Nowadays when we think of a "book" we imagine a stack of pages, usually paper, covered with writing and connected at one edge. It may have a cover or not.

But it was not always so. In ancient times when people talked about a "book" they were referring to what we call a "scroll." Our "book" is technically a "codex" (plural: codices). Now, here's the point: the codex was completely unknown until about two thousand years ago, when a simple type of codex began to appear among the Romans. This means that the "plates" mentioned so often in the Book of Mormon (at least those before our era) and which are described as codices, were either the ONLY codices in the entire world at the time, and thus must have been invented by the BoM people, OR they are a glaring anachronism showing that Joseph Smith didn't know the history of writing.

Hey!  Don't leave us hanging!!!

Which one was it?!?!


I gotz ta know!!!

Thousands and thousands of clay tablets have been found, but not gold "books."

Gold simply is too rare and impractical to use as writing material.

Writing on palm leaves was unknown in the ancient Western world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm-leaf_manuscript


One of the few gold "books" from the ancient world:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Orphism_Book


Roman diplomas (Roman Army discharge papers -- like a modern US military form DD-214) were one of the few ancient documents written on metal -- in this case bronze:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_military_diploma

My DD-214 was on onion skin paper commonly used when typing multiple pages with carbon paper.

I wish it was engraved on bronze or gold!

...but only after twenty years' service and you could be recalled in an emergency

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honesta_missio

Nephi invented a new kind of shipbuilding, you know, taught to him by God. He also invented the high protein shake so Lehi and his family could look so buff on their journey to America. So why not invent gold plates? Maybe they landed in El Dorado where gold was cheap.

High protein shakes to look buff! Hahahaha. Good ole Arnold. It was probably SWK telling him to make them all sexy beasts. Mormon porn!

is Isaiah. It is widely known that the book of Isaiah was written by three authors: Isaiah (1-39) and Deutero-Isaiah (second I.) (40-55) and Trito-Isaiah (3. Isaiah). The two later author write much later, but were included by scribes into the Isaiah scroll. At least three chapters of them are in the BoM. But they were written long after Lehi and his group had arrived in the Americas. Blech!

Yep. That's exactly right.

Mimeograph would be more believable than gold plates. And, the ink could have inspired many passages as well.

Like the Internet was invented for God this could be a just so story for believers. In Mormonism there truth is always a coin with two sides.

Don't forget that Nephi seems to have invented the AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Once you've done that...inventing a codex is a piece of cake.


(For all we know, Nephi also invented cake.)

About 8 or so years ago the Getty Antiquities Museum in Pacific Palisades ( not LA Getty ) had an exhibit on ancient Persian treasures. One of the items was a very ornate book with engraved metal plates, that looked like they had been made by beating metal super thin. I remember taking a picture of them, but I don't remember how old they were, if I recall correctly they were at least 2K years old, but I don't remember. My pictures are on an old hard drive, so I doubt I will get around to finding it.

Actually, they thought they had something found in Jordan, the lead codices which were supposedly found along with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Only they got proven to be fakes. Another Kinderhook Plates story for modern times; there was a lot of hoopla about this in MormonLand...luckily though they (LDS inc.) had just been taken by the Hoffman White Salamander letters so any "discoveries" were not to be published or talked about...at least not til the current prophet could once again stick the seer stone in a hat and read off the Elizabethan English... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Lead_Codices

Brass Plates?
So important the keeper was murdered to facilitate the the theft.

If they were so important - why is there no record of their theft in Jewish history or historical records?

BoydKKK Wrote:
-------------------------
> Brass Plates?
> So important the keeper
> was murdered to facilitate
> the theft.
>
> If they were so important -
> why is there no record of
> their theft in Jewish history
> or historical records?


Because they were insured, and Israeli Farm Insurance Company paid for a new set of Brass Plates.