How did Joseph Smith sustain a blistering pace of dictating the whole Book of Mormon in around 60 working days?

The Book of Mormon is by no means a short book at 269,510 words. Using a series of “anchor” dates, the historical record indicates that the translation was completed in a period of around 60 working days. This means if Joseph had spent consecutive days working on the book, he would have produced it in just a couple of months.

Is this what we would expect from 23-year-old Joseph Smith when we consider the complexity of the book? 

This rapid translation is a problem for alternative theories for the Book of Mormon’s origin as it would require Joseph having memorized around 10 pages of the book each day before translation. It would be much less impressive if Joseph had dictated the book over a much longer period of time, in which case he would only need to memorize just a few paragraphs a day. 

Why think Joseph could memorize 10 pages each day? Where would he have been memorizing the text from? 

See: 

• Evidence Central – Book of Mormon Evidence: Rapid Translation

© 2024 Showyourshelf.com

Show Your Shelf is not in any way sponsored or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For official information from the Church please see churchofjesuschrist.org or comeuntochrist.org