Why would Joseph Smith have dictated the phrase “the more part of”?

The phrase “the more part of” appears 26 times in the earliest edition of the Book of Mormon. It is a phrase which was most popular in the 1500s but not popular at the time of the King James Version of the Bible. It also does not appear in the Bible but the shorter version “the more part” does appear twice (but not in the Book of Mormon).

How did Joseph Smith know about an old expression that was not found in the Bible?

In his analysis, Stanford Carmack concludes:

To sum up, had Joseph Smith come up with the language of the Book of Mormon himself, out of his own language, it is possible but unlikely that he would have used “the more part” in the dictation. Also, had he followed rare biblical usage (comprising less than 0.001% of the words), then he likely would have used the short biblical phrase several times, instead of “the more part of them” every time. Finally, if we suppose that Smith was the translator (in the usual sense of the term), then it is highly unlikely that the Book of Mormon would have “a more part of ” and “the more parts of ” (three times total).
– Stanford Carmack – The More Part of the Book of Mormon Is Early Modern English

If Joseph Smith was simply copying biblical language why did he not use the biblical version of “the more part of”?

See:

Stanford Carmack – The More Part of the Book of Mormon Is Early Modern English

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