{"id":44653,"date":"2017-10-21T11:11:47","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T17:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44653"},"modified":"2017-10-21T11:11:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-21T17:11:47","slug":"notes-recovery-plates-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/10\/notes-recovery-plates-weight.html","title":{"rendered":"Some notes on the recovery of the plates and on their weight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"The<\/a>
A representation of some of the artifacts associated with the recovery of the Book of Mormon in the early nineteenth century \u2014 including the sword of Laban
(David A. Baird\/Historical Arts and Castings)
Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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They were certainly thought<\/em> to be literal and physical:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Both Lucy Mack Smith and Joseph Knight, Sr., personally remember the time, very late in the night of 21 September and into the morning of the following day, when Joseph and Emma Smith went to retrieve the plates from the Hill Cumorah, and each supplies independent details concerning the events involved.[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph Knight, Jr. \u2014 \u201cIn 1827 [the winter of 1826-1827] he [my father] hired Joseph Smith. Joseph and I worked and slept together. My father said Joseph was the best hand he ever hired. We found him a boy of truth. He was about 21 years of age. I think it was in November [1826] he made known to my father and I that he had seen a vision, that a personage had appeared to him and told him where there was a gold book of ancient date buried, and if he would follow the directions of the angel he could get it. We were told it in secret . . . My father and I believed what he told us. I think we were the first [to believe] after his father\u2019s family [and probably Martin Harris]. . . . At last he got the plates, and rode in my father\u2019s wagon and carried them home.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The time to receive the plates came at last. When Joseph received them, he came in and said: \u201cFather, I have got the plates.\u201d All believed it was true, father, mother, brothers and sisters. You can tell what a child is. Parents know whether their children are truthful or not. . . . Father knew his child was telling the truth. When the plates were brought in they were wrapped in a tow frock. My father then put them in a pillow case.[3]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I was permitted to lift them as they laid in a pillow case; but not to see them, as it was contrary to the commands he had received. They weighed about sixty pounds according to the best of my judgment.[4]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

They were not quite as large as this Bible.\u00a0 Could tell whether they were round or square.\u00a0 Could raise the leaves this way (raising a few leaves of the Bible before him).\u00a0 One could easily tell that they were not stone, hewn out to deceive, or even a block of wood. Being a mixture of gold and copper, they were much heavier than stone, and very much heavier than wood.[5]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

William Smith, in an interview with J. W. Peterson:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a tow frock and judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds. I could tell they were plates of some kind and that they were fastened together by rings running through the back.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Asked at the end of an 1884 sermon in Deloit, Iowa, about the weight of the plates, William again answered, \u201cAs near as I could tell, about sixty pounds.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> See Lucy\u2019s Book<\/em>, 376-380; Jessee, \u201cJoseph Knight\u2019s Recollection of Early Mormon History<\/a>,\u201d 32-39. Joseph Knight, Jr., in his \u201cAutobiography,\u201d also located in the Church Archives, also knew of the events, probably by hearing them from his father. See Backman, Eyewitness Accounts<\/em>, 72.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Autobiography of Joseph Knight, Jr., p. 1 (Church Archives), cited in Milton V. Backman, Jr., Eyewitness Accounts of the Restoration<\/em> (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986), 72.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u201cThe Old Soldier\u2019s Testimony,\u201d a sermon preached by William B. Smith in the Saints\u2019 Chapel at Deloit, Iowa, on 8 June 1884, and reported by C. E. Butterworth, in The Saint\u2019s Herald 31 (1884): 643-644. See also William Smith, William Smith on Mormonism: A True Account of the Origin of the Book of Mormon (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald, 1883), 10-11. [See originals.]<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> William Smith, William Smith on Mormonism: A True Account of the Origin of the Book of Mormon<\/em> (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald, 1883), 12. [See original.]<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Smith, \u201cThe Old Soldier\u2019s Testimony,\u201d 644. [See original.]<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses<\/em>, 24. (Check original.)<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u201cThe Old Soldier\u2019s Testimony,\u201d a sermon preached by William B. Smith in the Saints\u2019 Chapel at Deloit, Iowa, on 8 June 1884, and reported by C. E. Butterworth, in The Saint\u2019s Herald 31 (1884): 643-644.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Posted from Carmel, Indiana<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 They were certainly thought to be literal and physical: \u00a0 Both Lucy Mack Smith and Joseph Knight, Sr., personally remember the time, very late in the night of 21 September and into the morning of the following day, when Joseph and Emma Smith went to retrieve the plates from the Hill Cumorah, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSome notes on the recovery of the plates and on their weight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    They were certainly thought to be literal and physical:   Both Lucy Mack Smith and Joseph Knight, Sr., personally remember the time,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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