Book of Mormon anachronisms/Metal plates

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Contents

Criticism

Critics claim that Joseph's report of finding a record on metal plates is not plausible.

Source(s) of the Criticism

  • Anthony A. Hoekema, Mormonism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1963), 89–90.
  • John Hyde, Jr., Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs (New York: Fetridge, 1857), 217–218.
  • M.T. Lamb, The Golden Bible (New York: Ward and Drummond, 1887), 11.
  • Stuart Martin, The Mystery of Mormonism (London: Odhams Press, 1920), 27.
  • Brent Lee Metcalfe, "Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity," Dialogue 26/3 (1993): 156–157

Response

See also: article on "Gold" plates

In the past critics of the Book of Mormon have attacked the alleged absurdity of the Book of Mormon having been written on golden plates and its claim of the existence of an early sixth century B.C. version of the Hebrew Bible written on brass plates. Today, however, critics almost universally admit that there are numerous examples of ancient writing on metal plates. Ironically, some critics now claim instead that knowledge of such plates was readily available in Joseph Smith's day. Hugh Nibley's 1952 observation seems quite prescient: "it will not be long before men forget that in Joseph Smith's day the prophet was mocked and derided for his description of the plates more than anything else." [1]

Recent reevaluation of the evidence now points to the fact that the Book of Mormon's description of sacred records written on bronze plates fits quite nicely in the cultural milieu of the ancient eastern Mediterranean.

One of the earliest known surviving examples of writing on "copper plates" are the Byblos Syllabic inscriptions (eighteenth century B.C.), from the city of Byblos on the Phoenician coast. The script is described as a "syllabary [which] is clearly inspired by the Egyptian hieroglyphic system, and in fact is the most important link known between the hieroglyphs and the Canaanite alphabet."[2]

It would not be unreasonable to describe the Byblos Syllabic texts as eighteenth century B.C. Semitic "bronze plates" written in "reformed Egyptian characters."[3]

Walter Burkert, in his study of the cultural dependence of Greek civilization on the ancient Near East, refers to the transmission of the practice of writing on bronze plates (Semitic root dlt) from the Phoenicians to the Greeks. "The reference to 'bronze deltoi [plates, from dlt ]' as a term [among the Greeks] for ancient sacral laws would point back to the seventh or sixth century [B.C.]" as the period in which the terminology and the practice of writing on bronze plates was transmitted from the Phoenicians to the Greeks.[4]

Students of the Book of Mormon will note that this is precisely the time and place in which the Book of Mormon claims that there existed similar bronze plates which contained the "ancient sacred laws" of the Hebrews, the close cultural cousins of the Phoenicians.

Burkert also maintains that "the practice of the subscriptio in particular connects the layout of later Greek books with cuneiform practice, the indication of the name of the writer/author and the title of the book right at the end, after the last line of the text; this is a detailed and exclusive correspondence which proves that Greek literary practice is ultimately dependent upon Mesopotamia. It is necessary to postulate that Aramaic leather scrolls formed the connecting link."[5]

Joseph Smith wrote that "the title page of the Book of Mormon is a literal translation, taken from the very last leaf, on the left hand side of the collection or book of plates, which contained the record which has been translated."[6]

This idea would have been counterintuitive in the early nineteenth century when "Title Pages" appeared at the beginning, not the end, of books.

Why, then, did Joseph claim the Book of Mormon practiced subscriptio—writing the name of the author and title at the end of the book? If the existence of the practice of subscriptio among the Greeks represents "a detailed and exclusive correspondence which proves that Greek literary practice is ultimately dependent upon Mesopotamia [via Syria]," as Burkert claims, cannot the same thing be said of the Book of Mormon—that the practice of subscriptio represents "a detailed and exclusive correspondence" which offers proof that the Book of Mormon is "ultimately dependent" on the ancient Near East?

