The Plates Don't Make Sense to Me

[_consiglieri]

This seems to me more than just the idea that Joseph could translate large amounts from a single character. It has to do with the number of plates involved. Because it seems that there are a number of sets of plates that have to be accounted for in the 2 inch thickness remaining.

[_Kishkumen]

My understanding is that two-thirds of the plates were sealed, and so we are really dealing only with the top third.

Given the reported dimensions of the plates, together with the necessary thickness of each individual plate, it seems like we are talking about quite a few "sets" of plates to fill the bill.

In other words, once you break down all the different sets of plates described and cram them into the top one third of a the smallish dimensions reported, it would seem difficult to have enough room to accommodate them all.

Or am I off here?

You could very well be right, consiglieri. For the time being I am trying to use the Book of Mormon text alone. So, I am excluding all other descriptions of the plates and their movements. I will certainly read material on those topics, but I am trying to see whether the description of the plates in the text makes sense/is internally consistent on its own.

[_DonBradley]

"Put them with" is unclear, I agree. The honest reader can interpret that either way.

Are there not some problems with the account of finding the man walking along the road, such as his name? I forget the details. Also, odd behavior for an angelic messenger walk along the road, with plates, in plain view of so many muggles. What risky behavior.

Don, I am curious how you wrestle with the text of Omni offering clues that point to fabrication, as has been pointed out separately (if memory serves) by Metcalf and Vogel.

The Words of Mormon are perhaps the most difficult text in the entire Book of Mormon to adequately make sense of. I've worked on them before, with some interesting results, and, prompted by Kish's post, am doing some exegetical work on them again. I think there may be a coherent reading of the first part of the Words of Mormon, and that I may be getting close to it. We'll see.

Perhaps the most difficult part to make sense of is the later part of the Words of Mormon--like, why would Mormon would "finish out his record" by talking about the early reign of King Benjamin? A few Latter-day Saint scholars have given up on trying to make sense of this as an ancient text by Mormon.

Lyon and Minson in their BYU Studies piece a few years ago see this narrative of King Benjamin as a portion of the initial translation manuscript that Joseph Smith retained when he gave the rest to Martin Harris--IOW, it would be sort of part of the "lost pages" that isn't really lost, because Joseph Smith repurposed it from its original setting in the Book of Mosiah and stuck it here to bridge a gap in the narrative.

Brant Gardner has taken a more radical approach, understanding this text as an insertion written by Joseph Smith to summarize part of the lost story of King Benjamin. And Gardner shows that even Royal Skousen thinks part of this passage may have been inserted into the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith!

There's no question that the text is problematic.

Years ago I went to Brent Metcalfe's house and he laid out some of the problematic aspects of the Words of Mormon as an ancient text. But now Latter-day Saint scholars are grappling with these problems as well.

In my book (Chapter 15) I attempt to flesh out the lost Benjamin narratives summarized in this part of the Words of Mormon, but I don't try to wrestle the Words of Mormon other than to hint in the footnotes that it merits much more work.

I'm actually quite surprised critics haven't done more with the Words of Mormon.

I'll try to get to engaging Kish's analysis more fully, because I think it's asking excellent questions and I like the multiple readings he's developing. I used to think there was no coherent way of reading the first part of the Words of Mormon, but it seems to me, tentatively, that I may see how it can hold together. It's the latter part of the Words of Mormon that seems most anomalous.

I think Brant Gardner provides, to date, the best believing model for understanding this in-some-ways-anomalous text.

Don

[_moksha]

Maybe, but we need to consider that the plates (the McGuffin) were either composed of some sort of impure gold alloy (tumbaga?) or else were composed of pure Mormonium.

The plates were composed of Celestial energy made manifest in the substance known as Mormonium. Mormonium, as you may know, gives the appearance of what the seer craves the most. To many, it may appear as gold. To a few, it seems like baklava or Dulce de Leche ice cream. The very last group needs to hurridly translate whatever is written before it melts.

While resembling gold for the masses, it never-the-less is incredibly light and may not only be hefted with one arm but also carried for great distances. Alas, only those who wish to keep the Mormonium safe and not profit by it, are allowed to retain it for an indefinite period of time.