How can we believe the Book of Mormon without having the original plates?
(The inquirer also asked if Joseph might have been working on a fraudulent Book of Mormon in secret for many years, rather than just doing the translation over a period of roughly 65 days, as history records.) A. I’m not sure I can see the plates issue from your perspective. For example, what happens if you apply the same reasoning to the Bible? We have no remnant of the original manuscripts that Moses, Isaiah, Paul, and Luke wrote. Nothing of the original Bible remains except copies of copies of copies. And for the New Testament, all we have of the teachings of Christ are copies of copies of a Greek translation of the Aramaic language that he spoke. But we have the text – and many external evidences to add authenticity to the text. Same for the Book of Mormon (though others will disagree), which is a direct translation of the original. It’s there for all to see – and it’s not a copy of a copy of a copy…. I don’t know where the plates are. The angel that commissioned Joseph with the
