Some LDS scholars still think the KJV Bible was the main (if not only) outside influence on Joseph Smith when he translated/dictated the Book of Mormon. Others insist that Joseph never translated anything but merely read words that appeared on a stone he put in a hat (the "stone-in-the-hat" theory, aka SITH) and that these words came from an Early Modern English translator who was not Joseph Smith.
In my view, the evidence shows that Joseph actually translated the ancient plates using his own lexicon. Here is one of hundreds of examples.
The Book of Mormon uses the phrases "miserable forever" and "forever miserable." Neither phrase occurs in the KJV Bible.
But Jonathan Edwards used the phrase several times. He even used both phrases in this passage:
And the health and life of the soul being forever ruined, it necessarily becomes everlastingly miserable: for pain and misery is the natural fruit of this poison. The constitution of the soul being forever corrupted, there unavoidably follows pain and sorrow, which will be in the soul as long as the soul remains thus corrupted; but it never being able to recover itself from this corruption, it follows that it will be forever miserable. God is the fountain of happiness, and to be separated from him is the greatest misery. But by sin man has drove away God from the soul, and therefore must be miserable forever if God returns not.
By the way, the term "natural fruit" is another non-biblical term used by Edwards 17 times that appears 10 times in the Book of Mormon.
The brief passage quoted above also includes the non-biblical couplets "pain and misery" and "pain and sorrow." Edwards used such couplets frequently, including "pain and pleasure," "pain and grief," and "pain and anguish." (He also used the couplets "pleasure and pain" and "health and sickness.")
The Book of Mormon uses the non-biblical phrase "pain and anguish" three times, along with "the pain and the anguish."
This leads to the non-biblical phrase "anguish of soul" which appears three times in the Book of Mormon and ten times in the writings of Jonathan Edwards. ("Anguish of his soul" is in Gen. 42:21.)
Likewise, the non-biblical phrase "agony of his soul" appears in both the Book of Mormon and Jonathan Edwards.
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Wordcruncher shows this frequency for the term "miserable."
Old Testament: 1
New Testament: 2
Book of Mormon: 6
Here are the passages:
OT: I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all. (Job 16:2)
NT: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:19)
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17)
BM: Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever. (2 Nephi 2:5)
And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind. (2 Nephi 2:18)
Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. (2 Nephi 2:27)And now behold, if it were possible that our first parents could have gone forth and partaken of the tree of life they would have been forever miserable, having no preparatory state; and thus the plan of redemption would have been frustrated, and the word of God would have been void, taking none effect. (Alma 12:26)And now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption, (laying it aside) as soon as they were dead their souls were miserable, being cut off from the presence of the Lord. (Alma 42:11)Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell. (Mormon 9:4)
but little of God; yet says that little was better to him than all the world besides. In his diary for Saturday, he says he was something melancholy and sorrowful in mind; and adds, "I never feel comfortably but when I find my soul going forth after God: If I can't be holy, I must necessarily be miserable forever.
87. Jonathan Edwards. The Life of David Brainerd (WJE... [page 457 | Paragraph | SubSect | Section]
be in a capacity to "please and glorify him forever"
154. Jonathan Edwards. Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723... [page 398 | Paragraph | SubSect | Section]
Yea, they'll not accept of him, though he dies for them; yea, though he dies a most tormenting death, though he dies that they may be delivered from hell, and that they may have heaven, they'll not accept of this gift, though they are in such necessity of it, that they must be miserable forever without it. Yea, although God the Father invites and importunes them, they'll not accept of it, though the Son of God himself knocks and calls at their door till his head is wet with the dew, and his locks with the drops of the night, arguing and pleading with them to accept of
185. Jonathan Edwards. Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723... [page 511 | Paragraph | Sub2Sect | SubSect | Section]
Without true repentance for sin, there is no escaping eternal ruin. This is a truth that is either not believed, or not understood, or not sensibly felt by the greatest part of mankind: for if they believed that, except they truly repented, they must be miserable forevermore, how could they live as they do, except they did not understand it and did not know what repentance is; or if they did understand it, scarcely ever thought of it, and when they did think of it, but slightily and not seriously? Wherefore, I have chosen to insist upon this
190. Jonathan Edwards. Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723... [page 529 | Paragraph | SubSect | Section]
suck eternal life out of them, or to whom will you go? Certainly you expect eternal life, or something as good as eternal life, from some being or other; and who is it? Consider and see who it is. If you don't come to Christ, consider what you intend to do. Something must be done or you are miserable forever. Now what is that thing that you have thought? Will you let yourself alone and be unconcerned about eternal life, and let yourself go down into [hell] as fast as the devil and your lusts can carry you? If you don't intend so to neglect yourself, but intend to do something,
the flesh of her children, and swallows up mankind, one generation after another, in the grave, and is insatiable in her appetite. So she does, mystically, [to] those that live by the breasts of the earth and depend on worldly things for happiness. The earth undoes and ruins them; it makes them miserable forever. It devours and eats up the inhabitants thereof, according to the evil report that the spies brought up of the land of Canaan (
254. Jonathan Edwards. Sermons and Discourses: 1723-1729... [page 187 | Paragraph | SubSect | Section]
natural fruit of this poison. The constitution of the soul being forever corrupted, there unavoidably follows pain and sorrow, which will be in the soul as long as the soul remains thus corrupted; but it never being able to recover itself from this corruption, it follows that it will be forever miserable . God is the fountain of happiness, and to be separated from him is the greatest misery. But by sin man has drove away God from the soul, and therefore must be miserable forever if God returns not. Sin as naturally makes the soul miserable as poison doth the body, and
He that entertains Christianity acts rationally, in that he acts most prudently. He consults his own interest and benefit. He, as it becomes a rational man, prefers his eternal before his temporal interest. He chooses rather to deny himself while he lives here in this world than to be miserable forever. He prefers everlasting blessedness, as a rational man would do, before that happiness that lasts but a few days. Therefore godly men, in Scripture account, are the only wise men, and sinners are accounted the greatest fools. They act like madmen, to run themselves into eternal
and suffering, that he was the subject of for our salvation. Which certainly may well endear those virtues to us, and greatly engage us to imitate that example: so the things whereof this example consists, were things by which we have infinite benefit, without which we should have been unspeakably miserable forever and ever, and by virtue of which we have the glorious privilege of the children of God, and have a full title to the crown of exceeding glory, and pleasures forevermore, at God's right hand.
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In the passages quoted above, there are more non-biblical Book of Mormon phrases.
We looked at "natural fruit" above.
"power of the devil" BofM 7x, D&C 1x, Edwards 21x
"that happiness" BofM 1x, Edwards 105x
