I was lucky to come across a great potential source for the story of King Benjamin that has been researched by other historians. This source is a great revival conference that happened June 1826 in Palmyra, New York. The website Truth is Restored Again shared some fabulous images that depict the similarities between the two stories.
Grant Palmer has stated the following:
“We have not taken Joseph Smith seriously enough when he stated that he had an ‘intimate acquaintance’ with evangelical religion and that he was ‘somewhat partial’ to the Methodists. Protestant concepts appear to abound in his discourses and experiences. For example, a Methodist camp meeting was held one mile from Palmyra, New York, on 7 June 1826—a pivotal time in Joseph Smith’s life. Preparations for a camp meeting included leasing and consecrating the ground. Thus the ‘ground within the circle of the tents is considered sacred to the worship of God, and is our chapel.’ The Methodists referred to these ‘consecrated grounds’ as their ‘house of God’ or temple. The Palmyra camp meeting reportedly attracted over 10,000 people. Families came from all parts of the 100-mile conference district and pitched their tents facing the raised ‘stand’ where the preachers were seated, including one named Benjamin G. Paddock. . . This large crowd heard the ‘valedictory’ or farewell speech of their beloved ‘Bishop M’Kendree [who] made his appearance among us for the last time.’ . . . In his emaciated and ‘feeble’ condition, he spoke of his love for the people and then delivered a powerful message that covered ‘the whole process of personal salvation.’ Tremendous unity prevailed among the crowd, and “nearly every unconverted person on the ground” committed oneself to Christ. . . .”
Quote retrieved from an article written by Sandra Tanner on the Utah Lighthouse Ministry website
The name Benjamin may have been inspired by a preacher named Benjamin Paddock who was in attendance at the 1826 revival conference.
Other potential sources might have included Benjamin Franklin, who said the following in a letter to the President of Yale College in 1790 (compare to King Benjamin’s famous scriptures in Mosiah 4: 9-10):
“You desire to know something of my religion…. Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.”
Benjamin Franklin
Mormon Think also offers us another potential source for the King Benjamin Story:
“At a later time Ezra brought forth the book of the law, after the Jews had returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity. It is said that Ezra reproduced the book through the inspiration of the Lord, because it had again been lost. Both Josiah and Ezra read the book to a gathering of the people, and these events are very similar to a gathering summoned by king Benjamin. The inhabitants of Zarahemla were instructed to assemble at the temple.
And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents round about . . . . every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them; for the multitude being so great that king Benjamin could not teach them all within the walls of the temple, therefore he caused a tower to be erected, that thereby his people might hear the words which he should speak unto them. (Mosiah 2:5-7)
Benjamin and the people entered into a covenant to obey the commandments of God and to take upon themselves the name of Christ. Similarly, Josiah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem gathered to the house of the Lord, where Josiah read the book of the covenant to them, and they then all assented to keep the commandments that were written in the book (2 Kings 23:3).
Ezra also read the book of the law to a congregation of men and women, and just as king Benjamin had a tower constructed, Ezra too “stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose” (Neh. 8:4). On the second day, the people found written in the law a description of the feast of booths, and they made themselves booths on the roofs of their houses and in the courts of the temple. Benjamin’s people had set up tents around the temple.”
References
Book of Mormon Sources Project 