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The following was written by Trent Toone for the Deseret News. To read the full article, click here

With basic figures, it could read like a 4th grade math problem.

If Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery translated 10 words per minute, eight hours a day, how long would it take them to translate the 269,510 words in Book of Mormon?

BYU professor John W. “Jack” Welch has done the math and has the answer.

“Is doing this even possible? The answer is yes,” Welch said. “By doing 10 words per minute, eight hours a day, they could get the Book of Mormon done in 56.2 full working day equivalents. … If they worked faster (15 or 20 words per minute) or if they worked an hour or two fewer per day, they could also get it done.”

Welch, a BYU law professor and author who served as the founding president of FARMS (the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies), examined the timing of the Book of Mormon translation as he gave the 2017 Book of Mormon lecture for the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies Wednesday at the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni & Visitors Center.

“My purpose, I hope, is to get us all thinking more specifically than ever before about the amazing and illuminating timing of the translation of the Book of Mormon,” Welch said. “We can be more specific about those days, even those hours and minutes. … I too, hope to awaken a greater sense of gratitude in our hearts for this miraculous volume of scripture.”

To read the full article, click here