2 Nephi 3:6
1830 Edition
For Joseph truly testified, saying: A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, which shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins.
Changes
Simple English
Joseph told the truth when he said: 'The Lord my God will bring a seer. He will be a special seer for my kids.'
Paraphrase
Joseph testified of this: 'The Lord my God will raise up a seer, a chosen one from my descendants.'
Notes
2 Nephi 3:4–21 serves as a clear example of the circular repetition that characterizes much of the Book of Mormon.
The repeated phrase “fruit of my loins” appears in varied forms no fewer than 21 times within this single passage.
As noted above, this pattern of repetition is not isolated but appears consistently across different authors in the Book of Mormon. See also Alma 5:6, Ether 2:17, and 3 Nephi 16:8–15.
M.T. Lamb made the rather axiomatic comment, “The prevailing style of the Book of Mormon is so verbose, so full of inelegant and uncalled-for repetitions, that any ordinary writer can greatly excel it—often reducing its wordy sentences to one-half, and one-third, and even one-fourth their present compass without any sacrifice of thought or force or beauty...” —M.T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or The Book of Mormon, Is It From God? (New York: Ward and Drummand, 1887), p. 27.
The verbose, lengthy, and repetitive style of the Book of Mormon casts doubt on the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. As Jerald and Sandra note, "Considering the effort needed to make the original gold plates of the Book of Mormon and then to engrave them, one would expect a scribe to be as concise as possible, not wordy. Nephi's brother, Jacob complained: 'I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates' (Jacob 4:1). However, lengthy sentences abound in the Book of Mormon." -Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Joseph Smith's Plagiarism of the Bible in the Book of Mormon, p. 231.
Other examples of verbose sections: 3 Nephi 8:1-3; 3 Nephi 10:37 (compare against Matt. 23:37); 3 Nephi 16:8-10.
B.H. Roberts, president of the LDS First Quorum of the Seventy and assistant church historian made these candid remarks, "... I shall hold that what is here presented [concerning various accounts of Anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon] illustrates sufficiently the matter taken in hand by referring to them, namely that they are all of one breed and brand; so nearly alike that one mind is the author of them, and that a young and undeveloped, but piously inclined mind. The evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their creator. It is difficult to believe that they are the product of history..." -B.H. Roberts, Studies of the Book of Mormon, ed. Brigham H. Madsen (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), p. 264.