30 years ago today - Sep 18, 1985.

Stan Larson, a scripture-translation researcher in the LDS Translation Division, is suspended after his supervisor receives a copy of his paper, "The Sermon on the Mount: What Its Textual Transformation Discloses Concerning the Historicity of the Book of Mormon," from another ward member. Larson had compared the Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Mormon to the oldest known manuscripts, monastic documents, and papyri versions and found that Joseph Smith's translation contains errors which do not appear before the 1769 edition of the King James Version. Larson concluded that "Joseph Smith plagiarized from the KJV when dictating the biblical quotations in the Book of Mormon." He is given the choice of being fired or resigning with one month severance pay. He resigns.

[Source: Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1]

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