Table of ContentsCould the plates have existed as described?In DetailsConclusionEvidence is necessary to draw any sort of conclusion. This means that for the Book of Mormon to be true, there must be evidence for its validity. Just as we can know if something tastes good by trying 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 also left behind not only spiritual evidence that supports it, but physical evidence as well. We can believe it on a factual basis, but also 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 to learn, even by study and also by 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 found there, as well as to solidify our mental testimonies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the 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 period and several peoples. One proof of the existence of gold or brass plates is the material from which they were made. We currently do not have the plates on this Earth, as they were collected to be reserved for a later date. However, we have witnesses who have seen them and whose sole purpose is, in fact, to convince us of the legitimacy of the book. The eight witnesses touched the plates, verifying that they existed as described by Joseph Smith, Jr. These men turned the gleaming gold leaves of the bound volume placed before them. Concerning this matter, they said: "we have seen and weighed, and we know with certainty that the said Smith obtained the plates of which we spoke." The plates, whose partial translation includes the Book of Mormon, were actually made from a gold medal. It was not pure gold, however, as this quantity of gold would have weighed far too heavy to lift, let alone handle. A material called tubaga was found to be used in pre-Columbian times in the Americas, as well as in America. Mesopotamia. Considering the size of the plates and the density of the tumbaga, the plates would have weighed about what witnesses say, about 40 to 60 pounds. Additionally, the ancient Israelites wrote on metal discs, just like those in the Book of Mormon. This shows that the gold plates are not the fruit of someone's vain imagination coming to life; rather, there is a history of the method employed in the narrative, as there should be. Into the Details Although the authors of the Book of Mormon may have done so in the past, many suggest that (relatively) modern people wrote the book, including Joseph. Smith, Oliver Cowdery and Solomon Spaulding. It is well known that as good as Joseph Smith may have been, he was not well educated. In fact, he was rather poorly educated and could barely write a simple letter, much less a literary masterpiece on the scale of the Book of Mormon, which it would be if it had been written by a man and not by God. These people then say that he could have copied Salomon Spaulding orhave the help of Oliver Cowdery, but published footprint studies of the Book of Mormon show that this is not the case. When the writings of these three men are compared to the books of Nephi and Alma, this analytical technique proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were not the authors. Wordprint studies performed on other control cases in which the perpetrator is known have proven to be an effective way to determine who the perpetrator is. In the Book of Mormon, when the books of Nephi and Alma were compared, word printing revealed that several people were the authors, as they themselves claimed. Since no other author from our millennia has been found, it seems likely that the Book of Mormon was written as a narrative, not a fictional or even historical account (i.e., written from extensive research). Additionally, the Book of Mormon uses techniques in its writings that are extremely specific to ancient Israel. For example, phrases like “the Book of Nephi” or “the sword of Laban” are used throughout. This grammatical construction is not practiced much in English. While it's not wrong, it's not used very often. However, in Hebrew, this is simply how grammar works. In fact, the way Hebrew works is very different from English, from using constructions like this to not having a verb for "to have." Understanding Hebrew usually requires a few years of specialized education, which few people in the 19th century had access to. In most cases, books and experts would not be used to find answers, because the means to do so, most of the time, did not exist. Nor would they have known the introduction given by an ancient scribe or colophon. Because literacy and the ability to write are so rare, a scribe tells a reader how he learned to write and why, which is exactly what Nephi does. He tells us that his father is rich and educated, so he too is pretty much in the same boat. In fact, colophons appear throughout the book, whether added by the original author or by an early editor with an eye toward future readers. Mormon edited the Book of Mormon knowing that it would survive for many years and that people today would have difficulty understanding it if it did not contain context within itself. Later, people who experienced this story were lost or forgot that it happened, but thanks to the colophons and other details, our understanding is preserved. Scribes in Mesopotamia and Egypt also often included this introduction, again so that future readers could understand the context surrounding the work. This detail compels one to believe that the author of the book lived at that time or understood exactly what circumstances needed to be included. As with other details discussed above, a fictional account probably could not have contained such a specific feature and, even more likely, would not have done so. Even more impressive is the inclusion of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, an ancient Hebrew tradition that was little 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 then reflected upon or cross-referenced, as in ABCBA. This literary device is a bit complicated and complex to implement 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 very traditional. It is only through analysis that we..