the Old Testament. One LDS scholar makes the following challenge to the scholarly world: It claims to be an ancient book, and it must be examined and criticized in terms of its claim.… Since nobody could feasibly invent a work the length of the Book of Mormon which represented ancient Near Eastern society accurately …, subjecting the book to the test of historical integrity would be a rather easy task for any specialist to undertake.… It is precisely this dimension of historical criticism, however,