Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon

• “There is no more intelligent or systematic analysis of the Book of Mormon's composition, translation, structure, themes, and purposes than Brant Gardner's Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper.” — Don Bradley, author, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories
• “This expansive study immediately rises to top of must-read resources relative to the Book of Mormon.” — Kerry Hull, co-editor, A Hundredth Part: Exploring the History and Teachings of the Book of Mormon
• “Any reader seeking a deeper insight into construction and realization of the Book of Mormon text will find much to admire in this project.” — Nicholas J. Frederick, author, The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the “Rhetoric of Allusivity”
• “Yields an array of insights into the Book of Mormon as we have it today. . . . Every one interested in the origins, composition, and purpose of the text should carefully consider each of the textual layers Garder has identified.” — Neal Rappleye, researcher and writer at Scripture Central

In Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper: Textual and Narrative Structures of the Book of Mormon, author Brant A Gardner delves into the intriguing layers of composition and historical context of the Book of Mormon. While taking seriously the implications for what it means for this book of scripture to be a translation of an ancient record written by historical persons, Gardner explores the translation process of the Book of Mormon, analyzing three compositional layers: the nineteenth-century text, the Nephite Book of Mormon, and the Nephite writers and their sources. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the origins and compositional history of the Book of Mormon, without aiming to serve as an apologetic defense.

Praise for Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper:

“Brant Gardner's meticulous work introduces us to the Book of Mormon again for the first time. Encountering the Book of Mormon's text arranged according to its own internal clues is like listening to Mormon reading it aloud to us across the millennia. An invaluable aid in understanding the Book of Mormon text as its original authors intended. This is the study edition I will be using.” — Don Bradley, author, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories

“Brant Garder has long been at the head of Book of Mormon studies. With his new book, Engraven Upon Plates, Printed Upon Paper, Gardner adds to his lengthy resume by deconstructing one of the more vexing issues in Book of Mormon studies, namely how to understand the complicated relationship between the Nephite Gold Plates and the nineteenth-century English Book of Mormon. Gardner provides careful analysis of by what means Joseph Smith may have translated the plates, how the Nephite authors may have conceived their project, and in what way those Nephite authors may have integrated their own sources into their record. Any reader seeking a deeper insight into construction and realization of the Book of Mormon text will find much to admire in this project.” — Nicholas J. Frederick, Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University, and author of The Bible, Mormon Scripture, and the “Rhetoric of Allusivity”

Brant A. Gardner earned his M.S. in anthropology (specializing in Mesoamerican ethnohistory) from the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author of the six-volume Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon, and Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History. He has presented papers at the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR), the Book of Mormon Archaeological Symposium, and Sunstone. His other published works include chapters in Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl and Symbol and Meaning beyond the Closed Community: Essays in Mesoamerican Ideas, and articles in the FARMS Review, Sunstone, The Interpreter, and Meridian Magazine.