precious metals (p. 417) / precious metals (Helaman 6:9)
  • “their precious vessels of silver and of gold” (Daniel 11:8)
  • “so that he gets everything which is necessary for the uses of his house made of these precious metals” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 522)
• by my own industry (p. 139) / by the hand of my industry (Alma 10:4)
  • “Anthemion, who acquired his wealth, not by accident or gift…but by his own skill and industry” (The Dialogues of Plato, Meno, p. 914)
  • “our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• the fruits of their labors (p. 712) / the fruits of their labors (Alma 40:26)
  • “and those that work in order to its production, of this fruit of their labors” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 8:21)
  • “it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labor” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter V)
• the more fertile (p. 608) / the more fertile (1 Nephi 16:16)
  • “the most fertile regions of Libya on the south” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 5:7)
  • “and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter I)
  • “to possess themselves of this most fertile soil and of you its inhabitants” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book IV)
• elegant buildings (p. 608) / elegant and spacious buildings (Mosiah 11:8)
  • “it was a most elegant building, and wonderfully made” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, 11:7)
• not far distant (p. 156) / not far distant (Alma 7:7)
  • “for there appeared a might number of people that came from places far distant” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, 15:12)
  • “for it was not far distant from the main land” (Thucydides, Hobbes Translation, Book III, 51)
• to the reader (p. 324) / to the reader (Jacob 7:27)
  • “we have no such laws ourselves, an epitome of which I will present to the reader” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 15)
  • “Since we have come to the place, it does not appear to be foreign to our subject to lay before the reader an account of the manners of Gaul and Germany” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VI, Chapter 11)
• But we shall see (p. 195) / But behold, we shall see (Alma 51:10)
  • “But we shall speak of that matter more accurately in our following history” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 21:3)
  • “But we shall relate those things in their proper places hereafter” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, 8:4)
  • “and we shall see what will become of his dreams” (Genesis 37:20)
• future generations (p. 609) / future generations (Alma 37:19)
  • “to be a witness to future generations of what he had foretold” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 4:6)
  • “to leave behind thee to all future generations a memory beyond even Harmodius and Aristogeiton” (Herodotus, Book VI)
  • “The gods arranged all this, and sent them their misfortunes in order that future generations might have something to sing about” (Homer, The Odyssey, Book VIII)
• Some future day (p. 304) / some future day (Moroni 1:4)
  • “lest thou bring destruction on thine own head at some future time” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “unless he also carries the memory of these obligations to future days” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 56)
• future period (p. 287) / future period (1 Nephi 7:13)
  • “But when this body, which at some future period we shall possess in a more glorious state, shall have become a partaker of life” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 630)
  • “Of the Ionians at this period, one people, the Milesians, were in no danger of attack” (Herodotus, Book I)
• at this period (p. 25) / at this period (Alma 51:19)
  • “Of the Ionians at this period, one people, the Milesians, were in no danger of attack” (Herodotus, Book I)
• in so short a time (p. 162) / space of time (p. 86) / in so short a space of time (Alma 56:50)
  • “which was finished in so short a time” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 5:7)
  • “to live even the shortest space of time after them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 9:1)
  • “After the expiration of that space of time” (Herodotus, Book II)
• the commencement of (p. 98) / the commencement of (Alma 51:1)
  • “and for the commencement of their hopes of future prosperity and happiness” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 5:6)
  • “at the commencement of the summer solstice” (Herodotus, Book II)
  • “Zeal is always at its height at the commencement of an undertaking” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• The progress of (p. 85) / the progress of (Alma 60:30)
  • “Of which matter I shall treat more accurately in the progress of this history” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, 2:2)
  • “But the Plataeans, observing the progress of the mound” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
  • “and it was not without some little influence on the progress of the war” (Herodotus, Book IV)
• at this critical conjuncture (p. 39) / the critical moment (p. 110) / era was truly critical (p. 204) / this was a critical time (Alma 51:9)/ critical circumstances (Alma 57:16)
  • “His arrival chanced at a critical moment” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXI)
• awful situation (p. 213) / awful situation (Mosiah 2:40)
  • “reflecting not merely on the awful fate in store for us, but also on the character of the sufferers” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
• dangerous crisis (p. 29)/ awful crisis (Alma 34:34)
  • “return us like for like, remembering that this is that very crisis in which he who lends aid is most a friend” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter II)
• to shrink (p. 572) / to shrink (Alma 43:48)
  • “who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• In these circumstances (p. 595) / in these circumstances (Alma 55:23)
  • “and was in great distress to know what he should do in these circumstances” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 19:7)
• genius to take advantage (p. 617) / prospered according to his genius (Alma 30:17)
  • “was greatly envied by his brethren, as being of a genius much above them, and such a one as they might well envy” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 6:6)
  • “So superfluously abundant were the resources from which the genius of Perclles foresaw an easy triumph in the war over the unaided forces of the Peloponnesians” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• Alarming (p. 26) / this was alarming (Alma 2:3)
  • “their counsels were disordered, and it alarmed them to find that the enemy had discovered those their intentions” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, 5:10)
  • “The most alarming feature in the case is the constant change of measures with which we appear to be threatened” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter IX)
• He bade adieu (p. 133) / Brethren, adieu (Jacob 7:27)
  • “with such portion of their goods and chattels as the vessels could bear, bade adieu to Cyrnus and sailed to Rhegium” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “Thus have I set down the genealogy of my family as I have found it described in the public records, and so bid adieu to those who calumniate me” (Josephus, Life of Flavius Josephus, 1)

• the generous or humane mind may revolt at the idea, there appears a probability, that they will be hunted from the vast American continent, if not from the face of the globe (p. 284) / hunted millions of those unhappy people out of existence (p. 287) / Yea, I say unto you, that in the latter times the promises of the Lord have been extended to our brethren, the Lamanites; and notwithstanding the many afflictions which they shall have, and notwithstanding they shall be driven to and fro upon the face of the earth, and be hunted, and shall be smitten and scattered abroad, having no place for refuge (Helaman 15:12)
  • “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad” (Matthew 26:31)
  • “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations”
  • “and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4)
  • “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge” (Proverbs 14:26)
  • “Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble” (Job 13:25)

The second source Donofrio uses is from a letter written by George Washington which can be found on page 46 of John C. Fitzpatrick’s “George Washington: A Collection”:

• Friends and Brethren / My friends and my brethren (Mosiah 4:4)
  • “Friends and brothers in arms, we are free to confess that we did lately a thing which was not right” (Herodotus, Book V)
  • “So he got an assembly of his friends and kindred together” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 29:2)
• that Being / that Being (Mormon 5.2)
  • “They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book V)
  • “God contains all things, and is a Being every way perfect and happy” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 23)
  • “there descended upon Him, in the form of a dove, that Being who had formerly ascended on high” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 895)
• the Blessings of Liberty / the blessings of liberty (Alma 46:13)
  • “Thus the nations over that whole extent of country obtained the blessing of self-government, but they fell again under the sway of kings” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “Of the two things that God determined to bestow upon us, liberty, and the possession of a Happy Country” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 14:1)
  • “Since, therefore, you are in such circumstances at present, you must either recover that liberty, and so regain a happy and blessed way of living, which is that according to our laws, and the customs of our country, or to submit to the most opprobrious sufferings” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 7:3)
• Slavery / bondage and slavery (Alma 48:11)
  • “when they were set free from the Babylonian slavery” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 3:1)
  • “in memory of their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 7:2)
• Circle of Nobility / blood of nobility (Alma 51:21)
  • “thirsting, out of his own natural barbarity, after noble blood” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 11:4)
  • “the nobility of their birth made them unable to contain their indignation” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 23:2)
• Come then, my brethren, unite with us / unite with us (3 Nephi 3:7)
  • “and to come and unite with them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book V, 2:12)
  • “instead of being always on the defensive against the Syracusans, unite with us, and in your turn at last threaten them” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
• We have taken up Arms in defence of our Liberty, our Property; our Wives and our Children / they have taken up arms to defend themselves, and their wives, and their children, and their lands (Alma 35:13) / their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children (Alma 48:10) / a determination to conquer our enemies, and to maintain our lands, and our possessions, and our wives, and our children (Alma 58:12) / in the defense of your liberty (3 Nephi 3:2)
  • “Be ye not afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (Nehemiah 4:14)
  • “So they fought the Romans briskly when they least expected it, being both many in number, and prepared for fighting, and of great alacrity, as esteeming their country, their wives, and their children to be in danger, and easily put the Romans to flight” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 6:1)
  • “Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of the Jews, how they were prepared to die rather than lose their liberty” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 7:5)
  • “when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received such sore treatment from one another” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:6)
  • “And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• his Religion / his religion (Alma 48:13)
  • “how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion?” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 16:4)
• the Standard of general Liberty / standard of liberty (Alma 46:36)
  • “Raise the standard of revolt in Persia, and then march straight on Media” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “among yourselves lift high the standard of virtue in the cause of glory and of fame” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 108)

Donofrio then identifies parallels in a letter written by Washington in 1754 and published in the Maryland Gazette. Again, I have listed the parallels he identified followed by their ancient correlates:

• the following account of my proceedings / make an account of my proceedings (1 Nephi 1:17)
  • “As for the Egyptians’ claim to be of our kindred, they do it on one of the following accounts” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 3)
  • “had written an account of this assembly to Caesar” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 32:5)
  • “He also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preserved” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book I, 19)
  • “So God was angry at these proceedings” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, 3:1)
  • “in the course of his reign, he performed other actions very worthy of note, of which I will now proceed to give an account” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “The following is an account of these governments, and of the yearly tribute which they paid to the king” (Herodotus, Book III)
• the numberless imperfections of it / the imperfections which are in it (Mormon 8:12)
  • “My conclusions have cost me some labor from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter I)
• the Bastions are made of Piles driven into the Ground, and about 12 feet above, and sharp at Top / upon those works of timbers there should be a frame of pickets (Alma 50:3)
  • “However, the Sicarri made haste, and presently built another wall…It was framed after the following manner: They laid together great beams of wood lengthways, one close to the end of another, and the same way in which they were cut: there were two of these rows parallel to one another, and laid at such a distance from each other as the breadth of the wall required, and earth was put into the space between those rows. Now, that the earth might not fall away upon the elevation of this bank to a greater height, they further laid other beams over cross them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:5)
  • “began to fortify Delium, the sanctuary of Apollo, in the following manner. A trench was dug all round the temple and the consecrated ground, and the earth thrown up from the excavation was made to do duty as a wall, in which stakes were also planted, the vines round the sanctuary being cut down and thrown in, together with stones and bricks pulled down from the houses near; every means, in short, being used to run up the rampart. Wooden towers were also erected where they were wanted” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
  • “where they made places for their ships to lie in, erected a palisade round their camp, and retired into winter quarters” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
  • “First he enclosed the town with a palisade formed of the fruit-trees which they cut down…next they threw up a mound against the city” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VIII)
• every Stratagem / by stratagem (Alma 43:30)
  • “he had routed those four commanders by stratagems” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 21:7)
  • “He therefore prepared to assail them by stratagem” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XV)
  • “Darius now, still keeping to the plan agreed upon, attacked the walls on every side, whereupon Zopyrus played out the remainder of his stratagem” (Herodotus, Book III)

Donofrio goes on to list more parallels found in David Ramsay’s “The History of the American Revolution” (1789).

• liberties, property, wives and children (p. 277) / Their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children (Alma 48:10)
  • “Be ye not afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (Nehemiah 4:14)
  • “They added this also, that when they had built cities, wherein they might preserve their children, and wives, and possessions, if he would bestow them upon them, they would go along with the rest of the army” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 7:3)
  • “the Syracusans to fight for their country, and each individual for his safety that day and liberty hereafter” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
• in defence of their liberties (p. 634) / in the defence of your liberty (3 Nephi 3:2)
  • “when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received such sore treatment from one another” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:6)
• their rights and liberties (p. 232) / their rights and their liberties (Alma 43:26)
  • “their rights and privileges have been preserved by those presidents who have at divers times been sent thither” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIX, 5:2)
  • “they left us our rights, laws, lands, and liberty” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VII, Chapter 77)
  • “these overthrowers of our liberties deserve to be destroyed” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 3:10)
• safety and welfare (p. 398) / welfare and safety (Alma 48:12)
  • “he determined rather to trust the safety and care of the child to God” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 9:4)
  • “and this was the method by which these men found safety and security under the calamity that was ready to overtake them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book V, 1:16)
  • “you are to guard the bridge with all care, and watch over its safety and preservation” (Herodotus, Book IV)
• their Creator (p. 15) / their Creator (Omni 1:7)
  • “an instance of impiety against God our Creator” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 8:5)
• critical time (p. 512) / critical time (Alma 51:9)
  • “His arrival chanced at a critical moment” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXI)
  • “as he thought that they were in a critical position” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXI)
• critical circumstances (p. 448) / critical circumstances (Alma 57:16)
  • “His arrival chanced at a critical moment” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXI)
  • “as he thought that they were in a critical position” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXI)
• marching through the wilderness (p. 220) / marching round about in the wilderness (Alma 43:24)
  • “he caused the army to remove and to march through the wilderness and through Arabia” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 4:7)
• began their march (p. 341) / had begun his march (p. 573) / began their march (3 Nephi 4:25) / had begun his march (Alma 52:15)
  • “and Archidamus learnt that the Athenians had still not thoughts of submitting, he at length began his march” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
  • “the crews ran them ashore, and abandoning them began their march along the continent” (Herodotus, Book VI)
• marched over (p. 381) / marched over (Alma 43:25)
  • “Titus had marched over that desert which lies between Egypt and Syria” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 1:1)
  • “he left their ships high and dry and joined most of the island to the mainland, and then marched over on foot and captured it” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter IV)
• places of security (p. 345) / places of security (Alma 50:4)
  • “and that it was, on other accounts, a place of great security to them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 7:3)
  • “to snatch up in haste and get across the river into a place of security” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
• place of retreat (p. 368) / places of retreat (Alma 49:11)
  • “that there should not be places of retreat for their own countrymen for declining military service” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VII, Chapter 14)
  • “They must make Megara their naval station as a place to retreat to and a base from which to attack” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XIX)
• little army (p. 425) / little army (Alma 56:19)
  • “But then (says Apion) Onias brought a small army afterward upon the city” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 5)
  • “Herod made all excursion upon them with a small body of his men” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 15:3)
  • “did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 16:4)
• little band (p. 486) / little band (Alma 57:6)
  • “though but a small band against a numerous host, they engaged in battle” (Herodotus, Book 1, 176)
  • “Herod made all excursion upon them with a small body of his men” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 15:3)
• scene of bloodshed (p. 522) / scene of bloodshed (Alma 28:10)
  • “and introduced the most complete scene of iniquity in all instances that were practicable” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:1)
  •  “he should not be able to be subservient to Caius in the dedication of his statue, and that there must be a great deal of bloodshed” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book XVIII, 8:3)
• among their slain (p. 380) / among the number who were slain (Helaman 1:30)
  • “Among the slain was also Procles, the colleague of Demosthenes” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter XI)
  • “Search was made among the slain by order of the queen” (Herodotus, Book I)
• in great numbers (p. 376) / in great numbers (Alma 57:14)
  • “But now the Jews got together in great numbers with their wives and children into that plain” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 10:3)
  • “They came together in great numbers and from every quarter to the same place” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VII, Chapter 63)
• a vast number (p. 260) / a vast number (Alma 56:10)
  • “he also pressed hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast number of them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 17:6)
  • “she destroyed a vast number of Egyptians” (Herodotus, Book II)
• ways and means (p. 396) / ways and means (Mosiah 4:29)
  • “let us now turn to the question of possibility and ways and means” (The Dialogues of Plato, Republic, Book V, p. 1363)
• did not molest them (p. 416) / did not molest them (Mosiah 19:29)
  • “they are strong, and that if we do not molest them it is because we are afraid” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVII)
• take command (p. 412) / took command (Alma 53:2)
  • “a steady friend to the Potidaeans, took command of the expedition” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter II)
  • “by the appointment of Galba, Aulus Vitellius took the command” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book I)
• were obliged to (p. 366) / were obliged to (Alma 59:8)
  • “they were obliged to expose themselves to danger by their very despair of victory” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 19:5)
  • “some of those who were obliged to leap down from the cliffs without their shields” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXII)
• preparations for (p. 377) / preparations for (Jarom 1:8)
  • “Syracuse pursued her preparations for war” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
• preparations were made (p. 445) / made preparations (Alma 24:20)
  • “and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations were made” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:7)
• upwards of (p. 338) / upwards of (Alma 57:14))
  • “For if we begin the calculation of the seventy weeks from Cyrus and the first restoration, there will be upwards of one hundred years too many” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 326)
• The town was also picquetted in with strong picquets, and surrounded with a ditch, and a bank, near the height of a common parapet (p. 568) / formed of earth with a parapet and ditch (p. 276) / formed of piquets (p. 364) / a picket of 150 men (p. 435) / a frame of pickets built upon the timbers (Alma 50:3) / works of pickets (Alma 50:4) / bank of the ditch (Alma 53:4)
  • “A trench was dug all around the temple and the consecrated ground, and the earth thrown up from the excavation was made to do duty as a wall, in which stakes were also planted…together with stones and bricks pulled down from the houses near” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
• erection of works (p. 351) / works of timbers built up to the height of a man (Alma 50:2)
  • “where they made places for their ships to lie in, erected a palisade round their camp, and retired into winter quarters” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XX)
  • “Wooden towers were also erected where they were wanted” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIV)
  • “But the Plataeans, observing the progress of the mound, constructed a wall of wood and fixed it upon that part of the city wall against which the mound was being erected” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VIII)
• leveled with the dust (p. 515) / level them with the earth (Alma 51:17)
  • “he resolved to burn Athens, and to cast down and level with the ground whatever remained standing of the walls, temples, and other buildings” (Herodotus, Book IX)
• driving the Americans before them (p. 289) / driving the Nephites before them (Alma 51:28)
  • “he returned back to the remainders of Idumea, and driving the nation all before him from all quarters” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 9:10)
• and drove him (p. 441) / and drove him (Ether 13:29)
  • “But the seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 1:3)
• alternately drove, and were driven by each other (p. 378) / they were driven back, or they drove them back (Mosiah 11:18)
  • “but, upon the sight of the people of Ai, with them they were driven back, and lost thirty-six of their men” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book V, 1:12)
  • “he made an irruption into Galilee, and met his enemies, and drove them back to the place which they had left” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 17:3)
• Pressed on their rear (p. 175) / pressed upon their rear (Alma 52:36)
  • “which made them disperse themselves, and run to the city, as fast as every one of them were able. So Titus pressed upon the hindmost, and slew them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 10:3)
  • “if the enemy advanced into the plain against the troops of Agis, they might fall upon his rear with their cavalry” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
• attacked in the rear as well as in the front (p. 426) / both in their front and in their rear (3 Nephi 4:25) / bring them up in the rear at the same time they were met in the front (Alma 56:23)
  • “when I had laid an ambush in a certain valley, not far from the banks, I provoked those that belonged to the king to come to a battle, and gave orders to my own soldiers to turn their backs upon them, until they should have drawn the enemy away from their camp, and brought them out into the field, which was done accordingly; for Sylla, supposing that our army did really run away, was ready to pursue them, when our soliders lay in ambush took them on their backs, and put them all into great disorder. I also immediately made a sudden turn with my own forces, and met those of the king’s party, and put them to flight” (Life of Flavius Josephus, 72)
• to the left (p. 379) / to the left (Alma 56:37)
  • “he next advanced into the rest of Macedonia to the left of Pella and Cyrrhus” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VIII)
  • “he throws it to the left, and bears it on his shoulder” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 7:2)
• on the right (p. 380) / on the right (Alma 58:17)
  • “That of their opponents was as followed: On the right were the Mantineans, the action taking place in their country” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
  • “They also avoid spitting in the midst of them, or on the right side” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 8:9)
• His army was posted…on both sides of the North river (p. 435) / the armies of Moroni…on both sides of the river (Alma 43:52)
  • “Accordingly, Saul made an irruption into the country of the Amalekites, and set men in several parties in ambush at the river, that so he might not only do them a mischief by open fighting, but might fall upon them unexpectedly in the ways, and might thereby compass them round about, and kill them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 7:2)
• by a secret way (p. 217) / by a secret way (Helaman 2:11)
  • “he had a secret passage under ground leading from the citadel to the sea” (Herodotus, Book 3, 146)
  • “thus by snares that deceive, by secret ways, the devil creeps in” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1019)
• a profound silence (p. 187) / a profound silence (Alma 55:17)
  • “A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had seized upon the city” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 12:3)
  • “the Valentinians, have formed Eleusinian dissipations of their own, consecrated by a profound silence, having nothing of the heavenly in them but their mystery” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1111)
• hemmed in (p. 383) / hemmed in (Alma 22:33)
  • “the enemy being hemmed in on every side by infantry and cavalry” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
• withdraw themselves (p. 399) / withdraw themselves (3 Nephi 4:23)
  • “yet they did not withdraw themselves out of the dangers they were in” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 11:5)
• direct course (p. 412) / direct course (Alma 37:24)
  • “also all the other followers of this dogma have been, who all uphold the notion of a dualism, and turn aside from the direct course of Scripture” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 549)
  • “the doors whereof, being open, they thought had been the gates of the city, and that there had been a direct way through the other side” (Thucydides, Hobbes Translation, Book II, 4)
• armies which were coming against them (p. 273) / his army coming against them (Alma 52:28)
  • “The Athenians seeing them all coming against them” (Thucydides, Book IV, Chapter XIII)
• commenced his attack (p. 345) / battle had commenced (Alma 56:49)
  • “a war was commenced presently” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, 3:3)
  • “while he that sent me, and not I, will commence a war against you” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 10:4)
• accomplishing the designs (p. 260) / accomplish his designs (Alma 47:16)
  • “for he either corrupted Alexander’s acquaintance with money, or got into their favor by flatteries; by which two means he gained all his designs, and brought them to betray their master” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 24:1)
  • “all these designs of yours cannot be accomplished by you without my help” (The Dialogues of Plato, First Alcibiades, p. 5)
• The active zeal of the industrious provincials completed lines of defence by the morning, which astonished the garrison (p. 245) / the chief captains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security (Alma 49:5)
  • “these workmen went on with their works in safety, and raised the wall higher, and that both by day and by night, till it was twenty cubits high. He also built a good number of towers upon the wall, and fitted it to strong battlements. This greatly discouraged the Romans, who in their own opinions were already gotten within the walls, while they were now at once astonished at Josephus’s contrivance, and at the fortitude of the citizens that were in the city” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 7:10)

