A number of factors seem to have collided. A few years earlier Noyes tried to step aside as leader in favor of his son Theodore, which was such a disaster that Noyes had to return. But he had a disease that had destroyed his beautiful voice, which was central to his charisma, so he was no longer as inspiring as he had been. A faction of malcontents began to mutter about deposing him.

And then Professor Mears from Hamilton College started a moral crusade against Oneida, and that was what really did them in. Noyes had to flee to avoid prosecution for adultery, and in exile in Niagara he suggested that community members should marry so as to avoid prosecution as well. So they did, and that was pretty much the end of Bible Communism: once people had their own families to take care of, they wanted their own stuff.

And then Oneida became a joint stock company and eventually transformed into a silverware manufacturing giant.