Lengthy novels or histories often take many
months and sometimes even years to write.
The process usually involves preliminary research,
multiple drafts, and collaborative editing.
The Book of Mormon, however, was produced
very differently.
Between April 7th and June 30th, 1829,
Joseph Smith dictated its words to his scribes—mainly Oliver Cowdery.
They worked day after day, for hours on end,
without the use of any working notes, reference materials, or substantive revisions.
Ongoing research helps confirm that the translation
remarkably took place during these few months.
The most crucial data come from five important events that can be anchored to specific dates
by strong historical evidence.
These dates help establish the beginning and
end of the translation timeline,
as well as key events during this short time period.
More than a dozen other revelations and legal documents recorded during these same months
help flesh out the timeline.
Many of these passages contain words and phrases that
reflect language from the Book of Mormon itself,
suggesting that they drew upon what had just
been revealed in its pages.
While many of these proposed relationships are tentative,
these documents help identify dates by which specific passages may have been translated.
On its face, the timeline allows 85 possible
days for the translation,
but we know on many days Joseph was engaged in other activities.
With known disruptions accounted for,
John W. Welch has concluded that only about 60 actual working-day equivalents
would have
been available.
Yet some may wonder if translating the entire Book of Mormon in so little time was even possible.
Calculations suggest that a range of hours-per-day
and words-per-minute options are feasible,
but the parameters don’t allow much variation
beyond what’s shown on this graph.
In order to test these estimates,
Welch and others informally replicated the process of translation, as described by the witnesses.
Their results help confirm that the translation
could indeed have been carried out
at a rate of 10 to 20 words per minute, which is needed
to fit the proposed available timeline.
In light of these experiments and the interlocking
historical evidence,
readers can trust, better than ever before,
that the Book of Mormon was brought forth to the world in a miraculously short amount of time.