Endnotes

  1. [back] Hugh W. Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, the World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites, edited by John W. Welch with Darrell L. Matthew and Stephen R. Callister, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), 107. ISBN 0875791328. off-site GospeLink
  2. [back] See David Noel Freedman, ed., (6 vols) The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 4:178–180. ISBN 038542583X. Byblos is only about 170 miles north of Jerusalem.
  3. [back] Hugh W. Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, the World of the Jaredites, There Were Jaredites, edited by John W. Welch with Darrell L. Matthew and Stephen R. Callister, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1988), 105–6. ISBN 0875791328. off-site GospeLink Nibley mentions these plates, which were not deciphered until 1985.
  4. [back] Walter Burkert, translated by Walter Burkert and Margaret E. Pinder, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1992), 30. ISBN 0674643631.
  5. [back] Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, 32.
  6. [back] Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:71. GospeLink (Emphasis added)

Best articles to read next

The best article(s) to read next on this topic is/are:

  1. William J. Hamblin, "Sacred Writing on Metal Plates in the Ancient Mediterranean," FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 37–54. off-site PDF link wiki
  2. William J. Hamblin, "An Apologist for the Critics: Brent Lee Metcalfe's Assumptions and Methodologies (Review of Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity by Brent Lee Metcalfe)," FARMS Review of Books 6/1 (1994): 434–523. off-site PDF link

Further Reading

FAIR wiki articles

Metal and gold plates wiki articles

Book of Mormon "Anachronisms"

Book of Mormon "Anachronisms"

FAIR web site

Metal and gold plates FAIR articles
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Book of Mormon witnesses FAIR link
  • FAIR Topical Guide: Metal and metal plates FAIR link
  • Michael R. Ash, "Metals and Metallurgy" FAIR link

External links

Metal and gold plates on-line articles
  • Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Attempts to Redefine the Experience of the Eight Witnesses," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14/1 (2005): 18–31. off-site PDF link wiki (Key source)
  • Anonymous, "Of What Material Were the Plates?," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10/1 (2001): 21–21. off-site [No PDF link] wiki
  • Mike Ash, "Weight of Gold Plates," mormonfortress.com, 1998. off-site
  • William J. Adams Jr., "Lehi's Jerusalem and Writing on Metal Plates," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3/1 (1994): 204–206. off-site PDF link wiki
  • William J. Adams Jr., "More on the Silver Plates from Lehi's Jerusalem," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4/2 (1995): 136–137. off-site PDF link wiki
  • John Gee, "Epigraphic Considerations on Janne Sjodahl's Experiment with Nephite Writing," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10/1 (2001): 25–25. off-site [No PDF link] wiki
  • John Gee, "Two Notes on Egyptian Script," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5/1 (1996): 162–176. off-site PDF link wiki
  • William J. Hamblin, "An Apologist for the Critics: Brent Lee Metcalfe's Assumptions and Methodologies (Review of Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity by Brent Lee Metcalfe)," FARMS Review of Books 6/1 (1994): 434–523. off-site PDF link
  • William J. Hamblin, "Sacred Writing on Metal Plates in the Ancient Mediterranean," FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 37–54. off-site PDF link wiki
  • William J. Hamblin (research), "Metal Plates and the Book of Mormon," F.A.R.M.S. Update (July 1994), number 95. off-site
  • Kirk B. Henrichsen, "How Witnesses Described the "Gold Plates"," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10/1 (2001): 16–21. off-site [No PDF link] wiki
  • Janne M. Sjodahl, "The Book of Mormon Plates," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10/1 (2001): 22–24. off-site [No PDF link] wiki
  • Sidney B. Sperry, "Some Problems of Interest Relating to the Brass Plates," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4/1 (1995): 185–191. off-site PDF link wiki
  • John A. Tvedtnes, "Jewish and Other Semitic Texts Written in Egyptian Characters," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5/2 (1996): 156–163. off-site PDF link wiki

Printed material

Metal and gold plates printed materials
  • C. Wilfred Griggs, "The Book of Mormon as an Ancient Book," in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds and Charles D. Tate (eds.), (Provo, Utah : Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University ; Salt Lake City, Utah : Distributed by Bookcraft, 1996 [1982]), 75–94. ISBN 0884944697 GospeLink GL direct link
  • Read H. Putnam, "Were the Plates of Mormon of Tumbaga?," Improvement Era (September 1966): 788—789, 828–831. GospeLink; also appears in Ross T. Christensen, ed., Papers of the Fifteenth Annual Symposium on the Archaeology of the Scriptures (Provo, Utah: Extension Publications, BYU Division of Continuing Education, 1964), 101–109.
  • Robert E. Smith, "The 'Golden' Plates," in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch, (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992), 275–{{{end}}}. ISBN 0875796001 off-site FAIR link GospeLink GL direct link
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