Friday, April 22, 2022

George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl on a Biblical Example of the Inane "The Plates were too heavy to pick up/carry" Objection

Addressing the objection the plates would have been too heavy to lift/carry, Reynolds and Sjodahl noted a similar problem with the Bible:

 

Similar Objections to Bible Statements. Curiously enough, at one time certain critics of the Bible used to raise objections to the Old Testament description of the Tabernacle furniture on the ground that gold was too heavy to handle. We are told that Bezaleel made an ark or box of wood, in which the Law was deposited. It was overlaid with pure gold “within and without.” The cover of this box was a lid made of pure gold (Exodus 25:17); two and one-half cubits long and one and one-half cubits wide. That is, it was an immense gold plaque four feet three inches by two feet seven inches, or about eleven square feet in size. On this lid two cherubs were placed, one at each end. These figures were hammered of pure gold. Their wings covered the lid, and they must have been of considerable size. This box, we are told, was carried by the priests before the Camp of Israel during the wanderings of the Children of Israel, but the critics referred to, used to tell us that was impossible. The box, with its solid gold lid, and immense solid gold statues, its stone tablets, its gold rings and staves, was too heavenly to handle, except with machinery. But that kind of “criticism” is old and obsolete, whether applied to the Bible or Book of Mormon. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976], 2:314-15)

 

Something tells me Bill McKeever et al., won’t be making a prop asking their fellow Protestants to try to heft/carry these biblical objects . . .

 

Speaking of McKeever, see:

 

Top 17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith