Comments on: How was the Book of Mormon translated? http://www.numenware.com/article/552 Religion. Brain. Dogen. Language. Japan. Sun, 18 May 2008 00:17:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: The work and the glory http://www.numenware.com/article/552#comment-3795 The work and the glory Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:10:37 +0000 http://www.numenware.com/article/552#comment-3795 Roger surprised me with his patience and his intellectual and theological approach to Elder Woo’ s probing questions. “ From what I understand your teachings don’ t teach the Trinity and that Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are all the same… your faith teaches you that Jesus and Satan are bothers…” Back and forth they went and I said a prayer for Roger that he would have wisdom but in my mind I couldn’ t help but have doubt. Doubt that Elder Woo was going to change his mind in just one night. For Mormons... Roger surprised me with his patience and his intellectual and theological approach to Elder Woo’ s probing questions. “ From what I understand your teachings don’ t teach the Trinity and that Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are all the same… your faith teaches you that Jesus and Satan are bothers…” Back and forth they went and I said a prayer for Roger that he would have wisdom but in my mind I couldn’ t help but have doubt. Doubt that Elder Woo was going to change his mind in just one night. For Mormons…

]]> By: sintim teddy http://www.numenware.com/article/552#comment-2779 sintim teddy Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:45:10 +0000 http://www.numenware.com/article/552#comment-2779 please i want to know how touse the book of mormon. thank you please i want to know how touse the book of mormon. thank you

]]> By: Spencer http://www.numenware.com/article/552#comment-1307 Spencer Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:39:45 +0000 http://www.numenware.com/article/552#comment-1307 Your assumptions about “information theory� are not very good. Neither Hebrew nor Egyptian has vowels, only consonants. So English versions of Hebrew/Egyptian words are necessarily larger because of the presence of vowels. As between Hebrew and Egyptian, you also make some incorrect assumptions. Egyptian had biconsonantal and even triconsonantal signs (Hebrew does not). So using Egyptian would save space over Hebrew. Here’s a picture of almost fifteen pages of English text from The Book of Mormon that have been translated into a single page of Hebrew: http://www.the-book-of-mormon.com/hebrew-text.jpg That’s a 14-to-1 ratio (14 pages of English text ending up as 1 page of Hebrew text). Even if the size of the Hebrew text is doubled, there would still be a 7-to-1 ratio. So, was it possible that The Book of Mormon text as we have it today could have been inscribed on the Golden Plates as described by Joseph Smith? Yep. See here: <b>How could the whole Book of Mormon fit on the small number of “unsealed� gold plates?</b> Easy. It was written with small characters. Janne M. Sjodahl addressed this issue thoroughly in the April 1923 Improvement Era. His article, “The Book of Mormon Plates,� is reprinted in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2001, pp. 22-24. The first page of the article shows Hebrew script written by Henry Miller. In a rectangle originally seven by eight inches in size (now less than six by seven inches as printed), Miller has written legible Hebrew script containing a translation of fourteen pages of the Book of Mormon. Sjodahl estimates that at this density of text, the entire Book of Mormon could be put onto 21 plates having dimensions of seven by eight inches, as Martin Harris estimated the size to be. If there were 50 plates per inch in a 4-inch thick volume, then the one-third of the plates that were unsealed would be about 67. Since legible Hebrew characters could hold the entire Book of Mormon on 21 plates, a figure of 67 plates would allow larger, more legible characters to be used. http://www.jefflindsay.com/<span class="caps">LDSFAQ</span>/FQ_<span class="caps">BMP</span>roblems.shtml#fit</blockquote> I disagree that your conclusions are inescapable. Thanks, Spencer Your assumptions about “information theory� are not very good. Neither Hebrew nor Egyptian has vowels, only consonants. So English versions of Hebrew/Egyptian words are necessarily larger because of the presence of vowels.

As between Hebrew and Egyptian, you also make some incorrect assumptions. Egyptian had biconsonantal and even triconsonantal signs (Hebrew does not). So using Egyptian would save space over Hebrew.

Here’s a picture of almost fifteen pages of English text from The Book of Mormon that have been translated into a single page of Hebrew:

http://www.the-book-of-mormon.com/hebrew-text.jpg

That’s a 14-to-1 ratio (14 pages of English text ending up as 1 page of Hebrew text). Even if the size of the Hebrew text is doubled, there would still be a 7-to-1 ratio.

So, was it possible that The Book of Mormon text as we have it today could have been inscribed on the Golden Plates as described by Joseph Smith? Yep. See here:

How could the whole Book of Mormon fit on the small number of “unsealed� gold plates?

Easy. It was written with small characters. Janne M. Sjodahl addressed this issue thoroughly in the April 1923 Improvement Era. His article, “The Book of Mormon Plates,� is reprinted in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2001, pp. 22-24. The first page of the article shows Hebrew script written by Henry Miller. In a rectangle originally seven by eight inches in size (now less than six by seven inches as printed), Miller has written legible Hebrew script containing a translation of fourteen pages of the Book of Mormon. Sjodahl estimates that at this density of text, the entire Book of Mormon could be put onto 21 plates having dimensions of seven by eight inches, as Martin Harris estimated the size to be. If there were 50 plates per inch in a 4-inch thick volume, then the one-third of the plates that were unsealed would be about 67. Since legible Hebrew characters could hold the entire Book of Mormon on 21 plates, a figure of 67 plates would allow larger, more legible characters to be used.

http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_BMProblems.shtml#fit
I disagree that your conclusions are inescapable.

Thanks,

Spencer

]]>