Donofrio provides the following parallel in David Ramsay’s “Life of George Washington” (1807):

• The Americans moved from their encampment on the Skippack road in the evening of the 3rd of October, with the intention of surprising their adversaries early next morning, and to attack both wings in front and rear at the same time / And this they did do in the night-time, and got on their march beyond the robbers, so that on the morrow, when the robbers began their march, they were met by the armies of the Nephites both in their front and in their rear (3 Nephi 4:25)
  • “when I had laid an ambush in a certain valley, not far from the banks, I provoked those that belonged to the king to come to a battle, and gave orders to my own soldiers to turn their backs upon them, until they should have drawn the enemy away from their camp, and brought them out into the field, which was done accordingly; for Sylla, supposing that our army did really run away, was ready to pursue them, when our soliders lay in ambush took them on their backs, and put them all into great disorder. I also immediately made a sudden turn with my own forces, and met those of the king’s party, and put them to flight” (Life of Flavius Josephus, 72)

Donofrio continues with Ramsay’s “The History of the American Revolution” (1789)”:

• the Americans severely felt the scarcity of provisions. Their murmurs became audible (p. 488) / were this all we had suffered we would not murmur (Alma 60:4)
  • “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness…for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:2)
• fixed in his resolution (p. 379) / a determined resolution (p. 229) / fixed in his determination (p. 397) / fixed in their minds with a determined resolution (Alma 47:6)
  • “Hence arose in the minds of the governor and the torturers a determined resolution to subdue him” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 2072)
• with firmness (p. 378) / with such firmness (Mormon 2:25)
  • “Wisdom behaves with firmness in the streets” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1425)
• threatening them with destruction (p. 257) / threatened them with destruction (1 Nephi 18:20)
  • “unwilling to bring the threatened destruction on themselves by giving up the man” (Herodotus, Book I)
  • “and threatened their city every day with open destruction” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 1:2)
• on his right hand was justice (p. 664) / the sword of his justice in his right hand (3 Nephi 29:4)
  • “We will lend thee our right hand and a sword…As soon as they said this, they began to thrust their swords at him” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 8:4)
  • “so that every one of them had his right hand upon his sword, in order to defend himself” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 4:7)
  • “O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still” (Jeremiah 47:6)
• His soul was harrowed up (p. 288) / his soul began to be harrowed up (Alma 14:6)
  • “And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes” (1 Chronicles 20:3)
• distinction of ranks (p. 30) / distinguished by ranks (3 Nephi 6:12)
  • “Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in their several ranks, under their several commanders” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 5:4)
• one heart and one mind (p. 110) / in one mind and in one heart (2 Nephi 1:21)
  • “not dwelling in the house of God, that is, in the Church of God, in which none dwell except they are of one heart and one mind” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 952)
  • “but, above all things, let us be of one mind, and let us honor God” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 14:1)
  • “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32)
• much confusion (p. 190) / much confusion (Alma 52:28)
  • “And they wept fearfully, Thamyris indeed for the loss of a wife, and Theocleia of a child, and the maidservants of a mistress: there was accordingly much confusion in the house of mourning” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 1526)
  • “the multitude were in great confusion” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 7:22)
• an equal chance (p. 533) / an equal chance (Alma 49:22)
  • (when referring to “an equal chance,” Mormon is referring to “equal terms” for battle)
  • “the knowledge which can give a specious criticism of an enemy’s plans in theory, but fails to assail them with equal success in practice” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter III)
  • “It was thought that their attack would be met by men full of courage and on equal terms with their assailants” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)

• lust of power and gain (p. 324) / to get power and gain (Ether 8:22)
  • “wholly carried away with the lust of power” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 4:4)

• • “For the love of gain would reconcile the weaker to the dominion of the stronger” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter I)
  • “the vision foretold that he should obtain power and great wealth” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 2:2)

• to usurp the executive power (p. 231) / to usurp power (Alma 60:27)
  • “he did an injury to Caesar, by usurping that authority before it was determined for him by Caesar” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, 9:5)
  • “the orators lead the people, but their ignorance of military matters prevents them from usurping power” (Aristotle, Politics, Part V, p. 116)
• lull them into a fatal security (p. 403) / lull them away into carnal security (2 Nephi 28:21)
  • “Let us then arouse ourselves as much as we can, beloved brethren; and breaking away from the slumber of indolence and security, let us be watchful for the observance of the Lord’s precepts” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1563)
  • “For let us never be elated by the fatal hope of the war being quickly ended by the devastation of their lands” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter III)
  • “the gates also being left open through their feeling of security” (Thucydides, Book VII, Chapter XXI)
• humble servant (p. 408) / humble servant (Alma 8:19)
  • “Again, if the woman is not rich, her husband will not be her humble servant” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Laws: Preamble, Book VIII, p. 519)
  • “To my lords the holy and most blessed Bishops Cromatius and Heliodorus, Jerome, a humble servant of Christ, in the Lord greeting” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 1247)
• by these names (p. 656) / by these names (Jacob 1:14)
  • “And great, in truth, and little, and light, and heavy—will they at all more truly be called by these names which we may give them, than by the opposite names?” (The Dialogues of Plato, Republic, Book V, p. 1933)
  • “neither Christ nor Jesus ought to have been called by these names” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 781)
• called themselves loyalists (p. 441) / called themselves Zoramites (Alma 30:59)
  • “whom the Greeks living near the Hypanis call Borysthenites, while they call themselves Oliopolites” (Herodotus, Book IV)
  • “there sprang up another sort of robbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarri” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 13:3)
  • “They were called Amalekites” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, 2:1)
• From these events…I return to relate (p. 440) / And now I return to an account (Alma 43:3)
  • “since this is not a proper time for domestical lamentations, but for historical narrations; I therefore return to the operations that follow this sedition” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 1:3)
  • “I return now from this digression” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 5:8)
  • “Having described this, I return to the subject on which I originally proposed to discourse” (Herodotus, Book IV)
• I proceed to relate real events (p. 586) / I proceed with my record (Ether 2:3)
  • “As I proceed, therefore, I shall accurately describe what is contained in our records” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Preface, 3)
• shall be hereafter related (p. 587) / shall be spoken hereafter (Helaman 2:12)
  • “which we shall speak more in its proper place hereafter” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 1:1)
  • “whose structure, largeness, and magnificence we shall describe hereafter” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 21:9)
• Thus ended the (p. 450) / Thus ended the (Mosiah 29:47)
  • “And thus ended the affairs of the plundering of Ziklag” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 14:6)

• insurrections amongst us / insurrections among you (Alma 60:27)

• • “for the Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would have raised an insurrection together with them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Preface, 2)
  • “and you will free yourselves from the imputation made against you, of not supporting insurrection” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter IX)

Donofrio identifies parallels found in Ramsay’s reprint of George Washington’s farewell address in “The Life of George Washington” (1807)]

• which binds a dutiful citizen to his country / which binds us to our lands (Alma 44:5)
  • “To bind themselves yet more closely together, it seemed good to them to leave a common monument” (Herodotus, Book II)
  • “ ‘I, too,’ adds Cleinias, ‘have a tie which binds me to you’” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Laws: Preamble, Book I, p. 482)
• as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest / And I soon go to the place of my rest…in the mansions of my Father (Enos 1:27)
  • “In my father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2)
  • “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28)
  • “the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest” (Isaiah 34:14)

Donofrio identifies parallels in Ramsay’s reproduction of Washington’s last written letter:

• the defense of his own person and property / the defense of his property and his own life (Ether 14:2)
  • “there shall be three prisons—one for common offences against life and property” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Law: Preamble, Book X, p. 563)

Donofrio also identifies parallels from writings of other Founding Framers, such as Samuel Adams delivering his “American Independence” speech in 1776.

