Ancient Components of The Book of Mormon

Below is a simple list of components of The Book of Mormon that seem better explained as ancient influences rather than modern ones. A theory that does not take the following into account as ancient influences is an incorrect theory.

Forms

• Covenant Renewal Festivals (and Coronation): This literary form wasn't identified until scholars looked at Hittite-Akkadian international treaties in the mid-20th century. Even though the form is employed in Deuteronomy, it is by no means obvious. The Book of Mormon uses this form over 4 different times; once by King Benjamin, another time by Limhi, another time by King Mosiah, and one time by the resurrected Jesus Christ. The elements of the form are used consistently and they don't show up in Joseph Smith's later writings at all.
• Throne Theophany and Prophetic Commission: Certain prophetic literature such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others begin their works with a prophetic commission form. 1 Nephi also begins with a prophetic commission form with Lehi. It includes elements that are found in ancient pseudoepigraphic works translated long after Joseph Smith's lifetime, such as an ascension scene and intercessory prayer. Not only that, but it methodically leaves out post-exilic motifs such as chariots. The form is not used in Joseph Smith's accounts of his first vision.
• Prophetic Lawsuit: The prophets Jacob, Abinadi, and Samuel the Lamanite use a prophetic lawsuit form, or rib, against their audience using a very specific procedure. This has been identified by numerous Old Testament scholars in the mid-20th century upon closely examining pre-exilic prophetic literature.
• Military Epistolary Form: Certain letters written between military and political leaders in The Book of Mormon bare striking resemblance to the ones written between garrisons in the ancient Near East. They are written with the superior correspondent first just like in Hittite, Neo-Assyrian, Amarna, and Hebrew correspondences. Letters from Lachish and Tel Arad use an identical epistolary form and they weren't translated until long after Joseph Smith.
• Curse Formulas: The Book of Mormon occasionally uses curse forms to ratify covenants and treaties. The series of elements listed in various parts of the book follow legal proceedings in suzerain-vassal treaties in Assyria and Babylon. These were not translated until long after the dictation of The Book of Mormon.

Literary

• Multiple Embedded Narrations: There are many, many embedded narratives and flashbacks in the text of The Book of Mormon. Managing to perfectly cohere these storylines on the fly without any identifiable source material is a cumbersome task.
• Epanalepsis: Occasionally the text includes brief contextual insertions which follow semi-chiastic form. For example, 1 Nephi 1:4 employs one as Nephi attributes a setting to Lehi's story. The use of this literary device is largely absent in Joseph Smith's dictations and writings but it is used dozens of times in The Book of Mormon.
• Internal Prophecies: Over 100 prophecies appear in the Book of Mormon that are fulfilled within the same volume. None of them have loose ends, indicating its complexity and mastery of composition.
• Naming Puns: When figures are named in the text, they are occasionally given a description that plays a pun on their name. For example, Enos's story is a pun on the narrative of Jacob wrestling the angel of the Lord.

Internal Landscape

• Consistent Geography: The descriptions of travel, distance, and place locations are incredibly consistent throughout the text. They are so much so that even the elevations and distance of travel are consistently taken into account across the entire narrative.

Onomastics

• Name Spelling: Interestingly enough, there are no names in The Book of Mormon that contain the letters q, w, or x. Hebrew, the base language the authors would have spoken, lacks these letter sounds.
• Proper Names
  • Korihor, Pahoran, Paanchi, and Pacumeni: None of these names appear in the Bible, yet they are authentic names from antiquity that are almost transliterated exactly as they sound in Egyptian.
  • Aha, Ammoniah, Chemish, Himni, Luram: Inscriptional evidence from the Levant shows that these names, as well as many others in the Book of Mormon, are authentic names in Hebrew.
  • Alma as a Male Name: This name is attested for males in both the Bar Kohkba letters and some Ebla tablets.
  • Sariah as a Female Name: Attested as a female name on a 6th-century ostracon.
  • Lehi as a Proper Name: Found as the name of a father on an Elephantine papyrus.

Conceptual Nuances

• Geographical Cardinality: The text frequency equates places on the south as being sacred and places in the north as profane. The names of places like the Land of Desolation being in the north and Bountiful in the south reflect a recognition of this paradigm.
• Past as Forward and Future as Behind: Alma 13:1 invites the reader to think "forward" to a past time just like the ancient Hebrews. This conception of time was not noted in Hebrew grammars in Joseph Smith's day. Further, Joseph didn't embark on a serious study of Hebrew until years after The Book of Mormon was published.
• Fifth Commandment of the Decalogue: In Jacob's giving of the commandments to his people, he accurately understands the legal nuance of the Sinaitic command as a statute to not kill unlawfully.
• Distinction Between Thieves and Robbers: Robbers and thieves are routinely differentiated and addressed differently, even though contemporary sources of Joseph Smith (including the KJV) viewed them as being synonymous. The text accurately understands that a robber is a foreign plunderer who is to be killed without due process; a thief is a domestic one who was subject to adjudication from the community according to the law.

Miscellaneous

• Sacrifice Distance outside of Jerusalem: Lehi and his family offer sacrifices to the God of Israel at a three-day's journey away, seemingly in violation of Deuteronomy 12. Intriguingly, this distance is the exact distance that the Temple Scroll prescribes as an acceptable one in 11QT 52:13–16.

Note that this article is a work in progress. Sources forthcoming.