Evidence #13 | September 19, 2020
Book of Mormon Evidence: Rapid Translation
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Abstract
A variety of source documents indicate that Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon’s 269,510 words in approximately 60 working days—an astonishingly rapid pace considering that he accomplished this without using any notes, outlines, reference materials, or substantive revisions.Lengthy novels often take many months and sometimes even years to write. The process usually involves preliminary research, long periods of creating and revising multiple drafts, and collaborative editing. The Book of Mormon, however, was produced in a very different manner. Various witnesses claimed that its 269,510 words,1 originally printed onto 588 pages,2 were revealed to Joseph Smith through divinely prepared translation instruments by the gift and power of God.3 According to those present, the young 23-year-old prophet dictated the words of the Book of Mormon day after day, for hours on end, in the presence of multiple scribes and witnesses, without any outlines, preliminary drafts, working notes, reference materials, or substantive revisions.4
Creating a final draft of any lengthy document under these circumstances would be remarkable. Yet the production of the Book of Mormon is truly astounding when one takes into account the rapid pace of its translation. Based on a variety of source documents, it can now be firmly established that the English text of the Book of Mormon (as it was published in 1830) was essentially translated between April 7 and June 30, 1829. Several lines of evidence help support this timeframe.
Anchor Dates
Compelling data confirm the dates of five key events during the translation timeline. The first date concerns the day upon which Oliver Cowdery began to record Joseph Smith’s dictation of the Book of Mormon. Oliver stated that he first arrived in Harmony, Pennsylvania, in the evening of April 5, 1829, that he helped Joseph with “some business of a temporal nature” on April 6, and that on the very next day, April 7, he “commenced to write the Book of Mormon”5 as Joseph’s scribe.
Remarkably, a legal document discovered not long ago at a county courthouse near Harmony, Pennsylvania, bears Oliver’s handwriting and signature. It demonstrates that he served as a witness to an agreement dated April 6, 1829 between Joseph Smith and his father-in-law, Isaac Hale. On that day, Joseph purchased property from Hale on which stood the log cabin that Joseph and his wife Emma were living in.6 Oliver’s signature confirms that he was indeed with Joseph in Harmony on April 6, 1829 (just as Oliver had claimed), and now we know the nature of that notable “temporal” matter of which he spoke.
Such accuracy strongly invites and builds trust that Oliver was also correct about beginning his work as a scribe the very next day (April 7). He and Joseph would have been working in what we now know was Joseph’s newly purchased home, a place where they could hopefully labor without disruptions. Four other dates, including the day by which the translation was surely completed (June 30), are each supported by similarly credible documentation. Together, these five dates have been referred to as “anchor dates” because they help anchor key reported details to specific days within the proposed translation timeline:7
| Anchor Dates (1829) | Associated Events |
| April 7 | Oliver Cowdery began working as Joseph’s scribe. |
| May 15 | John restored authority to baptize per 3 Nephi 11. |
| May 31 | The title page was completed. |
| June 11 | The Book of Mormon’s copyright was filed. |
| June 30 | The translation was completed. |
Contemporaneous Revelatory Documents
Thirteen revelations, each included in the Doctrine and Covenants, as well as a document called the “Articles of the Church of Christ,” were written during the period of the Book of Mormon’s translation. Not only do some of the words in those revelations correspond to the details of reported historical events during April–June 1829, but in several cases they reflect words or ideas found in the Book of Mormon itself. This suggests that as the translation of the Book of Mormon moved forward, further revelations and inspiration may have built upon what had just been revealed in its pages.