• Priestcraft / priestcraft (Alma 1:12)
• Providence / providence (Jacob 2:13)
  • “However, it came to pass, as it seems by the providence of God, when he intended to bring Antipater to punishment, that she fell not upon her head” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 30:5)
• precious in his sight / precious in his sight (Jacob 2:21)
  • “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15)
  • “with such stones of other sorts also as were most curious and best esteemed, as being most precious in their kind” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 2:9)
• justice and mercy / justice and mercy (Mormon 6:22)
  • “The Lord God is merciful and gracious, and long-suffering, and of great commiseration, and true, and keeps justice and mercy for thousands” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1221)
• look up to Heaven /look up to God (Alma 5:19)
  • “Thou art not ignorant, O Lord, that it is beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the difficulties we are now under…if there be any method that can promise us an escape by thy providence, we look up to thee for it” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 16:1)
• suffer yourselves to be chained down by your enemies / suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies (Alma 43:46)
  • “to suffer yourselves to be equally terrified at the invasion of men is unmanly” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 19:4)
  • “moreover, when you were brought under the hands of your enemies, he delivered you” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 5:6)
  • “and having, as they considered, suffered evil at the hands of the Plataeans” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
  • “I think thou art not ignorant of what he did to thee, nor of what I suffered at his hands” (Herodotus, Book I)
• whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from heaven / because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust (Ether 8:24)
  • “And he said, What hast thou done, the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10)
  • “the vengeance of the blood of my kinsman pursues me hastily” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 3:6)
• the blood of their brethren / the blood of their brethren (Mosiah 11:19)
  • “he is not restrained from shedding the blood of kinsmen” (The Dialogues of Plato, Republic, Book VIII, p. 1430)
  • “the vengeance of the blood of my kinsman pursues me hastily” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 3:6)

Donofrio cites parallels in Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address given on March 4, 1801:

• to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world / they are led about by Satan…as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her (Mormon 5:18)
  • “so that they were very like to a ship in a storm, which is tossed by the waves on both sides” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 3:3)
• all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite / according to our law, and we will newly arrange the affairs of this people (Mosiah 29:11)
  • “still at a very early period obtained good laws, and enjoyed a freedom from tyrants which was unbroken; it has possessed the same form of government for more than four hundred years, reckoning to the end of the late war, and has thus been in a position to arrange the affairs of the other states” (Thucydides, Book I, Chapter I)
• in common efforts for the common good the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail / Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law – to do your business by the voice of the people (Mosiah 29:26)
  • “for we are made for fellowship one with another, and he who prefers the common good before what is peculiar to himself is above all acceptable to God’ (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 24)
  • “Or, if such virtue is scarcely attainable by the multitude, we need only suppose that the majority are good men and good citizens, and ask which will be the more incorruptible, the one good ruler, or the many who are all good?” (Aristotle, Politics, Part XV, p. 76)
  • “it had been expressly agreed that the decision of the majority of the allies should be binding, unless the gods or heroes stood in the way” (Thucydides, Book V, Chapter XVI)
• their equal rights / every man should have an equal chance (Mosiah 29:38)
  • “Our city at that juncture had neither an oligarchical constitution in which all the nobles enjoyed equal rights, nor a democracy” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter X)
  • “Now therefore, since he has fulfilled his destiny, I lay down my office, and proclaim equal rights” (Herodotus, Book III)
• equal law / they were all equal (Alma 1:26)
  • “when he came to the throne he divided the empire into seven provinces; and he made equal laws, and implanted friendship among the people” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Laws: Preamble, Book III, p. 494)
  • “as a reward for such their assistance, gave them equal privileges in this city with the Grecians themselves” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 18:7)
  • “If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VI)
• Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern / if it were possible that ye could always have just men to be your kings (Mosiah 23:8)
  • “the rule of one is neither good nor pleasant. Ye cannot have forgotten to what lengths Cambyses went in his haughty tyranny…How indeed is it possible that monarchy should be a well-adjusted thing, when it allows a man to do as he likes without being answerable? Such license is enough to stir strange and unwonted thoughts in the heart of the worthiest men” (Herodotus, Book III)
  • “take these three forms of government- democracy, oligarchy, and monarch- and let them each be at their best, I maintain that monarchy far surpasses the other two. What government can possibly be better than that of the very best man in the whole state?” (Herodotus, Book III)
• Providence…delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter / men are that they might have joy (2 Nephi 2:25)
  • “when he further asked them how they could be so joyful when they were to be put to death, they replied, because they should enjoy greater happiness after they were dead” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 33:3)
  • “O children of Israel! There is but one source of happiness for all mankind, the favor of God, for he alone is able to give good things to those that deserve them” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 8:2)
  • “the soul was immortal, and that an eternal enjoyment of happiness did await such as died on that account” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 33:2)

Donofrio identifies parallels found in Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” (1776):

• But where, say some, is the King of America? I’ll tell you, friend, he reigns above this land / shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land (2 Nephi 10:11) / for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king (2 Nephi 10:14)
  • “the performance whereof with thine own mouth thou has vowed to the King of heaven” (Apocrypha, 1 Esdras, 4:46)
  • “And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king” (1 Samuel 12:12)
  • “And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23)
• There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did / Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God (Alma 42:13)
  • “otherwise he would be unjust, and rapacious, and would cease to be what God is” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 940)
  • “Because if He does not contain all which is, whatever it is—seeing that what is found in that whereby it is contained is found to be less than that whereby it is contained—He will cease to be God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1470)

• • “The city which has no courts of law will soon cease to be a city” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Laws: Preamble, Book VI, p. 517)
• the Almighty hath implanted in us / planted in your heart (Alma 32:38)
  • “Jacob made his defense – That he was not the only person in whom God had implanted the love of his native country, but that he had made it natural to all men” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, 19:10)
  • “when pleasure, and friendship, and pain, and hatred, are rightly implanted in souls not yet capable of understanding the nature of them” (Plato, Dialogues, Laws, Book II, p. 623)
• his Image in our hearts / his image in your countenances (Alma 5:4)
  • “flee from him who has had recourse to God, and who carries right faith as His image in his heart” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 964)
• The robber and the murderer / robbers and murderers (Helaman 6:18)
  • “But robbers, and murderers, and godless persons are like monsters of the deep, and wild beasts, and birds of prey” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 213)
  • “there sprang up another sort of robbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarii, who slew men in the day time…and when any fell down dead, the murderers became a part of those that had indignation against them” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 13:3)
• in one and some in another / in one and some in another (Jacob 5:4)
  • “A man ought to know which of these pay better than others, and which pay best in particular places, for some do better in one place and some in another” (Aristotle, Politics, Part XI, p. 17-18)
  • “be willing to help us secretly if not openly, in one way if not in another” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XIX)
• plunderers / plunderers (Helaman 6:18)
  • “For four days Cremona satisfied the plunderers” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book III)
  • “as he had gone to rest at noon, with difficulty escaped from the hands
    of the plunderers” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VII, Chapter 46)
  • “There might be some truth in such a view if we assume that robbers and plunderers attain the chief good” (Aristotle, Politics, Part III, p. 157) 

Donofrio identifies a parallel in a letter sent by Jonas Phillips to the Constitutional Convention, (1787):

• to come into a Land of Liberty / “…land of liberty (Alma 46:17)
  • “What is more, you will enslave the land in which the freedom of the Hellenes was won” (Thucydides, Book III, Chapter X)
  • “so deeply am I troubled at the slavery our once free country is now under” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIX, 1:9)

Donofrio goes on to cite the 19^th century religious influences on the book of Mormon. Again, we will see that most of these same phrases and concepts are found in other ancient documents.

The first of the Samuel McClintock’s sermon on the New Hampshire constitution (1784). I will only list one of his parallels since I have examined all of the others in the previous section.

• secret plans / secret plans (Alma 37:29)
  • “They say that special care should be paid to this, that Caesar should be cut off from his army before their secret plans should be divulged” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book VII, Chapter 1)

Parallels from Abraham Keteltas’ sermon “God Arising and Pleading His People’s Cause” (1775)

• Thus you see my brethren, that the cause of truth, the cause of righteousness, the cause of his church and people, is the cause of God / to support and maintain the cause of God (Alma 50:39) / we will maintain our religion and the cause of our God (Alma 54:10) / the cause of the Christians (Alma 46:16) 

• • “where it was done in the hearing of Agrippa, who zealously espoused the cause of the Jews” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 12:7)
  • “how it was now a very proper time to defend the cause of God, and to pull down what had been erected contrary to the laws of their country” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 33:2)

Parallels from Samuel Sherwood’s sermon “The Church’s Flight into the Wilderness” (1776), on January 17, 1776.

