IndexCould the plates have existed as described?In DetailsConclusionEvidence is needed to draw any kind of conclusion. This means that for the Book of Mormon to be true, there must be evidence of its validity. Just as we can know if something tastes good by tasting it, we can know the truth of the Book of Mormon by examining its fruits and our feelings when we read it. However, the book left behind not only spiritual evidence to support it, but also physical evidence. We can believe it on a factual basis, as well as instinctively in our hearts. One of the greatest blessings Heavenly Father has given us is the ability to reason and think for ourselves, conducting research to find answers to our questions. In D&C 88:118 we are advised to “search the best books for words of wisdom; seek instruction, also through study and also through faith.” We are fortunate to live in a time when this evidence has been discovered and linked to the Book of Mormon, to deepen our understanding of the peoples and cultures within it, as well as solidify our mental testimonies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Could the plates have existed as described? There is significant archaeological evidence surrounding the Book of Mormon. This makes sense, given that it covers an ancient time period and multiple peoples. One proof of the existence of gold or brass plates is the material they were made of. We do not currently have the plates on this Earth, as they were taken to be reserved for a later time. However, we have witnesses who have seen them, whose sole purpose is, in fact, to convince us of the legitimacy of the book. The eight witnesses actually touched the plates, verifying that they existed as described by Joseph Smith Jr. These men turned over the shining gold leaves of the bound volume placed before them. Concerning this document, they said, "we have seen and weighed, and know with certainty that the said Smith has the plates of which we spoke." The plates, the partial translation of which includes the Book of Mormon, were in fact made from a gold medal. It wasn't pure gold, however, because that amount of gold would have been too heavy to lift let alone carry. A material called tumbaga was found to have been used in pre-Columbian times in the Americas, as well as in Mesopotamia. Given the size of the plates and the density of the tumbaga, the plates would have weighed about what witnesses say, about 40-60 pounds. Additionally, the ancient Israelites wrote on metal discs, just like those in the Book of Mormon. This proves that the gold plates are not someone's idle imagination coming to life; rather, there is a history of the method employed in the documents, as there should be. In the Details While the authors of the Book of Mormon might have done so in ancient times, many suggest that (relatively) modern people wrote the book, including Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Solomon Spaulding. It is well known that as good a man as Joseph Smith was, he was not well educated. In fact, he was quite uneducated and could barely write a simple letter, much less a literary masterpiece the size of the Book of Mormon, which it would be if it were written by a man, and not by God. These people then say that he could have copied from Solomon Spaulding or taken help from Oliver Cowdery, but published footprint studies on the Book of Mormon show that this is not the case. By comparing the writings of these three men with the books of Nephi and Alma, this techniqueanalysis demonstrates, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are not the authors. Word print studies conducted on other control cases where the author is known have proven to be an effective way to understand who the author is. Within the Book of Mormon, when the book of Nephi and Alma were compared with each other, the word press found that they were written by multiple people, just as they themselves claim. Since no other authors from our millennia have been found, it seems likely that the Book of Mormon was written as a document and not as a fictional or even historical account (i.e., written using extensive research). Furthermore, the Book of Mormon uses techniques in its writing that are extremely accurate to ancient Israel. For example, phrases like “the Book of Nephi” or “the sword of Laban” are used throughout. This grammatical construct is not widely practiced in English. While it's not wrong, it's not used very often. However, in Hebrew, the grammar simply works like this. In fact, the way Hebrew works is significantly different from English, from using constructs like this to not including a verb for “to have.” Understanding Hebrew generally requires a few years of specialized education, which few had access to in the 1800s. Books and experts would not have been used to find answers in most cases, because the means to get there, more often than not, did not exist. Nor would they have known the introduction given by an ancient scribe, or a colophon. Because literacy and the ability to write were so rare, a scribe would tell the reader how he learned to write and why, which is exactly what Nephi does. He tells us that his father is rich and cultured, so he too is more or less in the same boat. Indeed, colophons appear throughout the book, whether added by the original author or by the former editor concerned for future readers. Mormon edited the Book of Mormon knowing that it would survive for many years and that modern people would have difficulty understanding it if it did not contain context within it. Subsequently, the people who lived that story became lost or forgot what happened, but thanks to colophons and other details, our understanding is preserved. Scribes from Mesopotamia and Egypt also often included this introduction, again so that future readers could understand the context surrounding the work. This detail leads one to believe that the author of the book either lived during that time or understood exactly what circumstances should have been included. Just as with other details discussed above, a fictional account probably could not have contained such a precise feature and, even more likely, would not have done so. Even more impressive is the inclusion of the chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, an ancient Jewish tradition that was not widely known in the 1800s and remains largely unrecognized and unknown. However, it was used by Old and New Testament authors as a literary technique in which ideas, phrases, and words are subsequently reflected or cross-referenced, as in ABCBA. This literary device is a little tricky and complex to pull off effectively, but it is present in the Book of Mormon (Reynolds). It is an effective technique, which helps readers better understand the text and its important aspects, but it is also highly traditional. Only through analysis are we able to discern chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, the Bible, the Torah, and other complex works. This suggests that only those who have the time to do so, as well as the skills to recognize it, are able to grasp it to deepen their understanding. Some parts of the Bible that are widely.