While any proposed relationships between these documents and the Book of Mormon remain tentative, textual analysis can help locate which portions of the Book of Mormon may have been produced at particular points during the translation timeline. Moreover, whatever their relationship to passages in the Book of Mormon, receiving, delivering, and recording these additional revelations surely added another layer of time and distraction away from the already onerous and urgent translation project.8
| Date (1829) | Possible Chapters Translated | Associated Revelations/Documents |
| April 6 | About this time, D&C 6 was received, directed to Oliver Cowdery, as he began serving as Joseph Smith’s scribe. | |
| April 9 | Mosiah 8–11 | About this time, D&C 8 was received, directed to Oliver, about the power to translate. Compare Mosiah 8:11–16, speaking of King Mosiah’s power to translate. |
| April 26 | Alma 39–40 | About this time, D&C 9 was received (compare D&C 9:14, “a hair of your head shall not be lost, and you shall be lifted up at the last day,” with Alma 11:44; 40:23). |
| May 21 | 3 Nephi 28–30 and 4 Nephi | About this time, D&C 7 may have been received, speaking about John not tasting death. Compare material in the account about the Three Nephites in 3 Nephi 28:1 (“what desirest thou?” D&C 7:1); 28:2 (“speedily,” D&C 7:4); 28:7 (“never taste death,” “power over death” in D&C 7:2) |
| May 30 | Moroni 5–8 | About at this point, D&C 12 was received, directed to Joseph Knight Sr. (compare D&C 12:8, “full of love,” “faith, hope and charity,” with Moroni 7:1; 8:14). |
| May 31 | Moroni 9–10 and title page | About this time, D&C 11 was revealed, directed to Hyrum. Compare D&C 11:16 (“my gospel”), and D&C 11:25 (“deny not”) with Moroni 10:8, and the previously translated 3 Nephi 27:21. |
| June 4 | Traveled to Fayette and unpacked. About this time, D&C 10 was finalized, telling Joseph to translate the plates of Nephi (D&C 10:41). | |
| June 7 | 1 Nephi 7–9 | About this time, John and Peter Whitmer Sr. were baptized, and D&C 15 and 16 were received. |
| June 8 | 1 Nephi 10–12 | About this time, D&C 14 was given for David Whitmer. |
| June 9 | 1 Nephi 13–16 | About this time, D&C 18 was received (compare D&C 18:20, “church of the devil” with 1 Nephi 14:10). |
| June 21 | About this time, Oliver Cowdery composed the “Articles of the Church of Christ.” This document quotes extensively, verbatim, from the Original Manuscript of 3 Nephi 9:15–16, 18; 11:23–27, 32, 39–40; 18:22, 28–33; 27:8–10, 20; Moroni 3:1–4; 4:1–2; 5:1–2; 6:6; and also from D&C 18:4, 22–25, 31, 34. | |
| June 22 | 2 Nephi 28–31 | About this time, D&C 17 was received, authorizing Oliver, David, and Martin to obtain a view of the plates (D&C 17:2; compare 2 Nephi 27:12). |
Confirmations of Reported Daily Activities
Several practical matters arose during the translation process that required time and attention, and in a number of instances these circumstances have been independently confirmed by documentary evidence. For example, Joseph Smith once commented upon his poverty during the period of translation and that he petitioned the Lord for help.9 Joseph mentioned that shortly after his brother Samuel arrived (sometime in May),10 a Mr. Joseph Knight “several times brought us supplies (a distance of at least thirty miles) which enabled us to continue the work” of translation.11
Knight’s own account perfectly agrees with this situation. He repeatedly commented upon Joseph’s poverty, mentioned his multiple visits to supply Joseph and Oliver with necessary provisions, and even mentioned that Samuel Smith was present at the home.12 Historian Richard Lloyd Anderson described Knight’s recollection as “a talkative account that displays little awareness of what the Prophet had independently said.”13 In about twenty cases, details such as these help flesh out the proposed timeline.14 They also provide evidence that the translators were accurate and truthful in their description of events and circumstances surrounding the translation.15
Estimating the Timing of the Translation
When combined together, the established anchor dates, revelations, and other supporting historical details give a nuanced and consistent view of the timing of the translation. On its face, the timeframe between April 7 and June 30 allows 85 possible days for the translation, but we know that on many of these days the translators were also engaged in other activities: doing farm chores, entertaining visitors, making trips to Colesville, receiving priesthood authority and additional revelations, baptizing Samuel and Hyrum Smith, moving from Harmony to Fayette, acquiring the Book of Mormon’s copyright, and so forth.16
Book of Mormon scholar John W. Welch has suggested that with these known disruptions and time constraints accounted for, “not many more than the equivalent of about 60 actual working days would have been available in April, May, and June 1829.”17 Terryl Givens has described this rate of translation as “truly prodigious,”18 and Welch concluded that by “any standard” the pace was “blistering.”19
Translation Experiments
Some may wonder if translating the entire Book of Mormon in so short a time was even humanly possible. In order to answer this question, Welch calculated how quickly the translators would have needed to work in order to accomplish their task in the allotted time. Welch explained, “Several of the resulting hours-per-day and words-per-minute options yield elapsed time figures that fall within the realm of feasibility, but the latitude is not wide. The parameters here do not allow much variation beyond the values shown on this graph.”20
In order to test these estimated possibilities, Welch and his wife Jeannie informally replicated the process of translation as described by the witnesses, with one of them dictating the text and the other acting as scribe. They then recorded how many words they were able to produce per minute on average. They found the experience to be so insightful that they then tested out the process in their stake scripture class.21
Their combined results, while not strictly scientific, suggest “that a translation rate of right around 20 words per minute was quite possible.”22 Yet those who participated also felt that they couldn’t have sustained that pace very long without time for breaks. They reported, “Our hands got tired, and the one playing Joseph needed to catch his or her breath and clear his or her voice.”23 Moreover, they were using ballpoint pens, whereas Oliver Cowdery would have often needed some time to dip his quill pen and refill it with ink.24 Thus, while it is difficult to determine exactly how quickly on average the translation was carried out, it reasonably fell within the needed estimated range (10–20 words per minute) in order for the entire project to have been completed between April 7 and June 30.