• Flight into the Wilderness / flight into the wilderness (1 Nephi 4:36) 

• • “after His birth by Mary His mother, was sent off in flight into Egypt through the instrumentality of an angel” (the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 526)
  • “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath the place prepared of God” (Revelation 12:6)

• so cruelly and barbarously / barbarous cruelty (Alma 48:24) 
  • “Now the overthrow of the places of strength, and the death of the high priest Ananias, so puffed up Manahem, that he became barbarously cruel” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 17:9)

• the humble followers of Christ / the humble followers of Christ (2 Nephi 28:14) 
  • “let them study to be blameless, that they may be the followers of Christ” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 179)

• slavery and bondage / bondage and slavery (Alma 48:11) 

• • “an unregulated life instead of one of tranquility and harmony, and a hard bondage, and the slavery of market-places, and lawsuits, and crowds, instead of this freedom” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 88)
  • “the Aduatuci had detained among them in slavery and in chains” (Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Book V, Chaper 27)

Parallels between Jonathan Edwards and his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” found in Anri Marimoto’s “Jonathan Edwards and the Catholic Vision of Salvation” (1995):

• hardness of heart and blindness of mind / blindness and hardness / hardness of heart, and blindness of mind (Ether 4:15) / so hard in your hearts, and so blind in your minds (1 Nephi 7:8) 
  • “And this is your condition, because of the blindness of your soul, and the hardness of your heart” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 182)
  • “For God had blinded their minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 8:2)
  • “And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept” (Mark 10:5)
• they have no interest in any Mediator / and hath no interest in the kingdom of God (Mosiah 4:18)
  • “But is not this rather disgraceful, and a very considerable proof of what I was saying, that you have no interest in the matter?” (The Dialogues of Plato, Apology, p. 61)
  • “Why are philosophers attended to, who either say that there are no gods, or that, if there are any, they take no interest in, and do not regard the affairs of men, or argue that there is no providence at all, which rules the world?” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 558) 
• divine justice / divine justice (Mosiah 2:38) 

• • “which partition in such evil cases may be said to be a good thing, and the effect of Divine justice” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, 1:1)

• eternal death / eternal destruction / eternal death (2 Nephi 2:29) / eternal destruction (2 Nephi 1:22) 
  • “for sin is eternal death” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 444)
  • “Corruption then hath hope of a possible renewal, but death hath eternal destruction” (The Apostolic Fathers, The Shepherd of Hermas, p. 159)
• The souls of the wicked / the souls of the wicked (Alma 40:14) 
  • “whom they call heroes and demi-gods; and to the souls of the wicked, the region of the ungodly” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 8:11)
• to all eternity / to all eternity (Alma 13:7) 
  • “Moreover, he represented God as unbegotten, and immutable, through all eternity, superior to all mortal conceptions in pulchritude” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 17) 

• • “And the one is the Lord from all eternity and unto all eternity” (The Apostolic Fathers, The Epistle of Barnabas, p. 115)

• a boundless duration / an endless duration (2 Nephi 9:7) 
  • “and would be punished for an endless duration” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 1, p. 453)
  • “and despised that power which is of eternal duration” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, 10:4) 

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards’ “Seventeen Occasional Sermons”:

• the Redeemer of the world / this Redeemer of the world (1 Nephi 10:5) 

• • “I desire Thee, the Creator and Redeemer of the world” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 879)

• There is in the nature of man enmity against God, contempt of God, rebellion against God. Sin rises up as an enemy against the Most High. It is a dreadful thing for a creature to be an enemy to the Creator / the natural man is an enemy to God (Mosiah 3:19) / But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state (Mosiah 16:3) 
  • “because it is in the nature of man to know good and evil” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 516)
  • “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7)
  • “But now the most of men have been made enemies of God, whose hearts the wicked one has entered, and has turned aside towards himself the affection which God the Creator had implanted in them” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 231)
• The torment and misery, of which natural men are in danger / a state of misery and endless torment (Mosiah 3:25) 
  • “on which account they every day underwent great miseries and bitter torments” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 5:4)
  • “the miserable feeling of not being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them” (Thucydides, Book II, Chapter VII)
• therefore it is called death. It is eternal death, of which temporal death, with all its awful circumstances, is but a faint shadow. The struggles, and groans, and gasps of the body when dying, its pale awful visage when dead, its state in the dark grave when it is eaten with worms, are but a faint shadow of the state of the soul under the second death / And now behold, I say unto you then cometh a death, even a second death, which is a spiritual death; then is a time that whosoever dieth in his sins, as to a temporal death, shall also die a spiritual death (Alma 12:16) / eternal death (2 Nephi 2:29) 
  • But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8) 
  • “for sin is eternal death” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 444)
  • “And because temporal death follows temporal life, it follows that souls rise again to everlasting life, because temporal death has received an end” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 459)
• the unpardonable sin / the unpardonable sin (Jacob 7:19) 

• • “Wherefore, if it is penalty which ‘burns,’ it follows that fornication, which penalty awaits, is not pardonable” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 212)

• a natural state / a natural state (Alma 41:12)

• • “that which is from God is good indeed in its natural state” (the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 270)
  • “having his hand recovered to its natural state” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, 8:5)
  • “Contributions of gold and silver and virgin ores, never smelted in the furnace, but still in their natural state” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book IV)

• by strivings of his Spirit / the Spirit hath ceased striving (Moroni 8:28) 

• • “And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3)

• boundless gulf of sorrow and woe / endless gulf of misery and woe (2 Nephi 1:13)

• • “Torn, beside the lake, with endless grief and woe” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 97)
  • “His reflections and blasphemy against my Lord Jesus Christ have brought him into this gulf of destruction” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 1519) 

• eternal misery / eternal misery (Alma 3:26)

• on the wicked, as well as the godly / on the wicked as well as the righteous (Alma 40:19) 
  • “and sending rain on the holy and on the wicked” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 661)

• everlasting misery / everlasting misery (Helaman 7:16)
• the fall of man / the fall of man (Mormon 9:12)

• • “Up to the fall of man, therefore, from the beginning God was simply good” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 13, p. 659)

• full of all manner of wickedness / full of all manner of wickedness (Alma 13:7) 

• • “The hateful, and those full of all wickedness, were roused to such a pitch of fury” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 56)
  • “And indeed that was a time most fertile in all manner of wicked practices” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:1)
  • “but who had their mind tinged and stuffed with all manner of evil” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1076)

• the torment of your body / the torment of the body (1 Nephi 15:31) 

• • “nor did he only harass the rich men’s houses, but tormented their bodies” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 22:2)

• this torment shall remain to an endless duration, a duration which shall always be beginning, but never ending! / to an endless duration (2 Nephi 9:7) / never-ending torment (Mosiah 2:39) 
  • “and would be punished for an endless duration” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 453)
  • “and despised that power which is of eternal duration” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IX, 10:4)
  • “whom on his departure from this world eternal flame shall torment with never-ending punishments” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1089)
• how happy will be your state, should you obtain deliverance / the happy state of those that keep the commandments (Mosiah 2:41) 
  • “they lost that their happy state which they had obtained by innumerable labors, by their luxury” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book V, 3:2)
  • “This happy state of things, however, was of short duration owing to the violence of the auxiliary infantry” (Tacitus, The Histories, Book I)
• the hundreth part / a hundredth part (Jacob 3:13) 

• • “Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them” (Nehemiah 5:11)

• They are without God in the world / they are without God in the world (Alma 41:11) 
  • “having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12)
• They, who are in a natural state are lost / all mankind are in a lost and fallen state (1 Nephi 10:6) 
  • “The legislator was under the idea that war was the natural state of all mankind, and that peace is only a pretence (The Dialogues of Plato, The Laws: The Preamble, Book I, p. 478)

• • “He Himself not in danger of being destroyed, but He also established fallen man by His own strength, and recalled him to incorruption” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1001)

• They subject themselves unto him [the Devil] / they who subject themselves unto him [the Devil] (Moroni 7:17) 
  • “to rule over those who subjected themselves to evil and not to God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 1539)

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards’s “Discourse V, The Excellency of Christ”:

• he is one of infinite condescension / Knowest thou the condescension of God? (1 Nephi 11:16) 

• • “I have related what is called in Scripture the condescension of God to human affairs” (the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 1148)
  • “Upon this she took the message very kindly, and valued herself greatly upon this condescension of Anubis, and told her husband that she had a message sent her, and was to sup and lie with Anubis” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, 3:4)

• offering up himself a sacrifice for sinners / he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin (2 Nephi 2:7) 
  • “Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself (Hebrews 7:27)
• infinite goodness / infinite goodness (2 Nephi 1:10) 
  • “For if, on account of His infinite greatness, He remained unknown…” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 990)

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards’ “The Eternity of Hell’s Torments”:

• eternal punishment / eternal punishment (Jacob 7:18) 
  • “but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 8:14)

• the justice of God / the justice of God (2 Nephi 2:12) 
  • “Is it not better to renounce all faith at once in the hope of the resurrection, than to trifle with the wisdom and justice of God?” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1318)

• contrary to the nature of God / contrary to the nature of God (Alma 41:11) 
  • “Look not on a strange woman, to lust, plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to the nature of the temple of God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 1162)

• racking torture / racking torments /eternal torments / racked with torment (Alma 36:17) / racked with eternal torment (Mosiah 27:29) 

• • “having insinuated themselves into the bodies of men, are driven out, when racked and tormented, and confessing themselves to be demons” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 553)
  • “things which, prepared for eternal torments, and known to them by the information of demons” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 451)

• a lively and admiring sense of / sensible of their own guilt / a lively sense of his own guilt (Mosiah 2:38) 
  • “for a sense of shame inflamed these into a passion” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 7:6) 

• a state of misery / a state of misery (Mosiah 3:25) 
  • “Thence I am come hither in a state of great misery” (Homer, The Odyssey, Book XVII)
  • “the calamity of the death of our brother, and the miserable state of our aged father” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, 6:3)
  • “the Savior Himself (whom they designate All Things) was in a state of ignorance” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 950)

• suffer the second death / suffer the second death (Alma 13:30) 
  • But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8) 
  • “shall suffer eternal punishment, which the sacred writings call the second death” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 458)
• our first parents, were lost, and they were immediately in a doleful state of spiritual death. If we respect temporal death, that was also fulfilled. He brought death upon himself and all his posterity / the fall had brought upon all mankind / our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually (Alma 42:7) / a spiritual death as well as a temporal (Alma 42:9) 

