What this Catholic apologist isn’t telling you about the plates

Catholic apologist Trent Horn recently published a video aimed at discrediting the Book of Mormon by claiming that our 531 pages of the Book of Mormon would not have been able to fit in an ancient language on the golden plates. In this episode, David Snell takes a closer look at these claims, and highlights some of the research that Trent didn’t address in his video.

— “The Book of Mormon Plates,” by Janne M. Sjodahl: https://tinyurl.com/mwz62w88
— “Epigraphic Considerations on Janne Sjodahl's Experiment with Nephite Writing,” by John Gee (Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, article 7): https://tinyurl.com/2p9nmf6t
— “Comparing the gold plates to known ancient artifacts,” by Neal Rappleye (FAIR): https://tinyurl.com/5a6tktr5
— “What did the golden plates look like?” Kirk B. Henrichsen, New Era Magazine (July, 2007): https://tinyurl.com/2jne7ta2
— “Reformed Egyptian,” by William J. Hamblin (2007), Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: Vol. 19 : No. 1 , Article 7: https://tinyurl.com/3mpzv2k4
— “Is the Book of Mormon Like Other Ancient Metal Documents?” via Scripture Central: https://tinyurl.com/4pb5ezea / See also: https://tinyurl.com/2kcxp7yb
— “How Big A Book? Estimating the Total Surface Area of the Book of Mormon Plates,” by Bruce E. Dale (Interpreter Journal): https://tinyurl.com/5z8prr5e (Note that Dale concludes there were probably about 40 plates [but not a maximum of 40, as Horn claims]).

Notes:

— The ¾ scale model of the plates are 4.25 inches wide, 6 inches long, and 4.25 inches tall. The full scale model is 6 inches wide, 8 inches long, and 6 inches tall. In Trent’s debate with Latter-day Saint Jacob Hansen, he does mention that the plates are a ¾ model, but he does not mention it in this follow-up reel.

— More precisely, Sjodahl found that the Book of Mormon could be written in Hebrew on 40.428 pages, or about 21 plates (engraved on the front and back). But if you multiply 40.428 pages by 14 pages, you get 565.992 pages — much more than our current standard edition of the Book of Mormon. But Sjodahl's math is based on the American edition (Nauvoo, 1842), which had 566 pages, as opposed to our 531 pages.

— In composing his letter to John Wentworth (at least in this section describing the plates), Joseph may have used language from Orson Pratt’s description of these same events (the coming forth of the Book of Mormon) from his 1840 work, “A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions.”

— Some sources say two-thirds of the record were sealed. As noted, on one occasion David Whitmer said only half the record was sealed. In George Q. Cannon’s “The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” he writes that “A part of the volume, about one-third, was sealed.” Source: https://tinyurl.com/5n76wpup

— Interestingly, if there were 460 characters per plate (this estimate is based on the full-scale Etsy model, so take it with a grain of salt), and if there were 40 plates, then each symbol would represent only about 14 words (reaching our total of 270,000 words). David Whitmer reported in 1887 that during the translation, “One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English.” Royal Skousen determined that Joseph was likely dictating about 20 words at a time to Oliver Cowdery.

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