Conclusion
This data and analysis demonstrate “that the historical documents relating to this somewhat obscure chapter in early Latter-day Saint history interlock more accurately than might otherwise have been expected.”25 As a result, readers can be confident that the Book of Mormon was dictated in a remarkably short amount of time.
If Joseph Smith had hastily created the Book of Mormon on the fly or perhaps attempted to recall his prior plans for its contents from memory, then one might expect the book’s plots, settings, and characters to be fairly simple and for any unnecessary or extraneous data to be limited.26 Instead, the text immediately throws readers into a believable ancient world, featuring over 330 proper names,27 a detailed and consistent internal geography,28 three calendar systems,29 a developed system of weights and measures,30 multiple migrations,31 complex narratives,32 cohesive doctrines,33 dozens of editorial promises,34 various underlying source texts,35 realistic battles,36 hundreds of poetic structures,37 pervasive intertextual relationships,38 multiple literary genres,39 scores of internally fulfilled prophecies,40 and other surprisingly sophisticated or unexpectedly consistent features.41
In other words, the Book of Mormon exhibits the variety and complexity that one might expect from a truly ancient compilation of records spanning approximately a thousand years of history. It looks nothing like what a young, marginally educated42 frontier farmer with no prior literary experience43 could be expected to produce in the span of about 60 working days, especially if he were deprived of notes, outlines, references materials, and the ability to make revisions. When these and other significant factors pertaining to the production of the Book of Mormon are duly considered,44 the breakneck speed of its translation is nothing short of astonishing.45
John W. Welch, “Timing the Translation of the Book of Mormon: ‘Days [and Hours] Never to Be Forgotten’,” BYU Studies Quarterly 57, no. 4 (2018): 10–50.
John W. Welch, “April 7th and the Commencement of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” BMC Conference, April, 2018, online at bookofmormoncentral.org.
John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, 2nd edition, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2017), 79–125.
- 1. See Royal Skousen, The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2001), 35–36; John W. Welch, “Timing the Translation of the Book of Mormon: ‘Days [and Hours] Never to Be Forgotten’,” BYU Studies Quarterly 57, no. 4 (2018): 22. Brian C. Hales counted 269,538 words in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon when he addressed this question. See Brian C. Hales, “Curiously Unique: Joseph Smith as Author of the Book of Mormon,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 31 (2019): 153.
- 2. See “Book of Mormon, 1830,” p. 588, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed January 29, 2019, online at josephsmithpapers.org.
- 3. For samples of such reports, see John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2017), 136–137, 138, 140–141, 143, 145–146, 152–153, 155, 161, 165, 168, 170, 173–174, 176–177.
- 4. See Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation,” 143, 168; Daniel C. Peterson, “Editor’s Introduction—Not So Easily Dismissed: Some Facts for Which Counterexplanations of the Book of Mormon Will Need to Account,” FARMS Review 17, no. 2 (2005): xiii–xvi; Royal Skousen, “How Joseph Smith Translated the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7, no. 1 (1998): 24.
- 5. Oliver Cowdery, “‘Dear Brother’ [Letter 1],” The Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate, October 1834, 14, online at archive.bookofmormoncentral.org. For further information concerning these events, see Welch, “The Miraculous Timing of the Translation, 100–101.