• • “which it may be possible to designate as the land of our first parents Adam and Eve,” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1259)
  • “Up to the fall of man, therefore, from the beginning God was simply good” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 13, p. 659)
  • And because temporal death follows temporal life, it follows that souls rise again to everlasting life, because temporal death has received an end” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 459)
• lost forever / lost forever (Alma 42:6)

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards’ “Discourse IV, The Justice of God”:

• so much like the spirit of the devil, who, because he is miserable himself, is unwilling that others should be happy / and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself (2 Nephi 2:27)
• How have you neglected your children’s souls! And not only so, but have corrupted their minds by your bad examples / and lost the confidence of your children, because of your bad examples (Jacob 2:35) 
  • “He therefore passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thus sanctifying infants; a child for children, thus sanctifying those who are of this age, being at the same time made to them an example of piety, righteousness, and submission” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1007)
  • “Abraham therefore, Isaac, and Jacob, our fathers, are to be esteemed before all, since they did indeed afford us such early examples of virtue” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1449)
• How much of a spirit of pride has appeared in you, which is in a peculiar manner the spirit and condemnation of the devil! How have some of you vaunted yourselves in your apparel! others in their riches! / you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel (Jacob 2:13) 
  • “Accordingly, deriding those who are clothed in luxurious garments, he says in the Gospel: ‘Lo, they who live in gorgeous apparel and luxury are in earthly palaces’” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 566)
  • “Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 614)
• And what abominable lasciviousness have some of you been guilty of! How have you indulged yourself from day to day, and from night to night, in all manner of unclean imaginations / And now I, Jacob, spoke many more things unto the people of Nephi, warning them against fornication and lasciviousness, and every kind of sin, telling them the awful consequences of them (Jacob 3:12) 
  • “Yea, and even speaking of providence, they taught again that the world was not ruled by providence. But what? Did they not, when they essayed to write even of honorable conduct, teach the perpetration of lasciviousness, and fornication, and adultery; and did they not introduce hateful and unutterable wickedness?” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 245)

Parallel’s found in Jonathan Edwards’ farewell sermon in Northampton, Massachusetts (1750):

• I leave you in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity [Acts 8:23], having the wrath of God abiding on you, and remaining under condemnation to everlasting misery and destruction. Seeing I must leave you, it would have been a comfortable and happy circumstance of our parting, if I had left you in Christ, safe and blessed in that sure refuge and glorious rest of the saints. But it is otherwise. I leave you far off, aliens and strangers, wretched subjects and captives of sin and Satan, and prisoners of vindictive justice: without Christ, and without God in the world [Eph. 2:12]. / And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity [Acts 8:23]; they are without God in the world [Eph. 2:12], and have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness. (Alma 41:11) 

• • (There is nothing unusual about two Christians using “gall of bitterness” and “without God in the world” in the same paragraph)

• that day when you and I shall meet before our Judge / to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah (Moroni 10:34) 
  • “In that case she is the more bound to him with whom she has a cause (to plead) at the bar of God” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 157)
  • “he who presents himself before the judgment-seat becomes guilty of his death” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 892)
• that day, when you and I shall meet before the judgment seat / until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God (Jacob 7:13) 
  • “In that case she is the more bound to him with whom she has a cause (to plead) at the bar of God” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 157)
  • “he who presents himself before the judgment-seat becomes guilty of his death” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 892)
• state of probation / a preparatory mutable state / this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state (Alma 42:13) 
  • “all these are states of probation, in which he who does righteously improves, and he who does unrighteously, deteriorates his lot” (The Dialogues of Plato, Phaedrus, p. 1058)
• concerning the state of their souls / concerning the state of the soul (Alma 40:11) 

• • “But if a man is ill-constituted by nature (as the state of the soul is naturally in the majority both in its capacity for learning and in what is called moral character)” (The Dialogues of Plato, The Seventh Letter, p. 839)
  • “For virtue itself is a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 507)

• everlasting damnation / everlasting damnation (Helaman 12:26) 

• • “But if any one that is not initiated conceal himself, and partake of the same, ‘he eats eternal damnation’” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 1037)

• every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil / whether they be good or evil (Alma 40:11) 
  • “The truth is that we are discussing the subject of riches, and my notion is that we should argue respecting the honest and dishonest means of acquiring them, and, generally, whether they are a good thing or a bad” (The Dialogues of Plato, Eryxias, p. 226)
  • “But the reward neither of good nor evil could be paid to the man who should be found to have been either good or evil through necessity and not choice” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 650) 
• everyone will be judged according to his works / and be judged according to their works (Alma 40:21) 
  • “and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20:12)

Parallels found in Reverend George Whitefield many sermons which can be found in Samuel Elliott Morrison’s “The Oxford History of the American People” (1972)

• [The Eternity of Hell-Torments] may God of his infinite mercy deliver us all through Jesus Christ; to whom, with thee O Father, and thee O Holy Ghost, three Persons and one eternal God, be ascribed, as is most due, all honor, power, might, majesty, and dominion now and for ever more. / Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit which is one eternal God (Alma 11:44) 
  • “Wherefore, then, in all things, and through all things, there is one God, the Father, and one Word, and one Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation to all who believe in him” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1175)
• [Christ the Only Preservative Against a Reprobate Spirit] Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honor, power, glory, might, majesty and dominion, both now and for evermore, Amen / in his glory, in his might, majesty, power and dominion (Alma 5:50) 
  • “Jesus Christ, by whom be to Him glory, and majesty, and power, and honor, both now and for evermore. Amen” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 69)
  • “called of God through Him, by whom be to Him glory, honor, power, majesty, and eternal dominion, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 70)

Parallels found in George Whitefield’s “Marks of a True Conversion”:

• whether such a great and almighty change has passed upon any of your souls / a mighty change wrought in his heart (Alma 5:12) 
  • “At the beginning of the cycle before our own very few of them had survived; and on these a mighty change passed” (The Dialogues of Plato, Statesman, p. 1560)
  • “It is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 119)
  • “Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be ye changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 176)
• Has God by his blessed Spirit wrought such a change in your hearts? / Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? (Alma 5:14)
  • “Now in Greek the word for repentance is formed, not from the confession of a sin, but from a change of mind” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 684)
  • “And the name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take away disease; and produce a marvelous meekness of spirit and complete change of character” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 936)
  • “but she who has repented, being as it were born again by the change in her life, has a regeneration of life” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 809)

• • “and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, 3:1)

More parallels from Whitefield’s “Christ the Only Preservative,” “The Eternity of Hell-Torments,” and “Marks of Having Received the Holy Ghost”:

• Our first parents had not been long in this state of innocence / our first parents (2 Nephi 2:15) / state of innocence (2 Nephi 2:23) 

• • “which it may be possible to designate as the land of our first parents Adam and Eve,” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 1259)
  • “the cause of all is no other than Himself, since He allowed them to have freedom to wander who He foresaw would not abide by their state of innocence” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 1058)

• not only to become subject to temporal, but spiritual death / a spiritual death as well as temporal (Alma 42:9) 
  • “from which statement we see that not the death of the soul is mean, but that of the body” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1003)
• eternal happiness / eternal happiness (Alma 3:26) 

• • “that an eternal enjoyment of happiness did await such as died on that account” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book I, 33:2)

• this life is the only time allotted by Almighty God for working out our salvation / this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God (Alma 34:32) / work out your salvation (Alma 34:37) 
  • “work out your own salvationwith fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)
  • “For if we occupy the short time of this life with vain and useless questions, we shall without doubt go into the presence of God empty and void of good works, when, as I have said, our works shall be brought into judgment. For everything has its own time and place. This is the place, this the time of works; the world to come, that of recompenses” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 235)

• rebellion against God / rebellion against God (Alma 3:18) 

• • “it was Christ, for rebellion against whom they have perished” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, P. 743)
  • “indicated that not even they were ignorant of the rebellion of matter against God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 576)

• that I had never / O that I had rejected / O that I had taken / O that I had repented (Helaman 13:33) / O that we had repented (3 Nephi 8:24) / O that we had repented (3 Nephi 8:25) 
  • “Oh that the day would once come when this old fellow will dies and name thee for the governor of the habitable earth!” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, 6:6)
  • “Oh, that I also may join in these songs in my prayer!” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 821)
• miserable for ever / miserable forever (2 Nephi 2:5) 

• • “Therefore things are in this position, that they who are happy in this life, pertaining to the body and the earth, are about to be miserable for ever, because they have already enjoyed the good things which they preferred” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 459)

• “These are hard sayings, who can bear them?” / thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear (1 Nephi 16:1) 
  • “Who can bear this your abuse of words, while they have a regard to the contrariety of your actions” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, 4:4)
• and brings forth fruits meet for repentance / and bring forth fruit meet for repentance (Alma 13:13) 
  • “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8)
• love towards God: loving all men / love towards God and all men (Mosiah 2:4) 

• • “For he was a man who had contained a full measure of love towards God and his neighbors” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 2070)

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards Jr.’s “Universal Salvation” (1789) which is found in a collection of Edwards Jr.’s works compiled by Tryon Edwards in “The Works of Jonathan Edwards, D.D.” (1842):

• plan of mercy (p. 11) / plan of mercy (Alma 42:15)
• law and justice (p. 13) / law and justice (Alma 42:23) 
  • “His power and skill, and obeying law and justice” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 350)
• placed in a state (p. 17) / placed in a state (Alma 12:31) 

• • “also on those which occupy an intermediate position between these good and evil powers, and as yet are placed in a state of struggle and trial” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 602)

• the demands of justice (p. 19) / the demands of justice (Alma 42:15) 

• •  “and the method of His justice demanded that punishment should follow faults” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 377)

• yet all will be saved finally (p. 23) / at last we shall be saved (2 Nephi 28:8) 

• • “Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1120)

