“I Should Write Somewhat Upon These Plates”

Alan C. Miner

Monte Nyman relates the following:

"I sometimes ask my students . . . did Omni wear glasses? Now, that gets their attention--got yours I notice, some of you looked up. I suggest to you that I don't know whether he wore glasses, but he did have I trouble! Now, if you analyze those three verses that Omni writes, he says "I did this," "I did that," ten times! The only reason I emphasize that is to show you that it is a different style of writing. The others don't write that way. Why is that important? Because there are four different writers in this one little chapter that is a little more than two pages long. . . . Could Joseph Smith have put together this, and made it look different? I suppose that is possible, but highly improbable. You might copy someone's style, but for Joseph Smith, the mere lad that he was when he translated the Book of Mormon, this is a great evidence of the book." [Monte S. Nyman, "Is the Book of Mormon a History?," F.A.R.M.S., pp. 9-10]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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