- 6. “Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 April 1829,” p. 1, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 6, 2018, online at josephsmithpapers.org.
- 7. See Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 16–30; the following chart was adapted from pp. 45–49.
- 8. See Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 34–37; the following chart was adapted from pp. 45–49. See also Patrick A. Bishop, Day after Day: The Translation of the Book of Mormon, 2 ed. (Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn, 2018), whose analysis sometimes agrees and sometimes differs from Welch’s analysis, but overall is much to the same effect.
- 9. See “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 7, 2018, online at josephsmithpaper.org.
- 10. See “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” p. 18, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 7, 2018, online at josephsmithpaper.org.
- 11. “History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834],” pp. 20–21, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 7, 2018, online at josephsmithpaper.org.
- 12. For Knight’s direct statements, see Dean Jessee, “Joseph Knight’s Recollection of Early Mormon History,” BYU Studies 17, no. 1 (Autumn 1976): 10: “And when I Came home I Bought some nine or ten Bushels of grain and five or six Bushels taters [potatoes] and a pound of tea, and I went Down to see him and they ware in want. Joseph and Oliver ware gone to see if they Could find a place to work for provisions, But found none. They returned home and found me there with provisions, and they ware glad for they ware out. Their familey Consisted of four, Joseph and wife, Oliver and his [Joseph’s] Brother Samuel” (original spelling retained).
- 13. Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Credibility of the Book of Mormon Translators,” in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1982), 218.
- 14. See Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 32–33.
- 15. See Anderson, “The Credibility of the Book of Mormon Translators,” 217–220.
- 16. See Welch, “The Miraculous Timing,” 118–125.
- 17. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 34.
- 18. See Terryl L. Givens, By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002), 37.
- 19. Welch, “The Miraculous Timing,” 119. For these purposes, Oliver Cowdery’s statement that he “wrote with [his] own pen the intire [sic] book of Mormon (Save a few pages) as it fell from the Lips of the prophet,” in Welch, Opening the Heavens, 159, is taken as the best evidence that only about eight manuscript pages, if that many, were written by Emma or perhaps others before Oliver began working as scribe on April 7. Bishop, Day after Day, would increase that number. Either way, the resulting overall timeframe is very tight.
- 20. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 37.
- 21. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 38–39.
- 22. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 39.
- 23. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 39.
- 24. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 39.
- 25. Welch, “Timing the Translation,” 43.
- 26. As Hugh Nibley once commented, “It is a surprisingly big book, supplying quite enough rope for a charlatan to hang himself a hundred times; as the work of an imposter it must unavoidably bear all the marks of fraud, it should be poorly organized, shallow, artificial, patchy, and unoriginal; it should display a pretentious vocabulary (the Book of Mormon uses only 3,000 words), overdrawn stock-characters, melodramatic situations, gaudy and overdone descriptions, and bombastic diction.” Nibley, however, characterized the book as just the opposite, describing it as “carefully organized, specific, sober, factual, and perfectly consistent.” Hugh Nibley, “Good People and Bad People,” in Since Cumorah (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 337–338.
- 27. See Paul Y. Hoskisson, “Book of Mormon Names,” Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1992), 1:186. See also, Book of Mormon Onomasticon, online at onoma.lib.byu.edu; Book of Mormon Central, “Five Evidences for Book of Mormon Names,” Book of Mormon Central blog, online at bookofmormoncentral.org.
- 28. See John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book, (Provo, UT: FARMS), 215–326.
- 29. See John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013), 192–195, 434–442; Randall P. Spackman, A Source Book for Book of Mormon Chronology, online at bookofmormonchronology.net; Mark Alan Wright, “Nephite Daykeepers: Ritual Specialists in Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon,” in Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of the Expound Symposium, 14 May 2011, ed. Matthew B. Brown, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Stephen D. Ricks, and John S. Thompson (Salt Lake City and Orem, UT: Eborn Books and Interpreter Foundation, 2014), 243–257.
- 30. See John W. Welch, “Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 2 (1999): 36–45; John W. Welch, “The Laws of Eshnunna and Nephite Economics,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 147–149; John W. Welch, “The Law of Mosiah,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 158–161.