• the merit of Christ (p. 28) / the merits of Christ (p. 140) / the merit and sufferings of his beloved son (p. 268) / the merits of Christ (Moroni 6:4) / the merits of his Son (Alma 24:10) 
  • “that He might appear to have given to us the benefit of His having suffered, He gave us confession. He suggested martyrdoms; finally, He, by the merits of His nativity, imputed all those things whereby the light (of life) may be quenched, to a saving remedy, by His excellent humility, by His divine strength” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1415)
• final state (p. 35) / final state (Alma 34:35) 
  • “it is by the grace of God and not by their own merit that they have been placed in that final stateof happiness” (Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 632)
• endless happiness (p. 26) / everlasting misery (p. 93) / endless misery (p. 60) / endless happiness (Alma 41:4) / endless misery (Alma 41:4) / everlasting misery (Helaman 7:19)
• the justice of endless punishment (p. 78) / endless punishment is just (p. 104) / endless misery is just (p. 110) / an everlasting punishment is just (Mosiah 27:31) 
  • “And the unrighteous, and those who believed not God, who have honored as God the vain works of the hands of men, idols fashioned (by themselves), shall be sentenced to this endless punishment” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 549)
  • “But since free choice and inclination originate sins, and a mistaken judgment sometimes prevails, from which, since it is ignorance and stupidity, we do not take pains to recede, punishments are rightly inflicted” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 686)
• all men should be saved (p. 94) / all mankind should be saved (Alma 1:4) 

• • “both he himself and all who, following the example of his faith, trust in God, should be saved, he rejoiced exceedingly” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1170-1171)

• few stripes (p. 96) / few stripes (2 Nephi 28:8) 

• • “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes” (Luke 12:48)

• state of torment (p. 97) / state of misery (p. 99) / endless torment (p. 98) / lake of torment (p. 98) / state of misery and endless torment (Mosiah 3:25) / their torment is as a lake of fire (Mosiah 3:27) 
  • “For, being punished with endless torture under unquenchable fire, and never dying, it can receive no end of its misery” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 1003)
  • “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10)
• unjust punishment (p. 90) / injustice (p. 263) / ye do try to suppose that it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery (Alma 42:1) 
  • “And as, in those times, vengeance came from God upon the Egyptians who were subjecting Israel to unjust punishment” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1244)
• the conditions of repentance (p. 103) / saved on the condition of their repentance (p. 136) / conditions whereby man can be saved (Mosiah 4:8) / on what conditions they are saved (Alma 5:10) 
  • “The remedial aid of repentance is determined by its own conditions, without unlimited concession” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 179)
  • “But He had made the fulfillment of His promises to depend on certain conditions,–namely, that they should observe and live according to His law” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 1577)
• the just law of God (p. 114) / a just law given (Alma 42:18) 
  • “That there is a plain mark among us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we ought to do” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 12)
• atonement of Christ (p. 115) / atonement of Christ (Mosiah 3:19) 

• • “I am He who, pitying the bitter misfortunes of men, came hither as a messenger of offered peace, and as a full atonement for the fault of men” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 760)
  • “The God of Christians is the author of sacrifice, and accepts the unspeakable sufferings of the innocent lamb for the sins of the whole world…that the sacrifices of the heathen had no apparent relation whatever to faith in this Atoning Lamb” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 1337)

• provided he do not repent (p. 115) / if they will not repent (2 Nephi 9:24) 
  • “I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing thou despisest the wild beasts, if thou wilt not repent” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 473)
• obtain eternal life and salvation (p. 126) / eternal life, and salvation (Alma 11:40) / salvation and eternal life (Mosiah 5:15) 
  • “My spirit bows in adoration to the cross, which is a stumbling-block to those who do not believe, but is to you for salvation and eternal life” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 267)
• the WISE, just and holy exercise of mercy (p. 127) / infinite wisdom, power, holiness and goodness (p. 129) / the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy (Mosiah 5:15) 
  • “Well, then, if the Lord is the truth, and wisdom, and power of God, as in truth He is” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 767)
  • “The Lord God is merciful and gracious, and long-suffering, and of great commiseration, and true, and keeps justice and mercy for thousands” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1221)
• repent and believe in Christ (p. 140) / repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ (Mormon 7:5)
• sin is not imputed when there is no law (p. 142) / how could he sin if there was no law (Alma 42:17) 
  • “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13)
• But this is not all (p. 154) / But this is not all (Alma 34:26) 
  • “but this is not allthe injury that Ziba has done me, as to my duty to thee, my lord and master” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VII, 11:3)
• power, wisdom and goodness (p. 161) / goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom (Mosiah 4:6) 
  • “With God there are simultaneously exhibited power, wisdom, and goodness” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1289)
• ever since the fall of Adam (p. 173) / ever since the fall of Adam (Mosiah 4:7) 

• • “a wall and fortress, in which exists the inner man, who thither has fallen from Adam, the primal man above” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 136)
  • “and becoming thus all that man is with the exception of sin, He might save fallen man, and confer immortality on men who believe on His name” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 566)
  • “Hence it was necessary that Christ should come forth for the salvation of man, in that condition of flesh into which man had entered ever since his condemnation” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1198)

• this fallen state (p. 173) / this fallen state (Alma 42:12) / fallen state (Mosiah 4:5) 

• • “He Himself not in danger of being destroyed, but He also established fallen man by His own strength, and recalled him to incorruption” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1001)
  • “But those who are bad from infirmity, having fallen from vicious insatiableness into a depraved state” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 1116)
  • “he seems to have fallen into a state of ignorance or folly” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 598)

• state of happiness (p. 184) / happy state (p. 184) / state of happiness (Alma 40:12) / happy state (Mosiah 2:4) 
  • “which laid waste the happy state of the city no less than did these murderers” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 13:4)
  • “if you will do what is pleasing to God, you will have a secure state of happiness” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 8:5)
• persuade all men (p. 187) / persuade all men (2 Nephi 26:27) 
  • “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men?” (Galatians 1:10)
  • “for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 16:4)
• the original state was a state of order, regularity and due subordination, wherein every person and thing were in their proper places; so in this sense all things will finally be brought back to their original state (p. 180) / Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order (Alma 41:4) 
  • “for he promises that if we are pious, he will restore us to our original state, and heal us and make us happy and blessed” (The Dialogues of Plato, Symposium, p. 1657)
  • “And that which makes a thing good is the proper order inhering in each thing?” (The Dialogues of Plato, Gorgias, p. 371)
• brought to repentance (p. 189) / brought to repentance (Alma 35:14) 
  • “And indeed this sight of the general brought many to repent of their revolt” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 6:3)
  • “and to bring them to repentance for what they had done” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, 6:10)
• all mankind will be raised at the last day (p. 199) / that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day (Alma 2:18) 
  • “Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24)
• those who die in wickedness (p. 199) / if they should die in their wickedness (1 Nephi 15:33) 
  • “But if the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed, and will do righteousness, he shall live in eternal life, and shall not die in his wickedness” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1561)
• the plan of God (p. 199) / the plan of our God (2 Nephi 9:13) / the great plan of the eternal God (Alma 34:9) 
  • “swallow up all the opposition of the Egyptians, which was lifting itself up against the pre-arranged plan of God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1141)
• work of salvation (p. 200) / plan of salvation (p. 293) / plan of salvation (Alma 42:5)

• • “arranging and preparing the plan of salvation, which was accomplished by the Word” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1133)

• the first death (p. 204) / this first death (2 Nephi 9:15)
  • “that souls are delivered by almsgiving not only from the second, but from the first death, is discovered by the evidence of a matter accomplished and completed” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5, p. 1099)
• their bodies shall be immortal or incorruptible (p. 229) / and all men become incorruptible, and immortal (2 Nephi 9:13) 
  • “believing that God will raise us up by His Christ, and will make us incorruptible, and undisturbed, and immortal” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 583)
• the endless misery of the wicked, or they are equally opposed to their endless happiness (p. 229) / raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil (Alma 41:4)
  • “By the award of the judgment, we say that the wicked will have to spend an eternity in endless fire, the pious and innocent in a region of bliss” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 267)
• final state of the wicked (p. 240) / final state of the wicked (Alma 34:35) 

• • “They should be ignorant that it is by the grace of God and not by their own merit that they have been placed in that final state of happiness” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 632)
  • “he has entirely changed man’s nature—created, like his own, for perfect sinlessness—into his own state of wicked enmity against his Maker” The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 160)

• It is generally agreed that murder deserves death. But suppose a law should be made, by which no murderer should be punished with death, or with any other punishment to be continued longer, than till he should repent. Would not such a law as this, compared with the law as it now stands, naturally and directly tend to encourage murder? (p. 248) / Now, if there were no law given – if a man murdered he should die – would he be afraid he would die if he should murder? (Alma 42:19) 
  • “Whereas you, above all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond of the state, or, in other words, of us her laws (and who would care about a state which has no laws?)” (The Dialogues of Plato, Crito, p. 221)
  • “Thus the entire office of justice in this respect becomes an agency for goodness: whatever it condemns by its judgment, whatever it chastens by its condemnation, whatever (to use your phrase) it ruthlessly pursues, it, in fact, benefits with good instead of injuring. Indeed, the fear of judgment contributes to good, not to evil. For good, now contending with an enemy, was not strong enough to recommend itself by itself alone…You read how broad is the road to evil, how thronged in comparison with the opposite: would not all glide down that road were there nothing to fear? We dread the Creator’s tremendous threats, and yet scarcely turn away from evil. What, if He threatened not?” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 662)
• I need not (p. 248) / I need not (Alma 13:20) 
  • “I think I need not speak to you, my countrymen, about such other works as I have done since I came to the kingdom” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, 11:1)
• It will not be denied that if there were no punishment threatened to the wicked, it would naturally and directly encourage them to persist in vice. (p. 247) / And also, if there was no law given against sin men would not be afraid to sin (Alma 42:20) 
  • “Thus the entire office of justice in this respect becomes an agency for goodness: whatever it condemns by its judgment, whatever it chastens by its condemnation, whatever (to use your phrase) it ruthlessly pursues, it, in fact, benefits with good instead of injuring. Indeed, the fear of judgment contributes to good, not to evil. For good, now contending with an enemy, was not strong enough to recommend itself by itself alone…You read how broad is the road to evil, how thronged in comparison with the opposite: would not all glide down that road were there nothing to fear? We dread the Creator’s tremendous threats, and yet scarcely turn away from evil. What, if He threatened not?” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 662)
• God must be just as well as merciful (p. 264) / that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful god also (Alma 42:15) 
  • “For as God is just in judging of sinners, so is he merciful in receiving them when they return” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 909)
• a sense of his guilt (p. 265) / a lively sense of his own guilt (Mosiah 2:38) 