- 31. See S. Kent Brown, “The Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon,” in From Jerusalem to Zarahemla: Literary and Historical Studies of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1998), 75–98; George S. Tate, “The Typology of the Exodus Pattern in the Book of Mormon,” in Literature of Belief: Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience, ed. Neal E. Lambert (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1981), 245–262.
- 32. See Grant Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010), esp. 6–7. For a helpful review of Hardy’s book, see Daniel C. Peterson, “An Apologetically Important Nonapologetic Book,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 25, no. 1 (2016): 52–75.
- 33. For just a sampling of doctrinal consistencies, see Louis Midgley, “To Remember and Keep: On the Book of Mormon as an Ancient Book,” in The Disciple as Scholar: Essays on Scripture and the Ancient World in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, ed. Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2000), 95–137; Noel B. Reynolds, “The True Points of My Doctrine,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 5, no. 2 (1996): 26–56; Noel B. Reynolds, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ as Taught by the Nephite Prophets,” BYU Studies Quarterly 31, no. 3 (1991): 31–50.
- 34. See Book of Mormon Central, “Why Should Readers Pay Attention to the Book of Mormon’s Editorial Promises? (3 Nephi 18:37),” KnoWhy 510 (April 11, 2019); Thomas W. Mackay, “Mormon as Editor: A Study in Colophons, Headers, and Source Indicators,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2, no. 2 (1993): 90–109; John A. Tvedtnes, “Mormon’s Editorial Promises,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights You May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1991), 29–31.
- 35. See John W. Welch and J. Gregory Welch, Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), charts 13, 15; John L. Sorenson, “Mormon’s Sources,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 20, no. 2 (2011): 2–15; Grant Hardy, Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010), 121–151; Mackay, “Mormon as Editor,” 90–109.
- 36. See Book of Mormon Central, “How Realistic are Nephite Battle Strategies? (Alma 56:30),” KnoWhy 164 (August 12, 2016); Daniel C. Peterson, “The Gadianton Robbers as Guerrilla Warriors,” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 146–173.
- 37. See Donald W. Parry, Poetic Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon: The Complete Text Reformatted (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2007).
- 38. Book of Mormon Central has internally documented more than 900 instances where the Book of Mormon possibly quotes or alludes to passages found in the Bible (not counting lengthier quotations such as Nephi's quotations of Isaiah in 2 Nephi 12–24). Eventually this intertextual study will be published. In addition, there are many more instances where the Book of Mormon quotes or alludes to its own contents.
- 39. James T. Duke, The Literary Masterpiece Called the Book of Mormon (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, Inc., 2004); David E. Bokovoy and John A. Tvedtnes, Testaments: Links between the Book of Mormon and the Hebrew Bible (Toelle, UT: Heritage Press, 2003); Richard Dilworth Rust, Feasting on the Word: The Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1997); Stephen D. Ricks, ed., Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 4, no. 1 (1995), 41–118.
- 40. See Book of Mormon Central, “How Does Prophecy Shape the Book of Mormon’s Content and Structure? (Words of Mormon 1:4),” KnoWhy 498 (January 15, 2019).
- 41. See Book of Mormon Central, “Evidence of the Book of Mormon: Internal Complexity,” Book of Mormon Central Blog, online at bookofmormoncentral.org. (A drop down menu with extensive documentation for the claims in the accompanying video can be found by clicking on the “References” button at the end of the blog post).
- 42. See Book of Mormon Central, “Why Would God Choose an Uneducated Man to Translate the Book of Mormon? (2 Nephi 27:19),” KnoWhy 397 (January 9, 2018); Hales, “Curiously Unique,” 152–153.
- 43. For analysis of Joseph Smith’s literary abilities at the time of the translation, see Robert A. Rees, “Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the American Renaissance: An Update,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 19 (2016): 1–16; Robert A. Rees, “John Milton, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon,” BYU Studies Quarterly 54, no. 3 (2015): 6–18; Robert A. Rees, “Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the American Renaissance,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35, no. 3 (2002): 83–112.
- 44. Factors relevant to comparing the production of the Book of Mormon with the production of other texts include at least the following: (1) the author’s age, (2) the author’s formal education, (3) the author’s prior literary experience, (4) the length of the text, (5) the rate of its production, (6) the text’s revision and editing process, (7) the author’s access to notes, outlines, or reference materials, and (8) the author’s mode of production (dictation, pen and ink, typewriter, computer, etc.).
- 45. See, Hales, “Curiously Unique,” 151–190.