• • “are characteristic of women who have lost all sense of shame” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 583)
  • “for a sense of shame inflamed these into a passion, as esteeming their failure of a sudden victory to be a kind of defeat” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book III, 7:6)

• if they will not repent (p. 265) / if they will not repent (2 Nephi 9:24) 

• • “And I replied, ‘I do not say so; but those who have persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they do not repent, shall not inherit anything on the holy mountain” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 554)

• forever miserable (p. 266) / forever miserable (Alma 12:26) 

• • “Therefore things are in this position, that they who are happy in this life, pertaining to the body and the earth, are about to be miserable for ever, because they have already enjoyed the good things which they preferred” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 459)

• his good will and pleasure (p. 266) / his will and pleasure (1 Nephi 16:38) 
  • “Experience shows, however, that things which are even evil were made by Him: not, of course, of His own will and pleasure” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 3, Against Hermogenes, p. 1040)
• ever was or ever will be (p. 267) / never was nor ever will be (Alma 30:28) 
  • “while persons here invent stories that neither are true nor ever will be” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter XIX)
  • “That whether Lysias or any other writer that ever was or will be, whether private man or statesman” (The Dialogues of Plato, Phaedrus, p. 1112)
  • “it is clear that nothing ever was made, or could have been made, without providence” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 654)
  • “And can we say that any of these things which neither are nor have been nor will be unchangeable, when judged by the strict rule of truth ever become certain?” (The Dialogues of Plato, Philebus, p. 1189)
• sincere repentance (p. 273) / sincere repentance (Mosiah 29:19) 
  • “but by God’s power and human intercession, and the help of brethren, and sincere repentance, and constant care, they are corrected” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 1260)

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards, Jr.’s “Thoughts on the Atonement” (1842 collection):

• But if we deserve an endless punishment, sin is an infinite evil, and so requires an infinite atonement / it must needs be an infinite atonement (2 Nephi 9:7) / nothing which is short of an infinite atonement (Alma 34:12)
  • “but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, – but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 8:14)
• well beloved / Well Beloved (Helaman 5:47) 
  • “because they had exulted over the well-beloved and most approved Son of God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 272)

Parallels found in Jonathan Edwards Jr.’s “The Necessity of the belief of Christianity by the Citizens of the State, in Order to our political Prosperity” (1794; 1842 collection):

• If there be moral good in any of those tempers or actions, there must be moral evil in the directly opposite; and if there be no moral evil in the latter, there is no moral good in the former; as if there were no natural evil in pain there would be no natural good in pleasure / And if there be no evidence of God’s moral perfections, there is no evidence, that he designs the happiness of his creatures here or hereafter / there is an opposition in all things (2 Nephi 2:11) / And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery (2 Nephi 2:13) 
  • “The Reason which made the universe out of diverse elements, so that all things might be composed of opposite substances in unity—of void and solid, of animate and inanimate, of comprehensible and incomprehensible, of light and darkness, of life itself and death” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 105)
  • “Thus the entire office of justice in this respect becomes an agency for goodness: whatever it condemns by its judgment, whatever it chastens by its condemnation, whatever (to use your phrase) it ruthlessly pursues, it, in fact, benefits with good instead of injuring. Indeed, the fear of judgment contributes to good, not to evil. For good, now contending with an enemy, was not strong enough to recommend itself by itself alone…You read how broad is the road to evil, how thronged in comparison with the opposite: would not all glide down that road were there nothing to fear? We dread the Creator’s tremendous threats, and yet scarcely turn away from evil. What, if He threatened not?” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 662)
• line upon line and precept upon precept / line upon line, precept upon precept (2 Nephi 28:30)
• Some are to be beaten with few stripes, some with many stripes / God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved (2 Nephi 28:8) 
  • “if they come to our thrashing-floors and eat our corn, or do not perform what we impose upon them, we beat them with a great many stripes” (Josephus, Against Apion, Book II, 7)
  • “But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes” (Luke 12:48)
• Agreeably to the gospel all men are to be rewarded according to their works done in the body, whether they be good or evil / [Cf. Rev. 20:13: and they were judged every man according to their works / Eccles. 12:14: For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good, or whether evil] / they shall be judged, every man according to his works, whether they be good, or whether they be evil (Mosiah 3:24) / to be judged of him according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil (Mosiah 16:10) / in the body…to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil (Alma 11:44) / to be judged of your works, whether they be good or evil (Mormon 3:20) 
  • “and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works” (Revelation 20:12)
  • “But the reward neither of good nor evil could be paid to the man who should be found to have been either good or evil through necessity and not choice” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 650) 
• law and justice will be executed / to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice (Alma 42:23) 
  • “so he accused them of their attempts for innovation, and of the pleasure they took in sedition, by reason of their not having learned to submit to justice and to the laws” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, 11:3)
• the penitent / the penitent (Alma 42:23) 
  • “And this (will God do), if in any way He perceive the heart of the penitent pure from every evil thing” (The Apostolic Fathers, The Shepherd of Hermas, p. 162)
• nothing is so useful as a belief of a final judgment / all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works (Alma 33:22) 
  • “The entire cause, then, or rather necessity of the resurrection, will be this, namely, that arrangement of the final judgment which shall be most suitable to God” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 1237)
• the Stoic philosophers taught that lying was lawful, whenever it was profitable; and Plato allowed, that a man may lie, who knows how to do it at a proper time / lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words (2 Nephi 28:8) 
  • “these exiles whose interest it is to lie as fairly as they can, who do nothing but talk themselves and leave the danger to others…and if they fail will drag down their friends with them” (Thucydides, Book VI, Chapter 18)
• actions which tend to destroy our happiness / would destroy the great plan of happiness (Alma 42:8)
• a considerable number of the aborigines were converted to the christian faith. The pagan Indians were displeased with this, banished from their society all the converts, and when they could do it with safety, put them to death / there were many of them converted in the wilderness. And it came to pass that those rulers who were a remnant of the children of Amulon caused that they should be put to death, yea, all those that believed in these things (Alma 25:6-7)
• a just punishment / punishment is just (Mosiah 27:31) 
  • “Come on, ascend up to us, that we may inflict a just punishment upon you” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI, 6:2)
• Christianity informs us of the end of our creation / in the end of its creation (2 Nephi 2:12) 
  • “For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of himself choose the good, but were created for this end” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 470)
• leaving them there to perish and to be devoured by dogs / that they might leave me in the wilderness to be devoured by wild beasts (1 Nephi 7:16) 
  • “Now to give a man’s body to be devoured by beasts is in no wise agreeable to their customs, and indeed this is the very reason why they embalm their dead” (Herodotus, Book III)
  • “Some have been half devoured by wild beasts, and yet have been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in order to afford laughter and sport to our enemies” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VII, 8:7)
  • “according as God had foretold, that some of Jeroboam’s kindred that died in the city were torn to pieces and devoured by dogs, and that others of them that died in the fields were torn and devoured by the fowls” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, 11:4)
• they ordered them to be cast into a deep cavern in the earth…also the aged and the infirm, were exposed and left to perish / the prophets…cast into pits and left them to perish (Ether 9:29) / they were cast down into the earth (3 Nephi 28:20) / left to perish (Helaman 15:2) 
  • “But for the king himself, he was not at all irritated against Jeremiah, such was his gentle and righteous disposition; yet, that he might not be engaged in a quarrel with those rulers at such a time, by opposing what they intended, he let them do with the prophet whatsoever they would; whereupon, when the king had granted them such a permission, they presently came into the prison, and took him, and let him down with a cord into a pit full of mire, that he might be suffocated, and die of himself” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, 7:5) 
• put to death by fire / death by fire (Alma 25:9) 

• • “he was seized with rage and anger, and endeavored to put him to death by fire” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 1600)

• beings who have will and choice, whereby as voluntary agents, they are, and act, as it becomes them to be and to act /placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures (Alma 12:31) / God gave unto man that he should act for himself (2 Nephi 2:16)
  • “In like manner also, Sabaoth, when it is spelled by a Greek Omega in the last syllable [Sabaōth], denotes ‘a voluntary agent;’” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 1055)
  • “And each of these two orders of creatures was made free to act as it pleased, not having the nature of good, which again is with God alone, but is brought to perfection in men through their freedom of choice” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 128)
  • “These ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does co-operate in every action” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book II, 8:14)

• State of nature (John Locke) / ever was or ever will be / never was, nor ever will be (John Locke)
  • “That whether Lysias or any other writer that ever was or will be, whether private man or statesman” (The Dialogues of Plato, Phaedrus, p. 1112)
  • “it is clear that nothing ever was made, or could have been made, without providence” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 654)
  • “And can we say that any of these things which neither are nor have been nor will be unchangeable, when judged by the strict rule of truth ever become certain?” (The Dialogues of Plato, Philebus, p. 1189)

• • “having his hand recovered to its natural state” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, 8:5)

CONCLUSION

Donofrio argues that this list of phrases should not be found in an English translation of an ancient document like the Book of Mormon. Nearly all of these phrases, however, can be found in 18^th and 19^th century English translations of ancient documents dating from 440 B.C. to 325 A.D. We therefore cannot accept that Donofrio’s list of parallels is evidence of the Book of Mormon being a work of fiction influenced by early American literature.